Chapter 88: The Emperor of Enderland’s Chessboard
Rhine teleported in bursts—vanishing and reappearing unpredictably. At tis, he mimicked Ariel’s enchanting song, using it to summon schools of fish that sward the Old Witch’s tuna form. Other tis, he returned to his original shape, pulling out his crystal ball to track her down when she tried to hide as a mouse in an abandoned house.
As they chased through the royal capital’s streets, the Old Witch desperately transford back to her true form multiple tis, attempting to command the nearby soldiers to stop Rhine.
But the port was already in chaos due to the rfolk’s uprising. No one followed her orders.
Countless thoughts flickered through her mind.
"Damn him! I can’t shake him off!"
"I had a whole horde of undead lurking near that alley, yet his monstrous dogs crushed them like they were nothing!"
"Where is everyone?! This is Enderland’s royal capital, isn’t it?"
"Why?"
"Why haven’t they co yet?"
"I sent the signal! Why is no one helping ?!"
"Where are the other court mages? Where are His Majesty’s warriors?!"
As ti passed, the Old Witch—who had been desperately fleeing and stalling for ti—felt a growing sense of cold despair.
—
Under the silver moonlight, the streets of the royal capital glead.
The Old Witch, now back in her original form, stood still, glaring furiously at the young magician approaching her with a leisurely stride. Her eyes burned not just with anger—but with raw, uncontainable anxiety.
She was exhausted.
She was certain that the young magician chasing her must have expended a great deal of energy as well. But unlike her, he still had those terrifying three dogs.
"You look like you’re stalling for ti… waiting for soone?" Rhine chuckled, striking the tinderbox several tis in succession. "Your luck seems particularly bad today—no one’s coming to help you."
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The three giant dogs surrounded the Old Witch.
The largest of them, with eyes as massive as a tower do, lood over her. Against such a behemoth, even the strongest of spells wouldn’t be able to disable it quickly enough.
"No, no, no! Why—?!"
The Old Witch shrieked in despair, making one final, desperate struggle.
In her panicked eyes, she saw the three enormous dogs lunging at her.
"Your Majesty, can’t you hear my cries for help?!"
—
Inside the royal palace.
A man with a thick beard, a strong jaw, and an imposing presence reached out with his powerful right hand. Casually, he lifted a captured black bishop from the chessboard and discarded it to the side without hesitation.
This was the Emperor of Enderland.
Across from him, the hand that moved the opposing pieces was noticeably more slender and fair-skinned—clearly a woman’s.
"Your Majesty, are you not going to send reinforcents for your court witch?" the woman asked gently. "She is Enderland’s most powerful sorceress, after all."
The Emperor’s voice was calm and unwavering. "What are you talking about?"
"From start to finish, hasn’t all of this simply been her doing?"
"Drugging my daughter with an enchanted fragrance to make her fall under her spell. Attempting to turn a foreign prince into her puppet. Tricking Prince Eric into drinking a mory-erasing potion. Secretly imprisoning both the bride, the groom, and the other noble guests…"
"The list of her cris is endless—sins she committed solely for her own selfish gain."
"The Old Witch wanted to use the Prince of the Western Kingdom—future ruler of their nation—to gain influence and earn a place in the Witch’s Coven. She foolishly believed she could deceive ."
Across the chessboard, the woman laughed softly.
"As expected of Your Majesty."
"I wonder… what was she even hoping for?" The Emperor moved his knight. "Did she really expect to slaughter an unknown yet extraordinarily skilled magician, a little girl who possesses monstrous strength, and a foreign prince—along with his entire royal entourage—just to cover for her?"
"For Your Majesty, the Western Kingdom is rely a nation you could crush with a flick of your wrist," the woman mused.
"I don’t fight aningless wars," the Emperor replied coldly.
"Our alliance is already impossible. Losing a strategically positioned mariti kingdom as an ally is sowhat unfortunate—but it does not hinder my greater ambitions."
He turned his head and spoke to a waiting guard.
"Summon Magrito, the mage from the Middle Eastern Kingdom. Tell him that the Emperor of Enderland is willing to et him."
"He claid to have an important secret to share, did he not?"
—
anwhile, Eric, Ariel, and Aurora had made it safely back to the flower ship of the Western Kingdom, still anchored in the port.
During the earlier chaos, many ships had been damaged or sunk—but without exception, every sunken vessel had been an Enderland warship. The flower ship of the Western Kingdom remained untouched.
The sailors were stunned when they saw their prince with a rmaid’s tail.
Prince Eric quickly explained what had happened—how he had been transford, how the absurd and hastily arranged wedding had unfolded, and the full extent of the treachery he had suffered.
The crew cursed the Old Witch’s deceitfulness and celebrated their prince’s safe return.
Splash!
The grand ship hoisted its anchor, unfurling its sails. Beneath the starlit sky, it began its voyage back to the Western Kingdom, leaving behind a trail of white foam upon the sea.
Ariel’s sisters, along with their Grand Matron, briefly surfaced, waving to her before disappearing beneath the waves once more—ensuring they remained unseen by the ship’s human crew. Only the lingering foam on the water marked their presence.
—
"Tonight, the moonlight is beautiful," Eric murmured. "Don’t you think so, my Ariel?"
Upon the flower ship’s deck, bathed in the cool sea breeze and the holy glow of the moon, the prince of the Western Kingdom and the princess of the sea embraced—then kissed.
They had endured too much.
They had overco countless hardships, traversed the divide between land and sea, defied human and rfolk prejudices, challenged the will of a stubborn king, and outwitted the plots of witches and empires alike.
In the long history of land and ocean, no love story had ever been so breathtaking, so unforgettable.
And now—
No one could keep them apart.
"After everything that’s happened, there’s no way my father will push forward an alliance with Enderland," Eric declared. "And my marriage? I’m free now! Never again will I let my father use as a pawn to marry so foreign princess for political gain!"
"No matter what happens—my bride will only ever be you, my Ariel!"
…
Wait.
Sothing wasn’t right.
A sudden realization struck Eric.
"Wait—Ariel," he said, gripping her hand and gazing into her sapphire-blue eyes. His voice trembled. "The sun… it’s about to rise. You… you won’t be affected, will you?"
No matter how absurd it had been, no matter how rushed or disrupted, he had still gone through a ceremonial wedding.
And according to the curse—
"The morning after the one you love marries another, your heart will break, and you will dissolve into sea foam."
Aurora's face paled at his words.
"Ariel, you—!"
She grabbed her rmaid friend’s hand tightly, as if fearing that Ariel would vanish at any mont.
The first ti they had t in the sea, Ariel had still been a rmaid.
Now, she stood before them as a human girl.
In the distant east, the first glimrs of white light began to appear on the horizon.
The sun was rising.
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