***
The king's wedding had arrived. Many felt excitement, others felt the tension. The queen's crown set had been returned to the royal family. Lady Raine took this time to extract the antidote laced into the pins. She had returned to the Steinhouse residence and fed it to her mother; and a few hours later, her mother woke up. The two took time and talked about what had happened throughout the years Lady Teel was unconscious and what would be happening next.
The day had arrived and the guests had made their way to the Masquer castle, where all royal weddings took place. The next empress arrived in a gold crested carriage, the entire surrounding was filled with people who wanted to see the next queen. All the lords, ladies, dignitaries and kings from foreign lands, who had come to attend were in the hall, seated.
The king stood alone on the platform awaiting his bride. The hall remained quiet, so they knew the bride had arrived when they heard the loud cheer from outside the hall.
All inside wondered how she looked to cause the crowd outside to cheer that loud. The doors opened and a lady Clad in white was revealed. She looked stunning and was a beautiful sight.
Usually, brides were veiled, but the queen was not. It was only right that people knew what she looked like. Helping her with her dress was Lady Steinhouse who was equally a beautiful sight to behold.
Looking at her appearance, most of the guests wondered if the king had married for this beautiful sight and not strategically. Had he been bewitched by the beauty to forget he had to marry for the good of the kingdom?
The bride made her way toward the platform. The royal wedding for the queen was as simple as her king placing the last of the crown set on her hair. So the bride went on her knees and the maids appeared. They carefully took out the plain pin from her hair and started to adorn her hair with the queen's crown set. The crown was all made of different smaller gold and jewels hair pieces, placed together to make out a heavy crown piece on her hair. The maids withdrew when they were done, and the king placed the last pin, locking the crown into one perfect set. All stood to applaud. In the ideal sense, this would be the time for the royal curator to call out; "long live the queen", but after the applause, a beautiful elderly woman came out of the crowd and approached the king and queen.
This caused confusion among the guests. King Khur almost collapsed at the sight of that woman. He had recognised the new queen when she arrived and wanted to find an escape, but the hall was heavily guarded. And for some reason, all the guards were looking at him. He knew things had turned bad. When the older lady got up, he knew it was all over.
Under everyone's gaze, she used a rope to tie the king and queen's hands together.
"My daughter has chosen you. We, the Teel family accept you as our son-in-law. The Jade hand and mercenary association recognise you as the Teel family consort," she said and the entire hall broke into whispers.
Those who did not know who the Teel family was, were confused while others, especially the foreign kingdoms understood. Kings of other first-rate kingdoms did not come themselves but sent their representatives, who all understood. Juhntt became a first-rate kingdom because the late Lady Torgenn had relocated and married into one of the noble families and she was a Thraine. Even though people respected the Thraine name and stayed respectful to the kingdom, they all knew Juhntt had no power to stand one-on-one with most second-rate kingdoms, talk more first-rate ones. Marrying the Teel family heir meant they were truly a power to be wary of. If one could ignore the Jade Hand, which was impossible, the mercenary association that span across the entire east side was another matter.
The king was now married and rumours of the new queen's beauty were now the talk of the capital even before she had entered her wedding chamber. She had been announced to the world as Queen Raine. It made others wonder what King Khur of Northern Lan, who was present at the ceremony, would do to get his sister back; now that a new queen was in place. Naturally, it would have been assumed that the king should have calmed down by now to be forgiving enough to return the princess of Northern Lan, but no one understood that King Khur himself, was trying to figure out a way to leave the capital alive, talk more of saving his sister. He had sent all his high-ranking martial artists to the border of the capital and had never thought he would be in a situation where he could not reach them.