Chapter 15: The Inevitable Curse
The scenes in the mirror continued to unfold.
The Little Princess Aurora’s favorite pastime was listening to stories about the outside world before bed. Rhine, the knowledgeable Court Mage, and other scholars would flip through books and tell her these tales.
Each night, after the bedtime story ended and the lights were extinguished, the princess would gaze through the window at the glittering starry sky beyond.
Would falling down a rabbit hole truly lead to a hidden wonderland?
Were there really mermaids in the depths of the ocean?
And the giant's castle above the clouds—was it merely a legend, or could it be real?
“Father, Mother, once my 15th birthday passes, the curse will be lifted, and I’ll finally be able to explore the outside world, right?”
The girl’s jewel-like eyes sparkled with hope as she lay on her pillow.
This was the promise she had been given for as long as she could remember.“Tomorrow is my birthday!”
Aurora’s voice was filled with unrestrained excitement.
It was the day she had been waiting for her entire life, through thousands of days and nights.
“Father, Mother, Sir Rhine, thank you.”
“After tomorrow, once the curse is broken…”
“I want to go out and see everything! There are so many things I want to see, so many places I want to visit. I want to find out if the things written in books are true…”
The mirror froze on the image of Aurora’s radiant smile, filled with boundless hope for the future.
The scene then transitioned to the next.
Aurora was celebrating her 15th birthday.
The old King, watching the celebration unfold, felt a weight lifted off his shoulders.
It seemed his precautions had worked after all.
By confiscating all the spindles in the kingdom and confining the princess, he believed he had completely eliminated any chance of Aurora coming into contact with a spindle, thereby preventing the prophecy from coming true.
“Although I’ve confined my daughter for over a decade, and although seizing the kingdom’s spindles caused public dissatisfaction, it was all worth it!”
The elderly monarch’s white beard quivered as he spoke.
Seeing the King’s exuberance, Rhine sighed softly, a wave of emotion washing over him.
The old King was still too naive!
When had a prophecy ever been avoided so easily?
In countless myths and fairy tales, any attempts to resist a prophecy through human effort only ended up facilitating its fulfillment.
“Your Majesty…”
In contrast to the King’s relief, the expressions of the witches were far from relaxed.
As practitioners of true magic, they could sense a faint but ominous premonition.
In the very next moment, the image in the mirror abruptly changed.
After the birthday celebration had ended and before the final toll of midnight, Aurora was still observing the last half-hour of the prohibition. She wandered through the palace, aimlessly walking through the same rooms she had seen hundreds of thousands of times since her birth.
Eventually, she arrived at an ancient tower. Inside the tower was a narrow staircase that led up to a door. Embedded in the door was a golden key.
“How strange. I don’t think I’ve ever been here before,” Aurora murmured, curiosity lighting up her features.
She turned the golden key, and the door swung open effortlessly.
Inside, an old woman sat busily spinning thread.
Aurora, who had never seen a spinning wheel before, asked in confusion:
“Hello! Granny, what are you doing here?”
“Spinning thread,” the old woman replied simply.
“This little thing that spins—it looks so fun! May I take a closer look?”
Aurora’s curiosity got the better of her, and she stepped forward, reaching out for the spindle.
Outside the mirror, the Queen let out a piercing scream, her hand shooting out to cover the silver mirror in Rhine’s hands.
“No, no! Daughter, don’t go near that thing!”
The old King turned pale, his expression one of utter shock:
“Wait! No!”
But how could Aurora inside the mirror possibly hear the voices of her parents outside it?
As the King and Queen watched in despair and terror, Aurora touched the spindle, pricking her finger instantly.
The blessing “no man-made or natural weapon can harm Aurora” was, of course, ineffective against a spindle, which wasn’t classified as a weapon.
In the next second, the golden-haired girl collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
The curse had been fulfilled.
However, the blessing Rhine had once bestowed upon her also took effect—
The princess did not die but instead fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.
At this moment, the King and Queen rushed into the hall.
The instant they stepped inside, they too succumbed to sleep.
The horses in the stables, the dogs in the courtyard, the pigeons on the rooftops, and even the flies on the walls—all of them fell into slumber.
Even the flames in the hearth ceased to burn, as though they too had drifted off to sleep. The sizzling of roasting meat went silent.
Everything stopped moving. Everything sank into a deep, unbroken sleep.
The curse of slumber blanketed the entire kingdom, sending every resident into an eternal rest.
Not long after, thorny brambles began to grow across the land of the kingdom.
Year after year, these wild plants grew taller and denser, eventually forming an impenetrable wall that obscured the palace entirely. Even the rooftops and chimneys disappeared beneath the green, tangled mass.
Ten years passed.
Twenty years passed.
Fifty years passed.
A legend began to spread about the cursed kingdom, telling the story of a beautiful princess who lay asleep within it.
From then on, many princes came to explore. They attempted to hack their way through the thorny barrier to reach the palace, but none succeeded.
Every hero who stepped onto this cursed land was either ensnared by the brambles or tripped by the undergrowth. It was as though countless hands reached out to grasp them, trapping them within until they ultimately met their end in agony.
Outside the mirror.
The old King gazed at his kingdom, now ruled by thorns and brambles, a cursed land no one dared to tread. His body trembled, weak and powerless.
“Why?”
“Why couldn’t we stop the curse?”
“Why did a staircase and a room that never existed appear inside my palace? Why did an old woman with a spinning wheel appear out of thin air?”
None of it made any sense!
The monarch, who had once ruled his kingdom with strength and wisdom, now collapsed into despair. He roared uncontrollably, his cries muffled by his hands as tears streamed down his face.
It was as though he had truly lived through decades of time.
As though all the disasters had already happened.
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