Feyjrusa dodged out of the way of Phon’s attack effortlessly, her eyes turning monochrome as her Curse kicked in. This at least proved she was the real deal, something Phon wasn’t certain of since her aura had always been a bit funky with all the rebirths—the same, but varying levels of brightness and opacity, and would certainly be the easiest to fake of anyone if she was ever replaced by a doppelganger.
It had been a low-risk gambit in the attacker’s eyes. Either Rusa would notice, and dodge out of the way, and there’d be no problem, or she’d catch the phony fraud unaware and lop off their head. On top of that, her attack had been blocked. She would have guessed by Drim, but he was too busy reaching for Rusa to protect her. His hidden blade had extended out of her jacket in defense, but it wasn’t what had stopped the throw of her yo-yo.
Instead, it was Nachi’s polearm that ultimately stopped the attack, catching the yo-yo’s string around the pole and wrapping it up until the buzzsaw got caught on the metal. The blades won out in the end, tearing through Nachi’s weapon, but it simply rematerialized in her hand, leaving the yo-yo to clatter before Phon retracted it.
And on top of those two, the wedding crasher found herself at the barrel-end of Tize’s gun. Quite a heavily armed group for a supposedly peaceful wedding—even odder that there were no guards around. That alone should be mandatory in a room with high-profile officials. The woman really had found herself in a rather odd situation.
“Phon?! What the hell are you doing here?” Drim finally spoke once he’d grasped the situation.
“I could say the same damn thing!” She didn’t back down, aggression still in her eyes, though she didn’t go for a follow-up attack. “Why is my beloved brother holding a secret wedding that I only got the invite for today, huh?!”
“Invite?” Drim was oddly confused and then realized, “I told you we shouldn’t have invited them. Does that mean you sent it to the others?” His question was directed at Rusa but was quickly answered by the door at the back of the chapel bursting open. The other passengers poured in, panting and crazed from their quick sprint.
“So you’re telling me that I wasn’t even supposed to be invited?!” his slighted sister was offended beyond belief, ready to start slicing again, though unsure who she should be directing her outrage. It sounded like Drim had tried to exclude her entirely, but Rusa had gone behind his back. From what she understood, it wasn’t an uncommon thing for weddings to have the spouse invite someone’s estranged family as a surprise. And boy did Drim seem surprised.
“No, Phon, sorry, it’s just… you shouldn’t be here,” he tried to clarify but only added fuel to the fire—clearly regretting his choice of words when Phon only looked that much more insulted.
“This is a fake wedding!” Rusa felt the need to step in and clarify, since it was obvious the two siblings would just be stuck in an endless cycle of misunderstandings and hurt feelings.
“See, I called it!” Xard answered with enthusiasm despite his being a bit out of breath when they caught up to the altar.
“But we need everyone to think it’s real!” the bride added, whose wedding day was quickly crumbling around her. “Which is why I felt the need to invite those we know outside of Archlave. Otherwise, it would look suspicious if there were no movements from our friends or your side of the family. And clearly, there was movement.”
“Probably too much movement!” The groom argued back, more than likely he should be doing on such a joyous and memorable occasion. “Them being here could have very well scared off the assassins, making this entire endeavor pointless.”
“So it was about the assassins. Right again,” Xard was genuinely pleased with his deductive skills.
Drim ignored it and continued his complaint. “And I’m guessing that you all didn’t have the quietest entrance. They probably didn’t see Phon come in, but the rest of you seemed to have caused a bit of a commotion.”
“Well, we may have left our giant, magical sci-fi ship floating right outside in plain view,” Kada guiltily began pushing her fingertips together.
“So this was a fake wedding to lure out the assassins…” Phon’s mind finally calmed down enough to put the pieces together. “And I just possibly ruined the plan by acting crazy and irrational…”
“Yes, that’s the objective,” Drim answered. “And if you actually understand, then why are you still trying to slowly stab your pocket knife into Rusa’s back? Evidently at a speed that seems like you’re trying to be discreet enough that her Curse doesn’t interfere.”
Phon didn’t deny the action and instead casually stowed the knife. “Well, I’m still not convinced I’m entirely in the wrong here, and I’m still upset with you for not properly taking my feelings into consideration, but I can see that isn’t the exact time to hash it out. And I’ll be damned if your mission is ruined because of my misunderstanding.”
“So assassins…” she closed her eyes and focused, taking a deep breath. “I see those hiding up in the rafters, but I’m guessing they’re Archlave guards based on their emblems.” Since no one panicked, she was right on the money.
“Now around the castle. Very empty. Guessing you wanted it that way to make it appear vulnerable. To the grounds… Ahaha, found one!” A second later, a woman with a covered face and a knife in her hands suddenly appeared in the middle of the chapel. Drim immediately trapped her in vines and then restrained her into an open seat.
Then assassin after assassin plinked into existence as Phon scoured the area.
“Pardon me, that one is our groundskeeper,” someone in the audience pointed out after she’d brought in a man with a bandana covering his face holding a pair of shears.
“Oh, oops,” she fixed her error and put him back where he belonged. But not before long, dozens of angry and stupefied assassins were lining the seats, filling out the otherwise rather thin attendance for the wedding. “I believe that’s all of them, at least here tonight, but I’d have your team do a full sweep of the perimeter just in case. Oh, and Phontext is currently putting together a list of all their known conspirators. So please take that as my apology for possibly ruining the plans. Now can we get back to how upset I am?!”
“Just one thing first,” the king himself interrupted. “Thank you all for coming to this ruse. We’ve been able to capture the offenders and have foiled their plot. Please everyone, proceed to the reception in the banquet hall. The event may have been fake, but the celebration is real. Enjoy the night, and may we have continued peace in Archlave.”
After the small crowd dispersed, Nachi and Tize began their work of interrogating the assassins. Mallea split away from everyone and began cleaning up the space despite no one asking her to. Meanwhile, all the new attendees cornered Drim and Rusa so they could finally get some answers.
The princess herself decided to give a rundown of events. “So I’m sure as you all know, we’ve had issues for a while now of assassins making attempts on my life, along with my father’s and some of our extended family. Unfortunately, we hadn’t been able, thus far, to get to the root of the problem.”
“Through much investigation, though, we discovered that the group was comprised of Archlave nationalists who were dissatisfied with the current monarchy. It seems that they’ve wanted our family out of power for some time, and with me being a Fiend and not showing direct interest to inherit the throne, they believed they finally had a political leg to stand on to either convert the country into a democracy or put someone else in power.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Now while I can’t say that I currently have interest to claim the throne, my father still has many years left to reign, and overall has high approval among the citizenry. It didn’t seem fair to have those opportunities and mine revoked without our consent, so we aimed to sure-up our right of succession. But for that to happen to the point that no one could dispute it again, we would need to make stronger political ties.”
“The quickest and most definitive way would be through marriage, specifically to another noble family of high standing. Neither my father nor I had any desire to actually marry me off to some prick who just wanted to grab power. This made Drim the obvious choice, or you, Phon, but Drim believed that would be even more problematic.”
“So, this fake wedding served a two-fold purpose. First, it was to dismiss worry about the future of Archlave for the standard citizen, so any lingering fancies of rebellion would not grow in their minds. Even though there’d be no actual union, the masses would believe that both the Drazah bloodline would succeed and that Archlave itself would be under official protection of the Fiends For Hire. Which in a way it already is and will remain so with myself operating as a member.”
“And I’m guessing you’re not planning to make the news public that this was all a hoax then.” Victori questioned, having followed along intently as one of the few who understood noble society and politics.
“I see no reason that there needs to be an official announcement,” Rusa smirked. “This was not a public event to begin with, but the news has still spread among the country like wildfire anyways. Marital issues between husband and wife are a private affair. It is not their obligation to make an announcement of the reasons that the wedding didn’t go through.”
“So while no official documents will ever be signed, no vows exchanged, no kiss at the end, we can still see the benefits from this sham without having to go through with it. Even if its disauthenticity is ever spread, which it probably will one day, especially if one of us ever pursues another relationship, there will always still be that tie and connection in the public eye.”
Drim then grumbled, “And something tells me that I’d be made out to be the villain anyways—the bastard who left you at the altar. But I’m used to it I guess, more scandals and rumors for the bottomless pit.”
“And to the second point,” Rusa gestured to their literally captive audience. “We wanted to create a scenario where this group couldn’t afford to stay idle. Even if they believed it was all a setup, they’d still have to confirm it with their own eyes at the very least, since this political marriage would halt any momentum and political backing they had. If they didn’t kill us now, their only option in the future would be full rebellion or war.”
“Hopefully now with this group to interrogate and Phon’s ability to see their connections, we can uncover the masterminds behind all this. My father and I have some suspicions, a few of which were in attendance so that I could study their reactions. But now we should be able to confirm it.”
“Okay… Okay… okay, okay, okay,” Phon stamped around for a while, processing it all. “I get it, I do. Now I understand the situation fully, and while I have some notes about the execution, it was a good plan. But still… why the zjik didn’t you tell me?! Do you have any idea the turmoil I’ve gone through today?! How many times and ways I planned to murder Feyjrusa?! How I started to doubt and believe that our bond as brother and sister meant so little to you that you’d keep me in the dark!”
“It’s irrational, I know, but I can’t help it. That’s just how I am, and you know that too. And I’m guessing that to a much lesser extent it caused these other people that tagged along some trouble that could have been so easily avoided if you’d just been upfront and honest.”
“We’re supposed to be in this together, Drim. Me and you until the end. You can tell me literally anything, but did you really not trust me enough to believe that I wouldn’t understand, that I’d stand in the way or try to stop it just because it was something I didn’t like.”
“Well, I can answer part of that,” Rusa jumped on it while Drim was clearly still struggling with his words. “We didn’t want it to be a big group of Fiends. If we had the entire Fiends For Hire here, there’s no way these assassins would have been bold enough to make a move no matter how we laid out the bait. So, we confided in just Tize and Nachi since I have a bit of connection to them, one that the assassins knew about and would probably be suspicious of if they weren’t in attendance.”
“So, the initial idea was to make it seem like we were doing this in secret, which we were. As if Drim was going behind everyone’s backs to pursue this passion, thus making the event that much more vulnerable. It was my decision at the last minute to include you all in the invitations after processing several scenarios. I went behind his back and added them to the pile before Drim could have Hand Guy deliver them.”
“As to why we didn’t include you in this from the get-go, or even let you or the rest of the group know this was happening… Well, maybe it’d be better if you answer that one, Drim.”
The boy immediately grew a look on his face that he’d been thrown under the bus, and that Rusa had been the one to push him to his demise. “Uhh, Phon, you see,” Drim had trouble getting the words out. “I wanted to tell you about the plan, really I did. Hell, I was the one who vouched that you’d be understanding when we were first putting the idea together. It’s just… well… uhhh…”
“Oh come on, spit it out already!” It was Kada who was getting impatient even though this bit didn’t directly concern her. She just hated being left in suspense.
“We weren’t confident in your acting,” he finally laid out the truth.
“Uhh… huh?” the girl in question was utterly confused at first as if she’d misheard what he’d said. “Wait, acting. My acting?!” Now she looked like she’d been hit by that very same bus that backed up over her while trying to check if Drim was okay. “Me, who is the public face of the group and does all the announcements, monologues, interviews, grand speeches, and reveals.”
“And not you who is so timid that you can barely get in front of and say a few words. But the problem is my acting. Uh, yeah, okay!”
“Um, well,” Drim realized his mistake, one of many. “Not like ability to perform, more how you’d react and carry yourself leading up to the event. Could you honestly tell me that it would never show in your body language? That you wouldn’t be so stressed or obsessed over it that you wouldn’t be rambling to yourself and pacing around, trying to make sure everything was perfect, or acting sporadically when your temper or emotions flared?”
“No! Well, okay that does kind of sound like me,” she was forced to admit. “But that should be expected! If, somehow everyone believed that I was fine with it and going along with it, they’d expect me to be acting crazy! That’d sell it even more, yeah?!”
“I… can’t disagree there,” Drim nodded along and shrugged his lips. “But there were already so many factors in play that we didn’t want to add more. And we didn’t tell the rest of the group, because the more who knew, the bigger the chance that the information would leak.”
“Yeah, that’s totally justified…” Kada had to butt in. “I can’t keep a secret for zjik. Best to keep me out of the sensitive info.”
“I too may be known to spread of gossip, just a little bit,” Victori pinched her fingers close.
“Well, the plan damn sure would have been safe with me. And I think of myself as a pretty good actor,” Xard was offended most of all by the accusations. “But, well, I guess it’s fine. Could have at least had me flying around to do security checks or something…”
The group then watched as a surge of emotions, practically the entire spectrum, washed over Phon’s face in just the span of a few seconds. “Hnnng, fine. I get it, okay. It made the most sense not to include us. But that doesn’t mean I’m over it just yet. Before, I can forgive you, there’s just a few things I want—maybe open to negotiation. First, let me murder this version of Rusa so that I can wash away this foul memory, and then—”
“Hey, you guys!” Nachi called from the other side of the room. “You may want to come over here. This one’s spouting some crazy zjik.”
“As I said, if Archlave can not be freed from this monster, it is better off destroyed by one!” the insane assassin spewed some nonsense once they’d all gathered. “The Archlave I love is gone now, so let the memory be cherished of what it once was. Let the beast wipe it clean!”
Suddenly, the collar of the man’s shirt lit up. And then the other assassins repeated the same chant, “Let the beast wipe it clean!” and their collars lit up as well. A second later, the whole island shook, just enough to rattle everyone still on their feet. And then it happened again, and again, wave after wave of small tremors that were slowly building in intensity.
The group ran outside and immediately heard screams across the island. From the castle’s high vantage up at the top, they could see disturbance in the water rushing right towards Archlave. And then they watched as the monster burst forth from the sea.