The Real Prince Charming!

”You need me to protect Princess Lily? Of course, it would be an honor! As a matter of fact, I think Isabela’s siblings are in dire need of a friend.” After finding Flynn—who he surprisingly caught helping an old woman carry a heavy basket filled with fruits—Henry relayed his last instruction for the former thief before he leaves the Kingdom.

”Those three…” Henry murmured to himself, recalling Isabela’s little siblings, ’Wait, Lily once told me she wanted to make a friend but because of her status as a princess, either no one wants to get close to her or the children were forced by their parents to befriend her for political intentions.’

Although Isabela was one of those people who conspired against him, she couldn’t be blamed since the lives of her only family in the world were on the line. Without those factors, she would’ve remained loyal to the crown up until her death.

Not to mention, it was kind of the royal family’s fault for failing to properly protect the former Royal Knight’s loved ones—as the masters they serve, it is their responsibility to ensure the well-being of their servants.

’Not like there’s any harm to it, Lily will be more than happy to finally have friends. Also, even though Isabela is no longer a Royal Knight, her strength is still undeniably at the top amongst the Kingdom’s Royal Knights.’

”Alright then. Tell Isabela about it, if she agrees, you both can take her siblings to the royal castle to play with Lily. I’ll tell the guards I was the one who sent you.”

After agreeing to Flynn’s suggestion, the man suddenly clapped his hands in excitement, quickly turning around to leave, definitely to relay the good news to Isabela.

Only for Henry to stop him, ”Hold on a second.” Flynn detected the suspicious tone in Henry’s words, making him slightly nervous.

With squinted eyes, Henry inquired, ”You seem awfully close with Isabela. You talk about her as if you both are extremely close friends…”

Flynn nervously chuckled, trying his best not to look away from Henry’s eyes. Looking away from them would indicate that he was lying—something he picked up on during his years of thievery, ”W—What do you mean? Nothing is going on between us, He—I mean, My Lord.”

”Are you sure about that?” Henry pressed, making Flynn flinch.

Flynn didn’t dare to reply anymore, lest he expose himself. After a grueling few seconds of enduring Henry’s squinted stare, the prince finally stopped, ”Alright then. I’m not gonna pry on your business with her, do what you want, so long you would still heed my commands and execute them perfectly, is that clear?”

There’s a reason why forming relationships with your colleagues in the workplace is illegal as most of the time, it leads to unforeseen effects on their skills, productivity, and especially their decision-making. Not to mention the conflicts of interest and favouritisms.

However, in Flynn and Isabela’s case, Henry is willing to look the other way. It’s not like they’re working in a multibillion-dollar company or something. And just like what Henry just said, as long as Flynn and Isabela could still execute their roles perfectly, Henry wouldn’t mind them being in a relationship.

Besides, Henry kind of stole Flynn’s destined partner in this world, so this could be considered his compensation.

”Alright, you can leave now. Just don’t forget your number one priority, understood?”

”Protect Lily at all costs!” Flynn even gave him a knight’s salute before rushing off to leave.

”Ah youth—wait, I’m considered as one. Never mind.”

———

”Where to boss?” After thanking the stableboy who brought Boy, Henry climbed atop him. Henry hasn’t even touched the reins and Boy was already making his way to the Royal Castle’s exit gates.

Henry replied, ”To a place far far away.”

Unsurprisingly, despite being burdened with many tasks and responsibilities, his parents and Master Elias still arrived just in time to see him off. Even Lily was there along with Isabela’s siblings—all holding the wooden toys. They were using the arms of the said wooden toys to wave goodbye at him.

As for Isabela and Flynn. They were nowhere to be seen.

’Figures.’ Henry murmured under his breath.

Meanwhile, his mother was stomping her way towards him with her hands on her waist—not a good sign of course, ”Henry Maximus. Leaving again are we? You do realize next week is your birthday and if something happens to you while you’re not here, there will be a—” She wasn’t even able to finish her sentence when Henry interrupted her.

He pointed at the idling Master Elias, ”Blame him, he’s the one who wants me to leave! Bye, Mom, Dad, love you both!” He quickly grabbed the reins and snapped them in a single motion—Boy kicked the ground and they burst forward.

”Elias? So you’re the one forcing my son to leave!?”

”Wait what? What’d I do?”

Those were the last things Henry heard behind him as he left the premises.

’Heh, serves you old man.’ Henry wickedly laughed.

———

With the Lioncrest Kingdom slowly fading away in view behind him, Henry couldn’t help but admit that a small part of him was looking forward to this journey. This might be his first time being actually alone this time.

No Knights around to protect him nor a princess to accompany him. Just him, his trusty steed, and a shiny longsword resting on his waist, yet to shed a drop of blood nor take a life. Perhaps in this journey, it would graduate from a virgin sword to something that would be feared across the continent.

”To be the best, you gotta beat the best.” Henry murmured. Sunshine is still incomplete of course. It would definitely perform spectacularly when it comes to humans, that’s for sure. But against the likes of Maleficent?

Henry doubted Sunshine could even leave a dent on her scales once she entered her draconic form.

He inserted his hand inside the satchel, tracing his fingers on the leather covers of the three thick books inside, ”Good thing I have these bad babies here. The road ahead is long, enough time to learn Enchanting.”

———

Two days have passed and Henry has come across many people and interesting places.

Obviously, there are bandits. Those kinds of people would always exist, especially in this day and age. What’s interesting about them was the fact that the brigands he encountered were surprisingly well-equipped.

And what he meant by well-equipped is that their swords and leather armor weren’t your usual rusty and worn-out ones.

Still, even with more than ten in numbers, they weren’t a match with Henry. He also took that as the opportunity to take Sunshine to a swing test.

Needless to say, the longsword was extremely sharp. A single swing from Henry is enough to slice through everything. One of the bandits assumed a defensive stance—raising his sword to meet Henry’s.

The result? Sunshine sliced it off cleanly along with half of the bandit’s body in a single swipe.

’Still not enough though. When it comes to this world’s true powerhouses, the sharpness of a sword alone wouldn’t be able to determine the outcome of a fight.’

Henry knew that only Magic would help him stand shoulder to shoulder with the strongest of beings.

Of course, during the past two days, bandits and new places weren’t the only things that occupied Henry’s attention. The three books of enchanting weren’t for show.

At first, Henry almost cursed the old man for downplaying Enchantment. When he opened the first book, it immediately instructed him that learning enchanting requires learning five new languages. FIVE!

No wonder Master Elias told him that some people took years to master the basics of enchanting. Studying five languages alone would take years, not to mention the Enchanting itself.

It turns out, he was wrong. Maybe he was just overreacting or underestimating his own talent. Within just these two days, he was able to learn the first two languages and while doing so, he finally got the gist of the remaining three—making it ten times easier to learn the remaining languages.

Once learning those languages, Enchanting itself turned out to be easier than expected.

Basically enchanting is similar to inscribing runes. However, Runes are more flexible and can be used for more than just enhancing the properties of objects. In layman’s terms, Enchanting is more focused on enchanting objects while Runes can also do the same but at the same time, do other different things.

Think of it like a motorcycle as Enchanting and a car as Runes. The former is used mainly for transportation while the latter is the same, except cars also have other things such as a roof over your head against the rain, or comfortable seats that you can sleep on, and even have an air conditioner to cool your body.

Motorcycles have none of those, their only focus is transportation itself. That’s what Enchantment is used for.

And since Enchanting only has one purpose compared to Runes, it is much easier to learn and implement.

Henry recalled learning a single rune character with the fire element. It was during his time in Arendelle, when he and Elsa were planning to build an entertainment park, Disneyland made out of nothing but ice.

He remembered how long it took him to learn that single rune by himself and how much focus he had to invest.

”Once I master Enchanting. I’ll enchant all my clothes and accessories. Maybe even Lily’s wooden toys. They’re prone to termites and he doesn’t want to deal with her cries and tantrums once she wakes up to her chewed-up wooden toys.” Henry murmured to himself, making it a number one priority in his mind.

He shifted his focus back on the book in his hand, hands away from the reins thanks to his tacit understanding with Boy. The horse has learned how to stick to the road in front of him without accidentally getting distracted.

———

Another day has passed and Henry was atop a tall hill while overseeing the small Kingdom of Ironmere from a distance. A few miles away from it was a thick patch of heavy jungle. Thick with trees, grasses, and a mist that hides the forest’s beauty.

Henry muttered, ”That must be the Moors Forest. Looks more depressing than I imagined.” He turned his eyes back to the Ironmere Kingdom and continued, ”I should grab Alex first and punch him back flying to Lioncrest. As long as he’s not around, Maleficent wouldn’t be provoked by him like what happened in Master Elias’s vision.”

”Let’s go, Boy!”

———

”Heard anything about that idiot Prince?” Atop the high walls surrounding Ironmere Kingdom, a few patrol knights were lazily lounging around, contrary to what they were assigned to do.

”Shhh! Don’t let the others hear you say that! Prince Alex is an esteemed guest of the King. Not to mention, the background he represents!” One of his fellow knights moved to silence the reckless man.

”But still, it’s my first time actually seeing a prince belonging to one of the five Great Kingdoms. Can’t say I’m surprised with his attitude. Even His Highness was being disrespected inside his very own territory. What a scumbag.”

”Right.”

”Hey, look over there. What’s that?” Suddenly, among the patrol knights, only one was doing their job and the said knight saw something from a distance.

When the others turned to look, they were surprised to see a man riding a horse towards the gates. His outfit consisted of a long dark cloak with golden linings. A shiny sheathed sword resting on his waist.

One of the knights quickly went forward and shouted with raised hands, ”Halt! State your purpose in coming to this Kingdom!”

The cloaked man, whom they’ll know later as Henry, removed his hood, revealing his face, ”I am the Crown Prince of Lioncrest, Henry Charming. I have come regarding the former Prince Alexander from Lioncrest.”

To prove his identity, Henry revealed a golden metallic badge with the Lioncrest insignia carved into the middle.

The patrol knights were overwhelmed by the introduction. First, a prince from one of the Five Great Kingdoms strutted into their kingdom a few days ago, acting like he owns the place.

And now another one shows up and not only that, the new guest possesses a higher status than the previous Prince.

”Did I hear that right or did he just refer to Prince Alexander as a former Prince? That means he’s no longer a prince anymore, right?”

”Should we let him in?”

”I’m not sure. What is he even doing here though? Prince Alexander has already left this morning…”

Unbeknownst to the patrols, Henry’s sharp hearing caught on to their whispering, and as soon as he heard the last one, he cursed under his breath.

”Shit! I was late!”