"So this is what Lioncrest Kingdom looks like…" Elsa murmured to herself while taking in the beautiful sights around the place. They just recently arrived and were quickly escorted by the Lioncrest knights.
Their arrival of course was anything but grand. Just a few Arendellian servants and soldiers. Their steward, Kai was left behind to manage the Kingdom in her stead, just like he always does even before Elsa learned to control her powers.
Anna and Kristoff, who were already occupied by the chocolate shop they had come across on the street earlier, immediately broke off from the group, with Olaf tailing after them with a giggle.
Moments later they finally arrived at the royal castle. Staring at the grand structure in front of her made Elsa realize the disparity between a small Kingdom like hers and one of the Great Kingdoms in the entire continent.
The Lioncrest Castle was no doubt two times larger than Arendellian castle.
She could only utter a 'Wow' before getting escorted inside. Anna and Kristoff were already munching on the chocolates they brought with them. What caught everyone's attention around her however, was the snowman, Olaf.
"Yellow! Or was it Hello? Hmm…Who cares? Hahaha!" Sitting atop the saddles of Sven, Olaf was waving his stick-like arm around with that iconic smile on his face. Meanwhile, Sven was making faces, clearly enjoying the attention he was getting, or rather his rider. But he doesn't need to know that.
Unfortunately for the deer, he wasn't allowed inside the castle grounds, so he was escorted into another place along with their horses, with the help of Kristoff of course—the man couldn't simply abandon his best friend in the hands of other people.
Which also means Anna is now unoccupied now that her boyfriend is temporarily out of the picture.
"Can you believe it? Lioncrest has so many holidays that they celebrate every single year! And those days are also considered rest days for everyone in the kingdom. That means no work days, and no academy days. That's like…my dream when I was still taking my lessons!" There she goes, immediately rambling beside Elsa.
The ice princess simply replied, "Oh really? And where did you hear that?"
"The chocolate shop we're frequenting earlier." She shrugged her shoulders and said.
Elsa gave her a deadpanned response, "Frequenting? Anna, you just arrived here, you just visited that shop for the first time."
Anna scoffed, "Pfft…I am so going to visit them more often, I think Kristoff and I are going to be their first loyal royal customers." She loudly declared, drawing glances from the Lioncrest servants working around the castle.
The man in front of them, whose appearance looks similar to Kai, their steward back in Arendelle, opened the doors and stepped aside, "This way please."
The next thing that greeted them was the dining hall, with a larger crowd than Elsa expected, 'There are already other guests who arrived before us, huh? Now where are you my Henry…There!'
Her eyes immediately scanned the place and it didn't take long for her to find Henry at the edge of the table, standing awfully quiet and with a strained smile on his face.
He greeted her with a wave of his arm, "Elsa, you're finally here!"
She picked up her pace towards him, "Henry!" And before he could react, she immediately pulled him into a hug, to which he reciprocated instantly in return.
But that's not all. Just when Henry thought Elsa was finally pulling away, she followed the hug with a deep kiss on his lips. She could feel him instantly melt from her kiss, which made her mentally smirk.
She heard a few audible gasps from her surroundings but she ignored them. She guessed that they're only shocked because Henry hasn't probably told anyone about their relationship yet.
When their lips separated, a long, thin bridge of saliva formed between them that quickly snapped in half after, "I can't believe I'm finally here. It's like…years since I last saw you." She possessively grabbed his arm and pulled it close to her chest.
Behind, Anna was already making a teasing face.
"Ehem!" There was a deliberate cough that interrupted their moment. When she realized it was Henry's father, Elsa stiffened up.
"You must be King Maximus." She bowed her head at the King first before turning to the beautiful woman standing beside him, "And Queen Olivia. It's nice to finally meet you two. My name is Princess Elsa of Arendelle, soon to be its Queen and also…" She snuck a glance at Henry before continuing.
"…Soon to be Henry's wife." Just when she expected that there would be an uproar, instead there was only silence.
Which made her feel embarrassed, so she leaned in on Henry and asked in a whisper, "Did I say something wrong? Was it a bad time?"
"It's not that, I'll…explain it to you later…We need to talk."
For some reason, Elsa felt a gut-wrenching twist in her stomach. As if something is wrong and she's the only one who doesn't know.
King Triton, who had been silent since the entire encounter, finally stood up harshly and loudly, the chair he was sitting on almost fell on its back.
"I'm just…going to the bathroom. Please excuse me." Noticing the golden crown on the old man's head, Elsa assumed that the huge man was a royalty in another Kingdom.
'I definitely said something wrong! Everyone's expression is…just wrong…' Elsa felt nervous all of a sudden. Maybe she overstepped this time? Putting everyone in an awkward position? Not to mention, it's Henry's birthday.
Just when things couldn't get any worse, Ariel suddenly stepped forward and made a loud declaration. Perhaps she was feeling left out? Or maybe she felt like she was being wronged, or she's just plain jealous. But her next words made the entire dining hall into a freezing hell.
"I am Henry's concubine!"
"Pfft!"
Thud!
Henry doesn't know what happened next. One thing he was standing just fine and the second, he lost his balance and is now on his knees. When he looked up, the first thing that greeted him was Master Elias's face.
The old man was pinching his mouth with his entire hand, violently trying his best to hold himself back from laughing.
Henry's face twitched several times but he knew better, so he ignored the old man. Instead, he swept his attention towards Elsa, assessing her reaction and it's not good.
She was just there standing with closed eyes and a smile on her face; usually, a smile indicates that a person is happy. However, nothing on Elsa's face shows that she is happy right now.
King Maximus and Queen Olivia glanced at each other's eyes. A tacit understanding flashed between them.
Without a word, they left the scene together, acting like nothing was happening or going to happen. As they passed by, they simply gave Henry a look of pity and understanding.
The others followed suit. Whether they're servants and knights of Arendelle or Lioncrest. They all left the room while throwing pity glances at Henry's defeated form.
Not just them. Anna was also nowhere to be found and so are Ariel's sisters. Heck, even Samantha who would usually gloat over him instead, gave him a look of encouragement and something else that one would give to someone who is about to die.
The last one to leave was Master Elias. The old master simply gave him a peace sign before fading away.
And now all that's left are Henry, Ariel, and Elsa.
He tried to crawl all the way to the doors, he needed to escape what was about to happen before it's too late. However, just when his hope was just an arms reach, the entire door was frozen into an ice barricade.
No, not just the doors but the entire room was submerged in ice, nothing was spared. Whether it's the ceiling, the walls, or even the floor, everything was covered in ice. Now there's no way out for Henry to escape.
'Yeah, I'm dead. Maybe I should just go ahead and accept my fate…'
While Henry was lamenting his life choices. Elsa's ice-cold gaze never left Ariel, "Who are you and what do you think you just meant by that?"
Ariel stood her ground, she didn't know what was going on but seeing the sudden appearance of the ice constructs that were summoned with a mere flick of Elsa's wrists sent the alarm bells off in her head. So she summoned her red bident, Ember, just in case.
Elsa frowned when she saw that. Similar to Ariel, she's also clueless that the girl in front of her also possesses special capabilities. She simply attempted to intimidate her by turning their surroundings into a coat of ice.
When Ariel stomped the bottom of Ember on the icy floor, it turned back into water and swirled around her in a smooth motion, "So, are we doing this or what?"
Hearing this, Elsa's intention went from intimidating the girl who dares to call herself her Henry's concubine to establishing dominance over her. So without uttering a single word, she waved both her arms in front of her, instantly summoning huge amounts of ice shards with pointy tips that went flying towards Ariel.
Behind them, Henry's eyes widened in surprise. He was about to step in, put a stop to the fight before it could escalate but just as he was about to make a move, Ariel reacted faster.
She twirled Ember in her hands, the long tendrils of water surrounding her elongated and turned into a whip, and smacked each ice shard into pieces. The snapping noise was loud enough to penetrate the dining hall and reach outside.
———
"What was that?" Facing Anna's question, Master Elias shook his head.
The old master waved his hand in dismissal, "It's nothing. Just let them be. It'll all be fine in an hour or so." Right as he finished his words, there was a loud thumping inside the dining hall.
The entire place shook as tiny bits and crumbs of the ceiling rained upon them.
"That's not just 'nothing'." Adella, one of Ariel's sisters pointed out.
"Trust me little girl. Either you accept it as nothing or you get dragged in on their mess."
———
The entire dining hall was indeed a mess. The table and chairs were gone, broken down into tiny pieces coated in ice. Even the chandelier on the ceiling got its chains snapped off and fell in the center of the room.
Meanwhile, the fight between Ariel and Elsa was raging on. For all the ice that Elsa produces against Ariel, it was being turned into water and then against her. It wouldn't be wrong to say that the fight was at a stalemate.
But only Henry knew that Elsa had the chance to win the fight but for some reason, she's holding herself back.
'Perhaps she's holding back from destroying the castle? After all, if she were to go all out, even the entire Kingdom would be covered in ice.'
He then turned his attention to Ariel. He didn't expect her to be this strong actually. Was it because she's a demigod? Or perhaps that bident buffs her already overpowered abilities.
Either way, this fight would only end when one of them gets defeated.
'This can't do. I'd rather hurt myself than let any of them hurt each other. I'm just glad Rapunzel is not here yet or this entire situation would turn into more than just a simple brawl.'
While Henry was already preparing to step in. Elsa wiped off the sweat that had accumulated on her forehead. Despite the coldness of her surroundings, the intense fight made her body overheat in both her body and mind.
"One final attack…" Even though she just said that softly, apparently, it was loud enough for Ariel to hear from a distance.
The princess of Atlantis tightened her grip on Ember and nodded her head in agreement. Already channeling her demigod powers into a single powerful strike.
While Elsa shaped her hands into a claw grip facing each other, a single blue ball of extreme coldness emanated between them.
There was a tacit understanding that flashed between them as soon as their eyes made contact. One thrusted her bident forward into a throwing motion, three tendrils of water overlapped and twisted along with Ember as the weapon flew in the air.
Elsa also made her move and thrusted both of her claw-style hands forward, a beam made up of near absolute zero in sheer cold cut through the air. If a cultured man from Henry's previous world were to see this, it would no doubt look like the famous Kamehameha from the Dragon Ball franchise.
That's when Henry finally stepped in the middle, his entire body coated in an armor of blue flames, both of his arms stretched on both sides as he attempted to stop both of the attacks with his hands.
However, he miscalculated something as Ember struck him on the head instead of his palm. On the other hand, Elsa's attack was even more ruthless.
Perhaps because it was her first time using such an attack, the beam kept changing its direction and when it finally reached Henry, it didn't strike his palm as he initially intended.
Instead, it veered downwards and hit him straight below his waist.
Crack!