"Selling things out here in the wilderness is too suspicious," Aurora thought. "Besides, it's not something I need. It's not a necessity, so why should I buy it?"
The Queen grew anxious.
What's wrong with this girl?
Can't you be less vigilant?
Can't you have more childlike curiosity?
The Queen nervously tapped on the window, making a crisp sound.
"Just try it. Little girl, since you're so beautiful and charming, I'll give you a ribbon for free."
"Giving it away for free makes it even more suspicious…" Aurora thought, narrowing her eyes, her gaze full of suspicion as she sized up the old woman disguised as the Queen.
Inside the house, Rhine, hearing their conversation, nearly burst out laughing.
After quietly performing a divination, his strange sense of humor surfaced, and he came up with a new idea.
"It's fine. I'll buy a ribbon and try it."
Rhine opened the window, spent some copper coins, bought the ribbon from the old woman, and personally tied it around Aurora's neck.
When the Queen saw this scene, she was so excited she almost jumped, barely managing to suppress the joy on her face.
"Excellent, what a foolish child. You've helped me immensely."
"The ribbon is tied around Aurora's neck; it's going to strangle her!"
"Once this girl named Aurora dies, I'll be the most beautiful person in the kingdom again!"
The Queen laughed wildly in her heart.
However, she waited patiently for a while, only to discover with regret:
Nothing happened.
The blonde girl and the silver-haired boy were still chatting and laughing, showing no signs of being affected at all.
"What's going on?" The Queen was bewildered, muttering to herself, "Did the magic go wrong?"
She carefully examined the ribbon around Aurora's neck—according to the magic she set, the moment the ribbon wrapped around the neck, it would immediately tighten and choke the girl to death.
But the ribbon was currently tied neatly around Aurora's slender neck, and it did seem a little tighter than before.
But that was all.
There was no effect of strangling someone to death, and not even the girl's skin showed any signs of indenting due to the tightening.
The Queen cursed inwardly:
"Damn it, the magic on the ribbon must not have triggered properly! Ugh, I haven't practiced magic in too long; my spells are rusty."
"It's fine, I still have one last trick!"
She placed a large basket of plump apples in front of the window again:
"Little girl, thank you for buying my ribbon. Would you like to try an apple?"
Aurora warily observed the old woman selling things in the wilderness:
"You don't just sell ribbons and combs? You even sell apples? This is too random, isn't it? And you say you sell miscellaneous goods, but besides a few ribbons, a comb, and a basket of apples, you don't have anything else here. Isn't that too strange?"
The Queen lowered her head, explaining somewhat unconvincingly:
"Uh, everything else sold out."
Before Aurora could ask, "Who exactly did you sell to in this forest?", the Queen handed an apple through the window:
"Come on, try it. I just picked this apple; it's big and plump, fresh and juicy. Since you bought my ribbon, I'll give you an apple for free."
Aurora looked at the apple skeptically, then glanced at Rhine, and after receiving a nod from him, finally took the apple and bit into it.
"She ate it, she ate it!"
The Queen was thrilled inside, almost shouting with joy.
She was certain that Aurora had eaten the outer side of the apple.
The poisoned side!
"Just a few seconds, and she'll be dead from the poison," the Queen thought, staring at Aurora's face.
Suddenly, Aurora frowned, her body trembling violently.
"This apple…"
"Did it work?" The Queen took a deep breath, her heart filled with joy.
"It's so sour," Aurora finished her sentence.
"Uh…" The Queen fell silent.
"Perhaps the poison is working slower than I thought?" She waited patiently for a full minute or two, but still nothing happened.
"Although it's very sour, thank you for the apple, old woman." Aurora put down the apple she had taken a few bites from, and again looked suspiciously at the Queen who remained standing there. "So, is there anything else? Why are you still staring at me?"
The Queen's forehead was already covered in sweat.
"That's not right; that's a terrible poison that could make even an elephant faint."
"How could it have no effect?"
"How could there be no reaction at all?"
She diligently wiped the sweat from her forehead.
"Old woman, it's almost winter now, and the weather is quite cold. Why are you sweating so much?" Rhine asked with concern.
"Perhaps… uh… I've been out and about for too long. Haha, hahahaha," the old woman disguised as the Queen laughed awkwardly.
"Could it be that I forgot to poison one of the apples? Try another one?"
As soon as the Queen thought this, she saw Rhine take out copper coins:
"Give me a few more apples. I want to see if every single one is sour."
The Queen was overjoyed, her favorability towards this silver-haired boy skyrocketing!
"Oh my goodness. You've helped me immensely again; it's good to have an ignorant child like you," the Queen thought.
She couldn't help but mutter inwardly:
"That little girl named Aurora, she looks so innocent and harmless, yet her vigilance is so high, making it inconvenient for me to kill someone."
"How wonderful it would be if she could be as simple and pure-hearted as this silver-haired boy!"
Rhine bought a few more apples, grabbed one of them, and took two big bites—and indeed, he bit into the poisoned side.
"Aurora, this apple tastes really good. It's not only sweet but also fresh and juicy. It seems only the one you ate was sour." Rhine praised the apple in his hand, taking several more big bites, his expression utterly content.
"Is that so?" Aurora was skeptical, but also picked up an apple and took a bite. "Hmm, this one is indeed pretty good."
The two began discussing the apple's taste, with Rhine praising its flavor profusely, then turning to the Queen outside the window:
"Old woman, your apples are really good quality. Sell me the whole basket!"
The Queen watched the two children chatting and laughing, her eyes almost rolling out of their sockets.
What is going on?
Wait a minute, I'm selling poisoned apples, right?
How are both of you eating them with such gusto?
Looking at the Queen, who was dumbfounded like a stone statue, Rhine showed a puzzled expression:
"What's wrong, old woman? Won't you sell them to us? It's fine, I can pay more."
"Cough, cough." The Queen finally reacted. "Nothing, nothing."
At this moment, the Queen keenly realized:
Whether it was Rhine or Aurora, the three apples they had bitten into so far were all eaten from the side facing outwards in the basket—the poisoned side.
Could it be…
"It must be that I reversed the orientation of the apple basket!"
"That's right, Snow White moved my apples when I wasn't around; she must have reversed the direction of the apple basket!"
"What they ate was actually the non-poisonous side."
Rhine looked at the Queen, whose face was covered in sweat, and asked with concern:
"Old woman, it seems the weather outside is indeed hot; your face is all sweaty. How about I treat you to the rest of the apples? Give them to you to eat."
With that, Rhine handed an apple over.
"Here, old woman, have an apple too."
"Good, good." The Queen nodded nervously, seeing the boy's expectant face, knowing she had to eat it.
"I'll just eat the sour apple that girl threw away."
The Queen picked up the sour apple from the window, the one Aurora had taken a bite from and put down. She looked at the half-eaten side with a missing chunk, hesitating to take a bite.
"It should be fine. I must have mixed up the two sides of the apple. This side was bitten by that girl, so it must be non-poisonous!"
The Queen thought this, and then took two more bites from the side Aurora had already bitten.
"Ugh, this one is indeed quite sour," the Queen admitted.
The next moment, her eyes bulged, and her body trembled.
The poison had taken effect!
Thump.
The Queen fell to the ground.
Her disguise magic also dissipated, revealing her original beautiful appearance.
"What is this?" Aurora was startled.
"Problem solved. That was too easy."
Rhine smiled and briefly explained the whole situation to Aurora.
Earlier, the ribbon's strangling magic had indeed taken effect, but it could only strangle ordinary people to death; it had no effect on the invulnerable Aurora.
To be honest, Rhine couldn't be entirely sure about the boundaries of the blessing on Aurora that "man-made and natural weapons cannot harm," because whether a strangling ribbon counted as a "weapon" was a gray area for judgment. So he deliberately used divination to confirm it, ensuring foolproofness.
As for the curse placed by the Black Witch, that "a spindle will prick Aurora's finger and cause her to die," the reason it worked, Rhine suspected, was also because a spindle normally only functions as a weaving tool, placing it in a gray area for the blessing's judgment, making it ambiguous. However, the existence of the curse magic chose the unfavorable ruling, allowing the spindle to be effective. Of course, it's also possible that this curse simply couldn't be effective at all.
In any case, blessings in epics, fairy tales, and myths always prioritize plot needs, so there's no need to nitpick.
As for the poisoned apple, Rhine wasn't worried at all. Because after he and Aurora ate the precious plant roots given by the Sea Hag, they had long been immune to all poisons.
"Too bad," Rhine glanced at the Queen lying unconscious on the ground, thinking, "The Queen doesn't have an invulnerable body, so she wasn't so lucky after eating the poisoned apple."
Aurora walked over and observed the Queen on the ground:
"She's clearly still breathing; she hasn't truly died."
Rhine was not surprised by this.
He knew that, according to the original story, after Snow White ate the poisoned apple, she only fell into a coma. After Prince Charming kissed Snow White, she woke up.
Wait, how similar is that to Sleeping BeautyAurora's original fate!
There are quite a few similarities between fairy tales.
"So, how should we deal with this evil Queen?"
Aurora looked at the unconscious Queen on the ground, suddenly at a loss.
"Since she tried to kill us. How about we just kill her?"