Henry wiped the sweat off his forehead by the time he was finished and left the basement. He already got the information he needed and the things she babbled made Henry's face turn grim.
His hunch was right. It was indeed Samantha who collaborated with the Coven to help take down the royal Castle's magic defenses.
It was her initiation to join the Coven, they told her. It turns out, ever since Henry started learning to cast magic, Samantha envied how fun and convenient magic is, without any harmful agenda initially.
When she expressed this interest to her mother, Clarissa instantly pressed her that this might be her only chance to compete for the throne, so she pushed her to learn magic. All while instilling rebellious thoughts that learning magic would make her more qualified to sit on the throne.
That's when things took a dark turn. When Master Elias refused to take her as his student, Clarissa took that opportunity to brainwash her again.
"He rejected you because he's afraid of what you can do. If you learn magic, you'll be able to dethrone your brother and that senile old man will lose his power over the Kingdom."
"He wants you to stay as a loser so you don't discover your real potential."
"Don't worry, mommy knows someone who might be able to help."
Samantha had been living her life without an ounce of interest in anything, but the day came when she finally found something that would fuel her purpose in life, only for it to be snatched away just because she was a threat to her brother.
Or at least that's how the narrative goes according to Clarissa. In truth, Master Elias simply refused to teach her due to her lack of magical potential.
Just like that, her sister turned to the dark side.
Henry rubbed the bridge of his nose. It turns out, Clarissa knows someone who is connected to the Coven. And through that connection, Samantha was recommended and was given a tool to disrupt the castle's magical defenses as part of her initiation.
Thankfully, it seemed like she was the only one who was included in the Coven's escape through teleportation considering she's now part of the Coven after passing the initiation, leaving her mother alone to fend for herself.
Which gave him the window of opportunity to unravel the truth.
———
Henry immediately went and relayed this discovery to Master Elias.
"It's just as I thought. I should've known something was off when she started leaving the castle more frequently compared to the last few months." The old master rubbed his long white beard while muttering to himself.
Henry stood on the side with crossed arms, "Unfortunately, I can't spend a few more soldiers to search for any clues regarding the Coven. The Kingdom is still in disarray and I'm gonna need as many people as I can to do my bidding."
Master Elias waved his hand to him in dismissal, "Leave the matter of the Coven to me for now. I want you to focus on your magic first. There's a reason the Coven revealed their existence to the public last week that I haven't uncovered yet. That was an aggressive and nonsensical move especially coming from the likes of them."
He turned around to face Henry, "Listen to me my boy. I heard about the Dark Magic repellent spell that you've been developing. I also attempted the same a few years back but I failed. However, perhaps this time, you're the one destined to finish what I started. Here, take this." A piece of notebook materialized in front of Henry.
"That's all of my notes regarding my research on the same spell, along with what I've gathered about the nature of dark Magic itself, you're gonna need that."
Henry grabbed the floating notebook, feeling the leatherite texture on his fingers, "Thank you, master."
Master Elias nodded his head and was about to leave, only for him to stop, "Oh, and by the way. From this point onward, you're no longer my apprentice. Congratulations Henry, you are now a qualified magician on your own."
Henry blinked his eyes several times in confusion, "Wait what? But you haven't taught me everything yet."
"Tsk tsk tsk, Henry my boy. Everything that I know, you'll eventually learn as you make progress in the path of magic. Besides, I've never heard of a student magician nearly decapitating a Red Witch from the Coven. Their rank among the Coven is high, only a third to the second-highest rank."
"Third to the second-highest rank?" Henry murmured in disbelief. Those three Red Witches were just third among the strongest in the Coven?
"But they were able to take down Triton, a literal god of the sea!" Henry argued.
Elias shook his head, "Correction, MINOR God of the Sea. And Gods aren't the type to go all out in every fight they get into. They have the so-called True Forms. Shedding their mortal bodies to ascend to the maximum heights of their real power. If Triton released his True Form that day, this entire Kingdom would've been erased from the face of this planet."
Henry shuddered in fear just by hearing the description. Previously, he couldn't fathom how the red witches were able to immobilize a god but it turns out, they must've been aware that Triton wouldn't dare to reveal his True Form lest he accidentally annihilate everyone around him, including his own daughters.
"Now you know why Gods rule the world under their feet. Don't dwell too much on it my boy. The power of the Gods is unreachable for the likes of us, mere mortals. Thinking too much about it would only give you a headache."
Elias tapped the bottom of his staff on the floor, activating the teleportation circle in his study, "And remember. You're a King now, it's time for you to man up and take good care of your home. Leave the matter of the gods aside and simply focus on training your magic, you are still far from the likes of me, Merlin, or his dreaded sister, Morgana."
With a blink of an eye, he was gone, teleporting away thousands of miles to god knows where.
Meanwhile, Henry sighed in defeat, "What am I doing with my life? There are beings out there that could trample me to death just by breathing and what am I gonna do about it? Shove my flame-coated fist that is probably akin to throwing a candle at them?"
Is he jealous of the gods? Yes, yes he is.
But would he let that thought consume him? No.
"If there's a will, there's a way. I recall there's something called Apotheosis where a mortal can ascend to godhood…I wonder if I'm capable of that."
———
"Seriously? Are you still angry at us? It's been like…a week. Come on, Elsa. At least appreciate our efforts!" Ariel stood in front of the ice Princess, her hands clasped together in a praying gesture. Behind her, Rapunzel nodded her head in support of her.
"Umu! Umu!"
Elsa crossed her arms and stared down at them, courtesy of her being slightly taller by a few inches.
This started two days ago. All of a sudden, their careful and mindful approach to getting her to say yes to them has turned aggressive, sometimes resorting to Ariel challenging her to a proper duel.
And Elsa is not someone who will back down from a duel especially one that will prove her love for Henry.
Ariel lost of course. Despite being a demigoddess, her water powers couldn't contend with Elsa's. Her ice powers were simply a huge counter as for every water attack she strikes her with, it all gets frozen and thrown back at her with a mere flick of her wrist.
As for Rapunzel, she's just a healer so she would just stay put on the sidelines and could only try to convince Elsa through sweet words and promises.
Elsa is partially curious what made them, especially Ariel this aggressive all of a sudden. So when she expressed this curiosity out loud to the two of them, both Ariel and Rapunzel glanced at each other.
Unbeknownst to her, Elsa wasn't the only one busy two days ago, the same day she and Henry were flipping each other on the bed.
If she bothered to open the door that night, she would stumble across two heads pressed against the surface of the door, eavesdropping on their moans.
Seeing the looks that the two were giving each other, Elsa raised an eyebrow in suspicion.
'Something smells suspicious…'
———
While his three women were at it again, Henry returned to his study that had now transformed from a simple office-like room to a more complex mix of simple study and magical study room.
Now Henry can juggle between handling the matters of the Kingdom while practicing his magic at the same time.
Looking over the stacks of paper atop his table, Henry sighed. Thankfully, he had already proposed the establishment of various departments in different fields across the Kingdom.
Finance, agriculture, defense, military, knighthood, police departments, science, livestock, monster and bandit hunting, and even magical matters of the Kingdom.
Of course, the latter department only has two members for now: Elias and Henry himself. In the future, Henry plans to take in students and maybe even establish the very first magical school on the continent.
The potential of magic is staggering, the benefits outweigh the threat it presents.
Putting that aside, those departments wouldn't be established that easily. It's still being reviewed by his advisors and that itself is not a problem, even if they're his advisors, he still has the final say even if they're against it.
The thought of the King sharing his power with other people doesn't sit well with them. Of course, the same can be said of Henry but it is something that must be done.
He's just one man and doing all this paperwork every single day is a huge waste of his time so delegating his responsibility to a few well-educated individuals especially those who specialize in the aforementioned fields is the only way.
As for sharing his power? Not exactly, those departments only answer to him, so all paperwork they approve and sign will be compiled in a single report paper.
While Kingdom-wide decisions will be approved and signed only by him.
For example, if there's paperwork regarding a simple farmer asking for an extermination of a few pests, the department head will be the one to approve it and then summarize it in a monthly report.
But city-wide/Kingdom-wide paperwork such as doubling the pay of every farmer under the banner of Lioncrest Kingdom, will have to be sent to him and can only be approved by him alone.
There's also the matter of fund requests by the departments. To ensure no corruption might happen, only 5,000 gold coins will be allocated to each department each year, not small but also not big.
Not to mention, if there are no notable improvements made by the departments in the field they're assigned to, the head and all of its key members would be forced to step down.
While Henry himself will be the one to decide who will replace them.
Compared to his previous world, these terms and conditions sound similar to a dictatorship. However, considering the government structure of the Kingdom for the past few years where the King and his royal family members were the only ones who held absolute control over the Kingdom.
His move of delegating a few responsibilities to other people would be seen as diminishing and sharing the crown's power.
That alone is enough for everyone.