Rhine and Aurora smiled and accepted Great-grandmother's invitation.
And so, Great-grandmother departed.
Ariel swam over again, thanked Rhine and Aurora once more, and was about to bid them farewell, taking the potion to the world above.
"After this, if you encounter any difficulties while pursuing that prince, you can come back to me for help," Rhine said.
He then gave Ariel a silver mirror:
"I've enchanted this mirror. Just speak your predicament into the mirror. Even if we're separated by several kingdoms, I'll be able to hear you."
Since leaving Rose Kingdom, Rhine had never heard the prayers for his name being chanted.
—Apparently, the perception based on his name also had strict distance limitations, which was far from enough on this vast continent.
Therefore, for this Mermaid friend, he specially prepared this gift to contact him.
"Thank you both, I will never forget you."
Ariel was overwhelmed with gratitude, waved goodbye, and floated up towards the world above.
Soon after, Rhine felt Ariel's wish power merge into his soul, like a small stream flowing into the sea.
Clearly, on the shore at that moment, the mermaid princess had grown human legs.
While absorbing the wish power, a beautiful melody faintly resonated in Rhine's ears.
This beautiful singing, like the ebb and flow of the tide, surged through his veins and merged into his soul.
[mermaid princess's Song]
—This was the reward obtained for fulfilling this wish.
According to the knowledge that surfaced in his mind when drawing upon the wish power, the mermaid princess's Song had two effects:
Firstly, the beauty of this song surpassed all on land and sea. It could make anyone who heard it feel a stir in their heart!
Secondly, this song could also soothe the fish and sea beasts in the sea.
As long as marine creatures heard this song, they would become close to him, regarding him as a dear friend. He could even use this song to command these marine creatures to help! For example, he could have fish point out the location of turbulent currents, or command sea beasts to pull ships away.
Of course, as a magician, Rhine didn't necessarily have to sing himself; he could completely use magic to perform this song.
For example, he only needed to tap a seashell, and the seashell would open its mouth and sing this beautiful melody. As long as he threw a seven-stringed zither into the air, the seven-stringed zither could play this unparalleled music.
"Whether for a band performance or sea navigation, it's a very useful ability!"
"I never expected that the 'reward' I finally received would be Ariel's song, just like what the Sea Hag demanded," Rhine thought.
However, as a Wish Magician, the wish power paid the price for Ariel herself.
At this moment, Aurora seemed to have thought of something and said:
"By the way, Teacher, although we have already obtained information about Black Witch Maleficent. But can we not rush to find her? I want to see Ariel receive the prince's love and an immortal soul with my own eyes before we depart."
"Of course," Rhine said. "Anyway, even if we find Maleficent now, you won't be able to defeat that giant dragon. Besides, I have my own plans."
Undoubtedly, gaining an immortal soul was Ariel's greater wish.
Rhine also wanted to wait until this wish was fulfilled before leaving.
He was quite looking forward to seeing how the mermaid princess, who retained her beautiful singing voice and ability to speak, and could perfectly display her graceful dance without pain, would perform in the upcoming story!
Aurora looked at the deep blue, almost black, seawater above her head, and thought of something else, saying with a hint of sadness:
"I feel a bit sorry for the Mermaids."
"Sorry for what?"
"I sincerely hope that Ariel succeeds in gaining the love of that handsome prince. However, even if Princess Ariel successfully obtains an immortal soul, that only redeems herself. All the other Mermaids in this Sea Kingdom will eventually turn into unknown foam, leaving no grave for them," Aurora lamented.
"This task is so difficult even for the most favored mermaid princess, let alone for the thousands of other ordinary Mermaids!"
Having spent many years with Rhine, raised by this teacher from beyond the world, Aurora always approached problems from a fresher perspective.
Rhine smiled:
"That's a very interesting direction of thought.
"You, the crown prince of a kingdom, grew up without knowing your identity.
"A child who plays and grows up with ordinary commoner children, yet eventually becomes the new king of the kingdom, will inevitably think more than those kings who grew up in magnificent palaces.
"When you think from a larger perspective, when you can see thousands upon thousands of people behind one person, you are learning to become an excellent king—this is one of the purposes of this journey."
Although Rhine didn't appear much older than the 10-year-old girl beside him, on such occasions, he always tried to appear a bit more mature, more like a wise man and a teacher.
"So what do you mean, Teacher?" Aurora asked, vaguely guessing something.
"Let's anticipate the ending of this story together. The ending of Princess Ariel and this Sea Kingdom."
Rhine raised his chin, looking up at the thick, deep blue, almost black, seawater.
In two more hours, the light of dawn would pierce into this deep sea.
The sun shone equally upon the human kingdoms on land and the kingdom beneath these myriad layers of water.
...
The sun rose in the east.
Sunlight penetrated the seawater and spilled onto the Sea King's palace.
Greeting the dawn in the Sea Kingdom was a magnificent sight that all humans could never witness in their entire lives:
The sunlight, after penetrating the seawater, appeared gentle and not dazzling, dyeing the entire sea area rose-colored. And the Sea King's court gradually awakened in this beautiful morning.
As agreed, Great-grandmother led Rhine and Aurora, who had finished reading the information about Black Witch Maleficent, into the Sea King's palace.
When a large Anglerfish with a transparent belly, containing two humans, swam through the palace gate, the nobles and royalty were all shocked by such a marvelous scene.
"This is truly amazing!"
"They must be the first two humans in history to set foot in the Sea Country, right?"
No matter how learned a Mermaid scholar claimed to be, they had to admit that such a thing had never happened before.
"Haha, this is the fairy tale world's version of a submarine. You probably haven't seen it," Rhine thought to himself, looking at the wide-eyed Mermaids outside through the transparent belly of the large fish.
And the most shocked of all was none other than the Sea King.
This monarch of the sea wasn't surprised by the two humans' peculiar entrance—many subordinates had already carefully described this scene to him.
The Sea King was surprised that the one leading the two humans as guests was actually his own mother!
Just last night, hadn't she just opposed any intersection between humans and Mermaids, and the worlds on land and underwater?