With Mephisto, the primordial Fae, at his disposal, Faust naturally had to consult Him first and get whatever information He was willing to share.
"Much the same as what that imperial princess described. The Kingdom of Wintertide has indeed been bound by a dragon's curse, from ancient times to the present."
Faust replied in surprise, "Dragons can actually place curses? I always thought they just went straight for the killing."
From the limited records Prince Aurum had managed to read, evil dragons were essentially the embodiment of divine wrath. Even with power that could be called godlike by human standards, everything they did was brutally straightforward, aimed squarely at the annihilation of mankind.
Heaven nurtures all things to sustain mankind, yet mankind still blames Heaven for its cruelty.
Then comes a madman who sharpens his blade by night, while the emperor's star wavers and the war-star rises high.
The disloyal deserve death! The unfilial deserve death! The cruel deserve death! The unjust deserve death!
Those without rite, wisdom, or faith, all shall fall to the world-destroying dragon's blade!
Heaven nurtures all things to sustain mankind, yet mankind has not a single virtue to repay Heaven. Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!
That was roughly the vibe.
Generally speaking, they just killed cleanly and directly. Why bother going through the extra trouble of placing a curse?
"Perhaps it's because the only Fae you've known are Lord Lian and myself, and you assumed all Fae cherish the children of man. In truth, most do, but there are always exceptions. That one was..."
Mephisto's voice dropped to an unusually somber tone. It seemed to be one of the first times Faust had ever felt such deep, negative emotion radiating from a Fae.
"He delighted endlessly in tormenting the children of man, abusing them, twisting them, savoring their pain and despair, for no reason whatsoever other than the sheer fun of it. Whenever the opportunity arose, He would exhaust every conceivable means to toy with and humiliate them. A truly despicable creature, and it was only fitting that He eventually fell to dragonhood and was hunted down."
"Good riddance. Good riddance indeed."
Mephisto all but clapped. Faust had rarely seen Him hold such genuine contempt for anyone.
That must have been a truly wretched Fae.
Faust said, "I'm planning to take Seraphina's advice and attempt to conquer the Kingdom of Wintertide next. Any suggestions?"
"You've got quite the nerve. That's a dragon's curse we're talking about. There's only so much I can do for you."
"But I have to go. Nothing else matters, but Snow White... I absolutely cannot let that one slip by."
Faust deliberately stressed each syllable of "Snow White," making the implied meaning unmistakably clear.
With Mephisto's intelligence, He would certainly understand.
But even after a long pause, the Fae said nothing, simply staying silent.
Faust couldn't help himself. "Say something, Mephisto."
"What do you want me to say? Faust, I've told you many times, whether or not this is the Witch's Feast, I can only speculate. No matter how familiar I may be with it, it remains speculation. Before this supreme script of fate, even Little Mephisto here can only tremble."
"When it comes to anything related to the Witch's Feast, you're the authority, not me. But are you truly certain?"
Faust said, "I wouldn't claim absolute certainty, but I'd put it at eighty percent."
This was, without question, a fairy tale world, but the "script of fate" wasn't necessarily going to match the version he knew.
Take Viviana, for instance. Trapped by his own assumptions, Faust had initially only been able to picture some ordinary commoner girl somewhere in the royal capital whom he had never met. Who could have guessed that Cinderella had been right beside him all along?
It was precisely this tendency toward wild deviation that kept Faust from projecting his preconceived notions onto anything. Who knew what this world's Snow White would actually turn out to be?
Just the "dragon's curse" and the "succession of the throne" alone were already nothing like the Snow White story he knew.
And yet the reason he felt so confident was that he knew this was a genuine entry in the Witch's Feast, and that a "prince" would inevitably have a place written into the script.
There was only one thing Faust still couldn't quite figure out.
"Come to think of it, this curse has been going on for hundreds of years. Hasn't any other prince come along to deal with it?"
What was going on? Weren't princes in this fairy tale world as common as stray dogs on the roadside?
"Heheh. That is precisely your most singular gift, Faust. The standard the Wheel of Fate holds for a witch's script is beyond your imagination. If no sufficiently fitting candidate exists, it simply will not begin, even if that means freezing time for a thousand years."
"Any unworthy, mediocre soul who tries to force his way into the story will simply die without so much as a grave to his name. But you, Faust, beloved of witches... your gift is the most perfectly suited of all. No matter what the script may be, so long as it is connected to a witch, it will never refuse your participation."
"Truly, a prince fated by destiny to play the supporting role."
That all sounded rather flattering, but in practice he was just a top-tier errand boy. The witch's designated massager would have been more accurate.
Faust nearly laughed out of exasperation, though he also understood that this was precisely where his advantage lay.
"We have to do this. It's the only path to victory, isn't it?"
Use the mechanics of the witches to gain power. Leverage the witch's threads of destiny to exploit the workings of fate. One witch alone wouldn't be enough and wouldn't come close to disrupting the underlying logic of destiny. He would need multiple witches.
"The more the better, though the road to get there is hardly an easy one."
Mephisto let out a long sigh.
Faust smiled. "What does that matter? The path of emperors was never meant to be easy."
Prince Aurum's fearlessness in the face of death was one strength, and his exceptional capacity for action was another. The moment his blood was stirred, ideas immediately translated into real steps forward.
Almost the very day after the imperial delegation departed, Faust began making preparations to set off for the Kingdom of Wintertide.
First and foremost, he couldn't just charge over there alone like a fool. He needed a reason, one that was plausible and internally consistent, to justify traveling to the Kingdom of Wintertide.
This was critically important. For the time being, Faust was still part of the Cinderella script, and under normal circumstances, he should never have left the Kingdom of Aurum, spending his entire life growing old in this idyllic, secluded land.
Only by temporarily stepping outside the current script could he naturally transition into the next one.
The simplest justification would be a declaration of war, but Faust rubbed his own head and figured he hadn't yet discovered any technique for growing it back, so he let that idea go.
What about an alliance? This mysterious ancient kingdom had never lacked for those eager to curry its favor, but Wintertide had never acknowledged any pact; the only thing it would accept was the submission of a vassal. That clearly wouldn't work either.
So the answer that remained was rather obvious. Faust decided to simply propose marriage.
"Prince Aurum hears of the peerless beauty of the Wintertide princess, is smitten, and sends a marriage proposal.
The request will certainly be refused, and then the prince, unwilling to accept the outcome, sets off to demand an explanation in person."
Faust stroked his chin, ran through the scenario once more, and nodded with satisfaction.
"Not bad. Exactly the sort of thing I'd do."
He hadn't so much as heard of the Kingdom of Wintertide's princess before, but now that he knew she was Snow White, he was well aware of who held the title of fairest of them all.
Given the depths of Faust's weakness for beauty, acting on impulse and firing off a marriage proposal wasn't hard to believe at all.
After all, he was the Sovereign of Aurum. He simply couldn't resist certain urges.