Ch. 32: Ceremony

"This is perfect!" Chloe practically shouted, "We can market this!" 

More than any normal common vampire, Rosy had been a slave to her bloodlust for pretty much her entire life. Even Mana knew that she'd have joined the Resistance a lot sooner without her Royal level bloodlust. 

Every single Brute vampire in existence at the moment was employed within the Shadowborn King's castle, since only Noctus's impressive dungeons filled with death-row prisoners could sate them. Since they were randomly born among common vampires, it was pretty common for a random massacre to end up with a sentence for 'guard duty.' Since they got their mind-numbing bloodlust sated, they'd never betray the kingdom.

"She's right. If we market you on the basis that your bloodlust was your motivation for every horrible thing that you've done under Noctus's influence, then people might actually believe it. We might even be able to get the number of people attempting to kill you down close to zero." Reese agreed with Chloe. 

"So... did we seriously get called here just to answer Mana's questions?" Rosy asked. Learning that Adrian might be able to get inside her head had shortened the girl's temper down to the bare minimum. Since the bloodlust was already starting to stabilize, she wasn't going to fly into a murderous rampage... maybe, but that didn't mean that her anger issues would just disappear overnight.

"No, absolutely not." Reese agreed with Rosy, "We were going to hold a ceremony announcing your change of heart, officially welcoming you into the resistance." He explained.

"You actually think that'll work?" Rosy wondered, "They're totally right to hate me. Just like you do." She pointed at Mana.

"As correct as you may be, the fact of the matter is that the resistance was stagnated for decades. Then, you happened and we started to gather people with real motivations and skills. The resistance owes you a debt already. There's no room for my personal feelings there." Mana told her, making his feelings very clear. 

"If the resistance owes her a debt, then why can't you tell us where the Kingstone is without making us jump through all of these hoops?" Adrian asked. Nobody answered him.

"Anyway... the ceremony's going to be very simple. No speech, you'll just get all dressed up and then you'll go onstage and hold hands. It'll be a signifier of your bond." Reese told them.

"That simple? Are you sure that we don't need to do speeches or anything?" Adrian asked.

"It's pretty common to see Rosy's face in just about any city. The Shadowborn king wants to ensure that the people can recognize his top officials... fear them before they ever meet them." Reese told Adrian.

Chloe continued, "But now that she's on our side, that easy recognition is definitely a boon for us."

"Doesn't it hamper her ability to do covert missions?" Adrian wondered.

"Don't you remember?" Rosy asked him, "All of the public images of me are princess portraits. I'm wearing dresses and makeup in each and every one. I look totally different when I'm in my actual armor." She'd mentioned that before, right when they'd broken out of the Noctus castle. Adrian had just forgotten with all of the new information lately.

  "So... you're going to make her look like she does in the portraits, and capitalize on her father's efforts..." It was a great plan.

"Alright, then. Adrian, Mana, Reese... Get out." Chloe told them all.

Adrian was ushered into his own tent, where he was dressed in a suit that most nobles would save for use at important parties and the like. As a prince, he'd been forced into quite a few ridiculous outfits in the past, but none of them seemed to be as uncomfortable as this stupid thing. He chalked it up to the difference in living conditions between his home in Ortain and the more difficult conditions forced onto the resistance. 

Once he was wearing the ridiculous getup, there was an hour-long wait while Rosy finished her own preparations. Once she was finally ready for the ceremony, there was another half-hour between then and the ceremony, and Adrian wasn't allowed to leave his tent and 'spoil the magic.' It ended up being a full hour and a half of waiting in a tiny space, a really uncomfortable getup, and only having Mana to speak with, since Reese had gone to help Doma get things set up, as well as get as many people gathered as possible.

Finally, after a torturous wait, the ceremony finally began.

Near the center of camp, not far from the tents that Adrian and Rosy had readied themselves in, there was a large empty space. This space was where Doma usually trained the soldiers in the way of the sword, but it'd been renovated. Now, it held a large stage, in front of which a few thousands of people were standing in neat rows. 

What the resistance lacked in manpower, it made up for in two areas, conviction and training.

Each resistance fighter was willing to give up on everything in order to help stop the tyranny and death caused by the Shadowborn King. Unfortunately, the Noctian armies had the full support of most of the vampire races, as well as all the Wulfics, and a bunch of different types of blood magic created beasts, like Markers. Humans and a small number of common vampires would never have enough physical strength to overturn the power of all of that blood magic.

Thankfully, the resistance had Doma Dayton. Even among the Drakes, seclusive, strong martial arts experts, Doma was head and shoulders above them all. He'd travelled the world in order to deepen his fighting prowess, even though his eyesight and physical strength were beginning to fail in his old age, he was likely the best trainer on the planet. Under his coaching, each and every resistance soldier had tempered their bodies and their minds far beyond that of the individually weaker Noctian foot soldiers.