The scene in the mirror continued to play.
What Little Princess Aurora loved most was listening each night before bed as the learned mage Rhine and other scholars turned the pages of books and told stories about the world beyond.
Whenever a bedtime story ended and the lights went out, the little princess would gaze through the window at the glittering river of stars outside.
Would falling down the Rabbit Hole truly lead to a wonderland beyond the world? Were there really Mermaids in the depths of the ocean? Was the Giant Castle above the clouds merely a legend, or was it real?
"Father, Mother, once my fifteenth birthday has passed, the curse will be lifted, and I'll be able to go out into the world, right?"
Beside her pillow, the girl's gemlike eyes brimmed with hope.
It was a promise she had been given ever since she could remember.
"Tomorrow is my birthday!"
Aurora's voice held unconcealed excitement.
It was the day she had awaited through thousands of days and nights since her birth!
"Father, Mother, Mage Rhine, thank you."
"Once my birthday comes tomorrow, the curse will be lifted!"
"After that, I want to go outside and see for myself! There are so many things I want to see, so many places I want to visit. I want to know whether what the books describe is real..."
The image in the mirror froze on the girl's smile, full of boundless yearning for the future.
The scene immediately shifted to the next moment.
Aurora was celebrating her fifteenth birthday.
At the sight, the stone weighing on the Old King's heart slowly fell away.
It seemed his precautions had indeed worked.
As long as he confiscated every Spinning Wheel in the kingdom and imprisoned the princess, theoretically eliminating every possibility of Aurora coming into contact with a Spinning Wheel, he could prevent the prophecy from coming true! "Though I imprisoned my daughter for over a decade and caused resentment by confiscating Spinning Wheels throughout the kingdom, it was all worth it!"
The elderly monarch's white beard trembled.
Seeing the Old King's excitement, Rhine let out a soft sigh, unable to help feeling rueful.
The Old King was still too young! How could a prophecy possibly be avoided through such simple means?
In countless myths and fairy tales, every attempt to resist prophecy through human effort only ended up helping the prophecy fulfill itself.
"Your Majesty..."
In contrast, the expressions of the Witches were far less relaxed than the king's.
They were true spellcasters who understood magic, and they could vaguely sense that something was wrong.
The next second, the scene in the mirror changed abruptly.
After the birthday celebration ended, before the stroke of midnight, the little princess still observed the final half-hour of her ban, wandering through the palace and drifting among rooms large and small that she had seen hundreds of thousands of times since birth.
At last, she came to an ancient palace tower. Inside was a very narrow staircase, and at its end stood a door with a golden key inserted into it.
"Strange, I don't think I've ever come here before?"
Filled with curiosity, Aurora turned the golden key, and the door sprang open at once.
An old woman sat inside, busy spinning thread.
The princess had never seen a weaving tool before. Puzzled, she asked, "Hello! Old mother, what are you doing?"
"Spinning thread," the old woman replied.
"This little thing looks so interesting when it spins! Can I take a look?"
As she spoke, Aurora stepped forward curiously, wanting to pick up the Spinning Wheel and spin thread herself.
Seeing this, the Queen cried out and reached out, pressing her hand against the Silver Mirror in Rhine's grasp:
"No, don't! My daughter, don't go near that thing!"
The Old King's face went pale as well. He cried out in horror, "Wait, no!"
But how could Aurora in the mirror possibly hear her parents' voices outside it? Under their despairing, terrified gazes, Aurora touched the Spinning Wheel, and it immediately pricked her finger.
The Spinning Wheel was not a weapon, so the blessing that "man-made and natural weapons cannot harm Aurora" naturally had no effect!
The next second, the golden-haired girl collapsed to the floor and lost consciousness.
The curse had come true.
However, the blessing Mage Rhine had once bestowed also took effect—
The princess did not die. She merely fell into a deep sleep, sinking into dreamless slumber.
The king and queen hurried back at that very moment.
The moment they entered the great hall, they too fell asleep.
The horses in the stables, the dogs in the courtyard, the pigeons on the roof, and the flies on the walls all fell asleep as well.
Even the fire in the hearth stopped burning and fell asleep; the roasting meat stopped sizzling; everything became motionless and sank into deep sleep.
The sleeping curse enveloped the entire kingdom, plunging every resident into eternal slumber.
Before long, a great hedge of Tribulus grew across the kingdom's land.
Year after year, the wild plants grew taller and denser, until they completely obscured the palace, even covering its roof and chimneys.
Ten years passed.
Twenty years passed.
Fifty years passed.
A legend began to spread about this kingdom—a legend of a beautiful princess asleep.
After that, many princes came to explore. They hacked their way through Thorns, hoping to pass through the hedge and enter the royal palace, but none succeeded.
Every warrior who stepped into this cursed land was either ensnared by Tribulus or tripped by the bushes, as though countless hands had seized them tightly and made escape impossible. In the end, they all died in agony.
Outside the mirror.
The Old King watched as his land was ruled by Thorns and Tribulus, turned into a Cursed Land no one dared set foot in, and his entire body went limp.
"Why?"
"Why couldn't the curse be stopped!"
"Why did stairs and rooms that had never existed appear in my palace? Why did an old woman spinning thread appear out of nowhere?"
This was far too unreasonable! The kingdom's ruler no longer looked like a king at all. He roared in anguish and covered his face as he wept.
As though he had truly lived through those decades just now.
As though every disaster had already happened.
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