Nine checked over the preparations for Nocturne's room, overlooking the designs and items placed inside. When she finally nodded her head in approval, Shade inwardly sighed in relief. He had been driving himself insane designing the place over and over again to meet Nine's demands over the past week.
"Master?" Shade inquired, unable to sate his curiosity. "Why are you going to such lengths for Nocturne's rooms? I thought you didn't want to marry him."
Nine's eyes cooled. "Even if I don't want to, I will still afford him the proper respect as befitting of a Crown Princess. I'm not that petty."
Shade kept silent, withholding judgement for now. He really didn't know what to feel about this. Another man had just practically married himself into his Master's household according a decree to the Emperor. Once spoken, there was no way that the Emperor could take back his words, so even if they revealed the truth, nothing could be done about it.
The room was similar to Nine's in the aspect of the lighting, which cast a beautiful watery light over the room. When looking up, it made as if it was raining, ripples spreading across. Nine had silently designed the room to match Nocturne's aesthetic tastes so that he would have nothing to complain about.
Satisfied, Nine left.
°•°•°•🐢. . . .
Nine was waiting at the palace gates together with her eldest brother, Deltan, for the procession to arrive. They would be arriving any minute now. She had no hand in the preparations for her marriage ceremony, leaving it all to her father. The affair was no doubt going to be grand and horribly lavish.
The citizens were already crowding around outside the gates, hoping to catch a glance of the future Crown Princess, who would marry their incompetent Crown Prince.
They exchanged whispers, mocking in nature.
"Say, how do you think this Crown Princess is going to be? Do you think she's going to be just as useless as the Crown Prince?" one whispered in a low voice, a mocking undertone that contained a hint of laughter.
"Of course not. A Princess from the Ashtria Empire. Do you think they're all useless like our Crown Prince? I bet they're sending someone frighteningly intelligent just so they have control over the Crown Prince."
Muffled laughter.
"Yeah, I bet she's going to be a real looker too."
The sound of thundering hoofbeats silenced the lot who were making unfounded claims. Every pair of eyes looked into the distance, awaiting the presence of the soon-to-be Crown Princess, each hoping to catch a glimpse of her visage.
The procession of two hundred horses and guards, alongside nine grandly drawn carriages containing the dowry, were heard before they were seen. The sole carriage that contained the Crown Princess was more majestic and awe-inspiring than each before it.
The citizens couldn't help but gasp in awe at the majestic bearing of the Ashtria Empire. They were going all out in this display of power, showing everyone that their Princess was not to be mistreated even if she was marrying into the Cosmos Empire.
The moment the carriage drew up at the palace gates, Nine was waiting by the carriage. She noted all the changes made to the carriage as a sigh almost left her lips. It was almost nigh unbreakable and impenetrable. Whoever was inside would be very safe. Nine itched to take apart the carriage with her own hands and experiment with it.
She had carefully shoved down the anger that was burning on low flames deep inside with ample practice. Although she didn't have to use much of her training as compared to when she had been back on Earth, it still came naturally to her. Everything could wait until they had the time to spare.
As the doors of the carriage opened, Nine kept her face carefully blank, not giving anything away. She extended her hand for the person inside to hold to get down from the high carriage, as befitting the manners of a Prince.
A hand extended from the darkness of the carriage, causing the citizens to hold their breath as the pale white skin made its appearance. Even without seeing the Princess' face, they could already imagine what a beauty she was.
Just looking at the Crown Prince's appearance, many maidens and not so few males in the audience swooned. Putting gender aside, they just couldn't imagine how the Princess could ever match up to their Crown Prince's standards. They could feel their hearts breaking the moment they fell in love, because the Crown Prince was getting married today! Ah, how tragic was their love. Doomed from the start. But, some thought sneakily to themselves, if the Crown Prince took an interest in them, they could enter and become a concubine or mistress.
Nine's devotees, who called themselves Verities, had somehow managed to procure the places nearest to their beloved idol's wedding by camping here for a week straight. The time and devotion needed for this staggered people's minds. Some of the more intelligent citizens squinted and caught a whiff that things were not as they seemed. It looked like the Crown Prince wasn't as useless as they thought?
Nine's fan club devotedly stared around them even as they snuck glances at their idol's bearing. They had to make sure that things didn't go awry for their idol! If anyone dared speak negatively or disrupt this momentous occasion, they would no doubt swarm there as one mind and drag the other person away for a beating out of sight.
Some of the people were too near the front and the Verities couldn't do anything, so they made sure to memorize their faces to get even later on.
Nocturne grasped Nine's hand and got down from the carriage. His heart was pounding in his chest. He had never been this nervous before, even when he was before Nine. He watched Nine's face for any signs that he had been missed but was left disappointed by the lack of reaction.
A smile bloomed on Nine's face, causing the people to gasp again in admiration. Before anyone could catch a glimpse of Nocturne's visage, Nine produced a veil from her interspatial bracelet and pinned it over Nocturne's carefully done hair, causing sighs of disappointment to arise from the crowd. The veil only covered up to the tip of Nocturne's nose, leaving the bottom half of his face for all to see. Just looking at the pale skin and rosy lips could cause one to have no end to their imagination.
There were squeals from various love-struck people in the crowd at Nine's romantic actions. They just couldn't turn their eyes away from Nine. Who cared about the Princess! She was stealing away their beloved Nine! Ah, why weren't they the Princess instead! Imagine how lovely that would be?
Nocturne's sight moved to the place where he could feel the festering jealousy and felt smug, but the sight of some of the infatuated expressions made him feel like going there to give them a piece of his mind.
Nine gripped Nocturne's chin and tugged him, causing Nocturne to look at him. "Don't look away from your husband, wife," she said, her voice low and clear.
The love-struck idiots in the crowd nearly died hearing Nine's voice. The Crown Prince was just so seductive, so romantic! How could they not fall! They wished they could hack the Princess to pieces and take her place. Ahh, how infuriating!
Just like those in the crowd, Nocturne couldn't help but feel slightly weak-kneed at the actions Nine was taking. He could feel that Nine was angry at him, but he couldn't help but feel faint at being flirted with like this. Similar to a plant not receiving any water for a long time, this sudden outpour nearly drowned him and left him senseless.
Nine pressed a kiss to Nocturne's knuckles, bowing over his hand. She couldn't help but feel slightly helpless when she realized that she hadn't remembered wrong. She really was taller than Nocturne now. Considering that she was taller than Seyton, who had been slightly taller than Nocturne, she should have expected this, but she had mixed feelings over this. It was better this way, though. It would have been a strange sight for the Crown Princess to be taller than the Crown Prince.
As Nine let go of Nocturne's hand, he couldn't help but miss the warmth of Nine's hand. He couldn't tear his eyes away from this man. After not having seen him for such a long time, his feelings only grew and didn't diminish, causing him to have no choice but to acknowledge that his feelings were real.
Nine and Nocturne entered together, with Deltan closely behind. Everyone else was to be kept outside for a while.
Taking this chance, the Verities unscrupulously dragged aside the unsuspecting citizens who had spoken badly about Nine earlier.
°•°•°•🐢. . . .
The citizen could only exclaim in shock when he was suddenly surrounded by a bunch of angry-looking people. What had he done?
One of the Verities quickly silenced him with a magic spell, starting to educate him on the wonders of Nine.
"Look, fool. We don't expect you to realize, but you have to acknowledge our lord and saviour the Crown Prince today, or don't even think about going home. Our Nine – do you know what Nine means? Nine is THE magic number. The sacred number. It's the most important number in all magic runes and spells! Nine is the Truth, wisdom, goodness and leadership - "
The poor citizen was drowned with the influx of knowledge that they were bombarding him with. The more he listened, the more dazed he felt as they extolled him about all of the Crown Prince's attributes and good deeds that he did without taking any credit for.
By the end of it, another member had been brainwashed to join their cult – no, join Nine's fan club, yet again adding to the ranks.