The next day morning;
Royal Palace, Lunaris City, Western Moon Kingdom;
"Welcome, Lord Lu, Lady Song, and the honored guests, to Lunaris City. Your presence in my palace is a great honor; may our alliance bring prosperity to both our families."
The King of Western Moon, Shen Niu, accompanied by his daughter, courtiers, and officials, greeted the guests with a formal deep bow, showing reverence and acknowledging their presence. Mark and Song Yue respond bows with equal respect.
If this was any other normal visit, such formality was unnecessary. But, since it holds special significance, the king treated Mark already as his son-in-law and gave him the respect he deserves.
Following the formal greetings and rituals, King Shen Niu led the guests in a majestic procession through the palace, showcasing the grandeur and splendor of his kingdom. Courtiers and attendants follow along, adding to the sense of importance and celebration.
It is not the first time Mark and Song Yue were visiting the palace but as agreed upon beforehand, they played along.
Only Xie Mei was new and as a person who never stepped inside a royal palace, she was quite overwhelmed with their wealth, not knowing that Mark once held more wealth than the combined wealth of the Western Moon kingdom's citizens but blew it up all on Weapon Transmutation skill.
Once it was over, everyone was given their own guestroom to take rest until lunchtime.
Xie Mei slept peacefully all night while they were on the way but Song Yue kept Mark company, talking with him so that he don't sleep on the way and their vehicle crashed into some tree or rock.
Now, Mark has 9.6 points of strength, 9.5 temporary points of intelligence, and 9.1 points of resistance his physical and mental stamina is over the roof. He doesn't get tired that easily and neither could he feel much stress unless it deeply affects his soul, meaning emotional things related to his heart.
However, Song Yue doesn't have such resistance. The moment she stepped into her room, she collapsed on the bed and fell into a deep sleep while sharing the room with the manticore and the golden kitten, which constantly act as her bodyguards.
As for her real bodyguard, aka her dad who disguised as the Black Knight warrior, he too couldn't properly sleep in a sitting position as Xie Mei. Hence, he also fell asleep as his back hit the comfy bed.
And if one wonders where the zheng was, the beast emperor continued his stay at Mt. Lan and temporarily stayed away from Mark.
Xie Mei took out her Griffin for a walk as they roamed outside of the palace while Mark was in a private meeting with Shen Niu and Shen Ling in his room.
"Okay, son, let me go through what we have discussed through the communication scroll over the past few days." King Shen Niu started speaking first, directly going through the matter.
Meanwhile, Mark was also slightly surprised at Shen Niu's change of address toward him as it is the first time he called him like that, but he didn't mind it and listened to the king in silence.
"The coronation of Feng Chun is going to happen the day after tomorrow. Hence, I have to leave by tomorrow noon. Xiao Ling will stay here. As you know, we don't have any specific ministries or departments to handle the marriage and other ceremonies. We hire private individuals who we call event planners to do them. They will take care of everything.
Anyways, we hired Yang Tao. You can discuss the dates and venues and everything with him regarding your marriage with Lady Song and then your engagement with my daughter. And then…"
"Wait a second…" Mark stopped him from going further as he wanted to say something regarding his marriage.
"Hmm? What is it?" He asked. Shen Ling, who was just smiling in silence, also couldn't help but curiously look at Mark, wondering what he wants to say.
Mark then said, "There's a slight change in the plans actually. After discussing it a bit, we realized it is better if my marriage with Song Yue happen somewhere else."
"Where?" Shen Niu asked.
Before Mark answered, Shen Ling said in a bit of an unsure tone, "Eastern Sun Kingdom?"
Mark asked curiously, "Did Song Yue tell you that?"
Shen Ling shrugged her shoulders, "just a hunch, backed by a couple of theories."
Mark stared at her for a couple of seconds and got back to her father as he doesn't want her to explain her theories, atleast not in front of her father.
As Shen Niu wondered why, Mark then explained that Song Yue isn't comfortable with both events being attended in the same place without much gap between them.
Hence, he decided to have a destination wedding with Song Yue at Eastern Sun but omitted the location, making them assume that it is Helios City.
Shen Niu felt weird and didn't know what to reply to that, thinking of this destination wedding, far away from their hometown.
He could understand if Mark wanted to marry at the Fujian island since it is legally his own property, but at Eastern Sun kingdom? That far away? Why?
The only reason he could think is because of the current situation at Western Yan and the Phoenix Empire.
Mark then further said that two-three months after the completion of his first marriage, they can proceed through engagement or marriage with Shen Ling as the King wishes.
Mark's assurance about his marriage to the princess brought a bit of relief and a boost of energy to King Shen Niu once again and the latter continued with his explanation about their schedule, "Anyway, once the Western Yan is formally declared as the independent kingdom, we will proceed with implementing this embassy system and make sure to propose this system to the other powers who will attend the ceremony.
Coming to yourself, for the next few days, Xiao Ling will be responsible for taking care of you and your companions. She will let you know everything you have to know about our kingdom and our royal affairs.
After that, I expect you to train the soldiers for a week regarding your firearms and vehicles as you have promised.
Then, you can go and tour around these airstrips and runways that you wanted. Whatever place you want, we will make the arrangements.
Regarding the world auction, we still have to wait for the announcement but as we know, the sellers usually have ten weeks of time to register their items from the date of announcement. So, I guess we have plenty of time.
You can use this time as an opportunity to marry Lady Song within the next couple of months and then we can proceed with my daughter's engagement after the auction. It's just a suggestion. Not pressuring you by any means…"
"Hmm…" Mark thought about it, taking the matter rather seriously.
To be honest, he doesn't want to think about the marriage until he moved on from his revenge. He wanted it to be something like opening a new chapter of life.
For that to happen, he needed a civil war to start in the Phoenix Empire. To get the desired results, he estimated about 5-6 months of time.
But, this King Shen Niu was trying to rush his marriage with Song Yue so that he can get his daughter to wed him.
What should he do?
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