CHAPTER 51- Coronation Ceremony (1)

The day finally arrived.

The Celestial Empire was bustling with activity.

Every bar and public event hall was packed with people to view the coronation ceremony.

The adventurer, assassin and mercenary guilds stopped all activity because no one wanted to leave the empire for a quest either way.

The smaller nobles like the barons who couldn't attend the ceremony could only view it being broadcasted, and the commoners who didn't have the money to buy any magic equipment went out of their houses to view the broadcasts that were being held publicly at every estate within the empire.

Everyone was excited to finally see the face of the new king and assess his character.

As the people gathered in various locations kept chatting with each other, the magic equipments all over the empire flashed into life at once.

Everyone stopped immediately and silence enveloped the whole empire.

As the view came to focus, the empty events hall could be seen in the screen.

Even the empty hall intimidated the commoners and small nobles who had never entered the palace. It was extremely lavish.

The hall itself was big enough to hold thousands of people and each person had an individual seat, made with the highest quality materials for comfort and long term seating.

The walls were decorated with artifact level paintings that reduced sound echoes, produced calming aura people's comfort, temperature regulation, and a lot more functions.

Each of those artifacts could have made enough money for a person to live for generations, but they were used just for the comfort of the guests.

Then the people realized that it was just the events hall, not even the palace interior and they were awed once again.

"The royals are extremely impressive…"

"I hope I get to see our new king soon."

"See? All I want him is to not impose heavy taxes on us."

"You're not alone, and there's been lot of rumors that our new king is a genius and extremely handsome."

"What do you think his element will be? Fire? Ice? Or the rarer ones like Shadow, Darkness or Light?"

"Honestly, looking at the empress, he could have her almost extinct life element too…"

"I think he will be a multiple element mage!"

"Well, you know how rare having more than two elements is, but let's see…"

As the people watching started discussing once again, the scene slowly started moving.

One by one people started filling in and everyone was more famous and important than the other.

First the marquises came in and slowly filled up the last part of the seats.

As each marquis entered, people of their territory cheered and clapped watching the broadcast.

Followed by them, the counts followed taking up the middle section of the seats.

Along with the counts, the leaders of the various guilds like the blacksmith, alchemy, mercenaries, adventurers, and various other important people like the leader of the imperial knights, the directors of the national academies, the leader of the trading alliance all took the middle part of the seating.

On one side of the seats was a separate wing where all the people from the palace who were approved by the empress and Ray sat.

This included the various ministers, old man Wilfred, a few mages, and Ray even added in a few butlers and maids who had worked for a long time. After all, there were a lot of extra seats and allowing them to attend this event upfront would only increase their loyalty.

It was in this very wing that both Adrianna and Rachel were sitting, quite excited to watch the whole event unfold.

And on the other side of the hall, was another wing, and this included people who got special invites from the palace ministers or nobles who paid for a few more seats for their family members.

It was in the front row of this very wing that five people were sitting side by side with extremely poisonous daggers and swords in their storage ring and a hidden poison in their molars, ready to be crushed the moment their plan failed, killing them.

And finally in the front row of the main wing, in front of all the nobles, the seats were carved in gold showing higher status among them.

As each person walked into the hall, the viewers and people already present in the venue watched with bated breaths.

Their aura was overbearing.

First, an old man walked in dressed up in traditional eastern clothes, dark grey robe over a simple looking mage outfit.

He looked weak, but everyone knew he was the kindest and most selfless duke who loved commoners equally, the eastern Duke Dray Hadwyn.

He slowly walked in, and took a seat.

Following him a couple walked in with smiles on their faces.

They honestly looked the most down to earth and modest people present.

The man was dressed in southern clothing, a simple black shirt and trousers, and the woman in a black sleeveless dress.

They were none other than Barion and Tserina Krones, the Duke and Duchess of the South.

They too slowly walked in and after nodding at the eastern duke, sat down with smiles still etched onto their faces.

And then came in a large burly looking man dressed in red which was almost too eye-catching. He was followed by two women also dressed in red.

In the dimly lit room, everyone had their eyes drawn to them.

Ono Kazuo walked in followed by his two wives.

Roza Krones, his first wife and Nadya Krones his third wife.

As they came in, both women sat down, however he didn't sit immediately, confusing the other Dukes already present.

He turned his head as his eyes sweeped through the whole venue.

While most people thought he was just seeing the people present, Nadya beside him knew that he was actually finding a specific group of five.

After all, listening to Ray's instructions she had showed him pictures of five people and told him that they were related to Yei's condition.

And find them he did.

As soon as he saw five people sitting in the front row of the left wing, he almost let his killing intent leak, but controlled it and sat down with a stiff face.

Barion who was sitting on the side saw this and shrugged while he started talking with his wife once again.

And finally, another woman appeared.

There was no overbearing aura, no aura at all. It was like a the person didn't exist in the first place.

Valindra Tiafel walked in, dressed in all black and sat on a seat without even looking at the people beside him.

No one really minded her behavior.

Everyone knew she was very mysterious and the all the dukes knew she was far stronger than all of them combined.

No one wanted to get on her bad side.

As all the people entered and the hall was almost filled up, the people watching the broadcast were almost going wild with excitement and cheering.

The venue was surrounded by imperial guards and mages as they looked intimidating to all the guests present.

And finally two more people entered the hall.

Dressed in complete white and gold, covering her face with a semi-transparent veil, with a heavily armored guard behind her.

The only person who was allowed to have a guard and for valid reasons at that.

The envoy of the Holy Twilight Empire had arrived.

The moment she entered, all the people stared at her with awe and respect. Her entire being emanated a holy aura which made people want to worship her.

The priestess in training, Ellaine walked in with her head held high and sat down with the Dukes in the first row while the guard kneeled beside her.

Dray, Kazuo and Barion all looked at her trying to figure out her strength, while Valindra didn't even move a muscle.

After a few more moments, Ambrosia walked in with a scroll in her hand.

Slowly walking up from the end of the huge hall, she slowly unfolded the scroll and with a loud voice amplified with magic commanded.

"Everyone, kneel."

*Thud*

With a massive thud, everyone in the venue without exception kneeled on one knee and kept their head down.

Not even Valindra or Ellaine stayed up. It would be immediately seen as treason.

Ambrosia's voice was so powerful, even the people watching the broadcast from various inns and venues all kneeled down with respect.

Slowly the light in the room brightened and when the people slowly opened looked up, to their surprise in the then empty space now was a huge throne carved with gold and filled with glyphs and symbols of various weapons and inscriptions.

This throne itself was a magic artifact.

It's effects unknown by everyone at the venue, except Isis, Ray and Ambrosia.

The throne wasn't empty however. On the throne was a woman wearing a white and gold dress with white gloves and a crown on her head.

The woman was the embodiment of the word beautiful and elegance themselves.

Everyone who looked at her found their breaths stuck at their throats.

The throne was emitting an extreme aura and paired with unusually high charm that forced people to like her and the exuding holiness that even surpassed Ellaine, she immediately became the center of attention.

It was none other than the queen, Isis Celestia.

Ellaine out of curiosity used her soul appraisal on her and immediately was blinded by the pure white light it emitted.

'H-How can someone has this amount of positive karma… she probably never killed a bug in her life!'

While she was almost thinking her skill had stopped working, the lights brightened a bit more and through one of the large doors that connected directly through the throne by a red carpet, a new figure appeared.

Immediately, the entire venue, still kneeling slowly observed the new figure.

The moment the figure appeared, people who were trying to move or see him all felt their bodies fix in their position.

An innate feeling of respect emerged from them like never before and they felt like worshipping the individual before them.

Ray walked in with a smile on his face.

As he took each step, the white and golden cloak of the Celestial Emperor swayed behind him and his silver hair shone with luster.

He slowly walked up to the throne and under everyone's gaze, Isis stood up and took down the crown from her head.

As everyone watched the young man stand there with confidence and a smile so charming that even overshadowed the Empress, they felt awed, respectful and strangely happy to have him as the king.

The people outside who were watching the broadcast were going absolutely mad.

For they had seen the empress and the new king consecutively and each was more beautiful and pleasing to the eyes than the other.

"That's our new king?"

"Holy shit, he looks ten times better than his father!"

"Hey, he was our king too! But I agree!"

"That aura is greater than any of the dukes present, even the previous king!"

"No wonder people called him a genius. That aura can never be attained by anyone normal a this age!"

Ray didn't know but just by making a confident entry using his pride aura to the highest degree possible, he had instantly created loads of groups who would later on worship him like a cult.

Within the venue itself everyone had different expressions and feelings.

Dray Hadwyn was grimacing and cursing inwardly because the prince was proving more and more difficult for him to deal with.

Barion and Tserina were genuinely happy to see the young boy only a few years younger than them become someone with such a great overbearing aura. They were all smiles.

Kazuo had a curious expression on his face. He felt like his deal wouldn't be so bad after all. He would much rather become loyal to a person like this.

His first wife Roza was so pleased with him that she immediately started planning if she could send any of her daughter to marry him somehow while Nadya felt awed at how much strength he had probably hidden when he fought him.

Valindra felt the aura but it wasn't overbearing to her. Instead, her curiosity got even stronger.

Ellaine was surprised to feel this overbearing aura. It was like a natural born king looking down on people.

She felt extremely uncomfortable for some reason.

Adrianna in the mean time was almost trying to hold herself back.

Feeling the intense pride aura from the person she loved so much ignited the lust within her intensely. She wanted him to call her alone, but knew he was busy… but now she felt the desire more than ever before.

Rachel beside her who had never seen this intense aura from her friend was surprised, but she felt it was quite nice.

Ambrosia and Isis on the other hand were shocked.

'How did he get this amount of aura? Is it just the legendary system? That's impossible; he must be hiding a few secrets.'

Both of them arrived at the same conclusion, but they didn't mind.

They trusted Ray and knew he would inform them when he wanted.

*****************************************

Ray, after activating his pride aura to the maximum walked in and stood before Isis.

She got down from the throne and slowly took down the crown from her head.

And as slowly as her previous actions, she placed the crown on Ray's head with a gentle smile.

Then, with a loud voice she declared…

"I, Isis Celestia, Empress of the Celestial Empire, hereby step down and rename the prince Ray Celestia ad the new Emperor!"

As soon as the words were spoken, the crown started emitting intense golden light indicating that its owner had been changed.

Everyone watched in silence as the whole event transpired.

No one dared to breath loudly and watched the moment that would later go down in history as the crowning the Immortal Emperor.

After crowning him, Isis walked to the side standing beside Ambrosia and both of them declared at once.

"Long live the Emperor!"

And the silence broke completely as the entire empire reverberated in an intense chant.

"Long live the Emperor!"

"Long live the Emperor!"

Every household, every inn and pub and every place in the empire shook as everyone roared and chanted for the new king whose mere appearance had captured the people.

Ray went forward and sat down on the throne.

Looking down at the people in front of him kneeling and chanting, he felt calm.

He had experienced this previously.

Every single person would at this moment always look at him with eyes filled with respect.

Every single one…

'Yes, all of them… Hmm?'

At this moment he suddenly felt an intense gaze on him.

His instincts which were highly sharp immediately located its source to the front row where a woman was chanting with a smile on her face but her eyes fixed on him.

Valindra was looking at him with intense burning eyes, and a rare smile in that ever expressionless face.

Ray looked at her and didn't have a good feeling at all.

He felt no hostility in her, nor any form of emotion. If he had to explain it, he would say it was pure… curiosity?

'I don't like those eyes. Why the fuck is she looking at me like that?'

[Lust System: Oh my…]