During these one and a half weeks, Aladdin has been consolidating his training by training with the magicians and the soldiers of the Empire.
As Aladdin, he gained excellent strength, speed, agility, reflexes, and became a skilled tactician, hand-to-hand combatant, and thief. To put it simply, he was a peak human athlete, and those who could surpass him at such a level could only be counted on one hand.
He had honed these skills himself, having awakened his memories at a very young age, so he was very aware of his abilities. Now that he could use magic, his capabilities had increased far beyond what could be considered human.
So he placed himself under the grinder, taking on multiple skilled soldiers and magicians and defeating them. After a while, it could be said that he was the one training them instead.
The only person who had come close was Rakim, but even he had suffered defeat after a few sessions of training.
The only person whom he couldn't defeat was Genie. Aladdin had tried to study Genie's magic skills whenever he cast them, but Genie himself was a magical being who previously stood at the apex of the universe, and every spell was similar to manipulating the very existence of the world.
It was as though there was a huge veil covering his very existence, hiding it from outside gaze. This was why it was difficult for even sorcerers to sense that Genie was an immensely powerful being, unless they were knowledgeable about what a Genie was, or unless he chose to reveal this information himself.
The only gain that Aladdin had successfully achieved was copying the structure of this magical veil to hide his own magical signature and creating copies of the spells that Genie had used during their training based on the knowledge of magic he possessed.
Because of this, they ended up as limitations, failing to grasp the caster's foundation and insight into the skills. Like a man lighting a fire on a stick shaped to look like a candle, compared to a man holding a genuine candlestick with a flame burning on its wax.
His wish gave him the means to achieve the impossible, but not the tools to do so.
This made him understand why Genie had advised him to build on his foundation. As such, Aladdin focused more on polishing his skills and taking them to unbelievable heights, even beginning to write down his own insights on magic to be published in the Imperial Magic Court's Library and the public library for others to read.
Still, an imitation was better than nothing, and once he learned about the foundation and was taught the insights from the individual, he could easily recreate the genuine version.
As such, his training with Genie always ended in a one-sided defeat, with him being carried out on a stretcher. Nonetheless, Aladdin was certain that he could easily defeat his former self, the one who had just walked into the Imperial Magic Court's Library to learn his first spell.
One of the reasons he had been training was that he was still unsure if there would be any interruptions during their wedding.
And while he had made plans beforehand and anticipated that Agrabah's and Ababwa's combined forces would be enough to thwart the Forty Thieves if they really did invade the ceremony, he wanted to end it as quickly as possible before they could create any chaos, since that was what they thrived on.
The only enemy that he wasn't certain he could defeat was Nasira. Because he wasn't that knowledgeable about her, like the Forty Thieves, Aladdin didn't know much about her capabilities, except for a few incredible feats, such as attempting to revive Jafar, suggesting her high attainment in necromancy and resurrection-level magic through magical artefacts, mind control, and the ability to banish Genie back to the Cave of Wonders.
She was a natural-born sorceress.
He had already warned Genie about her possible arrival beforehand.
Aladdin believed that he could still escape with several others if they encountered each other in battle.
They had also tried wiping out spies to prevent information from within the Kingdom from leaking outside, but no matter how much they did so, new ones would simply pop up into existence.
And even worse, the nobles also had their own spy networks, and things could get politically messy if they decided to purge every single one of them. The only thing they could do was control the information leaving the palace.
Abu didn't possess the same affinity for magic as him, so his progress was much slower. Aladdin focused on guiding him to get used to his newfound skills. Though he was still far from being capable of facing a skilled magician like Jafar, in a battle of brute strength, Abu would come out as the winner.
"Do you understand everything I said?" Nadine asked with a serious expression. She was beginning to doubt whether his mind had been with them at the start of the conversation.
"Yes, I did," Aladdin responded with a nod.
"You don't need to repeat it again."
"Fine, you better not forget anything, or we'll be waiting for you to teach you a lesson," Nadine said, folding her arms and nodding with a snort.
The other women sitting around him nodded with serious expressions as well.
Abu was in Sabina's hands as she fed him slices of fruit from the bowl beside them.
He didn't dislike the service. He joined in, nodding seriously at Aladdin.
Rajah lay on the floor beside them, calmly eating cooked meat from his feeding bowl.
"You should return to your quarters before anyone finds out that you are here," Jasmine said, grabbing Aladdin's hand and pulling him up. "It's against the rules, you know that, right?"
Aladdin nodded and grabbed Abu, allowing himself to be pulled to his feet. Before he turned around and bowed gently towards Nadine and the others.
"I'll see you later, ladies."
Then he was dragged to the door by Jasmine.
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