The celebration was finally in full swing!
After hours of preparation, with Queen Olivia personally overseeing the entire affair, the ballroom had now been fully decorated. Rows upon rows of tables, now having guests sitting around them, several long tables decorated to the sides with all of today's menu lined up on the surface, and of course, the servants standing on each corner of the ballroom, ready to move at a moment's notice if ever someone needed assistance.
And last but not the least, the main characters of this party.
Cling! Cling! Cling!
The castle's steward, Sebastian, stood in the top center of the ballroom with the wide flight of stairs behind him. He gathered everyone's attention by softly colliding the metal spoon to his glass.
When everyone's eyes were finally upon him, he flashed an aged smile, wrinkles forming on certain parts of his face.
"All rise, all lords, ladies and gentles, pray silence for His Majesty King Maximus Charming III and Her Majesty, Queen Olivia Charming, will now grace us with their presence…"
The wide doors swung open as soon as he finished speaking. King Maximus and Queen Olivia stepped out with all the elegance and finesse they've accumulated throughout their lifetime.
The moment they came into view and started descending down the flight of stairs, everyone in the ballroom stood straight and clapped their hands, a common courtesy among nobles and all the elites of the world.
Both Maximus and Olivia wore charming smiles on their faces. Waving their hands and scanned the crowd below.
Olivia's smile widened when she saw her father, the Grand Duke, standing among the others and clapping his hands also, still bearing that familiar proud smile of his.
She also spotted her circle of friends, a group of elite women, mostly wives of wealthy merchants and nobles.
On the other hand, the same goes for Maximus who already spotted the whiskeys and wines sitting on each table, more specifically those on the main table where he, and the royal family of Lioncrest would sit.
He's already salivating and licking his lips when he saw them.
"You look very good, Your Majesties," Sebastian added in a whisper the moment they passed him by.
"Thank you Sebas. You look very good yourself." Maximus patted him on the shoulders and made their way to their table, receiving a few more compliments from the others.
Sebastian cleared his throat, looking up behind him and after getting a thumbs-up from one of the servants, he turned his attention back to the crowd and added, "And behold! His Royal Highness, Son of the Crown, Pride of this Kingdom, The Sun Prince, The Lawmaker, The Heavenly Prince, Down-To-Earth Prince, The Evil Slayer, and 17 more titles, Henry Charming. We gather by Royal Decree to celebrate the day of his birth. Honor your Crown Prince!"
Sebastian had to lick his dry lips after all those titles he just mentioned.
This time, when Henry finally showed up, the applause was surprisingly louder than that of the King and Queen's entry earlier. The most notable reason one could immediately notice was that several ladies were squealing and clapping their hands with extreme vigour!
Which only amplified when he showed his infamous smile that was said to have hooked all the women across the realm.
"Look at this guy…" Samantha rolled her eyes with her eyes crossed. She was sitting at the table with her mother and her grandfather on her mother's side, an elderly Baron.
"Truly the gods are unfair. How could someone so perfect exist?" His grandfather scratched his beard with a gleam in his eyes.
To which Samantha scoffed when she heard that, "Perfect? Oh please, that guy is far from perfect. He's a manipulative bastard who takes advantage of everything anytime he gets."
"What made you so grumpy about him all of a sudden, Samantha? Last I heard, you're disinterested in the affairs of your eldest brother. What changed?" When her mother heard her father's words, she excitedly looked at Samantha.
Could this unimpressed daughter of hers finally be interested in taking the throne for herself?
"How could I not? He stole my diary and showed it to the world to see! What if he saw t-those things that I wrote in them! I would die from embarrassment!" Her cheeks quickly earned a reddish tint as she revealed the reason.
In an instant, her mother's excitement was doused like a flame. Her shoulders slumped and she leaned her body back on the chair.
The Baron rolled his eyes; he was not going to question what his granddaughter was hiding in her diary that made her act like this, he just turned his attention back to Prince Henry, once again calculating how to turn the odds in his favor.
At this point, practically anyone with enough intelligence-gathering capability, could deduce that the two princes were out of the competition, one was shifted to a lifetime of labour in the mines while the fate of the other was yet to be revealed but rumors were already circulating that he had met his end.
And now no one is left to stand a chance for the throne.
'Since Samantha can't be relied on anymore. I'll have to make changes to my plan…'
———
"Happy birthday, Prince Henry!"
"Prince Henry, I wish you the greatest birthday!"
"May you have many more long healthy years to come!"
"Since you're turning 18 now, what are your thoughts about marriage proposals. If I may introduce my daughter…"
Henry received a mix of compliments with pure intentions and those with hidden ones. Of course, he expertly responded to each of them without blinking an eye. He's practically trained nearly a whole year of his life for things like this after all.
When he finally got to the royal table, there were his parents and Lily. The former two greeted him with hugs and kisses while the latter simply waved the fried chicken leg at him while her mouth was full.
"Happy birthday, son. I know I've already said this earlier but you know how this goes." Maximus patted his shoulders and continued, "You're finally a man, aren't you? Or at least you already were, it was just you who decided that only being at the age of 18 is considered adult."
Right, he recalled the gobsmacked face of his father when he declared that 18 is the proper age to call someone an adult and responsible for their own actions and all those things he was familiar with back in his previous world. Back then, such a thing did not exist, child labour used to be a standard in the Kingdom back then.
He could already imagine the angry faces of those wealthy merchants and nobles who were forcing children to work for a very meager to almost non-existent income.
"Happy birthday dear! I can't wait for you to open our presents for you! I'm sure you will be absolutely delighted!" Olivia hugged him the tightest, almost choking him when she wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Thanks mother, father. Especially you, mother, for preparing everything for my birthday celebration."
"Oh, you…"
———
The celebration went into full swing. Each guest, starting with those with a higher standing, was the first to give their gifts to the prince.
The first one was a prince from another Kingdom, one of Lioncrest's closest trade allies.
"My Prince. This here is one of our family's greatest treasures, the Red Diamond Goblet. It never rusts, always shines all the time, and is made of Red Diamond, the rarest and most expensive jewel throughout the continent! Please accept my bearings!"
"Thank you, Prince Wilhelm." Henry accepted the gift with a smile. He made a note to himself to dismantle the goblet into pieces, he had no use for a goblet made of red diamond, but he had use for the red diamond itself.
The next one also came from a prince in a different Kingdom, "Our finest blacksmiths joined together to craft this masterpiece of a great axe. I dare say, it is the most exquisite great axe this world has ever seen!"
"Thank you, Prince Charles." He's going to use it to chop off trees.
"These boots are made of fine leather and embedded with expensive jewelry. Every step with it exudes your authority and wealth to everyone around you!"
"Thank you." He's going to give this to a random child on the street.
"Our greatest tailors banded together to create this braie that is a snug fit to your vigorous and well-toned lower body."
"Thanks." He's going to use it as a floor mat in his bathroom.
"Leather gloves made of our greatest…"
"Thanks." This would serve him well when tending to the garden with his mother.
"A chair."
"Thanks." A good weapon to smash someone's face in.
Several other gifts were presented to him. Most of the time, they were useless and only served as nothing but expensive items he could show off to others, which he clearly despises. He prefers those that would actually be useful for him.
Such an example of it was the gift that Princess Anna gave him, "Here, Elsa told me to give this to you." She said with a pouty glare towards him, it seemed she finally heard what the commotion earlier was about, and knowing he had other girls aside from her sister probably made her angry at Henry.
Henry ignored the glare and stared at the piece of folded paper in her hand, he turned his head back to Anna, "Why didn't Elsa give this herself?" He assumed she was simply mad at him that she made Anna present the gift instead.
"I don't know. She told me to tell you to open the paper and you'll know." After shoving the paper into his hands she left.
Of course, this scene left many frowning. In their minds, the girl is either bold or stupid for the show of disrespect. Which of course, neither Henry nor Anna cares, they know each other well enough for something like this to be the norm.
When Henry opened the paper, his face immediately turned red and he quickly hid the paper in his pocket.
The exact same words were written: I'll give you my gift later in your room when there's only the two of us.
Now he realizes what she meant about not taking a bath after the party in her last letter.
'She clearly wrote this before the revelation of Ariel and Rapunzel. Considering she still gave it to me, there's still a chance to make amends.'
"What was in the paper, dear?" His ever-curious mother couldn't help but ask after seeing his reaction.
Henry cleared his throat and made a gesture of not wanting to divulge in this topic, "Nothing." Thankfully she knew better than to press him.
The next gift came from Ariel, "Henry! Look at my gift! I chose this personally for you!" When she presented her gift, he saw that it was a book.
[The Prince and the Mermaid]
Ariel then went on to explain, and that just amplified the value of the book a thousand times!
"I-I used the reference of other books I have, so I wrote this one myself…"
Henry accepted it with a smile, "This looks great, Ariel. Thank you."
Ariel fiddled with her fingers, pushing a strand of hair to the back of her ear before leaving with a skip on her step.
The next and the final useful one belonged to Rapunzel, "I-I painted it myself." It was a canvas, displayed on it was the greatest piece of artwork Henry had ever seen.
It depicts a wide expanse of green scenery, high hills, trees, and a bright blue sky, standing in the center is Henry, wearing the same outfit when he first met Rapunzel. Of course, he's not alone in the painting, in his arms was Rapunzel in a princess carry, both flashing a smile at each other.
"It's very beautiful, Rapunzel. Thank you. I will make it the center painting in my room once this is over."
Rapunzel wanted to kiss and hug Henry there and then but she remembered about earlier and refrained from doing so. As of now, she's working hard with Ariel to convince Elsa.
And that was all the gifts that Henry considers useful. A letter that will lead to a certain favourable event, a book about his heroic deeds with a mermaid, and a beautiful painting depicting the beauty of his adventure with the lost princess.
Of course, the most useful among the three was the letter but he's not going to admit it out loud.
———————————
[If you think this birthday arc is boring then yes it is but it is also the last arc before the climax of the story. So expect things to pick up after this.]