"My command is: find Black Witch Maleficent!"
In the clearing, the three big dogs that had received their master's command looked around and sniffed left and right.
After finding nothing, all Three Dogs flopped down weakly, stuck out their tongues, and gazed pitifully at their master Rhine, who held The Tinderbox.
"As expected, Black Witch Maleficent must be somewhere far away, well beyond the search range of The Tinderbox's dogs."
"Of course, even if Maleficent were nearby, she might have a way to keep herself from being found by magic or other supernatural powers."
Rhine dismissed the dogs and tossed The Tinderbox back to Aurora.
The two returned to the palace and began sorting through a large stack of papers on the table.
"This is intelligence compiled by His Majesty the King and the Witches—information about Black Witch Maleficent's origins, places she might have gone, and other clues!"
This information pointed the way for the journey he and Aurora were about to undertake.
According to the records, Black Witch Maleficent had not been born in Rose Kingdom. She had traveled here from another country over a decade before Aurora's Baptism Ceremony and settled in the kingdom for a long time.
No one knew how long she had lived or where she had learned such terrifying witchcraft.
People only knew that Maleficent practiced dreadful Black Magic, was skilled in curses and torturing people, could summon dark creatures to serve her at any time, and could even transform into a giant dragon.
Furthermore, Maleficent's mastery of magic seemed greater than that of the other Witches in the kingdom—though it was only after that disastrous night that people truly understood her power and terror.
According to the intelligence, Maleficent had once mentioned several "sisters" beyond the kingdom.
Not true sisters, of course, but Witches who studied Black Magic alongside her.
Maleficent and her "sisters" occasionally gathered or communicated through magic to discuss new dark spells and how to brew new potions. Naturally, their ingredients included such strange and horrifying things as frog eyeballs, spiderwebs, toad saliva, and the umbilical cords of dead infants.
"A coven of Black Magic Witches sounds like quite a troublesome thing."
Rhine frowned slightly.
The thought of facing several opponents as powerful as Black Witch Maleficent was enough to inspire despair.
On this continent where so many stories had blended together, what sort of Witches could form a coven with Black Witch Maleficent?
Rhine could not help wondering.
He continued reading the documents in his hands, his attention settling on one particular line.
It said that Maleficent had once bragged to Violet Fairy that one Witch in the coven was not human, but a Sea Hag who lived in the depths of the sea and specialized in brewing strange potions.
This Sea Hag lived in the Mermaid kingdom, beneath towering waves. Since she rarely came ashore, she and Maleficent communicated through magical mirrors. Maleficent had even complained about it a few times.
"A Sea Hag living in Sea Kingdom. She might be our breakthrough! If Maleficent is still in contact with her, perhaps she knows where Maleficent has gone now."
"According to the kingdom's historical records, beneath the sea off the southern coast lies the Mermaid kingdom!"
With the direction of their first destination confirmed, Rhine and Aurora still had one final task before formally setting out on their journey—
To say farewell to the King and Queen.
Deep within the royal palace complex, beyond many walls and buildings.
There truly stood a palace cast from brass, said to be where the beautiful princess of legend had lived.
—In truth, it was merely an abandoned palace left behind by the previous dynasty. Most of the time, the Brass Palace stood empty.
But today, perhaps for the first time in ten years, the beautiful princess of the kingdom's legends had truly come here.
To bid farewell to her parents.
The Old King nodded gently.
The ruler of the kingdom wore a weathered smile. He removed the crown from his head and slowly raised it over Aurora's.
An aged monarch removing his crown and holding it above the head of a ten-year-old girl looked truly absurd.
—The old king would hand the kingdom to the hero who could save it, honoring her as the kingdom's new king. That was the promise the Old King had made to the magician ten years ago.
The Old King held the crown over the princess's golden hair, as though checking whether it suited her size.
"My daughter. I am already too old. When you return from your travels with the sage, this crown will truly belong to you."
After saying this, the Old King withdrew the crown.
Aurora nodded gently and gave the King and Queen an elegant bow using the court etiquette taught by her tutor. "Farewell, Father. Farewell, Mother.
"I will embark upon a journey with the sage and travel beyond our borders, seeking the trail of Black Witch Maleficent. We will find the Black Witch, defeat her, and end the dark clouds hanging over this land.
"One day, I will return to the kingdom with the sage and succeed you as the king of this land, Father.
"During this journey, I will strive to learn how to become an outstanding hero, as well as an excellent king."
The equally aged Queen took out a handkerchief and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, but said nothing.
Beside them, the young magician dressed in loose, classical wizard's robes smiled and nodded at Aurora.
"Let us go, my future Queen."
The sage and the future king bade farewell to the present king and departed from the palace of brass.
As they walked among the royal palace buildings, Aurora gazed at the distant mountains. "Teacher, I think that when we return, I will be the king of this country, and you will be its legend."
In the past, Aurora had been taught elaborate grammar and exquisite rhetoric by a dedicated language tutor. The Little Princess had cleverly learned it all, and so her words resembled the polished phrases spoken by poets. "Father told me that after helping him ten years ago, you asked him to spread your story—the story of the magician. It must have a special purpose for you.
"So when I become the new king, I will do the same.
"Teacher, I will sing your praises, record your deeds in history, and hire craftsmen to sculpt statues of you.
"I will summon scribes to record every tale from our journey, weave those stories into books, and ask painters to turn the most unforgettable scenes into colored illustrations—so they will not be forgotten. Then I will have bards tell these stories beside campfires and wells.
"Many years from now, all that we experience on this journey will become beloved legends, turned into fairy-tale collections beside every child's pillow.
"Just imagining that scene fills me with anticipation..."
The girl raised her head toward the blue sky and snow-white clouds, her eyes gleaming with a light called hope.
Aurora looked again at the Silver-haired Boy before her.
—Her teacher had looked exactly the same when she was an infant. Now she herself was nearly grown, yet he had not changed at all. It was as though time had stopped upon the young magician.
The girl raised a hand to measure their heights. Seeing that the top of her head had just reached Rhine's shoulder, she giggled.
"Teacher, you will not grow up, will you?
"In two or three years at most, before the curse is fulfilled, I will probably be taller than you.
"Even when I am frail with age and my hair has turned white, you will still remain as you are?"
Rhine said nothing and simply walked on quietly.
He could imagine that scene, but was somewhat surprised that a ten-year-old girl could think so far ahead.
"Who can know what the future holds?"
After a long silence, Rhine spoke.
Aurora once again turned her gaze toward the distant horizon. Her thoughts soared among the clouds, and her smile blossomed like a flower.
"Teacher, one day I will become a skeleton, a mound of yellow earth. Yet you will still walk upon the land in this same form.
"By then, the world will surely be filled with your legends.
"On this journey, I will learn how to become an excellent king. I will strive to become the greatest king in the history of Rose Kingdom and leave my name in history.
"Then, after I leave this world, people will say that Rose Kingdom once had a great queen, and my deeds will be passed down.
"In that way, the length of my story through time may try to catch up to your very life—though it can never catch up, at least it will not be left behind too quickly.
"Even centuries from now, as you walk upon the earth, you may occasionally hear people of that era telling the tale of our journey.
"In the story that belongs to me, people will say that many years ago, the king of a country was granted thirteen blessings at birth and bore a great mission. The one who raised her was a wise and learned Legendary Magician who understood the future and possessed many wondrous abilities.
"Heavens, it truly sounds like an epic! It is no different from those epic legends I used to hear."
As Aurora spoke, her gaze became ever more distant and profound.
Like King Arthur and Merlin... Rhine thought.
"Your philosophy and grammar are both quite good. Your perspective is rather unique." Rhine was unusually quiet today, trying to make himself seem more mature. "It appears I did not hire those teachers for nothing."
Rhine looked away from the girl and toward the white layers of clouds at the horizon.
The clouds were like gentle flocks of sheep, strolling lazily across the vast pasture called the blue sky beneath the sunlight.
He had also looked forward to this journey for a long time.
This world was vast, immensely vast. There were countless countries like Rose Kingdom throughout the western part of the continent. And farther east lay the even more magnificent and mysterious Far East.
As one of the long-lived beings with an eternal lifespan, Rhine knew he was destined not to remain in this tiny place forever.
Repeatedly fulfilling the same person's wish sharply reduced the effect. Usually, a Fate Protagonist could provide only two clearly effective wishes.
Rhine understood that if he wanted to become a Legendary Magician worthy of epic tales, he needed to find more Fate Protagonists on his journey.
All at once, the Silver-haired Boy felt a wish burning hot as fire ignite beside him. He knew it belonged to Aurora.
"To learn on the journey how to become an exceptional hero and an excellent king, defeat the Black Witch, and end the kingdom's curse."
This was the heaviest and most fervent wish the magician of wishes and miracles had taken on since coming into this world.
The kingdom's former sage led its future king farther and farther away.
After "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Tinderbox," the next main story would be "The Little Mermaid."
It clearly involved more elements and characters, as well as the expansion of the world setting and foreshadowing for later stories, so it would be considerably larger in scale. It would be more like a major arc. There would also be some characters linking multiple stories together.
Before you continue