Chapter 145: Darkness surged!

By the time Henry woke up, Ariel was already gone. When he asked the servants around, he learned that she had already left with a heavy blush on her face, as they described.

Ignoring their knowing looks, Henry went through his morning routine—exercising, washing, and eating breakfast with his mother and Lily — before attending to his matters.

However, before he could even get to his study, he was intercepted by none other than Elsa.

She had her arms crossed and a look on her face that said, ‘I know what you did’.

Henry simply pointed at her, “She told me you agreed though. Don’t tell me I’m about to get reprimanded.”

She snorted, “Of course not, just want to see if you’re already thinking of replacing me with her. Glad to see you’re not.”

“And let you freeze my balls off? No, thank you.” Henry replied and walked past her, gesturing for her to follow him.

Entering his study, he was barely fazed by a huge stack of paperwork sitting on the table. Before establishing the departments, the stacks of paperwork were ten times as much as this.

“I heard about what happened to the Vikings. You really showed them the consequences of messing with you, huh?” Elsa elegantly took a seat on the couch nearby while Henry busied himself with the paperwork.

“I had to. They must’ve thought that Lioncrest would be easy to push around now that my father is gone.”

“But you’re aware that their Gods, for some reason, are very active, right? You’re not afraid of incurring a God’s wrath?”

Henry allowed himself to smile, “And why do you think I should be afraid? I have Ariel and her father, not to mention her grandfather and the rest of the Greek Gods.”

“And did I forget to tell you that Ra, one of the Sun Gods, gave me his blessing? If those Nordic Gods are smart enough, they’ll know that it would be better to leave mortal matters to mortals.”

Sensing the confidence in his tone, Elsa decided to drop the matter. She was only concerned for Henry’s sake, but if everything he said was true, then she had nothing to worry about.

“Sounds like it’s only a matter of time before you get your grip on the North.”

Henry grinned, “That’s right. Soon, I’ll be uniting the entire continent under a single banner, officially and unofficially.”

Whether or not that will take time, Henry assumed it would be years. The continent is vast, and not to mention, he hasn’t made any progress on the Southern and Eastern lands yet.

———

The next few weeks passed without a hitch. Henry’s daily routine consists of delegating skirmish tasks to his Generals and Commanders, approving and establishing a few projects such as granting more empty lands for farmers to farm, a hospital dedicated to nurturing aspiring healers, and catering to the common folk with affordable prices—there’s no reason for Henry to charge high prices and profit from the people when his treasury is already brimming with wealth that could buy an entire Kingdom.

Whatever the Hospital earns would be used as its own fund while the extra would be given to the healers as their temporary income.

Aside from those, he’s even expanding the existing projects such as assigning a few police squads to nearby villages and towns, helping establish order, and making the roads for merchants and traders safer from bandits.

On the other hand, Lily is now attending the royal academy. She kept crying about it for a whole day at first but once she got through the first day of school, she was all smiles and kept telling stories about her day in the academy with her friends every dinner.

Their mother, Olivia, took it upon herself to wake up early to prepare for Lily’s breakfast, much to the reluctance of the castle’s chefs, while also dropping her off and picking her up from the academy. Henry noted that the reason she was doing this was perhaps to spend the rest of her remaining time with her loved ones. With Henry as the sole ruler of the Empire, Olivia had long stepped down from her role as the Queen.

Of course, Lily’s academy days wouldn’t hinder her magical studies. Henry had already crafted a schedule for her. Twice a week, she would train with him, while the rest would be spent with Lily practicing all she learned by herself.

Even though her talent is almost on par with Henry’s, her affinity with the elements wasn’t the same. When Henry measured her affinities, it only counted Air and Water affinities, unlike Henry whose affinities cover the four elements.

And with her magical skills, Henry wouldn’t have to worry whether she would be bullied in the academy, not to mention that her brother is the literal Emperor of the very ground that the Academy is standing upon.

Putting his family aside, there were several huge improvements in the capital city of Lioncrest. The sewages were halfway done, which means the streets are going to be cleaned both to the sight and also to the smell, and new buildings were introduced.

Guilds.

Engineering Guild, Adventurer Guild, Blacksmith Guild, and many more. These institutions would soon serve their purpose of breeding—not in a literal sense—men with specific skills for specific jobs.

The names themselves are self-explanatory. The Engineering guild would be a place where aspiring Engineers would be taught and the existing ones would offer their services not just to the Lioncrest Empire but throughout the entire Central Lands. While the top-notch Engineers would remain exclusive engineers for the Lioncrest Empire.

The Adventurer Guild on the other hand, is influenced by the fantasy novels that Henry once read in his past life. A commission board would be displayed inside the establishment where anyone could post their requests, ranging from picking up herbs, transporting items, escorting individuals, and even slaying wolves, and bandits. Adventurers would be able to take those commissions and do their absolute best to complete them.

Ranks would be issued depending on how many commissions were completed along with their success rate.

This is also Henry’s secret way to determine talents throughout his Empire and recruit them personally once they’ve proved themselves enough.

Next is the blacksmith guild, it’s a community of blacksmiths where blacksmiths could promote their services and business. Henry only established this for one purpose.

To gather all the great blacksmiths throughout the continent, entice them with ranks as achievements, and unite all of them under a single banner where Lioncrest could easily use their services for the greater good of the Empire.

There are also other minor guilds that aren’t currently important. Such as the Music Guild. As someone who lived in a world where music is very pronounced, he’s been craving for something good to listen to aside from Elsa and Ariel’s moans in his bedroom.

Considering that there are already well-known troubadours and Bards around the continent, Henry only needed to submit his ideas by introducing more musical instruments such as a Saxophone, Clarinets, and a violin, which is like an upgraded version of the vielle.

After introducing them to a few crafters and carvers, all that’s left is to wait for them to invent those instruments, come up with a good way to use them, and soon, the music industry, or whatever currently exists will see itself rise with Lioncrest Empire at the center.

———

Several months have passed, and something unexpected came up. It happened during Henry’s visit to a newly opened theater when news was delivered to him in the middle of the play.

The scouts he sent to search for the Cave of Wonders came back with a grave report. They did manage to find the place but the guardian, the carved face of a tiger spoke to them.

“What you have come to seek, has already been acquired by another.”

Which could only mean one thing, the wishing lamp has been obtained by the Coven.

‘But how could that be? I’ve sent people to keep a close watch on Aladdin, and a few days ago, there was nothing noteworthy happening to the boy.’

Henry couldn’t help but rub his stubble. Now that he’s already in his teens and he had been lifting weights for a few months, his facial hair is starting to grow faster with the help of his testosterone.

He once had considered trimming it, but Elsa and Ariel liked them very much, especially when he stuffed his mouth in the middle of their legs.

Standing up, he gave a quick apology to the Stage Manager who seemed to be disappointed to see the Emperor miss out on his well-produced play.

‘I’ll see to it to attend the next time.’

When Henry got back to the castle, he didn’t even get to the second floor when he was ambushed by Elias.

“Your Majesty, there is a grave matter that you should look into.”

Judging by the look on his aged face, Henry could immediately tell that the news he received earlier was connected to whatever matter that Elias was telling him about.

“Let’s speak in my study.”

———

“The Galium and Thedas continent was submerged in darkness. A gratifying darkness where even the sun’s light cannot touch.” Elias then proceeded to explain to him how he came to know of it.

“The fate, the fate told me herself. It was another dream, Henry. More potent…” As if afraid that Henry wasn’t believing him, Elias pulled back his loose sleeve to show his blackened forearm.

Henry’s eyes widened in surprise as the aura of darkness surged and caught him off guard. It’s like smelling rotten eggs on the first day of the morning, but this one is ten times worse than that.

“Master, what happened to you?!”

“That’s the question I’ve been asking myself since earlier. This was inflicted on me during that dream.”

“What happened in your dream, Master. As far as I know, dreams aren’t supposed to affect your body in real time.”

Shaking his head, Elias explained, “That’s what I thought too. But this one is different. In my dream, I was in the middle of a field that I recognize. It was my hometown, where I grew up. And since it’s my hometown, I immediately knew I was on the continent of Thedas, it is northeast of our continent.”

His tone took a grim turn, “Everything felt real, too real that I almost thought I accidentally teleported myself to that place. But then, the sky turned dark, it’s different from what night skies usually look like.

“That particular sight is devoid of anything, there are no stars, no clouds, and even the sun itself disappeared. It crashed down on the ground just as fast as it appeared in the sky. There were no warnings, no explosive sounds. It simply devoured everything in its path, whether it was a tree or a house, even a man and a woman weren’t spared.”

He then raised his blackened arm, “It looks just like this, but worse. I tried to outrun it but I failed, it caught up to me. I raised my hand to cast a spell and right as soon as it came in contact with the darkness, I woke up with this.”

Henry fell silent for a few seconds, his mind taking its time to figure everything out and register Elias’s words.

“…Only the gods are capable of doing something like this but I doubt they’re dumb enough to submerge the world in darkness…” His mind wandered to the report he received earlier. It didn’t take long for him to connect the dots.

“The wishing lamp. Only the Genie who wields god-like powers can do this. Earlier, my scouts sent a report that the Wishing Lamp is no longer in its rightful place in the Cave of Wonders. Which means someone has got their hands on a slave that could grant anyone anything they desire.”

“Worse, only the Coven has been actively seeking this lamp months ago. Master, I need to find the Coven. I’ll head to the Southern Lands now!”