The Wizard of Fairy Tale World

Chapter 28: The Princess Is Kidnapped, and the Kidnapper Is in Danger

The soldier acted on his idea immediately. He pulled out the tinderbox and struck it to create sparks.

With a whoosh, the dog with saucer-sized eyes leapt out at once.

The soldier commanded the dog,

"I want to see the kingdom's princess. Can you bring her to me?"

The big dog nodded obediently and dashed out the door. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared into the deep darkness of the night.

Seeing that the dog had not refused his command, the soldier felt both nervous and excited.

"Hahaha! That old witch’s treasure is truly incredible! Killing her and taking this tinderbox was absolutely the right decision."

However, just seconds later, the soldier suddenly realized something.

"But isn’t the palace supposed to be to the right? Turning left would lead out of the city! The direction is completely wrong."

"That stupid dog must’ve gone the wrong way!"

"Animals are animals after all. Not exactly the brightest."

The soldier covered his face, irritated.

Who knew what the dog might bring back, heading in the wrong direction like that?

...

In a cottage outside the capital city, two witches were having a conversation.

"Something’s wrong. Aurora’s gone! She was just in bed earlier. Do you know what happened?"

"I don’t know! I was sleeping like a log."

According to their rotation, the twelve witches would take turns in pairs assisting Sage Rhine in caring for Aurora, while the other ten were free to go about their own business. The shifts rotated every few days. Ŗ₳₦ỗ𐌱Ё𝙎

This time, it happened to be their turn. And now, tonight of all nights, Aurora had vanished mysteriously!

The two witches hurriedly knocked on Rhine’s door, seeking the help of the kingdom’s mighty sage. They hoped he could use Prophecy Magic to locate Aurora’s whereabouts.

"Lord Rhine! Lord Rhine! Aurora is missing!"

"I got up in the middle of the night to quietly check on her, and she was gone!"

However, when they pushed open Rhine’s door, they found only an empty room, with the cold night wind whistling through the open window.

"Oh no, Lord Rhine is missing too!"

The two witches clung to each other in panic.

"I heard there’s been a gang of child traffickers operating nearby. Could it be that the princess has been kidnapped?" The first witch was extremely anxious and voiced her fear.

"If the princess has been kidnapped by traffickers, that would be very dangerous," the second witch said, looking worriedly out into the thick darkness of the night.

"Wait, am I hearing this correctly? You’re saying Aurora is in danger?" The first witch turned her head abruptly, her expression full of disbelief.

Did she realize what she was saying? Aurora, who was the danger, being in danger?

"Of course not!" the second witch forcefully corrected her, "What I mean is, the kidnapper is the one in danger!"

"Oh, that makes sense." The first witch nodded in agreement.

What kind of human trafficker could be so unfortunate as to kidnap Princess Aurora, of all people?

After quickly discussing their options, the two witches realized there was another problem.

"Wait… did this kidnapper also take Lord Rhine along with her?"

"Then the kidnapper is in even greater danger!"

"Exactly. We’d better find them quickly. Otherwise, who knows what might happen!"

...

To the soldier’s surprise, after waiting for a while, the dog actually returned with a girl on its back.

The dog carried a golden-haired girl who appeared to be fast asleep.

She was dressed in plain clothes indistinguishable from those of a commoner, yet her beauty was otherworldly, like a vision from a dream.

The soldier took one look at her serene sleeping face and felt as though his very soul was being drawn in, as though his heart had been cleansed.

"My goodness! Anyone can tell at a glance that she’s a genuine princess! The dog actually brought back the kingdom’s princess! I thought it had gone the wrong way."

The soldier was thrilled.

Being a man through and through, he glanced around to confirm that it was the dead of night, and no one was around. Seeing that the princess was still sound asleep, he leaned in, intending to steal a kiss before she woke up.

"What are you doing? Who are you?"

Suddenly, Aurora opened her eyes. She raised her hand to block the soldier’s indecent advance and gently pushed him away, her gaze sharp with vigilance and hostility.

It turned out that Aurora had woken up midway through the journey.

But out of curiosity about where the dog was taking her, she had pretended to stay asleep, keeping her eyes barely cracked open to observe.

The soldier, flustered but not embarrassed, greeted Aurora with a gentlemanly bow:

"Oh, beautiful princess, good evening."

He showed no fear over his earlier inappropriate attempt, as though it had never happened.

The soldier believed that Aurora, having been locked away in the deepest part of the palace her whole life, likely had no knowledge of men—her father, the King, being the only exception—and perhaps had barely even seen other people.

He was confident that he was one of the very few living individuals the princess had ever encountered.

The soldier relished the thought of such innocence, believing it would make it easy for him to "play the role" of her life mentor, teaching her about human relationships and the workings of the world.

——For a princess locked away in isolation, naive and untouched by the world, anyone could position themselves as her "mentor."

Aurora frowned slightly, trying to assess if "beautiful princess" was just a flirtatious pick-up line.

"I don’t know you, so there’s no need to address me with such nauseating titles."

Aurora climbed off the dog’s back, standing alert with sharp green eyes brimming with cold vigilance.

Her voice was extraordinarily beautiful, like the song of a nightingale or even heavenly music, yet her piercing gaze made the soldier’s spine tingle.

For a moment, the soldier doubted whether the dog had truly brought back the kingdom’s princess.

——He was certain a princess shouldn’t have such a gaze; it didn’t align with what he’d imagined.

"Whether she’s the real princess or not doesn’t matter," he thought. "Even if she is the princess, she couldn’t possibly be more captivating than the girl standing before me."

The soldier had already fallen hopelessly in love with the golden-haired girl from the moment he laid eyes on her.

The only flaw was that she seemed far too young—no more than twelve years old. But that didn’t matter to him; he could wait a few years before arranging their wedding.

"Answer me. Who are you? Why did you bring me here?" Aurora demanded sharply.

She glanced around and quickly identified her location as an inn within the capital city.

The dog with saucer-sized eyes now lay respectfully beside the soldier.

Unfortunately, having been taken while she slept, her sword and armor weren’t with her… Fighting with fists and kicks was possible, but not as effective. She couldn’t guarantee defeating a lion or tiger in one blow, let alone…

Aurora’s sharp gaze scanned the room and landed on the sword hanging on the wall.

——It was the same sword that had pierced through Grandma Rosa’s chest.

The soldier noticed her eyes darting around the room, and his heart pounded wildly, nearly leaping out of his chest.

"Oh, what a beautiful girl! Even the way she curiously glances around is breathtakingly lovely!"

"She’s examining my room. Good thing I’m staying in the inn’s most luxurious suite now. If she truly is a princess, I wonder how this compares to the palace she used to live in? Even if it doesn’t measure up, this place is surely new to her. For a princess, it must be quite refreshing."

The soldier straightened his posture and composed himself, ready to play the part of an exceptional mentor. He adjusted his tone and stance to appear as a proper gentleman.

From the moment he ordered the dog to fetch the princess, the soldier had prepared for the possibility of her waking up. He had already planned what to say to her.

"Oh, beautiful girl, let me share a secret with you: this kingdom has at most six or seven years left before its destruction!

"A horrifying disaster will descend in a few years. When it does, everyone—the King, the Queen, the noble lords, even the farmers in their fields—will perish!

"And I… I am your hero, here to save you!

"My magical dogs have incredible powers and can protect us. We can leave this kingdom together and hold a grand wedding in another land!"

...

In the vacant room next door, Rhine held a Silver Mirror, observing the events in the adjacent room through the use of Prophecy Magic. His eyes suddenly froze as he heard the soldier’s words.

He hadn’t expected the soldier to bring up this particular topic.

This was a plotline absent from the original fairy tale.

Without a doubt, the "disaster that will destroy the kingdom" mentioned by the soldier referred to the curse laid by Black Witch Maleficent.

That information should have been sealed off. Yet, somehow, the soldier knew about it.

Indeed, in this blended magical world, Rhine’s intervention had altered the course of fate, causing many details to shift. It was clear he couldn’t fully rely on his foreknowledge as a transmigrator... Rhine collected his thoughts and continued to watch the scene in the Silver Mirror.

——Clearly, Rhine hadn’t been "kidnapped by traffickers."

After Grandma Rosa’s injury, Rhine had suspected that, just like in the original story, the soldier would use the dog to abduct the princess from the palace.

In preparation, Rhine had secretly contacted the King to reinforce the palace’s defenses, setting a trap to recover the tinderbox.

What was surprising, however, was that the magical dog summoned by the tinderbox possessed an unusual sense of awareness. Realizing the "real princess" wasn’t in the palace, it ran to the small town outside the capital and took Aurora instead.

Even Aurora herself didn’t know she was a princess!

Of course, Rhine had considered the possibility that the dog might seek out the real Aurora and had prepared for it in advance.

As the dog kidnapped Aurora, Rhine followed closely behind, arriving at the soldier’s inn and observing the situation in secret.

"What bad luck for him, kidnapping Aurora of all people," Rhine thought, suppressing a smirk as he glanced at the arrogant soldier in the mirror.

After confirming with Grandma Rosa, Rhine knew that the magical creatures summoned by the tinderbox were formidable monsters to ordinary people. But to Princess Aurora, with her superhuman strength and invulnerability, they were no more threatening than toy Chihuahuas!