[Today is the resumption of classes and I am not amused.]
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With grit of his teeth, Henry endured the pressure, having a hard time maintaining his stance due to the combined pressure and unfamiliarity with his fish tail.
Fortunately for him, Ariel noticed his predicament and quickly pleaded for him, "Dad…"
Seeing Ariel's cute pout and crossed arms, King Triton was unable to refuse and reluctantly reduced the water pressure around Henry.
Henry, feeling lightweight, mentally sighed in relief—discreetly thanking Ariel with a nod of his head.
King Triton shifted his gaze from Ariel to Henry, his eyes still bearing the previous coldness, "Introduce yourself, boy." He commanded.
"My name is Henry Charming. The Crown Prince of Lioncrest Kingdom and also an apprentice magician learning under Master Elias and Master Pabbie." While introducing himself, Henry deliberately mentioned the two names, hoping their reputation would save him from his situation.
And it worked, King Triton's eyes widened slightly in surprise as he muttered to himself, "Pabbie took you as a student? He never had one before…"
No wonder the big guy is surprised. Grand Pabbie, rumored to be as old as the Earth itself would obviously be known by a few figures, and among them is King Triton. And based on what he just said as a fact, Henry being Grand Pabbie's student is akin to him being a miracle boy.
"Dad. Can you tell me more about Pabbie?" Ariel, whose knowledge of the old troll is lacking with only Henry filling her in on a few bits about him, was curious about the troll.
"I'll tell you later, my child. For now, let's focus on entertaining this guest of yours."
She nodded, "Okay."
Once King Triton's attention is on him again, Henry straightened his back and listened as he spoke, "We'll be having a banquet soon to celebrate the day of birth of my two beautiful daughters, Adella and Alana. Perhaps, Prince Henry would like to join us?" Even though the King was asking, the way it was spoken and the stare in Henry's eyes told him that the King of Atlantis wouldn't be taking a No as an answer.
So he nodded his head, "Of course. It would be my pleasure."
"Ariel, kindly show our guest to the ballroom, I'll be there shortly." King Triton's large palm gently caressed Ariel's scarlet red hair before floating off.
On the other hand, Ariel excitedly dove down from the clam-like throne and immediately interlocked her arm with Henry's as she swam, dragging him along unconditionally.
"Quick! I'll introduce you to my sisters! They'll love you!" Ariel excitedly said as they left the throne field.
Henry didn't bother to resist her, for a delicate-looking mermaid, Ariel seems to possess a tremendous amount of strength—if Henry ever wanted to pull his arm away, he would have to exert his entire strength just to do so.
But instead of doing that, Henry asked her, "So, based on what you know about your father. Does he look like he likes me or wants to strangle me?"
"Oh shush. Dad is not like that. I think he likes you?" Ariel rolled her eyes at his joke.
'I'm sorry but I'm gonna need more than an assumption.' Henry's lips quivered.
———
Soon, they arrived at the ballroom. Unlike most ballrooms that Henry is familiar with, the Atlantis's ballroom is almost no different from it except for a few things. First of all, there are no candles or any source of light in the space, it seems like everyone's vision simply can't differentiate between bright and dark as everything around them is just as bright as a day.
Not only that, the ballroom is an open field similar to the throne room where only a few pillars can be seen around the place, supporting a tall ceiling that transcends even the tallest structures Henry had witnessed before.
He couldn't help but be amazed, "Woah."
Of course, Ariel took this pride. She grinned alongside him, "Woah indeed! Let's go! I'm going to introduce you to my sisters and then we'll visit a more beautiful place than this!"
Before Henry could grasp the beauty of Atlantis, Ariel had already dragged him to someplace else. A brief moment later, they arrived at the center of the ballroom, where countless merfolks, mermaids, fish, and marine creatures were surrounding a pair of black-haired sisters. From the looks of their face one could immediately guess that they're twins.
When Henry first saw them, his eyes widened in surprise, his head whipping from Ariel to the twin sisters back and forth, 'They look similar to each other except for the hair color difference. I don't even see any semblance of King Triton on their faces. Either their mom's genes are stronger than a literal demigod or something dark is in place.'
Honestly, Henry doesn't want to continue those thoughts anymore, abandoning them the second they came to his mind.
"Adella! Alana! Sisters!" Ariel finally releases her hold over Henry as she dashed forward, hugging the black-haired sisters.
"Ariel?" Adella and Alana gasped in unison, "You actually visited! I thought Dad grounded you?"
Ariel embarrassingly separated from them, "Ah that? Dad must've changed his mind. Oh! I almost forgot, I'll introduce you to my friend?"
She didn't even have to search for Henry as he was already approaching, "Hi there. My name is Henry Charming. Ariel's friend."
The two raised their eyebrows at him, "Ariel made a male friend? Color me surprised that our dad hasn't poked a hole in you yet…" Alana giggled in a playful tone.
Though in Henry's ears, there's nothing playful about it.
"Well, as you can see. I am not dead." Henry forced a smile.
"Indeed you are. Since dad didn't do anything to you, then you might have a chance with Ariel after all." Adella softly smiled, knowingly dropping a hint that only Ariel did not understand.
"What?' She tilted her head in confusion. Not recognizing the underlying meaning behind her sister's words.
"Nothing." The other responded with a casual wave of her hand.
Soon, the trio of daughters of King Triton chatted with one another, almost forgetting about Henry's existence if it wasn't for him wishing them a happy birthday, they might've mistaken him as part of the huge crowd of guests. Only after the two birthday girls were dragged by the other guests was Henry was finally dragged away by Ariel.
"Quick! I'll show you my cave!' Ariel excitedly said as they left the ballroom.
Henry almost choked at her words, if it were other people—they might've misunderstood her words.
Not pointing it out, Henry simply asked, "What about your dad? Wouldn't he get mad that we left the ballroom without his permission?"
Ariel dismissed his worries, "Oh don't think too much of it. If ever, he'll just ground me as usual."
"And me?" Henry pointed at himself.
To which she answered innocently, "Well, I guess we'll be grounded together! Wouldn't that be fun?"
'Ariel, if that was the case, for you it would be called grounded but for me, that'll be imprisonment.'
Nevertheless, since it's Ariel's home and he's her guest, he can only follow her wherever she wants to go.
By the end of it, Henry abandoned all his worries and decided to just enjoy the day, not everyone gets the privilege to visit Atlantis after all, "To your cave it is!"
On the way, Flounder found himself joining them.
———
Her cave is wet.
Well, obviously it is, because the cave is located under the water, in terms of level, it is more elevated than where Atlantis is. Letting the sunlight pierce through the place.
Once they entered by helping Ariel pull the boulder blocking the entrance in a slight bit to form a small gap they managed to fit through—Henry's eyes glowed in exhilaration.
Inside the cave were countless rusted artifacts and objects that were obviously made by human hands.
Be it a fancy candle holder made of copper or a golden plate that still shines thanks to the sunlight coming from the small gap on the top of the cave.
"Welcome to my cave!" Ariel spread her arms wide and swam around the place, introducing him to various stuff.
"Henry! Henry! You said this is a fork, right?" Ariel, grabbed something out of a pile of items and eagerly showed it to Henry like a child showing off their artwork to their parents.
Looking at the spoon in her hand, Henry shook his head and gently corrected her, "That's a spoon, Ariel. Fork looks similar to…let's say, your father's trident."
"Ooohh!~" Ariel quickly understood and went back to rummaging through her collection.
Henry simply went around the collection, taking note of a few certain items that would fetch a huge price if sold on the human market. Such as a bottle of wine and whiskey that looked like it had witnessed the long passage of time.
From time to time, Ariel would grab from one of the piles of items from her collection, asking Henry about its name and function. Thanks to their nightly chats, she didn't mention any absurd names that her seagull friend has been feeding her for years.
All are relatively normal and sometimes, she would misname something as another that looks similar.
Even Flounder joined in on asking Henry about the items.
By the end of the session, Ariel was satisfied with his service and they found themselves grabbing two chairs and placing them outside to sit atop them.
Though their fish tails make it hard to actually sit properly, they're more like just planting their butt on it.
"This is beautiful," Henry commented, watching as a school of fish passed by them, with some small ones slipping over his skin.
Once again, Ariel took it with pride and puffed her chest.
Meanwhile, Flounder was swept by the school of fish that just swam by—seems like the boy found a familiar face among them.
Before the silence could wrap around them, Ariel seemed to remember something and turned to Henry, "Henry, do you think I can also visit your place? I'd love to ride on those bicycles you said you invented!"
Facing her eager face, Henry chuckled. Right, he almost forgot that he mentioned many things about Lioncrest Kingdom to her during their night chats.
Among them was the contribution he invented with the help of his limited knowledge of the modern world.
Of course, he couldn't invent electricity on the whim and had to spend perhaps an entire year to master it despite his talents but the basic ones were easily handled.
Such as what she just mentioned. The bicycles. Requires no electricity, or anything like that. Just the good 'ol physics and logic. The process was very smooth.
He spent a few months learning blacksmithing under Lioncrest's greatest blacksmith and only after surpassing the man in everything but experience, did Henry start to draw the schematics of gears and chains before eventually evolving to a full-blown bicycle.
As soon as Henry proposed the vehicle, it quickly became a signature vehicle for nobles and royalties not just in Lioncrest but the other Kingdoms also.
Of course, aware of the importance of branding, Henry made sure to clarify the importance of originality to the nobles, hoping that his bicycles would become some sort of iPhone in this world, where even if there are other copycats and competitors, the original invention would still thrive the most.
He does not doubt one bit that the blacksmith from other Kingdoms would be able to replicate his work in just a year.
And replicate it did. Only after a year and a half, another Kingdom started selling bicycles, even going on to sell it lower than Henry's bicycles.
Big mistake on their part. By pricing it lower than his, Henry just needed to use his influence and connections to showcase the superiority of originality over the duplicated ones, marking originality as more fitting for the nobles and slowly turning it into a luxury that only real nobles can afford.
As expected, the copycat bicycles failed, only being sold to a rare few commoners. And yet, despite it, they barely sold anything thanks to the power of stereotyping, most of the commoners even dreamed of owning one of Henry's bicycles just to show off.
That's the power of branding.
As for Henry's brand of bicycles and even his other inventions. He named it after his surname, Charm.
Might not sound much for now, but Henry knows about the power of simplicity, aesthetics, and minimalism.
Sooner or later, more and more people would start to find long names as distasteful and would come to like a short, one-word name brands that roll off the tongue just fine.
Of course, there are many other things that are simple yet extremely useful in this current era that Henry invented which made him famous to the other Kingdoms, especially to his own people but that's a story for another time.
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[Before you all go and start barking that since he's famous, Arendelle should recognize him and bring him home blah blah.
No.
Just no. Arendelle has been on a lockdown for 10 years and Henry just started inventing a few years after that.
'But surely the merchant ships would spread his works to Arendelle' still no. Not only do Merchants arrive once every year but they only trade necessities like food and clothes instead of luxury goods due to Arendelle's unique situation.]