When the doors to the Throne room opened in full the entire hall began to still, as those people skipping around to mingle with their peers and new interesting faces came to a halt.
"If you'll excuse me," Lucian spat through clenched teeth as he pulled away from his mother, and walked to the assembly, of princes and princesses.
A long flight of black marble stairs extended up to the throne, in a half circle.
In royal tradition, the children of a leader taking a new spouse were supposed to line up along the stairs in order of age.
In your typical empires, it would be no more than a dozen children, but here in Mercurion Lucian felt a little embarrassed seeing the sheer number of his siblings climbing the stairs.
He'd never done a count before, but currently, there were well over 200 of them, probably approaching the 300's.
Lucian took his time to approach as he was of the youngest generation so he would be the closest to the foot of the stairs.
He quickly found his designated spot as he looked up at his siblings, it was hard to tell which ones had names and which had only numbers, it was probably one of the few occasions where it was hard to tell.
On the higher steps, there were many spots left empty, evidently, those who were out on important business, trying to increase their power, though Lucian wondered why they chose to skip this event.
Although he loathed to admit it his mother was correct when she said that a crowd such as this one was hard to come by on frequent occurrences.
Not counting the royalty of the various powers, all the members of the council were present, the leaders of Taoist sects came in for a brief period, many wealthy merchants were invited, and more than one bishop of the Holy Church made an appearance, and who knew which other groups managed to find their way into the wedding.
Lucian counted 3 siblings in the same age group as him, with there being one who was younger than him.
As the crowds fell into order and the children of the Emperor filled into the assembly the emperor and new empress entered.
The emperor wore his circlet golden crown that bore an imprint of a Nemean lion in the front, it wrapped firmly around his short hair, his right shoulder dawned a silver cape tied to his arm, while his right shoulder bore the golden mane of a Nemean lion, a long golden cape stretched down his back forming a train behind him.
Walking arm in arm with the emperor was the new empress Dalila Aydal, her brunette hair flowed in curled locks onto her open shoulders, she wore a strapless sky-blue dress, that highlighted the corset she wore beneath.
Long white gloves covered her up to the elbow, and she adorned several pieces of excellent jewellery, she walked in pace with the emperor as they moved through the hall, walking up to important guests, and gradually making their way towards the throne.
Lucian observed from afar he truly wanted to understand what the emperor's ploy was in all of this, there was simply no explanation for this union that he could think of.
Lucian sported the belief that it was simply the emperor's lustful nature, but every time he caught a glimpse of his father's face, all he saw was a deadpan fake smile, and his eyes were no different from the day he was born, like harrowed husks.
The couple made it to the stairs before long, with Lucian and company being those closest they bent on one knee and bowed as the emperor and empress passed them.
As Lucian lowered his head he caught the eye of the emperor, the emperor came to a stop for a moment that went practically unmissed by the crowd, but that was all too apparent to Lucian.
But in the next moment, the emperor shook his head despondently and continued up the stairs to the throne, where the leaders of the nine Ancient royal families stood to crown the new empress.
As the vows were spoken and the new crown presented, Lucian looked out to the crowds, he was looking for the empresses of Mercurion, the only one he met or saw for that matter was his mother, it was surprisingly hard to come across the others despite living in the same palace.
But it wasn't too difficult to identify the empresses, they each had the largest of entourages, and people tended to gather around them.
Unfortunately, only three of them were present, his mother included, and it was hard to read their expressions with so many people moving in between.
'How I wish I were standing on one of the higher steps,' Lucian grumbled inwardly, he figured that by seeing the expressions of the empresses he could get a better idea as to what was going on.
'Perhaps I can ask that… wench,' Lucian shook his head, he'd rather take a bath in lava than seek her out for conversation, he had no doubt that any answers he sought from her would come with a price tag.
And the circles with all the gossip regarding this wedding were beyond his status as a nameless prince.
As his thoughts reached that point Lucian's eyes wandered over a waiter moving between the crowd, without getting so much as a raised eyebrow from those he approached.
'Of course,' Lucian smirked beneath his mask, as the main part of the ceremony ended, music echoed through the halls and the mingling resumed, more and more food started to come out of the kitchens.
Lucian made his way to the kitchen entrance only to find that he wasn't alone in his thoughts, there were a few of his siblings sitting near the entrance with their ears perked up, no doubt waiting to hear the things the waiters would say as they returned from the floor.
Time ticked by slowly and when the party neared its end Lucian took off, though for once he didn't complain about his lack of rest, this spot had proven far more fruitful than he had expected, and some of the things he learnt were even more disturbing what he had thought.
As Lucian made his way out he was sure to avoid his mother's watchful gaze, she had looked at him multiple times over the course of the gala, but she wouldn't allow herself to be caught in an area beneath her status, so she held herself back.
Then Lucian carefully waited for her to resume her conversation with some royal whose arm she was intimately stroking, before returning to the floor and escaping through the doors to his room.
Lucian found his room and went straight to his desk to pull out his journal.
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Entry 30: The Journal of a Slothful Prince
It is Setco (the third day of the week) the 11th day of Feltear the 3rd month of the year 106 987.
Tonight, was the night of my father's 10th wedding, a marriage that is strange for many reasons.
Though that is not what I shall write off on this night, but rather the things I have learnt.
It is as I had speculated, this event was wrong, from the rumours I heard, this gala is a joke of sorts as is this marriage, I do not know what exactly is the cause of the farce, but I did learn of a name at the middle of it, Alphea Mercurion Goldore.
I know of only one such name, and it belongs to a sibling of mine, one of those first-generation siblings of mine, born at the time when our parents still named us upon our birth, she is a daughter of the third empress the second child she ever bore.
Alphea is also one of the most promising candidates to take on the throne in the future… at least that is what the rumours I've heard about her say.
Aside from that the rest of what I've learnt is disturbing to say the least, and let me say that it may truly affect my days of rest and relaxation…
Apparently, there is some bet going around amongst the royals, about how long it will take the new empress to cuckhold the emperor…
I wish that it ended there but there were several waiters who returned to the kitchens with different stories about royals who claim the new empress has been passing them suggestive words and looks…
Not to mention the blatant actions of my mother on some royal, whilst in the presence of the emperor, I imagine that had I paid more attention to the other empresses I might have seen similar occurrences…
I know not the true implications of such actions, but my gut and common sense say that there is something seriously wrong here…
I cannot imagine that such occurrences are occurring for the first time today, the jokes of the royals and the openness with which such actions are being taken, prove that the topics are more common than should be expected or accepted…
Something is blatantly wrong in these halls, and I fear the impact it shall have on my rest and carefree lifestyle…
I seek not to delve any deeper, yet I'm certain that I shall have to given the passage of time…