Imperial Humiliation

Samuel smoothly dodged the axe, two red gleams passed the prince's body before his axe broke apart and he collapsed screaming in terror, before he fainted on the spot.

Samuel looked down on the unconscious prince. Shaking his head in disappointment. He turned towards the old looking mage.

"Why did he faint? I haven't even attacked yet. I just blocked his attack."

The old mage sighed desperately: "Are you going to kill him?"

"Why?" Samual responded in a bored tone, "should I?"

"He was foolish enough to accept your challenge to a life and death battle and deliver the first strike." The old mage answered, "Him fainting after you blocked his attack is his own shame. The humiliation and embarrassment he will suffer after he wakes up could possibly be worse than killing him."

"I am no bully," Samuel shook his head, "I expected a decent fight, yet he fainted before we could exchange strikes. I am heavily disappointed."

"My name is Kulum Echon Necron," the old mage said as he dismounted, "The fool that intruded so rudely is my nephew and indeed a prince of the Necron Empire."

"Are all your princes that weak? If so, I fear for the Necron Empire's prosperity."

"He is still young. Barely 16 years old." Kulum Necron tried to blame the prince's age.

"That makes him older than us, which solidifies my concern about your Empire even further, but I have wasted too much time already with this useless talk." Samuel turned around and kneeled on the ground. "Young Master, please judge the intruder's action. If you wish, I shall be your executioner."

"Personally I would love to rip him into shreds and devour his Soul for the audacity, but today is my wedding and I am feeling exceptionally magnanimous, so I will let my wife decide his fate. Not only is she the one that got insulted. Additionally I do not intend to taint my wedding with blood if my wife doesn't approve.

I looked at Esy as we stood arm in arm on the podium.

"I am greatly displeased with his actions, but we will give the Necron Empire face. We will let him off the hook, for today. Nonetheless I have to insist that you teach him how to conduct himself properly. As the prince of the Necron Empire he isn't just humiliating himself, but his father and the Necron Empire as an entirety."

The diplomatic pokerface of Kulum Echon Necron began to crumble as he heard these hurtful words. But as he was about to reply to Esys words she continued speaking.

"I have another advice, that you should transfer to your nephew. I am a married woman and should he ever have the audacity to claim me as his again I will ask my husband to teach him what true terror is." Esy's voice was kind but firm and serious at the same time.

"I understand Lady Silverton-" Kulum said before he realized what he just said.

"MY name is Esmeralda Maxima." Esy shouted in indignation, "Samuel kick the fool out so we can continue without his presence."

Kulum flinched by the outburst but before he could react properly Samuel had stood up and kicked prince Gesat Necron out of the temple. The unlucky prince landed with audible cracking noises. Two guards grabbed the thoughtfully defeated prince and dragged him away before he could tarnish the empire even more.

Kulum Necron had to watch everything powerlessly. He was an old and powerful mage but a brawl against Samuel wasn't something the old man could win. At least not without using powerful spells that would turn this wedding into a revolution against the Necron Empire.

"I am deeply sorry, Lady Maxima. I will make sure to teach my nephew and ensure that he realizes his mistakes. I will also make sure that he won't bother you or your Husband. I will also inform his father and his mother about the exceptional deeds he committed today."

"We appreciate your effort Sir Necron." Esy said before she looked at Lina to finalize the wedding.

Lina was as stunned as the rest of the audience. She regained her bearing.

"Rejoice and Celebrate Thorus and Esmeralda Maxima!"

One second of silence filled the Temple before the whole audience started to cheer for us as we walked out of the temple. The Nature Guard followed along as an honor guard.

We made our way back to the Nature Tower, where the festivities were held, in a grand profession that attracted everyone's attention.

After we arrived at the Nature Tower banquet hall I exited the carriage that was pulled by two snow white lions. Hanso was the one to welcome me home, as the Steward of the Nature Tower he was entrusted with arranging the festivities.

"Young Master Thorus, Young Lady Maxima it is fabulous to see you after such a grand day. Please let me congratulate you on your wedding," his bearing was unfittingly subservient as I knew him my whole life.

"Hanso." I laughed at him "you don't need to act like a butler in front of us. We have known each other for so long."

I was going to say more but one after another guests arrived and demanded our attention as we were swarmed with congratulations. Every congratulator brought a gift that Hanso documented and then stored in a space ring.

The gifts were many and diverse. While the lower Nobles gifted rare herbs or other mystical things, among them a lot of books, the higher Nobles were competing against each other. Who brought the most exaggerated gift.

The presents of the five Dukes and the second prince were the most valuable ones.

The first Duke, who only came to give the Silverton Family and the Nature Tower face, gifted us a female slave maid.

The maid was a demi-human, she was the daughter of a slave and the duke's Shadow lion. She was trained to be a maid, or toy if that was more preferable. She had also been trained to become a capable assassin. Her name was 15 as she was gifted to us. But Esy soon gave her the name Katherina.

The next Duke gifted us a tradeship with a crew to conduct trade on the south coast. It is a great ship. The 'Workforce' is a beautiful ship that was built for fast travel speed. The Ship is basically a massive Space storage that has a storage space of 150 km³ (~36 cubic miles). It also has the ability to transform into a necklace by shrinking in size.

The third Duke, desperate to top up, presented us with a state of the art warship. It didn't have the ability to shrink or be a space storage. It had the ability to fly, as long as you had the manastones to fuel the flight array. Stupidly expensive. 1 A-Class Manastone per hour just for the ability to fly. A battle with this ship eats away your wealth faster than you could rob it. Subsequently it's firepower is magnificent. It's name was 'Ocean Dragon'.

I was so confused at my wedding that I got things that could easily be graded as family heirlooms as wedding gifts. Later I realized that they did that to curry favor. The fact that an exceptional Knight generation had been trained by me and the fact that I was scouted by the Necron Empire, had already circulated through the upper nobility.

The demonstration of Samuel only solidified fear in the hearts of the nobles.

The fourth one, Duke Goldman, who was a rival of Duke Silverton, gifted us a mansion as permanent residence in Flottina. According to the documents he handed us, the Mansion included a warehouse and a big store in the market district. This was basically a Business starter pack. Why he gave it to us was and is still a mystery to us but we use it ever since as our base of operation in Flottina. Obviously I didn't lead the business myself. The Nature Tower oversaw my businesses in my stead.

Last but not least Duke Silverton himself gifted us half a library and a private Island in the southern archipelago, big enough to accommodate the Nature Guard easily even if it expanded ten times in size. It included a private harbor and a small shipyard for standard trade ships.

The Second prince gifted us a very expensive and well crafted staff, that was tailor made for Esy and her affinities. It's worth to Esy was immeasurable because she had no weapon as of yet and a tailor made staff was just what she needed.

The last present was given by Kulum, the Emissary of the Necron Empire. He gave us the Monster Core of a Behemoth of the Chaos Element. This thing was worth multiple S-Class Manastones should someone decide to sell it in an auction. It could also be used to power a massive formation.

I don't have the intention to downplay the various presents I received that day but except the maid and the staff everything else was directed at the long term worth and had no immediate use for us as we were about to depart the country.

The celebrations went on and on until the sunrise wasn't far anymore.

I will never forget my wedding night.

Some things are better left untold, which is the reason you will never know.