The dwarves looked at each other, unsure how to explain to the Prince before them.
"Your Highness, don't mind it," the dwarves said, trying to pull Prince Henry away.
However, Prince Henry pulled up a chair and sat down, staring intently at the Queen in the crystal coffin:
"She's truly beautiful. May I look at her a little longer?"
The dwarves had no choice but to let the Prince sit there, admiring the Queen's beauty, while they went to clear the dinnerware.
Prince Henry stared at the sleeping Queen, and the more he looked, the more beautiful he found her to be, far more beautiful than his fiancée in the Summer Kingdom.
—Cinderella, that four-legged elder sister, to prevent the Prince from discovering her secret, was always mysterious and avoiding Henry.
"If I just kiss her, just once, it should be fine, right?"
Prince Henry looked left and right, finding no one else in the small room—only two little hamsters gnawing on fruit on the windowsill, and the door ajar with just a tiny crack—and immediately mustered his courage.
He quietly opened the crystal coffin, leaned down, and was about to kiss the Queen's lips.
"Oh my god, are you a necrophiliac?" A voice suddenly emerged from behind him.
"Absolutely, otherwise why would he be interested in a dead person!" The second voice followed.
"See, I won the bet, I told you he'd kiss her! And you didn't believe me." The fourth voice said.
"Alright, I lost, I'll do the chores today." The fifth voice said.
"That's outrageous!" "Humans' interests are truly beyond our imagination!"
The sixth and seventh voices exclaimed together.
The Prince turned around in fright, only to find all the dwarves squeezed in the doorway, secretly observing him!
"Ah ah ah ah! You scared me to death!"
Clang.
The Prince fell to the ground in a panic, his entire body hitting the crystal coffin, then he covered his face and cried bitterly:
"It's over, it's over, now I can't face anyone!"
"From now on, people will say that the Second Prince of Summer Kingdom is a necrophiliac!"
Prince Henry burst into tears.
The attendants all came to comfort the poor Prince.
"There, there, Prince Henry, it's alright. For the sake of your brother Eric, Aurora and I won't say anything." Great Magician Rhine, who had appeared behind Prince Henry at some point, comforted the Prince.
"You, are you really Eric's biological brother? Why is he so much more sensible than you?" Aurora, who had appeared with Great Magician Rhine at some point, rubbed her forehead and muttered.
—At this point, the magic of the "Wrong Love" perfume on Aurora had already been dispelled by Great Magician Rhine. So, in everyone's eyes, she had returned to her original appearance.
"Ah ah ah ah!" Prince Henry almost fainted when he saw the two children appear behind him.
"Great Magician Rhine? And his pretty attendant... When did you two appear?"
Great Magician Rhine spread his hands and shrugged:
"I've been watching you since you entered the room. You remember those two little hamsters on the windowsill, right? That was Aurora and me, transformed."
"Then you also saw me kissing the corpse? Ah ah ah ah ah ah! My reputation, my life, everything is ruined!"
Prince Henry's vision went black, and he fainted.
Watching Prince Henry having just experienced a social death, Great Magician Rhine couldn't help but laugh out loud.
He had been wondering how Prince Henry, the Prince Charming, would participate in this story when Snow White was not harmed at all, and fate ultimately chose this hilarious way.
"Waking the princess with a kiss. This story is too familiar. If you weren't going to live less than a hundred years from now, I'd even suspect that, according to the original plot, Sleeping Beauty Aurora was also awakened by you after she fell asleep." Great Magician Rhine muttered to himself.
Just then, the crystal coffin suddenly trembled twice.
"Huh? I think I just had a nap. What happened?" The Queen rubbed her forehead, as if waking from a dream, her head groggy, and she sat up in the crystal coffin.
Just now, because Prince Henry fell and hit the crystal coffin, the poisoned apple stuck in the Queen's throat was also spat out by her!
The Queen, just waking from a long dream, had fragmented memories, vaguely remembering that she had disguised herself as an old peddler, crossed mountains, and came to this forest.
"What happened after that? My head hurts so much?"
The Queen turned her head and immediately saw Great Magician Rhine and Aurora looking at her, and her head instantly felt as if it had been doused with cold water.
"Wait, I think I was trying to harm them before? But I failed, my magic was completely useless..."
"My disguise magic is gone? I'm in my original Queen form now! Oh no, my identity is about to be exposed, and these two children must be important figures!"
Confused thoughts flooded her mind, and the Queen quickly covered her face, not wanting Prince Henry, the attendants, and the dwarves to realize she was the Queen of White Kingdom.
—This was actually useless; Prince Henry and the dwarves had been looking at the Queen for who knows how long while she was unconscious, they would recognize her even if she was burned to ashes. However, the newly awakened Queen probably couldn't think about such complex issues.
Then, the Queen climbed out of the crystal coffin, and under the astonished gazes of everyone, stumbled out of the small wooden house, ran into the forest, and headed towards the direction of the royal city.
"Who was that woman who just ran out?" In the living room, one of the Prince's attendants scratched his head, "She looks a bit like the Queen of White Kingdom in the portrait."
"Is it really her? Or is it just someone who looks like her?" Another attendant asked.
"I heard that the Queen of White Kingdom is working hard to govern, so she must have come to observe the people's lives, right? And fell asleep in the house when she got tired." The first attendant guessed.
The two attendants in the living room both felt that this was the most reasonable guess!
"I never expected the Queen of White Kingdom to be so close to the people," the first attendant sighed, "She probably ran off in a hurry during her incognito visit because she didn't want us to discover her true identity!"
Another attendant emphasized:
"Actually, our Prince Henry is also very close to the common people. Uh, it's just that his method is a bit different..."
"Forget about Prince..."
"Shh, shh, shh... Quiet down, don't let Prince hear!"
As the Queen ran out, Great Magician Rhine and Aurora followed her.
So, in the house, only Prince Henry was left, staring blankly out the door.
"Uh, so the person in that crystal coffin was alive!"
Prince Henry said blankly.
"So she was just sleeping in the crystal coffin? What a peculiar hobby..."
The next moment, this noble Second Prince suddenly remembered something particularly terrifying and screamed.
Now it was even worse; there was one more person who knew he was the "Prince who kissed a female corpse, a necrophiliac."
And this time, it was the "corpse" herself!
"It's over. She must have been frightened by my actions, that's why she ran out so hastily. My life, my reputation, everything is ruined!"
Prince Henry clutched his chest, his vision went black, and he passed out.
"Your Highness, Your Highness, are you alright?"
The attendants helped the unconscious Prince up, placed a bottle of smelling salts in front of his nose, and woke him.
Prince Henry barely opened his eyes, regaining a little sanity, and asked the attendant beside him:
"The woman who just ran out clearly had a well-maintained face, so she's probably not a commoner. She must be a minor noble from White Kingdom, or from a wealthy family. Do you know who she might be?"
Prince Henry planned to immediately find that woman's family once he returned to the city and spend some money to settle things.
He absolutely could not let that woman spread the word that "Prince Henry of the neighboring kingdom secretly kissed me while I was asleep."
This concerned not only himself but also the reputation of the entire Summer Kingdom!
"Yes, yes, yes, there's also this last method. As long as I'm willing to spend some money to settle it, everything should be fine." Henry comforted himself inwardly, forcibly calming his chaotic thoughts.
The few attendants looked at each other and replied:
"She should be the Queen of White Kingdom, the protagonist of White Kingdom's great reform. Just now, she must have been tired from her incognito visit and took a nap in the room."
After hearing the attendants' reply, Prince Henry's vision went black again, and he fainted once more.
"Oh no, Prince has fainted again. Quick, save him!" The attendants exclaimed.
...
The Queen ran out of the small wooden house and into the forest.
She put her fingers to her lips and whistled.
Soon, a flying broomstick flew over by itself, respectfully hovering in mid-air, waiting for its master to mount it.
The Queen mounted the flying broomstick and commanded it:
"Fly towards the royal city, I need to return to the palace as quickly as possible."
The Queen didn't know how long she had been unconscious, but judging from the length of her dream, the time certainly wouldn't be short.
"I've been missing for so long, the King must be very worried about me, he must have sent out the entire national army to find me, right?"
"What about the kingdom? No resistance organizations have started an uprising in my absence, have they?"
"Will the magic mirror be heartbroken by my disappearance?"
"Alas, if I don't ask that mirror questions, that mirror sees nothing at all and doesn't know how I disappeared..."
Riding on the flying broomstick, the Queen's thoughts raced, letting the strong wind tug at her black hair, wishing she could reach the royal city in the next second.
"Unfortunately, I don't have the silver shoe of the Slave Master, so I can't reach the royal city in just one step; it will take at least several hours of flying... Wait, I have an idea!"
The Queen stopped flying and landed again in a clearing in the forest.
"Hahahaha, anyway, the Slave Master can reach any place in the world within three steps. If I just have the Slave Master come to me, send me to the palace, and then have her go back, wouldn't that solve everything?"
"I'm truly a genius!"
"It's just a few extra steps, the Slave Master certainly wouldn't mind, right?"
The Queen pulled a compact mirror from her pocket and cast magic on its surface, contacting the Eastern Witch, code-named Slave Master.
"Slave Master, are you free now? Come to me, help me with a small favor. Hurry up, the faster the better!"
On the compact mirror, ripples spread out, revealing the Eastern Witch with a bewildered expression.
I was just thinking of killing you!
And you dare to come looking for me?