"I'm not sure, but don't worry! I told him all the good things about you and he was in fact, smiling while doing so. I think he's happy, I guess?" Ariel tilted her head in confusion, or more like she was not sure what she was saying.
'That does not ease my nerves!' Henry mentally screamed, resisting the urge to just bolt out of the place right here and right now.
Only an idiot doesn't know why Ariel's father is eager to meet him. Every father's reaction would be the same when they heard that their previous daughters are meeting up with someone of the opposite gender.
If it's their son, they would even give them a thumbs up and then celebrate by declaring them a man but if it's a daughter. One can only shiver by thinking about it.
With a nervous chuckle, Henry tried to fish out more information, to prepare himself in case things go south, "W-What else did he say? Something along the lines of preparing himself to meet me perhaps?"
Maybe he shouldn't have asked that because the moment Ariel nodded her head, Henry's breathing staggered and he felt like the sea had turned from serene and calming to a severe boiling acid that awaited his suicidal dive.
"Don't worry, Father is kind. He never hurts anyone without a reason." Ariel waved her hand in dismissal. Henry is not sure if she's even trying to comfort him or what.
'But he does have a reason to hurt me! I'm literally a human who has been interacting with his favourite child at night. Did I already mention that I'm a human that the King of Atlantis despises the most? Great.'
"Sounds great, Ariel. Say, does your father have anything particular that he likes?" Henry asked with a hopeful tone. Maybe there's something he can give that might put the King at ease.
Another bomb was dropped instead, "Oh, just me and my siblings. He said he'd do anything to protect us and things like that. See, he's not that bad, right?"
Henry blankly stared at the surface of the sea, reflecting the moon and stars in the night sky before muttering to himself, "I'm so dead."
Ariel blinked, not hearing him quite right, and asked with a smile, "What was that?"
"Nothing." Henry hid his face, which turned grimace, "Alright, how about this. You can come back, maybe around two days. I'll make sure to prepare to meet your father."
As much as possible, Henry wanted to buy himself some time, either to gather up the courage to face the King of Atlantis or to learn more under Grand Pabbie's teachings and make himself strong—at least enough to withstand whatever preparation that King Triton has prepared for him.
'Fire and Earth magic it is then. I'll postpone Water magic lessons for now, it doesn't matter how much I learn about it in two days, I can't face a demigod and the son of Poseidon—a literal God of the Sea.'
Hopefully, Grand Pabbie might know more about Atlantis, more specifically, its ruler—King Triton.
———
The next day, Henry woke up and after doing his daily routine, he heard a familiar voice outside followed by what seemed like heavy hooves stomping on the ground.
Confused, as soon as he went outside, greeting the sleeping Polynesia on the way—he was surprised to hear the chaotic voice of the horse he's been using during his journey with Elsa, "Get your hands off me, you brat! Where are the knights when you need them the most!"
In front of him was the very same dark-furred horse that he used to ride on while venturing into the forest with Elsa, "Shade?" He uttered the horse's name. Shade used to be a nameless horse, mainly because the castle's stable plans to sell the horse to another due to his chaotic nature.
If it wasn't for Henry's previous threat, Shade would've caused him unnecessary problems in the forest. But still, he wasn't expecting to see the horse today, especially after bringing him back to the castle stables.
The horse's neck suddenly snapped from the stable boy that has his hands on his reins to Henry. Shade's eyes instantly went wide as he called out while neighing, "Henry! Hen—ah! I mean, Master! Quick, help me. This boy is going to have my body chopped into pieces and fed to pigs! You gotta stop him!"
Ignoring the horse's rants, Henry turned to the stable boy, whom he recognized as the one who took Snow and Shade away after they got back yesterday, "What's going on?"
The boy, who seemed breathless and finally had the space to take a breather, inhaled and exhaled for a brief moment before answering, "I-I'm sorry for disturbing you this early in the morning but the castle steward Kai wanted me to give the horse to you, says that ever since you left, he's been violent and hard to control. Kai believes that you might appreciate him more than us considering you…being able to talk to animals."
'And they sent a kid to do the job. What a great way to kill someone.' Henry rubbed his forehead but still nodded his head, accepting the horse's reins, "Alright, tell Kai I said thanks."
The boy smiled and then left, leaving Henry alone with the stupid horse, "Thank the heavens you were there for me! Say, you got any hays i can eat? My stomach is growling. I'm starving baby!"
"Shut up, Shade. One more word and I'll stick your hooves up your arse." Henry glared at the troublesome horse.
"I'd love to see you try. I've never had anything up my arse, you might be the first." The horse's response made Henry deadpan at him.
'Fucking great. Polynesia would peck my balls for this.'
Since he's on his way to buy a horse so he could ride to the Valley of the Living Rock to continue his lessons with Grand Pabbie—as much as Henry hates to say this but Shade is a godsend, everyone knows just how expensive a fully grown adult horse is. The faster it is, the more expensive.
Resisting the urge to smack the horse in his behind though he doubted the horse would feel any pain and might even enjoy it.
"I won't feed you carrots until I say so. And if you dare to cause trouble on the way, you're meeting whoever god your kind worship to." Henry threatened in a low voice before climbing on Shade's back.
As he snapped the reins, the horse murmured under his breath, "As if you know The Great Mare Goddess herself!"
———
Thankfully, Henry's threat worked and he's now on his way to the Valley of the Living Rock. Thanks to Henry and Polynesia's arrangements, they no longer need to do the magic shows—not only because the doctor's debt has been paid but also because the city guard captain who graciously loaned them the plaza for the entire week.
Soon, half an hour had passed and with Henry's years of cavalry training and Shade's incredible speed, they arrived at the Valley and Henry was instantly met with the rock trolls rolling towards him.
"Henry is back!" They all cheered as they transformed into their humanoid forms.
Henry grinned and crouched, stony hands grabbing onto his hair, clothes and even his nose, while he fist bumped a few ones, just like what he taught them yesterday, "Hey guys."
After the greeting and meeting with the trolls, Henry made his way to the deepest part of the Valley, where Grand Pabbie told him that they would be training there.
Arriving at the place, Henry was met with Grand Pabbie's back, this time he's clutching some weird wooden staff—from the looks of its cracks and color, Henry could tell it had witnessed the rise and fall of countless Kingdoms.
"You're finally here. Good." Grand Pabbie spoke, turning around slightly and revealing his aged face.
With a tap of his staff on the ground, it suddenly rose high carrying along Grand Pabbie until the troll's height reached Henry's level.
"Are you ready for your training?" The troll asked.
Henry grinned slightly, excitement filling his bones, it's the same feeling he had when Master Elias asked him for the first time, "I'm more than ready."
Henry definitely took his time in training with Grand Pabbie.
———
Three days have passed and Henry's routine consisted of morning training with the body, mastering animal language with Polynesia whereas he's finally able to talk to fish and marine lifeforms, mastering his already existing spells, and then riding to Valley to train with Grand Pabbie.
Henry refrained from learning new spells for now, he prefers to master his arsenal first before venturing into another. Thanks to this mindset and his talent, all of his magic spells reached new levels.
Let's break them down one by one. The first spell is the Water Bubble spell. He learned from his mistake during the shipwreck and he managed to reduce the amount of mental energy cost to cast the spell, not only that, but he's also able to cast the spell on two to three targets max.
The next spell is the Wind Barrier. Knowing the spell's effectiveness against physical attacks, Henry's improvement over the spell consists of expanding the range, reducing the cost when maintaining the spell per second, casting the spell without chanting, and finally, an extra effect whereas when an object hits the barrier, instead of letting it swerve to the sides in default—Henry is now capable of flinging the said objects back to where they came from.
The third spell he mastered is the Flame Rings. Aside from reducing the cost of its superior version—Flame Rings: Blue—as much as possible. Not only that, but Henry also developed a variant version of the superior spell.
Flame Disks. As the name implies, by spinning the Flame Rings: Blue in near impossible speeds, it gave birth to a lethal variant, it was so dangerous that even Henry felt a shiver in his spine whenever the disks were near his body. In the end, Henry swore to only use the spell in emergencies or if his enemy is ten times stronger than him, Henry doubts there's anyone in the world that could tank the spell head-on and live on to tell the tale.
During that time, Henry even imagined what would be the outcome if he mastered Wind Magic and combined it with Flame Disks, using Wind Magic to enhance the spinning power and propel speeds of the disks. Perhaps, it wouldn't be that far from literally cutting a mountain in half?
Anyways, the next spell is the Flame Coat spell. The improvement has the same effect as the previous ones, reducing the spell cost and chantless. Aside from that, there's nothing notable improvements he made except for finally being able to coat two of his entire arms in flames. Not only that, but he's also capable of applying the same blue flames as the Flame Rings. The variant name is simple, Flame Coat: Blue.
Next is the Fireball spell. As usual, reducing the spell costs and applying the blue flames, Fireball: Blue. Thankfully, he resisted the urge to name it as Blueball.
Next is the spell he learned on the spot during his spar with Elsa. The Flame Tsunami. The improvements are an increased range, reduced cost, chantless, and applying the blue flames. Perhaps in the future, once he's strong enough, he'd be able to replicate Madara's infamous Great Fire Annihilation.
The next spell is Flame Burst, which he also developed during his spar with Elsa, where flames would burst from his foot soles to propel him in a certain direction in an instant. Now this one is Henry's new favourite. He managed to improve this spell leaps and bounds and aside from being chantless and reducing costs, he managed to reduce the casting time of the spell, going from 1 second to 0.5 milliseconds.
It might not sound much but in life and death situations where even a single second could mean death, reducing it from 1 second to half of it is significant. Not only that, but Henry's propelling speed also increased, he can now cover 100 meters in 3 seconds.
Now, if Henry wanted to dodge something that his body was unable to, Flame Burst would save the day. Aside from that, Henry also applied the blue flames though the change between the default and blue flames are little so Henry decided to just use the default one only. After all, the Flame Burst spell is meant as a movement-type spell, not an offense.
Last but not the least, the Stone Slab spell that he learned during his first meeting with Grand Pabbie. Since it's a recent spell and he concluded that Grand Pabbie would be able to help him in the matter of Earth Magic spells, Henry simply improved it by reducing the cost and making it chantless.
And now, let's talk about what he learned from Grand Pabbie during the past 3 days.
—————————————
[So I got the schedule for my classes. And it starts on January 19…iykwim]