Henry spent the entire night without any sleep. What should've been a fun day for him because of his birthday had turned into the most disastrous day ever in his entire life.
Trying to keep the news contained within the royal castle was very hard, especially when every single guest knew the death of the King, not to mention some of those guests belonged to reputable backgrounds.
So convincing them to stay quiet about what happened for three days took a little form of payment and exchange of favours.
To the outside world, especially to the citizens of Lioncrest, they only heard that a bunch of assassins attacked the royal family but since there were no reports of any casualties, they deemed the assassination attempt a failure and continued with their lives.
"Where the hell is Samantha? Did anyone find her yet?" Henry asked one of the servants who shook her head in return.
Henry frowned when he received the answer. For some reason, there was a subtle feeling of suspicion in his chest. It's too much of a coincidence for Samantha, who has remained quiet for years, to suddenly disappear on the same day as the Coven attacked.
'No, let's not dive too deep into assumptions yet. I'll get the answers once I find her.'
After that, Henry resumed his duties around the castle. One of the first things he did was to send several scouts to track the whereabouts of the Coven. Unfortunately, since the three red witches left through some sort of teleportation means, this task was nearly impossible.
Meanwhile, the dead coven members were stripped naked and a few of his intelligence operatives tried to uncover their identities but to no avail, their faces were unknown even when they reached out to the records of nearby towns and villages.
They're simply a bunch of ghosts who probably never existed anywhere near Lioncrest and its neighboring Kingdoms.
On the other hand, Henry wasn't working alone this time. With his mother still incapacitated and Lily still in the dark about their father's death, the company of Elsa, Ariel, and Rapunzel gave Henry a small breathing space by shouldering a few of his duties.
As for King Triton, the man left with Ariel's sisters, and although adamant about leaving Ariel alone in Lioncrest, it seems like the minor god of the sea has come to trust Henry a little bit.
Ariel then went to the waters nearby Lioncrest territory, to probe around and see if there were any clues regarding the attack.
While Rapunzel kept herself busy by using her powers to heal some of the injured guests and knights.
As for Elsa, she stuck with Henry most of the time, acting like his assistant and wife at the same time. From time to time, she would help him relax by massaging his shoulders and even cooking him breakfast and meals with the help of the servants. She's doing her best to serve him both physically and emotionally, knowing full well that Henry was still grieving his father's death and was only putting a brave front as the new unofficial King of Lioncrest.
And if Henry doesn't need those aforementioned things, she would go on to help him assess the reports and damages, and even used her ice powers to construct several temporary structures to distract the citizens of Lioncrest, so the people wouldn't delve too much into the attack and notice that their King has been missing.
Meanwhile, Master Elias went ahead to investigate how the Coven were able to bypass his defensive measures and execute a well-planned assassination right under his nose.
It took the old man a whole day to come to a conclusion.
"Let me make this clear. You're telling me that the runes were destroyed from the inside?"
Master Elias nodded his head with a grim look on his face, "An internal instrument was used to effectively disable all of my defensive runes and even though I've long accounted for possible traitors who might attempt something like this, the defensive measures from the inside are much weaker compared to the outside."
This time, there was no doubt about it in Henry's mind. With Samantha missing for a whole day and a possible traitor inside the Royal Castle, there could only be one answer to this.
It was Samantha who betrayed the family.
Considering how The Coven consists of only females as their members, Henry had a hunch about what possible reason Samantha could've come up with to leave everything behind in chaos.
'She wants to join the Coven. A few weeks earlier, she once asked Master Elias if she could train magic under him only to be rejected…'
Even though it's still just speculation, the possibility of this theory being true is definitely more than 50%.
Henry rubbed his forehead, out of all his siblings, he did not expect Samantha to be the one to cause the most trouble not just to him but also to the entire Kingdom of Lioncrest.
The unassuming girl who showed no interest in the throne turned out to be a wolf hiding in sheep's clothing!
'I should've known. I should have…' Henry continued to rub his forehead and continued, 'Alright, let's put that aside for now.'
He asked a servant to call for Flynn. The man arrived a few minutes later with a determined expression, "What do I need to do?" The former thief already knew Henry would need his set of skills when he received the call.
Henry nodded his head, appreciating the man's straightforward attitude, "Even though Samantha has disappeared, her mother didn't. My scouts said they found her leaving this morning on a carriage with her family. I need you to do two things for me, search for any clues in her manor, anything, as long as you think it's suspicious, and once you do, go back to me and I'll give you the fastest horse to chase after her."
"And when I caught up to her?"
Henry tapped his finger on the table, "…One out of ten, how good are you at kidnapping a person without alerting anyone?"
Flynn smirked before responding, "Consider it 11. I'll bring her back gagged and tied up. Not even a fly would see us."
"Good. Take this map, it's where her manor is located. It's on the outskirts of the Outer District, her father is a Baron, so watch out for any possible guards."
Flynn took a single look over the map, noting the red-painted X on it before tucking it away, "I'll be back." Before leaving with a stride.
For three whole days straight, Henry barely got a wink of sleep. Thanks to the Sun God's blessing, he never needed any sleep or food. Though he was still consuming food since Elsa was forcing him to and eating good food can sometimes help to relax the mind.
During these 3 days, Flynn came back from the manor, and what he found further solidified Henry's suspicions. Several burnt letters with a vague symbol of the Coven, books about magic that clearly don't belong to Master Elias's personal library, and last but not least, a faint mark of a teleportation circle in Samantha's room that is eerily similar to the teleportation circle that Master Elias uses.
It's already confirmed at this point that it was Samantha who betrayed them. As for the involvement of her mother, that's a question that will soon be answered once Flynn comes back after departing this morning.
"Mom? How're you feeling?" Arriving at his parents' bedchambers, Henry found his mother lying on the bed, clutching onto one of his father's shirts, she was sniffing on it, trying her best to etch the smell of her husband into her memory so she wouldn't forget it once the years had passed without him by her side.
"…I miss him. I miss his smell, his voice, his laugh. Everything about him." Was the faint reply of the former Queen of Lioncrest.
Henry softly sat on the bed beside her and replied, "Me too, Mom. Me too."
After that, there was a short silence to which Henry broke off as he delivered some news.
"Grandpa Albert has already arranged father's funeral. He's also spreading the word of what happened to him as we speak." When he spoke those words, he was a slight bit hesitant, minding his own words just in case it brought up a traumatic memory for his mother.
Thankfully, it seems like three days of nothing but grieving and lying on their bed have helped her in recovery.
"Is that so? Then make sure he's remembered as a hero. Lioncrest's greatest Hero. I don't want him to be forgotten."
"Grandpa Albert knew you'd say that. Don't worry, we made sure that the entire continent won't forget him ever."
"Good…That's good…" There was a soft smile plastered across his mother's face when he said that.
———
"I can't believe this…His Majesty is dead?"
"Who could've done such an atrocity!"
"Heretics! Only a bunch of heretics would dare murder our great King!"
"What do we do now?"
"How about Her Majesty and Prince Henry? Are they okay?"
Once the knights delivered the news with grave expressions, it took the entire Kingdom by storm. Shocked gasps filled each part of the Kingdom, people stopped in their tracks, dropping whatever they were doing to register the news.
Some outright dropped to their knees and sobbed. While others were ready to raise their pitchforks and launch a deadly war against whoever killed their precious King.
While others felt pity especially for Olivia as the wife and Henry as the son. Some of them personally knew how it feels to lose a loved one, although they assumed it is more painful for Henry as it happened on the same day as his birthday, a supposed happy day for him and his family has turned into one of the most tragic in the entire history of Lioncrest Kingdom.
While every Lioncrest citizen mourned the loss of their King, Henry was staring at himself in the mirror. He was in all-black formal attire, a black suit that he personally requested from the royal family's tailor 2 days ago.
"He's really gone huh…." He murmured to himself, speaking as if he still couldn't believe that someone he was just speaking and having fun with was already gone.
Everything just happened so fast he could barely react in time.
After checking himself out and deeming everything ready, he went out and approached his parents' room. His mother was also in formal attire, she was sitting on the bed, staring straight into the wall with something clearly going on in her mind.
"Mom? It's time to go. I'll go get Lily."
Olivia shared a melancholic smile and nodded her head, "I'll follow after you, dear. Just give me a bit more…time."
"…Okay."
Speaking of Lily, she did not take the news kindly. As he approached her room, he could hear her screams and the servants trying to hold her back.
"No! Papa's alive! He's not dead! You're lying!"
He stopped in his tracks, holding his tears back from falling. Yesterday, he was the one who broke the news to her, explaining a few pieces of what happened.
That was also the same day that he saw Lily truly get angry at him. She scratched his face, tried to escape and see Dad for herself, refusing to eat and all that.
Even until now, the little girl refuses to accept the fact that her father, despite not being related by blood, was no longer with the living.
He knocked on the door and a sweaty breathless servant greeted him who sighed in relief.
"Your Highness, she's just too stubborn, she's even trying to hurt herself. We can't handle her like this…"
Henry can clearly see on the woman's face that she's already way beyond exhausted. Normally, handling children like this shouldn't be this hard but this is a royal family we're talking about, even a simple slap on the wrist would be considered a crime against the royal family.
Henry nodded his head in understanding, "I see. Leave us be. I'll handle this."
There was a look of relief plastered across the servant's face, and not just her but even the other servants like her from behind.
"Thank you so much, Your Highness. We'll take our leave now."
Just like that, they were gone, leaving Henry alone with the tear-stricken Lily.
"Henry….is Dad really dead? T-That can't be right? H-He's strong, he can't die!"
"…I'm sorry little bud."