Unavoidable Curse

The scene in the mirror continued playing.

What interested Little Princess Aurora most was listening each night before sleep as the learned Magician Rhine and other scholars turned pages and told stories of the outside world.

Whenever a bedtime story ended and the lamp went out, the little princess would gaze through the window at the glittering river of stars beyond.

If one fell down the Rabbit Hole, would they truly reach a wonderland beyond the world? Were mermaids real in the depths of the ocean? Was the Giant Castle above the clouds legend or truth?

"Father, Mother, once my fifteenth birthday passes and the curse is lifted, I'll be able to go out into the world, right?"

By her pillow, the girl's gem-like eyes were full of hope.

This was the promise she had held since her earliest memories.

"Tomorrow is my birthday!"

Aurora's tone held undisguised excitement.

That was the day she had waited for through thousands of nights since her birth!

"Father, Mother, Lord Magician Rhine, thank you."

"After my birthday tomorrow, the curse will be broken!"

"After that, I want to go out and see! There are so many things I want to look at, so many places I want to go. I want to know if what the books say is real..."

The mirror's image froze on the girl's smile, radiant with infinite longing for the future.

The scene shifted to the next moment.

Aurora was celebrating her fifteenth birthday.

Seeing this, the Old King felt the stone hanging in his heart slowly settle.

It seemed his precautions had been effective after all.

As long as he confiscated every Spinning Wheel in the kingdom and imprisoned the princess, theoretically eliminating any possibility of Aurora touching a Spinning Wheel, he could prevent the prophecy from coming true! "Though I've imprisoned my daughter for over a decade and confiscated all the kingdom's Spinning Wheels, sparking discontent, it was entirely worth it!"

The aged monarch's white beard trembled.

Seeing the Old King's excitement, Rhine sighed softly, a feeling of pity stirring in his heart.

The Old King was still too young! So-called prophecies could never be avoided by such simple means.

In countless myths and fairy tales, every attempt to resist prophecy through human effort only ended up fulfilling it.

"Your Majesty..."

The expressions of the Witches were far less relaxed than the king's.

They were true spellcasters who understood magic, and they could faintly sense something was wrong.

The next second, the scene in the mirror abruptly shifted.

After the birthday celebration ended, before the midnight bell, the little princess still obeyed the final half-hour of her confinement, wandering through the palace, passing through the hundreds of thousands of rooms she had seen since birth.

Finally, she came to an ancient tower. Inside the tower was a very narrow staircase, and at the top of the stairs was a door with a Golden Key in the lock.

"How strange, I don't think I've ever come here before?"

Filled with doubt, Aurora turned the Golden Key, and the door sprang open.

An old woman sat inside, busy spinning.

The princess had never seen a spinning tool and asked in confusion, "Hey! Old mother, hello! What are you doing?"

"Spinning," the old woman replied.

"This little thing spinning around is so fun! Can I see it?"

Saying this, Aurora stepped forward curiously, wanting to pick up the Spinning Wheel and spin.

Seeing this, the Queen cried out sharply, reaching out to cover the Silver Mirror in Rhine's hands:

"No, don't! Daughter, don't go near that thing!"

The Old King's face turned pale, and he exclaimed in shock, "Wait, no!"

But how could Aurora in the mirror possibly hear her parents' voices outside it? Under her parents' despairing and terrified gazes, Aurora touched the Spinning Wheel and immediately pricked her finger.

The Spinning Wheel was not a weapon—the blessing that "man-made and natural weapons cannot harm Aurora" was naturally ineffective!

The next second, the golden-haired girl fell to the ground, unconscious.

The curse had come true.

Yet the blessing offered by Magician Rhine had also taken effect—

The princess did not die but fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.

The King and Queen hurried back at that moment.

As soon as they entered the great hall, they too fell asleep.

The horses in the stables, the dogs in the yard, the doves on the roof, the flies on the walls—all fell asleep as well.

Even the fire in the hearth stopped burning and slept; the roasting meat ceased its sizzling; everything was still, all sunk into deep sleep.

The sleeping curse enveloped the entire kingdom, plunging every inhabitant into eternal slumber.

Soon, the land of the kingdom was overgrown with a great hedge of tribulus.

Year after year, the maddened plants grew higher and denser, until at last they completely shrouded the palace, even covering the rooftops and chimneys.

Ten years passed.

Twenty years passed.

Fifty years passed.

A legend spread about this kingdom—a tale of a beautiful sleeping princess.

From then on, many princes came to explore, hacking through thorns and brambles in an attempt to cross the hedge and reach the palace, but none succeeded.

Every warrior who set foot in this cursed land was either entangled by tribulus or tripped by the thickets, as if countless hands held them fast, unable to break free, and they all died in agony.

Beyond the mirror.

The Old King watched his realm ruled by thorns and tribulus, turned into a cursed land where none dared tread, and his body went limp with weakness.

"Why?"

"Why can't the curse be stopped?"

"Why are there stairs and rooms in my palace that never existed before? Why has a spinning crone appeared out of thin air?"

None of this made any sense! The sovereign of the kingdom, no longer bearing the semblance of a king, roared in disgrace, covering his face as he wept.

As if he had truly lived through decades in that moment.

As if all the disasters had already come to pass.