Chapter 97: Seven Witches

Rhine ignored the incident of Prince Henry planning to hold a ball. In the room, he and Aurora continued to organize the information provided by the Sea Witch and listed the important items on paper one by one.

"According to the Sea Hag's intuitive impression, even among the Witches' Coven, the black witch Maleficent's attainments in black magic are definitely among the best." Aurora breathed a sigh of relief.

"It may also be that she is more flamboyant. That's the character of the black witch." Rhine said, "It's better to be cautious."

The two of them listed the information of each member of the Witch Society on paper:

"There are seven members in the Witch Society."

"Except for the confirmed Sea Hag and the Black Witch Maleficent, the other five members have all hidden their real identities. When addressing each other, they only use nicknames and aliases."

"Unknown Witch No. 1, nicknamed [Slave Master]. She seems to have a magic item that can move around, and she always appears in different places on the continent."

"Sometimes, some members of the Witch Society need to meet in person, and she goes around to gather them."

"Unknown Witch No. 2, everyone calls her the Middle Eastern Witch. Currently, we only know that she lives in the Middle Eastern countries and possesses powerful magic that can cover the entire country. In the daily exchanges of black magic in the Witch Association, she has shared many powerful spells."

"Alas, sharing and exchanging black magic with each other. Such an organization is simply gathering all the villains together to raise poison. God knows what they will raise!"

"Unknown witch number three, nicknamed [Queen]."

"As the name implies, she seems to be the queen of a certain country. Relying on some kind of magic, the 'queen' made the king of that country extremely infatuated with her and almost obeyed his orders. She controlled the country in disguise and barely met the requirements for joining the Witch Association."

"Unknown witch number four, nicknamed [Red Heart], has a very crazy and extreme temperament. No one knows where she lives, and she rarely meets other people in reality. The sea hag has never communicated with her directly, so there is a lack of useful information."

"Unknown witch number five, no common nickname, no information."

"In the memory of the Sea Hag, she hardly ever spoke. However, when others mentioned her, they were quite respectful to her and said that she was the founder and president of the Witch Association!"

"These five witches, plus the Sea Hag and the Black Witch Maleficent, are all the current members of the Witch Coven!"

Aurora felt a bit overwhelmed as she looked at the sorted information.

"This information is totally insufficient. This little information is not enough to infer the true identities of these witches."

Rhine looked at the information on the white paper and felt familiar with some of the information, but he couldn't be really sure.

Except... that one! He set his eyes on the entry marked under the witch nicknamed "Queen" on the white paper.

"Similar to the situation of the sea hag, the 'Queen' is also a marginal member. She doesn't seem to have mastered many powerful dark arts, and she is not keen on magic at all."

"The only reason she was able to stay in this organization for so long and not be kicked out is because she holds a magic mirror that knows almost everything."

"Sometimes, when other members of the Witch Society encounter problems, they will look for her and ask her to help ask the magic mirror. Because the magic mirror is so useful, everyone is reluctant to part with it."

Queen, the magic mirror that knows everything...it looks too familiar, Rhine thought.

As a visitor from outside this world, he was all too familiar with this story.

Aren't you Snow White's stepmother? So you are just a tool to answer questions in this organization! Rhine pushed the stack of information aside and read the part dedicated to the black witch Maleficent.

That is the real enemy Aurora has to face!

"The black witch Maleficent is good at curses and plant-related black magic... No wonder her curse is to make the kingdom full of thorns and thistles."

"Maleficent can't kill her even with a sneak attack. It will only automatically trigger her magic to transform into a dragon."

"Her dragon scales are indestructible. External blows and most magic will only cause a little disturbance to her, but not fatal. Unless there is a weapon sharp enough to pierce her dragon scales and a powerful warrior with strength that matches her, she is immortal."

"The black witch Maleficent has a spooky Gothic castle with some dark monster minions."

"She would use magic to return to the castle every one or two months, and would generally leave within a week."

"If you are ready to fight her, you can wait in her castle in advance and ambush her to kill her!"

"As for the location of the castle..."

Aurora examined the world map.

"That's weird. Isn't this coordinate in the deep desert? There's no one there. Could it be that the sea witch got the information wrong?"

The blonde girl was puzzled and pointed to a place on the map.

It is a large desert to the east of the West Asia Kingdom and the Rose Kingdom, close to the edge of the western continent and quite close to the Middle Eastern countries.

Could it be that someone still built a castle in the middle of the desert? A country in the middle of the desert? Rhine looked at the location marked on the map and suddenly felt inexplicably familiar.

He remembered that 10 years ago, the hot air balloon that Oz rode was heading in this direction! In The Wizard of Oz, Oz was surrounded by deserts, so it was unknown! "That means the witch Maleficent's castle was built in Oz!"

Rhine made some guesses.

"Then, next week we will say goodbye to Prince Eric and Ariel, leave the Kingdom of West Asia, and travel to the desert marked as a no-man's land on the map!"

And just like that, Rhine and Aurora determined the next destination of their journey.

"If that's really where the Land of Oz is, then I can go and meet Oz in the Emerald City."

"After being away from his homeland for 10 years, Oz will be very excited to see me, the magician of Rose Kingdom, again, right?"

When Rhine thought of this interesting scene, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

Just at this moment, the two heard a gentle knock on the door.

Rhine snapped his fingers and the door handle opened by itself.

Standing outside the door was Ariel, who had become the prince's new wife.

"What's up, Ariel?"

Ariel said sheepishly:

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"Mage Rhine, I heard that you are going to leave the Kingdom of West Asia next week. I wish you a safe journey! "Also, although I am very sorry, before I leave, can I ask you for a small favor... Well, it doesn't matter if you don't help me. The favor that the Sea Country and I owe you is already unpaid."

"It doesn't matter. Go ahead." Rhine said.

"As you know, Prince Eric and I got married some time ago, and the West Asian Kingdom and the Sea Kingdom will also form an alliance. The relevant matters and agreements are being prepared, and I don't know much about this."

Rhine nodded and motioned for Ariel to continue.

Currently, the West Asian kingdom’s knowledge and understanding of mermaids is still mainly limited to members of the royal family and some princes and nobles.

However, the king has already begun to increase publicity throughout the country, striving to completely eliminate the prejudice of the people against mermaids within half a year. In many places in the kingdom, under the leadership of the king, merchant ships, fishermen and mermaids have begun preliminary cooperation. It is only a matter of time before humans and mermaids completely reconcile.

This doesn't seem to be a problem, right?

Ariel continued:

“I heard from my father that in the Kingdom of the Sea, many mermaids were extremely surprised when they learned that we were about to form an alliance with humans.

"Now, under the instruction of my father, the secret of the immortal soul has gradually been revealed in the Sea Kingdom. Most of the people in the Sea Kingdom are very happy after hearing about the alliance, knowing that human sailors will no longer attack mermaids, that the Sea Kingdom can also obtain handicrafts made by humans on land, and that they will have the opportunity to obtain an immortal soul.

"Of course, there are a small number of people in the Sea Country who don't understand this at all. They think that the story of Prince Eric and I falling in love and getting married is just an extreme case, and it is almost impossible to replicate it.

"They believe that the vast majority of humans and mermen can never be together! They don't want to form an alliance with humans, nor do they think they can imitate me and gain an immortal soul because of this cross-species friendship between the two countries."

Rhine was not surprised at all: "Any policy will have opponents. So how does His Majesty the Sea King plan to deal with it?"

Ariel expressed Aquaman’s thoughts: “My father said that a story about a human and a mermaid falling in love might not be enough.

“If there are more examples of humans and mermaids successfully falling in love and getting married, the subsequent alliance will surely gain more support from the people of the Sea Nation.

“It just so happens that I recently learned from my sisters that my playmate in the sea has been in love with a human girl for several years.

"His name is Momo, and he's a mermaid boy. But he doesn't have a noble status like me, and he's just a commoner. After learning about my deeds, he was greatly encouraged, and he also hopes to be with that human girl."

As Ariel spoke, her expression changed a lot, and she was obviously very concerned about her childhood playmate. She hoped from the bottom of her heart that her playmate could also gain human love like her.

No wonder. After all, the Kingdom of West Asia is just a foreign country to Ariel. The Kingdom of the Sea is her hometown and carries her memories... Rhine thought.

"Indeed. For most people, the beautiful story of the prince and princess can only exist in storybooks." Rhine said meaningfully, "If a commoner from the Sea Kingdom and a commoner on Earth could be together as successfully as the prince and princess in the story, it would be very inspiring."

The little magician stood up from the stool:

"Take me to see your merman companion."

…

at the same time.

A piece of breaking news is spreading in the West Asian Kingdom.

"Have you heard? Prince Eric's brother, the handsome Prince Henry, has returned home and is hosting a grand ball."

"I heard that the girl who performs best at the ball has a chance to be chosen as the prince's fiancée!"

"Oh my god, I really want to go to this dance!"

(End of this chapter)