The Wizard of Fairy Tale World

Chapter 83: The Prince Becomes a Merman

Rhine’s voice was calm, carrying an unshakable confidence that made people trust him unconditionally.

“Why?” Ariel couldn’t understand his words, but she chose to believe in him. “Why does Rhine say I’ll be fine? And why is he whispering?”

“Teacher!” Aurora anxiously turned to Rhine. “I’m completely lost right now—please help us!”

Rhine spoke with the same composed tone:

“At the time, I was experimenting—seeing if I could successfully brew a potion that could transform human legs into a fishtail. Then, out of nowhere, I received a prophecy… Fate is unpredictable like that. Sometimes, it just throws you a random hint…”

Mirror World, Inside the Replicated Temple

Festive music filled the air. Behind the bride and groom, countless oil lamps flickered warmly, like stars twinkling in the night sky.

The gathered guests looked toward the prince and princess at the altar, offering their sincere blessings.

—The wedding had been so rushed that many who should have witnessed the union of the prince and princess hadn’t even had time to arrive. Most of those present were musicians playing ceremonial tunes, the temple priest officiating the ceremony, and a handful of noble guests whom the Old Witch had gathered to fill the seats.

“The next step is for the bride and groom to drink the celebratory wine,” the priest announced.

Eric remained in a daze, his mind still reeling from the loss of his memories. He was operating purely on instinct. He poured the brown liquid into his cup and drank it down in one gulp.

“Wait a moment, Eric.” The little princess suddenly noticed something amiss and kindly pointed it out. “I think you took the wrong drink.”

“The… wrong drink…” Eric mumbled, confused.

His gaze fell onto the empty bottle on the table.

That bottle had originally contained the brown potion. Now, it was completely empty.

He didn’t remember who had given it to him, but the sight of the bottle filled him with an inexplicable sense of warmth and familiarity.

“If something happens to me, I should drink this…” The thought arose from deep within his instincts, and it was precisely this gut feeling that had compelled him to down the potion.

Suddenly, Eric lost his balance and collapsed onto the ground.

“Ah!”

“Help!”

“What’s happening to Prince Eric?”

Panicked cries filled the temple.

Even the priest, who had been reciting blessings, turned pale with fright.

Noticing the stunned expressions around her, the little princess of Enderland also gasped in horror. Eric, too, was momentarily stunned before lowering his gaze toward his own body.

His legs were gone.

In their place was a long, shimmering fishtail.

He now looked exactly like the merfolk of legend.

“A monster! A monster!”

“A mermaid? Why did Prince Eric turn into a mermaid?”

“Oh my god, what is happening?”

The musicians stopped playing, and the bridesmaids and groomsmen cowered in the corners. The crowd stared at the prince—now a creature of the sea—with wide, terrified eyes.

Only the little princess of Enderland remained standing where she was. Though her eyes were filled with shock, the warmth in her gaze never faded.

“Eric… what’s going on with you?” she murmured. “You… you must be hiding something, aren’t you?”

Eric’s body trembled. His hands clutched his fishtail, fingers running over the smooth scales—confirming that it was, indeed, his own tail.

He stared at it in a daze, completely frozen.

Then, as his vision blurred and the world seemed to be swallowed by a misty haze, Eric realized something.

Tears were overflowing from his eyes.

He remembered.

He remembered everything.

Just like that, all the forgotten memories rushed back to him.

The way people on land had once looked at her and her kind.

He remembered another figure—another person who had once had the same fishtail as his.

He remembered the scene he had once glimpsed in a crystal ball—the moment she had braved the raging sea to save him, dodging shattered planks and broken masts, heedless of the danger to herself.

He remembered how she had ventured deep into the Coral Forest, begging the Sea Hag for a potion that would give her legs so she could meet him on land.

He remembered the way he had once held her hand, walking through the palace halls, as every passerby marveled at the grace in her steps—steps that had once been a tail.

Every memory, once buried, now surfaced.

Because those memories weren’t like footprints on the shore, washed away with each passing tide.

They were carved into the unyielding stone—bittersweet, unforgettable.

“Ariel! My Ariel!”

Eric cried out, his voice raw.

“Where is Ariel? Where am I? Why am I here?”

Panic and confusion surged through him as he glanced frantically around.

The past hour flooded his mind—especially this absurd and hastily arranged wedding. It was all like a terrible nightmare.

Hearing Eric call out a stranger’s name, the little princess pieced together the clues—the prince’s strange behavior, his inconsistent words—and a realization struck her.

Her eyes stung.

“I remember now! I understand everything!” Eric shouted. “I was cursed! Someone made me forget the one I love—to force me into this wedding!”

Eric struggled to move, awkwardly dragging his unfamiliar, uncooperative fishtail across the floor.

Half in self-mockery, half in apology, he turned to the little princess of Enderland and said:

“I’m sorry. As I told you before, the one I love… is another girl. The girl who once saved me. She is a mermaid.”

“She drank a potion that split her tail into legs, leaving behind everything she knew, just so she could meet me on land.”

“And so we could stay together, we sought out a great magician and begged him to craft a potion that would turn us both into merfolk—so we could return to the sea together.”

The little princess was stunned.

The sheer weight of Eric’s words—his brief but earth-shattering confession—left her completely unable to process it.

It sounded like something out of a fairy tale.

No… even more fantastical than a fairy tale.

She muttered, as if in a daze:

“So that’s it… The witch must have laced your drink with a potion to cloud your mind and memory.”

Rushing forward, she knelt beside the newly transformed prince, steadying his unbalanced body. Guilt filled her gaze as she met his dark eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Eric. I truly didn’t know. I never would have let you drink that potion if I had.”

Eric clenched his fists, anger boiling in his chest.

“A deception. This entire thing was a massive deception.” His voice trembled with fury. “They would rather rewrite my memories than let us be together. There must be some deeper scheme behind all of this!”

He tried to stand, but without legs, the attempt was futile.

And in that moment, another realization struck him.

When Ariel first came to land, she must have struggled the same way.

That’s why, after she had dragged his unconscious body to shore, she could only watch him from the waves—unable to step onto land herself.

The sea and the land… a chasm that separated humans and merfolk.

The little princess bit her lip, her expression complicated.

I can’t stay here any longer.

We have to leave. We have to put an end to this ridiculous farce of a wedding!

Gritting his teeth, Eric began to claw at the floor, inching his way toward the temple doors.

At the same time, chaos erupted around them.

No one was paying attention to his words anymore.

They were too busy panicking.

Someone tried to open the temple doors—to escape.

But no matter how hard they pulled, the doors remained tightly shut.

“This isn’t right! The doors won’t open!”

“We’re trapped inside!”

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