The night of Achil's wedding arrived, and the palace trembled above and below for the marriage of the emperor's son. I thought I would close the door of my room, but the servants surprised me with my preparations—not only for the wedding, but even for walking behind the bride and groom! I didn't think I would be more shocked by this empire than I had anticipated.
I chose the finest and simplest silk, but the maids warned me that I would humiliate the prince, but I did not care. The bride and groom stood in front of a grand gate, and we stood quietly behind them. Achil had a number of concubines that I hadn't noticed before. Then a massive number of servants followed us, seemingly endless. It was a loud proclamation of his power and status, which heightened Achil's fears, and he stood silently, gazing at the gate without moving.
The gate opened, revealing a vast space behind it, large enough to fit ten houses and more. People expanded to the right and left, and then we walked on a path of red fabric. The redness ended with two huge adjacent seats, surrounded by numerous small chairs. It was a majestic sight, a realm where only the prince and the emperor mattered. Women held no significance in this place except as concubines, and even the empress herself didn't appear different from them in these small chairs, even if they were placed in different rows.
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As soon as we reached them, the bride and groom, concubines, and servants all kneeled down. After a full minute, the bride and groom stood up, and then we stood up after them. The emperor spoke nonsensically, but Aron remained silent, occasionally looking at me and at other times at Athena. I even believed that the reason for Athena's blushing now was that she imagined the brothers would fight over her. I shook my head to stop my stupid judgments.
After the emperor's nonsense and the empress's interventions from her seat in the back, I thought we would finally leave. However, Aron raised his head towards us and sarcastically said, "I hope you do something tonight instead of just drinking tea." Then he returned his back, staring at me without moving his eyes.
For a moment, I thought I heard Achil's heartbeats. While Athena blushed with embarrassment, thinking that her beauty would break her brother's curse, And on another level, the emperor laughed foolishly and said, "Yes, yes, don't spend the night drinking and talking. The man must prove himself tonight." The empress didn't care; as long as this night was completed, she didn't care about anyone's feelings.