The next day, Henry had nothing much to do aside from his magic practice with Master Pabbie, though considering the session ended before afternoon, Henry spent the rest of the day by himself.
The clinic, as interesting as it is to talk to animals at first, would eventually wear it out.
Tomorrow, Henry would revisit the royal castle, perhaps to eat breakfast with the future Queen or perhaps to talk about how they'll assist him in his return to Lioncrest.
Arranging a ship for him would be fine enough, he knows quite a bit about sailing and with his expertise, he wouldn't encounter much trouble.
However, that plan would be scrapped for now. Lioncrest could run just fine even without him. Especially with Master Pabbie's assurance that Master Elias is aware of his current situation and has probably already told his parents about it.
As for why he's scraping it, that's because of his magic training with Master Pabbie. If he goes back now, he's missing out on a ton. If he could learn from both Master Pabbie and Master Elias, then it's a huge win for him.
"Maybe I'll stay at least two months. Should be enough to learn everything I could from Master Pabbie…" Henry murmured to himself as he massaged his slightly strained shoulder.
He just finished his magic training with Master Pabbie and although they're prioritizing learning Healing Magic first, that doesn't mean he's going to neglect Earth Magic.
According to the old troll, Earth Magic requires a unique situation to learn it to its absolute potential.
Become the rock itself, He could still vividly remember Master Pabbie telling him.
Sounds a bit complicated at first but if you stop overthinking for a moment. It just means to train your body until you become as sturdy as a rock.
To Henry, who already started training his body since he was a child, thankfully skipped the first few steps. As of now, he doesn't need to spend months to years building his muscles—instead, he's now on the last step—turning his muscles to stone.
Basically, hardening them through a few methods. The fastest but also the biggest pain in the arse among the methods is to constantly expose your body to harsh environments, blunt force, and other violent practices.
Honestly, Henry was surprised that hardening the body would actually help in learning Earth Magic, because it just answered his lifelong question about Master Elias's mind-boggling physical strength when they first met.
Who would've known that those thin and frail arms of his contain compact muscles that are probably beyond stone-level?
Putting that aside, Henry found a way to effectively train while killing two birds with one stone. Train his body like a madman, letting Master Pabbie hurl boulders towards him whilst under the heavy crushing weight of the waterfall pressing against his shoulders.
And then using his own Healing Magic to hasten his healing process. He's not repairing his muscle tears or anything like that as it would just throw everything he endured out of the window. Instead, he used Healing Magic to fill his body with a mouthful of energy and directed it to overwhelm his natural healing—effectively letting him heal faster than normal.
But still, even with that method, there's still the lingering pain in his bones. And he hasn't yet learned the spell of hastening his bone healing process as the Bone Mend spell is just similar to repairing muscle tears, which turns everything he just trained for into null.
"Once I learn how to speed up my bone healing, I could've lasted longer." He muttered to himself. Unfortunately, Master Pabbie refrains from casting the spell himself, to which he appreciated as the joy of learning and getting stronger would vanish if everything were just handed to him without letting him earn it through blood and sweat.
Thankfully, his talent is starting to kick in. What would've taken years for others to learn about Healing Magic just took him a single week to learn almost half of the spells that Master Pabbie has in his repertoire.
Perhaps just a single year is enough for him to at most achieve Absolute Manipulation over the four basic elements, the Fire, Air, Earth, and Water.
By the time Henry arrived back at the capital city of Arendelle, it was already past afternoon and nearing evening.
The first place he made his way to was a local tavern since he was a little bit peckish from all that training. Can you blame him? Rock trolls actually eat nothing but grasses and insects that can be found around the Valley.
Henry even saw a few chewing on some tiny pebbles. Does that mean the rock trolls are actually just cannibals in disguise?
He felt a short shiver in his spine just by thinking about it. There's just no way he's going to stay there to fill his stomach.
As he arrived at the local tavern and ordered a simple cooked meat and a mug of ale, his sharp ears picked up a few conversations here and there.
One particular topic however, caught his attention.
"Have you heard? Regor the Great is coming. You know. That man who calls himself the next Pirate King. Heard he's coming around Arendellian waters. Kind of scary if you think about such a man being near us."
"Bah! You? Scared of Regor? I've seen you taken dozen men at once including me!"
"Well, that's…"
That was it. Henry didn't bother to listen to what's more there is to hear. The name Regor the Great and the title of the next Pirate King made him frown.
'So King Triton wasn't lying earlier. I thought he just wanted to kick me out of Atlantis.' Henry obviously heard what Ariel's father told her earlier.
"I just hope whatever this Regor wants to do around here, has nothing to do with mermaids." As an avid fan of various films in his past life, he's aware of a certain few humans and their obsession with capturing mermaids for their sick amusement or simply to dissect them.
In the end, Henry shrugged his shoulders, "Well, as long as Ariel does as her father says and stays in the palace, I'm sure nothing bad will happen."
———
"Tomorrow, let's go out, Flounder!"
"What?!" Flounder's eyes widened in surprise as Ariel proudly crossed her arms. How did their simple conversation go from the looming pirates on the surface above them to suddenly going out there?
The contrast between the two topics is simply too wide!
"I said, we're going out! I want to see what pirates look like!" Ariel repeated with a toothy grin.
"…Ariel…" Flounder looked at her in doubt. Who in their right mind wants to see pirates? The notorious pirates who know nothing but to plunder and cause chaos?
Perhaps it was Ariel's innocence and forgiving nature or simply naivety. After all, her mother died to pirates and unlike her older sisters who saw everything happen with their eyes, Ariel did not as she was the youngest and became the topmost priority for safety that day.
Flounder tried to convince her, as one of the many schools of fish in the sea, he was once caught inside a net and only through his father that he was able to escape, in exchange for his.
"Ariel, I don't think that's a good idea. Even if the King knows of it, if those pirates accidentally saw us, especially you. They'll….definitely do everything to take you!"
However, much to his horror, she smiled with a puffed chest, "Don't worry, Flounder. I'm a very good swimmer!"
'Oh no.' That's when Flounder realized that no amount of words would sway Ariel's decision.
———
"Would you look at that. A golden opportunity, falling right on my tentacles…" Inside the familiar cave where the only source of light is the shining ball of glass that appears to be showing an image of Ariel's face, Ursula's hideous face hovered near the ball until it highlights her malicious expression.
"This is going to be so much fun." She giggled as the glass ball changed and an image of King Triton's face appeared, "I wonder what you're going to do, brother…"
———
The next morning, Henry found himself lying beside Gub-Gub. Surprisingly, the pig turned out to be a great body pillow.
"Wake up, piggy." Henry massaged the pig's belly, watching as he flipped over and lay with his back pressed on the bed, his four legs dangling in the air.
"Oink!"
With a chuckle, Henry gave his exposed belly a soft slap before jumping out of the bed.
With a good stretch and morning routine, Henry left the clinic, making his way towards the Arendelle castle.
From there, Henry was instantly welcomed with open arms and huge smiles on their faces. Although the servants and guards were oblivious to their future Queen's powers. At least from what they know, the young wizard in front of them solved the Kingdom's crisis.
If what they've been hearing around the castle is true, they're expecting the lockdown imposed on Arendelle to be lifted soon, followed by the coronation of their future Queen.
Such continuous good news can only be attributed to Henry, hence their respect for him soared, almost at the same level as their respect towards ancient heroes.
Along the way, Henry reciprocated the waves and smiles before arriving at the dining hall, where Elsa was already sitting at the left side of the table with Anna sitting on the other side in front of her, and to his shock, there was also Kristoff who was sitting beside her.
Henry was also confused as to why Elsa wasn't sitting at the head of the table. Fortunately, it didn't last long before he got his answer.
With a shy smile and averting eyes, Elsa tapped the chair beside her and said to him, "Sit."
Such a simple word and yet, Henry found his legs automatically marching towards a chair similar to the unstoppable march of time.
The entire dinner was quiet, except for the quiet clanking of utensils and plates. Much to both Elsa and Henry's grim expressions, Anna and Kristoff were sweetly feeding each other, ignoring the former two.
Seeing this, Henry was about to feel regret for coming here when all of a sudden, a sausage stabbed with a fork hovered near his lips.
Tracing back to the source revealed Elsa's delicate fingers clutching the fork's shaft. Her cheeks blushing slightly as she pouted when Henry remained frozen, "J-Just eat it already, okay?"
He's not sure if it's just Elsa wanting to spare herself from the embarrassment or if she wanted to embarrass him instead—but the moment he parted his lips slightly, she pushed the fork deep inside his mouth until he felt the long sausage reaching the deepest corner of his throat.
"Glukh!"
"Ah! I-I'm sorry!"
As much as Henry wanted to glare at the woman especially Kristoff who was now full-blown laughing his arse off—actually, he changed his mind when he heard Kristoff's booming laugh.
With a flick of his finger, a tiny mote of flame almost invisible to the naked eye slowly floated towards Kristoff's hair. As soon as it made contact, it wasted no time and set it on fire.
After a series of Henry's revenge by laughing followed by Anna grabbing a glass of milk and throwing it on Kristoff's face before eventually ending with the man sitting quietly on his chair while glaring at Henry, who is doing his best to ignore the small patch of balding on Kristoff's head.
'Well, I'm enjoying this a bit…' Not knowing when, but a small smile crept up to Henry's face.
———
—{Maximus Charming III}—
It's been almost a month since Henry has been gone. Deemed dead by his siblings and everyone who has heard the whispers and rumors. People are already murmuring who shall become the next heir, the next who will hold the crown. They await my decision, a decision to replace my supposedly dead first son.
But the truth is far from that. I could still vividly remember my last encounter with Master Elias, despair flooding my mind as I begged him to help me find Henry, even though his survival after such a shipwreck is nigh-impossible.
Only to be answered with a message that left me both assured and baffled by the old man's cryptic words.
"Worry not, for Henry is still alive and kicking. But his current location must remain unknown for it would bring great benefits to the Kingdom." Was his last words before the Court Wizard shooed me away.
Normally, I would've felt enraged by such disrespect even though we've been friends for a long time but perhaps it was the assurance that my boy is alive that made me leave him alone.
I don't know what's going on with my son and what Master Elias also meant by those words but if he's alive and fine and doing what's best for this Kingdom, I refrained from sending a full-blown search for him.
Others thought I already gave up on him especially my wife's father, the Grand Duke but when I told my wife and his father what Master Elias told me, I can tell they're just as confused and glad as I am.
I just hope whatever Henry is doing—beneficial or not, he would prioritize his own safety over the others. Though knowing that son of mine, I bet he's probably on his way to save someone today.