Inheriting a Lost Bloodline, My First Task is to have heirs?!
Chapter 345 - 345 - Athanoviya's Marriage Ritual (Part 1)

Two weeks have gone by very fast with the busy classes at the academe and me having make time to visit everybody that needs to be visited. It was good that I have almost limitless mana and stamina or else I have gone crazy going around from place to place.

Before I know it, it was already the day designated for me to leave for the Athanoviyan marriage ritual. As what I have been informed, this ritual is strictly followed by the royal family and all the noble families as well. I had to complete it with Aurum since he was part of the royal family. I also have to complete it with Calyx, Helios, Yren and Xenos since they were all part of noble houses before they were assigned as personal attendants of Aurum.

It was a good thing that I only have to go through it once for all five of them. I am never a fan of such formal events and dressing up lavishly is too much of a hassle. If I had another choice, I wouldn't have gone through it since I have already added their names to my family register anyways so it already makes things official enough.

A week before the marriage rituals, Aurum and his bunch have already requested a leave from the Academe of Gnosis. The reason was kept confidential to the rest of the academe students and staff by the headmaster of the academe.

To not raise any suspicion, I kept going to my classes during the week those five left and only asked for a leave during the week the event itself will take place. We don't want people to think that we all have the same reasons why we are on academic leave.

As for gossips among the common people, there were a lot circulating around since for several days now, a lot of lavishly decorated carriages have been arriving in Hoffen City and they all went straight inside the royal palace. Nobles don't leave their domains for trivial things so everyone in the city knew that something big might be happening in the royal palace in the days to come.

I could only sigh at the rumors and just ignore it as if the event does not have anything to do with me. Me and Dimitri started getting mocking gazes at school and some even mocked us verbally about not being invited in the huge event at the royal palace even if Aurum and his bunch have been living with us in my villa for several months.

We ignored all of those people as if we did not hear a thing. For the first time, I saw a side in Dimitri that I have never seen before. One day, he clapped back as he said, "We were invited for the event since Aurum is my cousin. As for all of you "commoners", you can only dream of setting foot in the palace."

I chuckled at his response as I saw all those people who were mocking us earlier, widen their eyes then their faces turned green with envy. Well, they were all indeed commoners who will never get the chance to attend a party in the royal palace unless they marry into a noble house or to one of the members of the royal family.

We did tell everyone in the academe that Aurum and his four attendants were just tenants in my villa and were assigned to me by the grandmaster to be cared for. Those five do follow me around sometimes but we never appeared intimate in public. At most, we were just like a bunch of friends goofing around and attending the same classes. This story was supported strongly with the fact that Dimitri who is my official husband is Aurum's close cousin. (Author's note: Just to be clear, Aurum's father and Dimitri's mother are first cousins.)

Dimitri and I have also asked for leave from the academe though we scheduled it differently from the other five guys. Dimitri only asked for a three-day leave which included the event day itself and the days before and after it. On the other hand, I have to take a 10-day leave since there are other things I have to do after the marriage ritual day according to Helios. He avoided going into more specific details though.

Dimitri and I will leave at the same time on the day before the marriage ritual date through a royal carriage. We originally wanted to leave discreetly through teleportation but since all the mocking has angered husband number three, the plans suddenly changed for the sake of his intended pay back. He then asked for the most ostentatious-looking carriage from the royal palace to fetch the two of us and then also bring him back to the academe after three days.

As the day before the marriage ritual arrived, the requested ostentatious carriage with a conspicuous royal family seal laden in gold arrived at 7:30 in the morning. It eas the busiest time when all academe students are making their way to their first classes which start at 8. Dimitri was able to convince the headmaster to allow the carriage inside the academe so instead of us being fetched at the main gates, we were fetched in front of the villa gate for everyone to see.

Because of this arrangement, Dimitri won this round as he indeed made sure that he was able to slap all those who mocked us regarding not being invited to the royal palace. Once we are inside the royal carriage, we both laughed loudly at what happened.

We arrived at the palace grounds within half an hour and the palace guards, upon seeing the royal family crest did not even check the passengers and just let us through quickly. Upon alighting the carriage, we both went to the empress and the main consort (my in-laws) first to tell them about our arrival and give our formal greetings.

We were guided by a few of the royal attendants to the empress' drawing room where we had the secret meeting before. When we went inside, there were several people instead of the expected two. Aurum, Helios, Calyx, Yren and Xenos were there as well.

We all greeted each other formally for etiquette's sake and had our discussions while having our snacks and beverages. Only the trusted attendants were asked to remain within the drawing room as we discussed more confidential matters. As a special case, Dimitri was asked to remain as it turns out, he will be included in the ritual as well to make things official since he is also a part of a ducal house.

Dimitri smiled at me mischievously as I realized that this is also one of the reasons why he agreed to move our honeymoon at a later time. I looked at him with a smirk then clicked my tongue playfully, pretending to be annoyed for being kept in the dark.

During the meeting, I felt like I was being drowned with all the information that the ritual itself entails. It was very lengthy and tedious. They only gave me a run down of the items on the checklist and promised to let me know what I needed to do for each of them before it happens. I am already feeling annoyed and dizzy just by seeing the list of things that I have to accomplish before the ritual is deemed as complete.

They suddenly dropped a bomb on me that the first thing on the checklist was set to happen later in the evening at around seven. Here am I thinking that we were asked to arrive a day early so we can have ample preparation for the ritual itself only to find out that it was to prepare for a formal party that will be held later on the same day.

Everything was already prepared from the venue, the food as well as the things everyone needed to wear specifically the grooms. They also prepared something for me to wear but I did not like it and decided to wear something of my own. It was a good thing that I always have all my clothes and accessories with me in my storage space for any surprise events like these. I only accepted wearing the necessary marriage ritual clothes.

It will be held in the palace's main banquet hall and it will be like a modern-day wedding reception except it was done in advance, before the wedding day itself. The attendees will be the nobles who were invited to witness the event tomorrow and is somewhat a way of thanking them for their efforts to travel to the royal palace to attend the ritual.

After the short meeting, the attendants started pushing me and the grooms to another hall where all the clothing and accessory choices were placed. I joined them just to watch the guys being dolled up and also upon the fervent request of my in-laws. They wanted me to provide my honest opinion if the clothes look good on my men or not.

The picking of the outfits lasted for at least 3 hours due to the sheer amount of clothing options. We then ate a sumptuous lunch as a family. The nobles were served their lunch in a separate dining hall.

After lunch, we were pushed by the attendants to our respective rooms to give us scented baths and massages to make our looks splendid for the party later. The rest of the afternoon went by with us being dressed up, having our faces and hair done for the party.

In times like these, I just realized why I never wanted anything to do with royals and nobles in the first place. Just being with them and following their rituals, makes me feel so damn exhausted.