The Wedding

Three days passed in a blink of an eye. Finally, it was the day of the wedding.

Armed soldiers were seen patrolling around the building where the wedding ceremony took place.

Based on the tradition, the ceremony was held in the bride's place, and the groom's family will be the one to come to District 4.

Since this marriage was merely a political agreement, most of the guests were the elders, senate and some remarkable people from District 1 to District 5 in Zone A.

The atmosphere was heavy since the incident between District 2 and District 4 only happened six months ago. The elder of district 5 looks at people from district 4 with disgust. They did not expect that District 4 still wanted to proceed with the agreement after what happened. The Everheart, Nala's family, who was the victim of District 2 brutality, and some families who support The Everheart did not attend the wedding.

Many guests take this opportunity to build a connection with the significant figures. They started to mingle and try to make some business deals although they were at someone's wedding right now. Their reaction was understandable because they can't meet these influential people every day to build up a connection. The guests were smiling happily, but behind their smiles, there was greed to control other districts' resources.

The big fish in the meeting are usually important figures from District 1. As the land with the most resources, they lived in abundance.

The zones and districts in Atlan are classified based on the quantity of the resource.

Zone A is the best zone since the land is fertile and they have a lot of resources such as oil, gold, diamond, and such. District 1 is the best place in Atlan because the people has access to important sources that can only be found in their area and have the ability to use the resources.

District 5 is the worst place in Zona A as their resources were less than the other four district and they also lack of the ability to cultivate their land. They also lack human resources to manage their own resource that made them need other district cooperation to help them manage the resource.

As the district with the most resources, District 1 is currently the one that maintains the order in Atlan. One of the reasons people in Zone A can maintain their first position as the best district is because the place was the land of the founding father of Atlan. Although they don't have strong troops, their agreement with district 2 can make them access the troops from district 2 easily.

District 2 just got its position as the second-best district just three decades ago. Before that, they were actually the worst district which makes them District 5. Their land could become the second-best district after they start to make an agreement with District 1.

At that time, they borrowed some resources from District 1 to develop their land. If they fail in 10 years, they will give all of their resources to district 1. In the end, they succeed. Their laboratory develops rapidly and makes them able to create powerful troops. They found some mines and started to mine them without the help of other districts.

The wedding hall started to get crowded every second. People began to fill all the seats with the passing time.

Some people look anxious while waiting for the groom and bride to appear.

Luxon family members' expressions, especially Haruka's gloomy face made the elders suspect something bad was going to happen. Today, all the members of their family attended the wedding. Bryana, who initially said that she was not coming, agreed on attending the wedding at the last minute.

All the people who know the family looked at Roxane with disbelieving, amazed, or curious stares since they rarely saw her. Some people even suspect that she was Raphael's betrothed at first but later found out that the one they are talking about was the mysterious second daughter of the Luxon family.

The groom and bride did not appear after fifteen minutes, making people speculate the worst scenario.

"Did something happen?"

"Maybe the groom or the bride running away."

"It might be. This is a political marriage after all."

"How could they run away with a ton of armed troops surrounding the building?"

"I have seen the bride, but I can't find the groom. Did the groom choose not to attend the wedding?"

"You may be right, I heard that the groom hates humans."

"Luca Winter did not hate humans. The word hate cannot describe how hateful he is toward humans. It's in their blood."

"I was also thinking the same, I've even heard some rumors that said that Luca once killed a human servant just because that poor girl misplaced his pen when she cleaned the room."

"If they didn't need the oil from District 4, I doubt they would even want to be in the same place as lower-class beings like us."

Several higher-up women are creating a soft hum inside the building with their hot gossip.

This small commotion made Haruka's face turn darker as Richard quickly took his wife's hand and massaged it a little, trying to ease her. Roxane also seemed like she would retort back with a more vicious remark and Raphael seemed to hold Roxane's hand, but with a totally different reason.

Raphael would tap or even pinch his sister's hand when the girl is just about to confront the gossipmonger. Although Roxane was a 24-year-old woman, Raphael could say it confidently that Roxane's mental age was lower than Bryana and Ayana or even Roney.

In the end, there was nothing they could do, they could not do anything with every questioning gaze on them.

"Both bride and groom enter the room," The emcee's voice stopped the soft hum in the wedding hall, creating a tense silence. The guest started to stand to welcome the couple.

The bride and groom walked on the alley, creating the sound of footsteps that broke the silence.