Chapter 18

Synopsis: Overall, he looked like an unsheathed ice sword
..·:*¨¨*.·:*¨♡¨*:·. 63 .·:*¨♡¨*:·.*¨¨*:·..
It was like this that I was forcefully brought to the territory of the gold dragons. A seal that prevented movement and speech was placed on me, and I basically became a puppet they could order around as a result.
However, the seal was not completely effective despite the gold dragons' supposed specialty in seals — I could not speak, but I could still move a little bit. This, I suspected, was perhaps an effect of the dragon pearl Fruys left me. I pretended to be fully under their control while waiting for an opportunity to escape.
Afeyr and I were separated and each shut in rooms to the south and north respectively. As she was considered the backup bride in case I ran away amidst some commotion, she would only be able to return together with the people from the imperial palace if the entire ceremony finished without any problems.
The wedding was set for the third day at the beginning of the month. For the past two days, I frequently heard the familiar sounds of large dragons flapping their wings while enormous shadows passed by outside my window. The people guarding me told me that those were other dragon clans that had come to attend the ceremony.
On the evening of the third day, I finally saw the "groom". Apparently, he was one of the sons of the gold dragon clan chief.
He appeared in his human form, and he wasn't attractive at all. I thought deeply to myself for a moment: if Fruu's human form was hideous as that, would I still have been able to stay together with him?
But then I firmly made up my mind — if it was Fruu, even if his human form was ten times uglier, I still wouldn't leave him. I would just have him stay in his dragon form in the worst case scenario; after all, that form was beautiful and awesome, and I could be happy just looking at him.
The groom looked at me like I was some kind of lifeless object, and there were absolutely no feelings inside his muddy golden-colored eyes.
Acting like a proper puppet doll, I followed their commands and went with them to the scene of the ceremony, but then silently cursed myself — there were at least two hundred dragons present, in addition to the gold dragon guards surrounding me on each side. I couldn't even fight against a single dragon; escaping from here was definitely no easier than climbing up towards the heavens.
The entire time, I walked behind the groom of the gold dragons. I followed him up the elevated ceremonial stage. The view from here was very good, allowing me to clearly see everything around me.
The dragons below me all transformed into their human forms and began to chatter amongst themselves. There was an extremely long table that was filled with all kinds of fruits, vegetables, and succulent mouth-watering meats as well countless fine wines. The utensils they used to pick up food were a little bigger than the human version, but apart from that, it wasn't that different from a human banquet.
The sky grew increasingly dim as the start of the ceremony drew closer, with the entire western horizon being filled with the red-purple color of the setting sun. Meanwhile, the crowd which was previously boisterous gradually quieted down, as if they were waiting for someone to appear. The gold dragon chief periodically checked the gold pocket watch that hung from his breast anxiously.
Then, the sounds of multiple wings beating coordinately came from the sky afar, growing louder and louder as they got nearer. I shot a glance through my peripheral vision and saw a group of huge ice-blue colored dragons pistoning their wings, followed by two rows of eight dragons which appeared to be the guards.
Before I had a chance to get a good look at what each dragon looked like, they turned into their human forms one-by-one as they descended from the air.
With bolt-straight postures, black boots, and swords hanging from each waist — every one of them was dressed in silver and deep blue patterned military attire, looking experienced and at ease.
I wondered for a moment where they hid the clothes, shoes, and swords while they were in their dragon form, but then my eyes fell upon the person who was at the head of the group.
He was wearing a military uniform that was the same color as the others, apart from a dark blue cape with a silver lining. Draped over the cape was his long, windswept hair, the hue of luxurious silver, and his looks were handsome but cold. He looked like an unsheathed ice sword.
His eyes were closed the entire time, but his footsteps were firm and steady as he walked towards the chieftain. All the other dragons that were present at the scene stood up in succession to salute at him, and I heard some voices reverently call him, "Your Majesty the Ice Emperor".
I could feel my heart stop for two beats.
Then, I heard that familiar voice I hadn't heard in two years, frigid yet rich, much like my memories of spring's first iceberry wine.
He said to all those people: "At ease."
At that moment, I forgot to breathe.
Perhaps because my gaze was too single-mindedly concentrated and intense, I saw him open his eyes and sweep them across the ceremonial stage — past my face — before he lowered his head as if nothing had happened and sat down in the seat of honor with a bored expression.
I saw those ice-blue eyes, cold yet beautiful, that no longer contained the slightest amount of life.
My heart felt like it was being stabbed by a million tiny needles — I had imagined hundreds of different possibilities, but never anticipated it could possibly be like this.
My Fruu…He can't see.
Author's note:
So at this point I could have let the angsty, angsty plot go on for a bit… but then I (the author) decided that this world can have a little less of those plots, and a little bit more of the direct stuff — though it might be that I'm just too lazy to write the plot. In the next chapter, we will leave out the classic angsty star-crossed lovers melodramatic plot and skip straight to the happy end! And after that this project will be complete. 🙂
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