Now even Henry starts to turn red, shifting the atmosphere between them awkwardly.
Instead of Henry, it was Ariel who broke the awkwardness by speaking, "I also have something to give you! Wait here!"
Grabbing all the things he gave her, Ariel dove back into the sea, leaving Henry all by himself.
'I wonder what she'll bring me.' Just as Henry's curiosity was at its peak, Ariel came back with two clams in her hand.
Tilting his head in confusion, the redhead mermaid handed it to him, "I read from the books how pearls cost a ton to humans. So I brought these."
Taking the clams that were being handed to him, Henry pried one of them open with his bare hands and instantly, he felt his breath hitch.
'Is this a natural pearl?' Henry gulped his saliva hard. Although he's not an expert when it comes to pearls, he's aware of their value and worth.
And he heard that a Natural Pearl's value can skyrocket up to millions of dollars!
Not to mention, he's in an era where diving beneath the sea isn't a common practice so natural pearl or not, each one would still contain extremely high value!
What Ariel just said is correct. Pearls are worth a ton and he was just handed two of them!
'If this is a natural, then how much would it be worth?'
"Thank you, Ariel. I'm sure it took you a lot of trouble to get them." Since they're a gift, Henry of course decided to keep it.
Ariel blinked several times at his words, "The clams? I actually have thousands of those in my cave. I just picked the biggest ones out of them for you."
Henry decided to keep his mouth shut about it. Ariel might not know it but she's low-key bragging at him.
Truly, the treasures under the sea are more beautiful and priceless compared to those on land. Just take a look at Ariel herself.
After pocketing the two clams, they took their time just chatting with each other, their topic ranging from the continuation of their topic since they last met, which is about Master Elias. Ariel also discussed her life, how she was the most gifted in singing out of all her siblings.
At the same time, Ariel also had to hide back at the sea from time to time due to some people wandering around the beach, either just to stroll around or just some knight guards patrolling.
This time, Ariel is aware of the time they spent talking and when 2 hours are up, she had to bid her farewells.
They ended their conversation with the two of them eager to have a chat again tomorrow.
On the other hand, Henry then made his way back to the clinic, humming a familiar tune while going over the magic spells he's going to try and learn.
———
Henry spent most of the night lying in bed, thinking about his path to magic, and by the morning when he woke up, he came to a decision to focus on one element first until he achieved mastery to the point that absolute manipulation of the said element becomes possible.
And after a whole minute of consideration that he's a magician and a performer at the same time, which means he needs to learn something flashy.
What else is flashier than the fiery flames themselves? Henry has already proved himself capable of creating a fire-based magic spell all by himself, so he might as well focus on something he can already do.
Thanks to his formal training under Sir Liam for the past few years, Henry woke up just before the sun rose. He took a brief hour to do his morning daily routine exercises ranging from jogging to lifting heavy objects.
And only then did Henry proceed with his magical training. He first underwent in mastering the Flame Rings. Seeing as how Master Elias was able to cast spells instantly and without chanting at that, Henry wanted to replicate the same thing.
Thanks to his all-time curiosity by asking so many questions during his time in Master Elias's wizard tower, he knows that fully mastering a certain spell would help him achieve the instant cast and chantless feat.
Not to mention, mastering each magic spell also earns him an extra step to mastery of its designated element, so it's a win situation for Henry to master the Flame Rings magic spell first.
Henry holed himself up in a private room given to him by Polynesia after accidentally burning a table. With all the time and space in the world to train, Henry experimented with shortening the casting time first.
Since chanting the spell takes 2 seconds and the actual spell coming to life would take another second, Henry wanted to halve it to overall a single second or perhaps shorter than that.
"Fire Magic: Flame Rings," Henry murmured to himself, taking note of the time and calculating it to a total of 3 seconds. He tried to cast the spell again but this time, he removed the first two words.
"Flame Rings." The flame rings sparked to life and the time was reduced to a single second. However, Henry instantly witnessed the repercussions.
The flames were weaker and they are smaller than normal.
"So that's the problem. The efficiency and the effect of the spell are weakened by half. This'll be a bit of a problem." Henry paced around the room for a while, casting the spell in the same short chant from time to time.
Henry tried to cast the spell but without any chants, only chanting it in his mind, and to no avail, there was only a short spark before getting doused.
"What if I…" An idea bloomed inside Henry's mind and this time, he combined visualization, intention along with short casting. Normally, visualization and intention are just his 2nd and 3rd priority in casting spells with the chant being the first.
The only reason why chanting is his first priority is due to how easy it is to chant compared to visualizing, much less the intention.
This time, Henry attempted the same spell but he prioritized visualization as first and intention as second, the chant was pushed back to the third, "Flame Rings."
The spark was instant, and the Flame Rings turned brighter and larger than normal. Even Henry could feel the heat licking on his skin, "So that's how it is. But there's still an issue…"
That's right. There indeed is an issue. Henry needed to learn how to multitask. It took his entire focus on casting the spell, mainly because he needed to visualize the spell and insert his intention before finally chanting, leaving no room to think about other things.
What does this entail? If he didn't fix this issue, he would lose awareness of his surroundings, and standing still in a fight is akin to instant death.
"So it really comes down to mind training, huh?" Henry chuckled. Because he finds his situation funny. Master Elias has always told him to focus on training the mind rather than his stamina since using magic consumes both.
No wonder that old man wanted him to master Inner Peace first. Having a clouded and chaotic mind would make it impossible to learn magic.
"Alright. The challenge is on." Henry cracked his knuckles, a grin forming on his face as he prepared to tackle the complexity of the mind.
———
Afternoon arrived and it's time for their plaza performance. This time, with the help of Chee-Chee and other monkeys, they were able to construct a simple stage made of planks along with several steel bars attached to a rope.
As Henry told them yesterday, the crowd seemed to be more fascinated by Chee-Chee compared to the others, so there's no doubt the main character of their current show and future shows would be Chee-Chee.
What's funny is that his role contradicts his personality. Chee-Chee is an extremely introverted gorilla and definitely wants nothing to do when it comes to attention, he prefers to be a side character with barely any eyes on him.
"Come on, Chee. This is actually a good practice for you! You'll start to overcome your fear of crowds and soon, you'll see the beauty of making people smile." Polynesia was assuring Chee-Chee while perched on the gorilla's left shoulder.
"…A-Are you sure?" Despite the gorilla's huge tough body, his heart seems quite the opposite.
Polynesia patted the gorilla with her wings and nodded her head, "Don't worry. No one sees you in a bad way. If there is, just tell me and I'll beat their arses!"
A smile crept up to Chee-Chee's face and he nodded his head. Polynesia watched the gorilla go back in practicing his part and flew towards a certain door in the corner.
This was the room that she gave to Henry to go and practice magic on. Previously, this used to belong to Dr. Dolittle but the man barely stays in the clinic anymore, the old baker lady lets him sleep over every night.
Polynesia doesn't need to hear the reason why. She can already guess it by herself.
Using her beak to knock on the door, Polynesia then called out, "Henry dear! It's time for the show!"
She heard a crashing sound inside before footsteps hurried up to the door.
Clank!
The door creaked open and Henry showed himself up from behind, his eyes were not only wide open, but they were also bloodshot.
"Heavens! What's going on in there, Henry dear? Did something happen?" Polynesia flew inside and perched on the table before asking him in concern.
Henry rubbed his eyes and sighed heavily, "It's nothing, Polynesia. Just made a huge progress, that's all."
Polynesia tilted her head and asked, "Did you come up with a new spell?"
"Nope. But something better than that. I managed to improve the Flame Rings and now I can cast them instantly without the unnecessary chanting. Not to mention, I can also change the colors and the density!"
If Polynesia were to have eyebrows, she would raise them in confusion, "Density? In fire? Is that even possible? I don't think Flames have weight, Henry dear."
Henry chuckled and arrogantly smirked before speaking in a condescending tone, "Heh, so the great Polynesia isn't actually that all-knowing."
The parrot deadpanned at him, "Don't test my knowledge, brat. I still know a lot more than you."
Well, she's kind of a bit right on that. She's older and has travelled the world more than Henry. Obviously, she's going to know more than him.
But still, he feels a bit proud of himself for knowing something she doesn't.
Henry the proceeded how his Flame Rings are now 1 kilogram in weight, however just because it has weight, doesn't mean he can go and grab it like a solid object. Flames are still made of gas after all.
"Well, that's fascinating to know. Solid, Liquid, and Gas? I didn't know they were a category."
"Alright then. You're smart and intelligent. Congratulations. It's time to go perform, fix yourself, and follow me outside, we've been waiting for you."
After that, she left the room. Henry simply shrugged his shoulders at her lack of interest in magic. It's not like everyone appreciates and understands magic like he does, who used to live in a modern world where science dominates the world.
———
As expected, by the time they arrived at the plaza, a crowd had already formed and there were even some knight guards forming an encircle to prevent the crowd from pushing too far into the middle where they usually perform.
When Henry saw this, his lips twitched several times, 'So this is what it feels like to be famous? Reminds me of when singers and celebrities would perform live concerts.'
And when he saw what the knight guards were doing, he nodded his head at them in appreciation, 'It also seems like the Knight Guard Captain finally realizes the effect of our performance. Not gonna blame him, we were literally the talk of the city folks yesterday.'
When the crowd saw them, they immediately burst into cheers. Clapping their hands and jumping around. Seeing this made Henry decide to also stage a magic performance once he gets back in the Lioncrest Kingdom
Who knows, if Dr. Dolittle wants to find a peaceful home to live with his lady pattisier lover, he can recommend a remote place in the Kingdom and grant it to him for free, just so he could bring Polynesia and the gang back to Lioncrest.
As he helps Chee-Chee carry the newly built stage made of planks, Henry caught a familiar hooded figure among the crowd.
'She came back, huh?'
————————————
[I appreciate all the recommendations yesterday!]