A whole day had passed. Henry sat in his office as usual, but unlike before, his expression was grim as he listened to the report of the scout in front of him.
"Thorgard's army wiped out everyone in the fourth Northern Border Outpost. But the rest of the outposts remained untouched." The scout bowed his head as he finished his report. Despite his ragged appearance and clothes damped in sweat, the man's expression was filled with rage.
He was one of the scouts in that outpost, the best and fastest there is. He watched all of his friends and comrades die just so he could run back and report safely.
Henry snapped his fingers, his healing magic getting into work. In an instant, the scout felt his entire body rejuvenated, and not only that, but his clothes were cleaned as well.
Despite two months having passed, Henry didn't slacken in his magic training. Not only had he successfully developed the Anti-Dark Magic spell, also known as the Patronus Charm, taking its term from the Harry Potter series in his previous world, but he had also learned many other magic spells. And he's now in the middle of mastering and improving them while writing it down at the same time for future purposes.
Aside from the Patronus Charm, he also developed several convenient and useful spells such as the cleaning spells. He also mastered quite a few more healing spells all by himself, without any of his master's help.
Speaking of his master, after his birthday party incident, Elias no longer steps out of the castle. The old man might not talk about why however, Henry could guess that Elias became afraid that the next time he leaves, it would be Henry's corpse that would be greeting him when he gets back.
Henry couldn't and wouldn't blame him. Personally, Elias would be better off serving as the Kingdom's trump card against any sort of supernatural threats. Although Henry is slowly bridging the gap between their strengths, Elias is still the most powerful magician in Lioncrest.
Meanwhile, Henry also kept in touch with Grand Pabbie. The elder Rock Troll had a convenient spell that allows him to communicate over long distances through a puddle of water.
Which is quite a bit ironic considering Grand Pabbie is a rock troll, his entire being is made entirely of the opposite of water.
On the other hand, there's also the matter of Ironmere Kingdom. With Aurora crowned as their Queen and Maleficent as her closest ally and declared as the Kingdom's Court Mage like Elias, their life was good and she had already signed the papers that would make Ironmere Kingdom part of the Sun's Covenant Federation, or SCF for short.
With that, Henry found himself rest assured that if the Eastern Great Kingdom, Xingdu Dynasty were to make any moves against Lioncrest, Ironmere Kingdom would be serving as the first line of defense.
And the Ironmere Kingdom not just has their own people but also the exotic and unique magical creatures of the Moors Forest, combined with the Three Fairies and Maleficent herself, that's a terrific line-up, like a barrel of powder keg waiting for Xingdu Dynasty as its trigger to explode.
"So that leaves the Northern Borders. We don't have any allies there and since those Vikings already made their move, I guess they managed to win an alliance with the two small Kingdoms situated in that border.
Henry had already sent a letter of invitation to his Federation a few weeks ago, but it seems he was a little bit late.
"Should I come personally? With Master Elias's teleportation magic, I could instantly teleport there and wreak havoc on their ranks before retreating." Henry tapped his finger on the table.
Henry didn't just come up with that idea just for love of the game, no. It's actually strategic. As much as possible, he doesn't want this momentum that the Vikings are carrying to affect the other Kingdoms, which would result in another full-blown Great War with Lioncrest at the center once again.
"I don't need to wipe them out. Just to establish absolute dominance and to show the rest of the world that attempting to invade Lioncrest is akin to poking a dragon."
It didn't take long for Henry to come to a decision, "According to the report, their men are estimated to be more than a thousand, let's say they're 5,000 armed strong max, perhaps I should just unleash my Giant Flame God magic spell down on them, that ought to wipe half of them."
The real question is; is Henry prepared to massacre thousands of living and breathing people for the sake of the Kingdom that his father painstakingly built and shed blood for prosperity?
Henry is not an innocent person. At the ripe age of 13-years-old, Henry had already taken a person's life himself, an assassin to be exact. And he had taken more as he continued to live his life.
But massacring thousands of men? Not yet, not even those pirates on that Pirate Island where he liberated not just Ariel who was kidnapped but also hundreds of slaves are counted as a thousand-people massacre.
At most, there are only a few hundred men he killed that day, and not to mention, pirates are the scummiest people in this world compared to Vikings.
Vikings on the other hand, were citizens of their respective Kingdoms, following the orders of their chieftains, or otherwise known as Jarls. Among those thousands of men, some might even be innocent and have children and wives to come back home to while the pirates are different; the sea is their home and their crewmates are their family.
Henry rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Can't their Jarl just wait until the summit meeting to talk things out instead of outright declaring war like this? They're truly barbarians as most people depicted them as."
Henry is not one to believe in stereotypes but in this case, he's going to take one for granted.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Henry didn't bother to lift his head and answered, "Come in."
The door was opened, revealing General Liam, "Your Majesty, the western gate captain received a messenger with a rolled parchment from the Umber Kingdom."
Only then did Henry raise his head, frown clouding his face, "Give it here, General Liam." He reached out his hand forward where Liam placed a rolled parchment on his palm.
"Please excuse m—"
"No, stay for a bit." Henry slowly unfurled the parchment and silently read while Liam stayed behind watching him with his hands behind his back.
A few seconds later, Henry started giggling much to Liam's confusion before turning into a full-blown laugh.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
"…Your Majesty. Is there something wrong with their message?" The General Knight expressed his concern.
Henry pulled his laugh back to a giggle before handing the parchment back to him, "Just. Just read it, Liam."
Liam hesitated for a brief moment but after seeing the eager look on Henry's face, along with his curiosity, Liam respectfully grabbed the piece of paper and read silently.
His eyes widened in both surprise and fear, "Your Majesty, this can't be real. They're asking for Millions of Gold Coins, thousands of our women, and the head of Master Elias. All in exchange for Umber King's promise that he won't join the alliance against you. This is absurd!"
Henry grinned, "I know! That's what makes it funny! Umber thinks I'm an idiot who couldn't read between the lines, didn't you notice his true intentions in the letter?"
General Liam frowned, re-reading the entire letter a few times before shaking his head, "My apologies, Your Majesty, but I have no idea what you're talking about."
"The letter says if we fulfilled those conditions, he won't join the alliance of the other Kingdoms against us. It's not about whether he's lying about the alliance or what. Tell me, Liam, once he gets those things he mentioned, what's stopping him from declaring war against us, all without joining the said alliance, hm?"
Henry leaned back on his chair while watching the realization settle on Liam's face, "The only exchange was that Umber won't join the alliance, but not individually joining the war."
"This is…despicable! First, the Northern Vikings and now the Umber Kingdom!" Fiery flames of anger flashed within Liam's eyes as he almost crumpled the parchment in his hand, "What should we do, Your Majesty? Should we strike them now? When they least expect it?"
"Relax, General. The only reason they're doing this is that they're underestimating me. If they're basing me based on my rumors, my profile would be exactly like this: A genius inventor, who couldn't stand injustice and oppression made by nobility to commonfolk, a magic practitioner who is also deft with a sword. What they're rooting for is the fact that I haven't been in any skirmishes and wars."
He continued after seeing the look of confusion on his face, "In other words, they probably think I'm still an innocent boy who is still wet behind the ears. No blood in my hands, no experience in handling Kingdom matters, and not to mention, I'm someone whose father just died from an assassination. In their eyes, I'm probably a weak boy who would feel fear when their army comes marching in front of our gates. The reason Umber Kingdom wanted Master's head is that in this Kingdom, he's currently the most dangerous man alive."
"With him out of the picture, Lioncrest would be left with no considerable powerhouse to be used in the war."
General Liam had two different looks on his face, one of understanding and the other of frustration, "I see. But fighting against the Northern and Western Great Kingdoms would be difficult, not to mention, we are still not sure what the decisions of the Eastern and Southern Great Kingdoms are."
"We only have those Vikings to worry about. Trust me, General Liam, 3 of our borders are more secure than you think, let's simply shift most of our forces to the north."
"I need you to prepare 3,000 of our finest knights and start marching to reinforce our Northern Borders. While you're at it, call Elsa, Ariel, and Rapunzel to my office."
"Yes, Your Majesty." General Liam straightened up and gave him a salute before leaving the room.
Meanwhile, Henry grabbed a piece of parchment and started writing.
It didn't take long for the 3 girls to arrive in his office, Elsa being at the forefront like a leader, "You called for us, my love?"
Yes, she started calling him that and it's not like he's against it or anything despite knowing she's establishing her dominance over him by being the one to call him with a love nickname.
Henry nodded his head, "War is coming." There's no point dillydallying and he instantly dropped the news into their heads.
"Well, that was…unexpected. Which one? Anything we can do to help?" It was Ariel who asked, initially caught off guard by the information.
Henry nodded his head, "As a matter of fact, yes." He turned his attention to Elsa, "How's the plan going? Is it feasible?"
Much to Ariel and Rapunzel's confused gazes, Elsa crossed her arms under her bosom and nodded, "It is. Albeit a bit time-consuming, but much better than doing it myself."
"Wait, what is this plan about?"
Henry then explained it himself, "Elsa here can create Ice Spirits or spawns, whatever you call it. Basically, mini-versions of Elsa who can also produce and manipulate ice. The plan revolves around making an extremely thick and tall ice wall that doesn't melt, use it as a barrier against Umber Kingdom."
To show off, Elsa snapped her fingers and a small featureless version of her appeared on top of her palm, the ice spirit is made entirely of sculpted ice.
Ariel fawned over the ice spirit while Rapunzel's mouth gaped, "Is that even possible? But you're going to cover, like, hundreds or maybe even thousands of miles in length. Besides, how effective will this ice wall be?"
Elsa proudly raised her head, "Of course, it's possible, but the entire process would take a little bit of time since I need to rest and replenish my ice spirits every time their strength gets depleted."
"And yes, it's very effective. There is no other way for Umber Kingdom to cross the border except for the ocean, so that's where the ice wall comes in. Even if they manage to climb it, they would have to lift their ships too, which is physically impossible, and even if it is, I doubt they have the time to do that without suffering a counterattack from my ice golems atop the ice wall."
"And it will only take me a few weeks to finish it!"