perizou
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Chapter 268 - Ring the wedding bells
🕑 Added 2021-06-28 13:00:09 +0000 UTC##### Author's Note ####
Here comes the bride, here comes the bride.... does anyone knows how the rest of the song goes?
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Vetek Rimmok woke up from his nap. With his long years as one of the masters of house Rimmok, he had developed an acute sense of time and knew that sundown wouldn't happen for a while. It was a good thing since now he would have time to check the work made by the commoners properly. He was in front of the wardrobe that he brought in here, picking what kind of outfit he should wear this time. Even though this was just a temporary outfit since he would soon return to get ready for the ceremony, Vetek would rather die than be caught with anything that wasn't his exquisite style. Deciding on a bright orange jacket with green pants, he moved on to his dresser to apply makeup. Some time passed before he finished and walked outside his office.
The butler was patiently waiting by the side of the door with a warm cup of milk. Vetek just picked up the glass and took a sip. Just as ordered, this was cow's milk. That wasn't available inside the room. It had to be imported from outside, but it was a delicacy fit for someone of noble blood such as himself.
He walked towards the ballroom where the reception would happen. His sixth sense was tingling, and that only happened when some stupid commoner had screwed up one of his projects. Of course, there wasn't a single helpful being among those uncultured neanderthals.
Passing through the kitchen, Vetek noticed the cooks all working together to prepare their dishes. It seemed that at least the commoners were able to decide on what would be the menu. It seemed that when it was something related to their stomach; they seemed to have some drive.
Crossing over to the main hall, the decorations surprised him. Somehow, there was a cloud on the ceiling and some smoke on the ground, splitting the entire ballroom apart. He looked around and saw his supposed assistants sitting on the staircase while drinking wine.
"What in blazes have you done?" Vetek stomped his feet while getting close to the humans.
"What? We decorated," Blue replied, not understanding his reaction.
"Where is the gold? Where are the sculptures? The candelabra? Did you waste all this time making smoke? How are the people supposed to watch the ceremony without a light?"
"Hey hey, chill the fuck down, man. We thought of that. We have these two candleholders by the stairs and a bunch of magic lights that the servers will make before the ceremony. During it, we will have less light, but they will make the princess's entrance more beautiful," Blue gestured to the four long candlesticks that were left after they had finished setting up the entrance.
"What are you talking about, girl? Commoners can't use magic."
"Are you that oblivious? Everyone can use magic. You just have to learn."
"I do not know what kind of madness has taken you over, but only those of noble blood can use magic, child. That is the type of common sense that you clearly lack," Vetek waved her off.
Blue stared at the small dwarf, considering if she should toss him like a frisbee to a wall, but she chose a different approach. Focusing on her hands, she created a cloud and threw it to the ground.
"Stop making a mess. The guest shall arrive shortly, and you…." Vetek stopped talking as Blue rose from the ground, floating with the help of the cloud she had just made, "What kind of sorcery is this? Who is helping this commoner trick me?"
"Exactly, this is magic. Everyone can use it, want to see?" Blue turned to the other servers who were waiting around, "Guys, everyone make a light in front of you."
Obeying her orders, all the servers created a small light spell and made it float a few meters above them. Hera had tried to show them how to make a dancing light, but they weren't very good with the random movements required for a dance, and having all the lights spinning around in a set pattern made the mystical cloud lose some of its mysticism.
"This! How dare you use magic!" Vetek turned back to Blue, "I shall have your head!"
"Oh please, try it. You seemed like a pain in the ass from the moment we got here, and I would love an excuse to drag your face through the floor," Blue jumped down from her cloud and got very close to Vetek.
"Sir, it's time to get dressed," his butler said without acknowledging anything that just happened.
Vetek turned back and clicked his tongue, "Fine. I shall delay your execution until after the ceremony, but don't let this fool you. I shall have your head on a spike by the end of the night."
Vetek stomped back to his office, leaving Hera and Blue in the ballroom.
"That guy is an ass," Blue scoffed.
"Yeah, and honestly, if this is the type of people in charge here, Boothudurn was a massive upgrade," Hera nodded.
"Side note. Do you think I can take him? My observe is still level 1. I can't see their levels."
"I didn't check, but nothing that would fight us here should be higher than level 10. Well, there are the guards by the castle, but they feel more like statues. I couldn't see their level, names, or anything. But I think you are fine. That guy should be all bark and no bite. If things go south, we just run to the exit. You remember where it is, right?" Hera replied.
"In the kitchen, right? By the 'freezer'."
"That is the freezer? I thought it was just a pantry."
"Nope, I asked one of the cooks. They have an ice stone there to keep things cold. The pantry is that room close to where they leave the dirty dishes."
Hera stopped for a moment to think, "How much of this do you think was actually what they did, and how much do you think is just the System making things more familiar to us? Because let's face it, it's kind of hard to imagine people over 15 hundred years ago actually being careful with dirty dishes and things like that."
"Are you saying that the System changed this dungeon just because we are the first ones to enter?"
"Not really, but it might have changed since the people of Boothudurn are less… medieval. Or we might actually be at fault. I don't know. It's the type of thing I don't think we'll ever have an answer to," Hera sighed.
They kept talking and waiting around until sundown. Blue and Hera discussed the idea of going out searching for more tasks, but they also didn't know if there would be an event that could ruin what they already had set up. As a result, they stayed around since they had completed the entire list of tasks. In reality, it wasn't as difficult as they expected. That was all thanks to the other servers who would help when they asked. This was probably a way for the system to make things fair for small groups. Even if larger parties could do the same, just having more hands to set up decorations and other things was incredibly helpful.
Another unexpected surprise was the menu. The dwarves here used a lot of moss and other fungi to make incredible dishes. They even had a steak that was entirely made of mushrooms. Despite being a huge carnivore, even Blue had to admit that it was delicious. The rest was pretty standard, a choice of mushroom or steak, pasta, some appetizers, and the cake for dessert. Deciding the menu was a simple task and ended up being a filling meal. Hera and Blue just had to sit around and take a bite of every dish before approving it and deciding the order that they would be served. Oddly, the dwarves were a bit confused when Blue put the soup as the second dish. People in the city tend to eat the soup after the main course, but the change made some of the chefs excited.
About half an hour after the small confrontation with Vetek, the first guests arrived. Hera checked her timer, and it was reading as 9 hours and 47 minutes. If she counted the time it took for them to cross that first hallway, get the quest, and Hera to set up the stopwatch, people should have 10 hours to finish setting up the ceremony. Hera and Blue walked outside to watch the guests and make sure nothing was going wrong. Another thing they were on the lookout for was the arrival of the princess. They had no idea if the dwarven tradition would follow modern-day weddings where the bride was the last one to arrive, and since their entire plan was banking on giving some special effects to her entrance, they had to be ready to start.
The guests all had a similar style to Vetek. All wore some sort of Victorian clothing, but there were some oddities. For one, there were a few couples where the man was the one wearing a ballgown while the woman had the puffy shirt and tight pants. Another strange thing was that when one couple or a single person walked by the gates in front of the venue, anyone else that arrived while they crossed the entrance would wait on the street.
Some time passed, and all the guests arrived. They all wore some of the same type of clothing, all but one. This single dwarf, wearing long robes covering their entire body, walked slowly and seemed to ignore the custom of not having anyone else in the entrance when they entered. The other dwarves also didn't seem to mind. It was almost like that specific person was either ignored or above the rules.
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Dwyn Orntop - Level 10 - Seer
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Hera told Blue what she found out about that individual, and the two agreed to try to talk with the seer later. A reward for the first clear of the dungeon would be related to tarot, and the seer could potentially give them some better ideas on how to use that. After everyone was inside, a carriage approached and entered the premises.
"I think that's the princess," Blue said just as one server rushed inside, and music started playing.
"Yep, that's our cue. Let's go," Hera walked into the ballroom before the princess could enter and sent off her dancing lights to their positions.
The other servers understood that this was the signal to snuff out their lights. Now only Hera's dancing lights illuminated the ballroom, aside from the candles by the stairs where the actual ceremony would happen. Hera controlled the lights to group up tight above the entrance and waited. The princess walked in wearing a cream-colored dress that had a long tail, a corset, and a veil with a crown on top. It also seemed like she was wearing a long-sleeved jacket filled with embroidery that covered part of the corset, but in reality, that was part of the dress. The princess had pale skin, long silver hair, and green eyes, but she had a stoic expression. It was almost like she was walking towards a trial and not her own wedding.
As she started walking, Hera made the dancing lights follow her, making one of the light shafts catch the bride's eyes. The princess looked up and saw the clouds illuminated by both the lights and the vines behind them. And for a split second, Hera could've sworn that she had smiled. However, as soon as her eyes went to who was waiting for her in the makeshift altar, her expression darkened.
Blue also noticed the change, and the two looked at the groom. He was a short, stubby dwarf with a long red beard and a warm smile. The man seemed to be older than the princess, but not by that much, and he looked at his bride with a genuine passion in his eyes.
"What do you think?" Blue whispered to Hera.
"It's probably a political wedding, right?"
"Yeah, and by her face, she must have someone else. If this was a book or a movie, she must have just met the love of her life," Blue nodded.
"Oh, that is so cliché, it should be because she wants to be queen, but only a man can sit on the throne."
"C'mon. Everyone is doing the empowered woman these days. I miss a good love story against all odds."
"Like what? The princess and the stable boy? There is a specific area in bookstores for those books, you know?" Hera chuckled.
"I was thinking more about the princess and an artist or a crafter," Blue replied.
The two stopped talking as a dwarf began the ceremony and asked everyone to be quiet. Hera just pulled two servers aside and asked them to cast lights near the altar so that everyone could have a better view. With that done, she just leaned back into the wall and watched as the bride and groom exchanged their vows.
Comments
Perizou
Thanks for the corrections! That is one of the possibilities
Aldous Russell
Thanks! Guessing the hard version is to get the Princess together with the stableboy/girl. I think "just picked the glass" should be "picked up". I think "cloud in the ceiling" would be better as "at" or "on". I think "madness has taken over you" would be better as "taken you over" or "come over you". "Hera tried to show them" should be "had tried". "'freezer.'" should be "'freezer'." "do you think it's just" should be "is just". "covering their entire bodies" should be "body". "one of the light shafts to catch" should be "shafts catch". "clouds ... behind it" should be "them". "in his eyes. a" has an extra "a". "cliche" should be "cliché".
