Charisma 100: My Academy Life As A Heartbreaking Commoner-Chapter 234: Ceremony

{A week later}

Aegis stared at herself in the mirror.

Whether in this life or the last one, she would have absolutely NEVER imagined herself wearing this.

The gown was white and gold, fitted tight around her waist and chest before it flared out at her hips into this massive, flowing skirt that probably weighed more than Scarlett’s armor. Her shoulders were bare, her silver hair had been pulled up and pinned into some elaborate style that took two attendants an hour to finish, and there was a thin golden circlet resting on her forehead that, frankly, made her look like royalty.

Which, well, she was about to be. Sort of.

[I look like a princess. An actual princess. Emily, if you could see yourself now, you’d probably laugh until you puked.]

"You look incredible," Sophie said from behind her, and when Aegis turned around, her little sister was already tearing up. "Like, seriously, I’m gonna cry."

"Please don’t. If you cry, I’ll cry, and then these two hours of makeup are wasted."

"Too late." Sophie wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and then threw her arms around Aegis. "I’m so proud of you."

Aegis hugged her back and, for a moment, didn’t say anything. She just held her sister and let the weight of the day settle over her shoulders.

"Alright, alright." Aegis pulled back and gave Sophie a light pat on the cheek. "Go sit down before you ruin my dress."

Sophie stuck her tongue out and left the room, nearly bumping into Liora on her way out. Liora stepped in wearing a soft blue dress, her brown curls pinned half-up, and she had that look on her face that she always got right before she said something painfully sincere.

"Aegis."

"Liora."

"You look beautiful."

"I know, right?" She struck a pose.

Liora laughed and shook her head.

"I just wanted to say, before everything starts, that I’m really happy for you. For both of you."

"Thank you." Aegis meant it, too. "How’s Talia doing? Is she freaking out?"

"She’s... composed."

"So she’s freaking out."

"She threw a hairbrush at a wall about twenty minutes ago."

"That’s my girl."

Liora gave her one more smile and ducked back out. Almost immediately, the door swung open again and Scarlett filled the frame, looking deeply uncomfortable in a formal red dress that she had very clearly been forced into.

"I hate this," Scarlett said.

"You look great."

"I hate this so much."

"Your tits look amazing in that dress."

"... Okay, maybe I don’t hate it that much." Scarlett tugged at the neckline and glanced around the room. "Your parents are already out there, by the way. Your mom’s been crying since she sat down. Your dad looks like he’s trying really hard not to."

Aegis rolled her eyes light-heartedly. Lisannia and Aaron had made the trip all the way from Sparker Village for this and, honestly, Aegis still wasn’t sure how much of the situation they fully understood. Their daughter was marrying a princess. That was a lot to process for two farmers who had close to no clue what was happening in Rosevale, aside from what Sophie said in letters.

"Oh, and Nazraya’s here," Scarlett added. "She’s sitting in the third row looking like she wants to eat someone."

"That’s just her face. Don’t mind her. Any other teachers showed up?"

"Let’s see... Sister Mirabel is here. Waaaay in the back. Like, she’s practically outside."

[Mirabel showed up? Huh. Good for her, I guess. She probably thinks I’m marrying Talia through some sort of shadow magic brainwashing, but hey, at least she came.]

"Anyone else I should know about?" Aegis asked.

"Uh, basically everyone. It’s packed out there. Standing room only."

Aegis turned back to the mirror and took a breath.

So, in Valdria, weddings were a bit different from what Emily remembered back on Earth. For one, there were no priests. Marriages here were officiated by a representative of the Noble Consortium, some bureaucrat in fancy robes who read from a scroll and made both parties sign a binding contract. No vows, no "I do," no ring exchange. Instead, the couple exchanged house sigils, small enchanted brooches that magically bonded to the wearer and couldn’t be removed without both parties’ consent. Very romantic, in a legal sort of way.

The other big difference was that Valdrian weddings were, essentially, political events first and celebrations second. The ceremony itself lasted maybe fifteen minutes. The reception afterward lasted hours, sometimes days, and that was where the real business happened. Alliances were forged, deals were struck, and nobles got drunk enough to say things they’d regret in the morning.

[So, basically, it’s a networking event with a marriage attached. How romantic.]

Still, though, Aegis couldn’t stop grinning. She looked at herself in that mirror one more time, at the white and gold gown and the circlet and the woman staring back at her, and her heart fluttered a little.

She was getting married to one of her favorite videogame characters. But, like, actually, not a cardboard cutout of her.

[Crazy.] She inhaled slowly. [Okay. Let’s go get hitched.]

---

The ceremony was, as expected, short.

Aegis and Talia stood across from each other in front of maybe five hundred people, while some grey-robed Consortium official read from a scroll that was longer than he was tall. He droned on about "the sacred bond between noble houses" and "the mutual obligations of matrimony under Valdrian law" and a bunch of other stuff that Aegis tuned out almost immediately.

What she didn’t tune out was Talia.

[God. Damn.]

Talia was wearing black and silver. Fitted coat, high collar, polished boots, her dark hair pulled back tight. She looked like a general at a war council.

[To think I’m dicking that girl down on the regular. My life is so good.]

The sigil exchange went smoothly. Aegis pinned the Stone brooch to her chest and felt it hum against her skin. Talia pinned the Starcaller brooch to hers and, for just a moment, her fingers lingered on Aegis’s collarbone.

"Don’t cry," Aegis whispered.

"I’m not crying."

"Okay, just saying. Don’t."

"I’m going to burn you alive."

Aegis smirked.

The official said something about the union being sealed and the crowd erupted. Aegis then pulled Talia to her and kissed her in front of everyone, and she could hear Scarlett whooping from somewhere in the third row and Sophie screaming.

After that, it was all reception.

Hours and hours and hours of it. Aegis shook hands, accepted congratulations, danced with Talia twice, danced with Liora once, and then got dragged into a conversation with Lord Harbell about grain tariffs that lasted twenty agonizing minutes. She kept trying to excuse herself but the man just would not stop talking about wheat.

She spotted Nazraya near the wine table at some point, watching the festivities with a glass in her hand that she hadn’t taken a single sip from. Serilla found Aegis later and squeezed her ass when nobody was looking. Sophie was already drunk, which, honestly, was impressive given that the reception had only been going for about two hours. Aegis chose not to question it.

By the time the sun started going down, Aegis was running on fumes. Her feet were killing her, her cheeks hurt from smiling, and she had eaten exactly one appetizer in the last six hours because every time she reached for food, someone else wanted to congratulate her.

[Okay, I think I’m about ready to call it and go consummate this marriage about fifteen times in a row.]

She was mid-thought, standing near the edge of the reception hall with Talia beside her, when the windows broke.

Not one window. All of them. At the same time.

Glass went everywhere. Someone screamed, and then more people screamed, and Aegis threw her arm in front of Talia on reflex before she even fully understood what was happening. She squinted through the dust and debris and counted black-clad figures coming through the broken windows and the side entrances.

Ten, fifteen, probably more.

All of them armed.

[What the fuck is going on?]

The guards responded before anyone else could. Captain Renn yelled something and his men moved to put themselves between the assassins and the guests. Swords came out, and then the reception hall wasn’t a reception hall anymore.

Nobles were tripping over each other trying to get away. Tables went over. Wine glasses hit the floor.

"SCARLETT!" Aegis yelled. "KANNA!"

They were already moving. Scarlett had torn the bottom half of her dress off at some point and grabbed a sword from somewhere, Aegis didn’t even want to know how, and Kanna had taken a blade off one of the fallen guards.

"My parents!" Aegis pointed toward Lisannia and Aaron’s table. Her mother was frozen in her seat. Her father was standing in front of her with his fists up, and Aegis would have found that sweet if the situation weren’t so dire, because the man was a farmer trying to square up against trained killers. Sophie was beside them, wide-eyed. "Get them out! Sophie too! Go!"

Scarlett grabbed Sophie by the arm and went. Kanna was already pulling Aaron and Lisannia toward the nearest exit. One assassin tried to get in her way and she cut him down without slowing her stride, which Aegis figured was about right for Kanna.

Aegis turned back toward the fighting.

Talia wasn’t next to her anymore.

[Where—]

She found her. About ten feet away. Talia had conjured an ice spear out of thin air and was standing over someone on the ground. It took Aegis a second to realize who it was.

Evangeline. She had apparently shown up after all, and now she was on the floor, shaking, while her daughter drove that ice spear through an assassin’s chest. The man crumpled and Talia yanked the weapon out and planted herself over her mother.

Then, Aegis saw it.

Behind Talia. One more figure in black, already lunging, dagger out, aimed right between Talia’s shoulder blades. Talia was facing the wrong direction. Evangeline was on the ground. No guards close enough.

Aegis didn’t think about it.

Her hand came up and the magic just tore out of her. The first spell she could think of.

Umbral Grasp.

Black and green was soon covering her fingers, covering her palm, and covering the assassin.

He froze mid-air, his whole body locked, the dagger an inch from Talia’s back. He jerked and struggled but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t even make a sound.

Two guards rushed in and tackled the man to the ground the moment Aegis let go of the spell. The rest of the attackers must have gotten whatever signal they were waiting for, because they started pulling back. Through the windows, through the doors, gone as fast as they’d come.

And then it got quiet.

People were groaning. There was some crying. Some whispering. Guards were checking the bodies on the floor. The marble was covered in glass, blood, and overturned chairs, and the reception hall looked like a completely different place than it had five minutes ago.

Aegis was still standing there with her hand out, her fingers still spread. The black-green magic hadn’t fully faded from her skin yet.

Talia was staring at her.

Evangeline, on the ground, was staring at her.

Across the room, Nazraya had gone completely still. And, for the first time in Aegis’s memory, the professor looked concerned.

In the back of the hall, Sister Mirabel had her eyes narrowed straight at her.

Well, of course she did.

Everyone in that room had just watched Aegis Starcaller use shadow magic, after all.