The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 905: The Crownless Voidking and The Queen Who Never Was

“That’s not necessary, we shouldn’t force him..” Sam spoke in his defence.

“Lord Stormwatcher, a war will last for a long time and claim thousands of lives. This is.. just a wedding.” Souldealer refuted.

“If Damian truly doesn’t like this idea, we will stand with him, but if this is really just for Lucian.. I support her decision.” Evrin said, and Einar glanced at her, then nodded as well.

“It’s more than just a personal decision. It affects too many people. If Lady Lucian and Lord Keeper both said no, we wouldn’t intrude on their private matter. But if Lady Lucian is okay with that.. I don’t think this is the right decision of the Keeper.” Torwin revealed his opinion as well.

“You don’t know her! She is always like this! She says yes when she should not! To her, this is all part of her duty.” Damian narrowed his eyes at the group.

“But..” Sam muttered hesitantly, “It is her duty, Damian. If we can ask our soldiers to die for us, why is this one small inconvenience to us.. is so forbidden? I will always support you, but perhaps Lucian is capable of making her own decisions? Maybe she knows about her issue.. And she still chooses this?”

Damian turned towards Lucian. The intensity in her eyes was second to none. It was true. She knew very well what the price of saying yes would be, and she said it anyway, for sanctuary. And he.. he was the cowardly one here.

He always pushed for equality among all people of Sanctuary. And yet perhaps.. he unknowingly placed these sanctum heads in the category of people he needed to protect and did not consider them fellow warriors who were fighting for the same dream of Sanctuary beside him.

’Its an insult.. to refuse Lucian’s this determination for the excuse of some romance fairytales. Why.. was it too much? People had fought and died; they just had to endure this.’

Damian exhaled and held Lucian’s shoulders, then bowed his head slightly at her. He then turned back.

“Call everyone, time is running out.”

There were barely 23 minutes left. He needed to be done with this thing.

’Bitch-ass gods and their bullshit rules..’

Once again, the hall had all the prominent members of both countries. Ilarin, possessed by the goddess Astraea, had walked closer to them as well.

“Have you decided?” Ilvanya asked.

The Eldorians kept glancing at their queen, who had a blank face. Damian nodded, and the queen holding the wooden heart approached him. Before she could take her position, Damian turned towards the goddess,

“Doesn’t matter which follower of yours I marry, right?”

The goddess raised her eyebrows slightly as if caught off guard by the question.

“No, as long as she has the high blessing.” She replied. “You’d better accept this; in time, you will realize I have done a favor to you. There is a reason why being a transcedent is the only choice.”

He nodded, only focusing on the first sentence since he had already made up his mind and didn’t need anymore convincing.

Damian didn’t want to admit but his heart ached when he heard about the wedding thing. Lucian was a big part of it, but he would be lying if he said it was just for her. If he had to do a shotgun marriage, there was another elf he would rather be with.

“I am putting another condition in the contract. I choose Vidalia Eldorian as my partner. If she accepts it.”

All eyes in the hall turned from Damian to the Spellmaster. Still in her noble attire, her face was frozen solid. Her eyes locked on Damian’s smiling face. The cheeks getting redder by the second were hard to miss.

The gasps and murmuring followed, but by default, he had learned to ignore all that.

Of course, this might be borderline offensive to the queen, who had prepared herself, but if they could force things on him, he could ask something back as well.

“That is not what our liege said!” One of the old geezers objected.

“No, it’s better this way.” The queen brushed it off, then bowed before Ilarin, “Only if your highness approves it.”

“Doesn’t matter which one,” Astraea replied. “The Crownless Voidking and the Queen who never wore a crown, it is quite fitting.”

Damian narrowed his eyes at the goddess. Was that amusement he just heard? Why was the goddess acting like a gossipy aunt? Did the personalities change as per the host? That’s what Ilarin thought of them?

The queen thing was not taken lightly by the eldorians Damian noticed. There was a visible tension among them.

“Still, the offense against the queen is offense against the kingdom,” The old granny said, “If you willingly choose our Vidalia, then your position in the inner circle is forfeited as well.”

The queen glanced at the elder and nodded. It wasn’t that big a deal to them, but if it can be used, then why shouldn’t they?

That was shrewd of her.

The other sanctum heads had all varied reactions to that. Of course, the cost of exchange was deserving of raising eyebrows. Damian didn’t care much for the inner circle though. If they wanted to inform him of things, they would.

“As long as Vidalia is not deprived of her position, I have no issues with it.”

“Lady Vidalia is an invaluable part of Eldoris. She will always have a place in my inner circle.” The queen stated while meeting eyes with her cousin.

“Uh.. I think Vidalia still has to answer before we discuss things about her.” Ilvanya reminded with a smirk.

It was obvious Vidalia had no issue with it, but she still wanted to tease her daughter.

Vidalia glared at her, but then her expression softened, and she turned towards Damian,

“Damian Sunblade.. I.. accept you to be my husband.” She said it.

It was obvious that the attention she was receiving was not very appreciated. But Spellmaster was fearless. The shock in the Eldorians was not missed by Damian at the mention of the husband.

They must have assumed that when he asked Vidalia to be his partner, it meant becoming her paramour. But that wasn’t the case. Vidalia knew what he meant.

A relation lasting for a lifetime. Both being transcedents it might be longer than three centuries. If Damian became a fourth ranker, it might cross a thousand years even. High elves could live that long as well.

And they had decided that in seconds.

The queen held the Eldoris dungeon relic, The Sylvan Heartbind

, and Damian stood at one side of it. Vidalia took her place at the other side. The two ethereal green leaves on the wooden heart fluttered slightly, acknowledging the target.

It wasn’t runic. Enchanted.. but that wasn’t all. The light mana in it was weird. But that was given. The Eldoris royal dungeon was supposed to be some advanced light-element mage civilization based. The technology was what gave the Eldorians such a prominent position, even among other elven houses, when they still existed.

The queen presented the wooden heart between the two and turned towards him,

“Eat the leaf. Then repeat what Vidalia answers if you agree. Traditionally, the male is supposed to go first, but then tradition demands a full moon and many other things as well. Since we have chosen to ignore all else, this will do as well.”

The Eldorians chuckled.

“Okay, let’s do this fast. We don’t have time. The blessing should also take 4-5 minutes.” The granny reminded.

Damian and Vidalia looked in each other’s eyes for a moment and then decisively pulled the ethereal leaf and placed it in each other’s mouths.

The queen raised her voice,

“Do you come freely, with no binding but love, and no witness but the world itself?”

“We come freely, and we remain.” Vidalia answered, and Damian repeated.

“Will you share your years, whether they pass like a song or linger like a mountain’s shadow?”

“We share all our years.”

“Will you guard one another’s heart, not as a possession, but as a living thing?”

“We will guard, and never cage.”

“Will you walk the long road together, when joy is light and when silence grows heavy?”

“We will walk, and we will wait.”

“Before forest, star, and the memory of those who came before, do you bind your lives as one path?”

“We bind our lives, and our path is one.”

The queen gestured with her hand, and Vidalia approached Damian. Another wave of muffled laughter accompanied in the background from both groups this time. Damian didn’t need to be told what this meant. He had not seen what wedding rituals in this world looked like.

He, too, stepped closer to Vidalia, his hands on her waist, and the two shared a passionate kiss.

The loud applause mixed with some inappropriate whistles followed.

When they separated, the queen proclaimed,

“Then let it be known: what was chosen freely is now woven deeply. By crown and by custom, by breath and by years uncounted, this union stands. Go now as two lives walking one name. The forest has heard. The stars will not forget.”