It's a new thing for the King of the Middle Eastern Countries to personally set up a test to recruit famous diviners!
People from all over the country, and even many from abroad, who claimed to be diviners, came.
Some called themselves wizards, some prophets, some seers, and others astrologers; some were commoners, some nobles or advisors to nobles.
No matter what they called themselves, they were all skilled at manipulating crystal balls, tarot cards, tea leaves, and turtle shells, speaking cryptic words, claiming to see others' futures and pasts, and converse with the dead.
Hundreds of cloaked, hooded, and mysteriously dressed people gathered in the Royal Capital, a truly novel sight!
The one in charge of this assessment was Prince Eric.
He took over this task from his father, responsible for selecting the most accurate diviner among all the diviners.
In fact, he truly wanted to know the background of that "amnesiac girl" more than anyone else.
By the way, if there really was such a powerful diviner, the Prince also wanted to ask him or her: Who was the girl who saved him in that shipwreck, the savior who resembled the "amnesiac girl"?
He awaited the answers to these two questions.
While the Prince was eagerly anticipating, Ariel in the palace was terrified.
She didn't know how many of the diviners from various places were frauds and how many possessed true talent.
"If the Prince knew I was a mermaid from the sea, what would he do to me?"
"Would he still hold my hand as usual to watch the sunset and sunrise?"
"Would he view me as a non-human monster? Because humans fear and despise mermaids so much."
...
Today, Rhine also put on a light-colored robe and a wizard hat, looking exactly like a free-spirited wandering mage. He was also mixed in with the large crowd of applicants.
Aurora followed beside the young boy, acting as the mage's bodyguard.
These two lovely and beautiful children undoubtedly attracted the attention of the surrounding adults.
"Little ones, what are you doing here?" the guard responsible for registration asked the two oddly dressed children, "There's something important happening here today, you can't just come in freely!"
Rhine smiled without speaking, handing over an envelope.
"Please take a look."
The guard was puzzled but still opened the envelope and carefully read its contents and the accompanying verification documents.
A few seconds later, the guard's expression changed dramatically.
He respectfully bowed to Rhine and Aurora, and amidst the astonished gazes of others, gestured for them to enter.
"Please come in, Sage of Rose Kingdom," the guard exclaimed, "I've always heard legends about you, heard that you were traveling the continent, I didn't expect you to have traveled here already!"
Under the confused and shocked gazes of the surrounding adults, the guard escorted Rhine and Aurora to the venue.
The Prince stood on the plaza in front of the palace, beginning to preside over the assessment competition.
The first round was the simplest.
In front of each diviner's table were ten inverted bowls, with only one hiding a gold coin underneath.
Contestants had to be blindfolded and find the bowl with the gold coin without touching the bowls.
Rhine found the bowl with the gold coin in just one second, as if he knew where the gold coin was from the start.
Meanwhile, the other contestants were still deep in thought, or muttering strange words, or seeking help from different deities!
Such a simple test eliminated most of the eccentric, cryptic individuals, with only one-tenth of the contestants advancing to the next round.
"So, they really were just guessing," Aurora sighed.
"From a statistical perspective, yes," said Rhine, who had easily completed the task.
As a mage, Rhine knew that even true mages didn't all understand divination and prophecy. Most of those who could participate were probably just skilled in deception.
Even if there were a few contestants with genuine talent, how could they compare to him, who had mastered the power of prophecy for many years?
The second test was much more difficult.
A court painter would stay in a closed small room, improvising and painting a picture alone.
And the diviners in the open space had to copy that painting out of thin air.
The Prince went in and out of the small room, sometimes checking the progress of the court painter's work, and sometimes looking at the contestants' paintings outside.
The court painter picked up his brush, and in a short while, he drew a delicate and beautiful rose in the center of the paper.
The Prince went out to look again.
The things drawn by the contestants were varied, vastly different from what the court painter had made. Some drew mountains, some drew portraits, and some drew battle scenes.
At this moment, the Prince noticed that one table and chair set was empty, there was no one on the stool, and the contestant had disappeared.
"Where is the person here?" the Prince asked.
"There was a silver-haired child sitting there. He said he was going to take a nap and didn't want to waste any more time here, so he left early, leaving only a painting here," the people around replied.
The Prince looked closely, and indeed there was a painting on the table.
The painting depicted a man proposing to a woman, the former holding a vibrant rose in his hand, occupying the most central position of the entire painting.
"Oh my, this is so similar!" the Prince exclaimed in his heart.
The flower in the painting was almost identical to the one made by the court painter!
"The only pity is that the other parts are wrong. The court painter only painted a flower, not a proposal scene."
The Prince couldn't help but feel sorry for this contestant; if he hadn't added unnecessary parts, he would surely have advanced.
With this thought, Prince Eric walked back into the small room where the court painter was.
Upon seeing that the paper still showed a delicate rose, the Prince breathed a sigh of relief.
"Are you finished?" the Prince asked.
"No, not yet, my Prince. I feel the current picture is too empty!" the painter said.
Over the next half hour, to the astonishment of the Prince, the court painter added more details to all four sides of the painting.
Finally, the court painter completed the painting.
It was exactly the one the Prince had seen before.
"Have you revealed to anyone what you were going to paint today?" the Prince asked incredulously.
"Of course not, my Prince. It wasn't until half an hour ago when you entered the room that I felt this painting was too empty and wanted to add some details to it. And before a painting is officially completed, even I don't know what its final form will be," the painter said.
"Gods! That contestant—everyone said it was a child—saw that painting even earlier than the painter himself, just as a reader knows the story's development earlier than the author," the Prince was stunned.
This time, only two people passed.
Rhine was, of course, one of them, and the only contestant who completed the painting earlier than the painter.
"Why did your copied replica appear earlier than the original?" the Prince asked the child who had returned to his seat.
"If one doesn't know the outcome before the event begins, how can it be considered prophecy?" Rhine said.
"In other matters, beyond paintings, can you also see so clearly?" the Prince asked excitedly again.
Such a diviner must be able to see the background of that amnesiac girl and who his benefactor was who saved him initially, right?
"I can't guarantee it. The more important the destiny, the more branches and possibilities it has, and only vague fragments can be known," Rhine replied truthfully.
Rhine noticed that the other qualifier also seemed to be a mage.
He had an exaggerated eagle nose and shifty eyes. His facial features were different from everyone else's, with a more distinct exotic flair, and his skin was dark brown.
"He seems to look a bit different from the others," Rhine asked a nearby guard.
"Yes. He seems to be called Maglido, claiming to be a mage from the Middle Eastern Countries who just recently traveled here," the guard said.
"Middle Eastern Countries?" Rhine's thoughts raced.
He and Aurora wondered if they would have the chance to travel there.
The third assessment was the most complex.
The only two qualifiers had to go out to sea with fishing boats and use their prophetic knowledge to guide the fishermen in catching fish, telling them when and where to cast their nets.
The amount of fish caught would be the final standard for victory.
The Middle Eastern Countries lived by the sea, so fishing and navigation were quite important. That's why there was such a competition.
"My Prince, I request that my boat cast its net first," said the mage who called himself Maglido.
"No problem. It doesn't matter who goes first or last," the Prince said.
Maglido then went out to sea with the fishing boat and pointed to a certain area of the sea.
After the fishermen cast their nets, they indeed caught much more fish than usual. Four or five fishermen had to use all their strength to pull these fish onto the boat.
Seeing the fish lively in the net, Maglido laughed heartily and said to Rhine on the other boat:
"Little one, I'm definitely winning this time!"
He knew that the direction he pointed to was the location in this sea area where the most fish could be caught today.
As for that boy, even if his prophecy was precise, he would still cast his net after him.
He couldn't possibly conjure more fish out of thin air!
Facing Maglido's arrogant laughter, Rhine merely smiled without speaking.
On the other boat, Rhine pointed to a body of water, instructing the fishermen to cast their nets.
While waiting to pull in the net, the young boy quietly took out the shell-carved, pearl-inlaid flute.
—This was a gift from the Sea King to him, as a token of friendship from the Sea Kingdom court, representing that Rhine and Aurora would always be honored guests of the Sea Kingdom. As long as the flute was played, even mermaids in the deep sea could hear it.
Rhine quietly played the flute, and the melodious flute sound was covered by the strong winds on the sea; no human noticed it.
But this strange melody entered the sea.