The prince continued:
"The alliance between the two countries can still proceed normally. I am extremely happy that my country can form an alliance with the Ender Empire. But my marriage does not necessarily have to be related to this."
The palace hall fell into silence.
No one, whether the princes, ministers, king or queen, dared to speak the first word.
Ariel, sitting in the audience, covered her mouth and held her breath. She felt her eyes well up, hot liquid flowing inside.
The old witch's face suddenly turned dark.
The king's eyes were filled with astonishment.
He could probably guess who the prince loved - there were so many signs.
But before, before Prince Eric said this himself, he thought that Prince Eric's feelings for the girl he picked up were just a momentary whim of an adolescent boy, an agitation that would gradually fade away with the passage of time and would not affect the overall situation of the marriage.
"Gods! It seems that my father completely disagrees with my idea - I can tell from his expression. Why is this so? Why do I have to marry the princess of a neighboring country? Isn't Ariel also a princess?"
"Oh, Ariel comes from a kingdom beneath the sea, and our Kingdom of Summer borders that sea. Ariel happens to be a princess of a neighboring kingdom! But how should I explain this to my father?"
The prince complained in his heart about the injustice.
He vaguely sensed the barrier that stood between him and the mermaid princess. He clearly saw a wall before him. He wanted to break it—as the prince now and the king in the future.
"I'll talk to you about this later, after the banquet," the king said in a low voice.
After that, neither the king nor the envoys from Ender tacitly mentioned the marriage again and turned their attention to other matters.
The prince knew that this did not mean that his father agreed with his idea.
However, Prince Eric was somewhat surprised by his father's gentleness: after his impulsive behavior, his father did not get angry at his disrespect. Does this mean that there is still hope?
The banquet to entertain the foreign delegation is over.
The crimson lights went out, the singing and dancing gradually faded and stopped, and the servants took away the wine glasses that still had the aroma of wine.
Both sides dispersed one after another.
The Ender delegation will stay in the Summer Kingdom for a few more days.
…
The old witch and other messengers returned to the several luxurious rooms arranged by the king.
"Oh no, this is horrible! Prince Eric actually fell in love with that girl, the girl with the voice that was not human, and he even said it out loud in public, rejecting our arrangement!"
The old witch paced back and forth in the room, talking to herself.
The other messengers trembled and hid aside, and no one dared to disturb her.
After waiting for a long time, a messenger finally mustered up the courage to report:
"I've heard about the singer. The maids all said that Prince Eric picked her up from the seashore. He treats her very well because she looks like the woman who saved him from a shipwreck."
"If that's the case, that's great!" The old witch breathed a sigh of relief, her eyes lit up with joy. "This means she's just a substitute. When Prince Eric actually sees our little princess, he'll immediately change his mind!"
The old witch immediately became confused again:
"This is really strange. That singer clearly doesn't look like the little princess. Uh, maybe Prince Eric's memory is wrong."
Obviously, she knew very well who had saved Prince Eric in that shipwreck!
"By the way, have you found out? Which guest room does the magician from the Kingdom of Rose stay in?" the old witch asked again.
Another messenger tremblingly told the old witch the information.
He had anticipated what would happen tonight.
"Okay, you guys go away. Don't bother me again tonight."
The old witch waved her hand and dismissed her subordinates.
Seeing that there was no one else in the room, she took out a mirror, hung it on the wall, and chanted a spell.
On the dim mirror, ripples spread out, revealing the face of a man.
The man had stubble and looked strong, masculine and aggressive.
He was the monarch of the country of Ender.
"My Lord, I will report to you what I have seen and heard today."
Then the old witch recounted everything she had seen and heard at today's banquet.
She told of the flirtatious glances between Prince Eric and Ariel during their singing and dancing, and of the prince's refusal of his father's arrangement at court.
After listening to this, the monarch of Ender Country nodded slightly, as if thinking about something.
He asked again:
"Oh, Prince Eric has someone he loves and has rejected his father's arrangement? He's just as rebellious and full of personality as the rumors say.
"Then can the rest of the plan proceed smoothly?"
His voice was full of authority.
"Of course, Your Majesty. I've heard that Prince Eric only sees that girl as a substitute. The one he truly loves is the woman who saved him from the shipwreck on that stormy night—Her Royal Highness the Seventh Princess, Your Majesty's youngest and most beautiful daughter."
The old witch grinned:
"At the beginning, I saw the turning point of fate and instructed Her Royal Highness to go to the temple in the forest to practice royal virtues.
"Because I have long foreseen that as long as the princess goes there, at some point in the future, she will be able to meet the prince of the Summer Kingdom in advance - in an extremely romantic way.
"Her Royal Highness the little princess still knows nothing about this. In the letter she sent back, she mentioned that she had rescued a handsome young man who was swept ashore by the waves, but she didn't know that he was the prince of the Summer Kingdom.
"When they met, they both believed it was fate.
"From what I know, Prince Eric is a young man who loves romantic stories, values relationships, and is most reluctant to let others down.
"When he saw the woman he had been thinking about day and night and dreaming about appeared before him, and she happened to be the foreign princess he was engaged to be married to, he absolutely could not refuse this love.
"Prince Eric will definitely feel that this is as beautiful as a dream. No matter how rebellious he was in the past or how much he disliked his father's decisions, he will be eager to marry Her Royal Highness the Princess at this moment!
"Hahaha, what a beautiful moment.
"He will love our little princess just as much as he loved that girl with a beautiful singing voice and graceful dancing!
"No, he will give her ten times more love. Because that girl is just a substitute for Her Royal Highness the Princess."
The old witch's grin widened, her features squeezed together, and her smile became even uglier:
"After that, I will give Her Royal Highness the Princess the enchanting spice according to the plan, and ask her to sprinkle it on her body every day, telling her that this spice can enchant any man.
"That's indeed the case. That magical scent will distort any man's mind over a long period of time. This soul-eroding fragrance is silent and subtle, and no one will notice it.
"As long as Her Royal Highness and Prince Eric marry, within half a year, Prince Eric, who lives with Her Royal Highness day and night, will be bewitched by my magic and become a puppet completely under my control.
"Prince Eric is the future monarch of the Summer Kingdom. The moment he ascends the throne in place of his father, the Summer Kingdom will be under our control.
"Controlling the Summer Kingdom, a maritime transportation hub, will be a crucial step in Your Majesty's grand cause. In the future, the entire Western Continent, and indeed the entire continent, will submit to Your Majesty!"
In the mirror, the majestic monarch of Ender nodded slightly and said briefly:
"You did a good job."
Then the image in the mirror slowly disappeared and returned to darkness.
The old witch stared at the dark and dull mirror, her flattering expression disappeared, and her eyes suddenly became a little colder.
She chanted the dark spell once again, ripples spread out, the mirror magic communicated with the distant place, and the picture appeared in the mirror again.
This time, it was a woman who appeared in the mirror. It was the other person she was looking for.
She was tall, draped in a black-purple robe, possessing a dark beauty and icy elegance. Her expression was as cold as ice, yet it seemed to harbor unimaginable madness.
The black witch Maleficent.
The culprit who once cursed the Kingdom of Rose!