Victor finished his brainwashing session by carefully pushing Elise into the waiting room where the brides were relaxing in their fluffy dresses while retouching their makeup. They were a little sulky because Victor was using their wedding as some kind of fly trap. But as soon as Victor walked through the door, they brightened up…. That was for a second before noticing Elise.

“Who is this?” Margret asked immediately.

“The new bride…” Victor said as the girls looked at him and then at Elise. They were curious.

“The one we got the extra dress for?” Aria asked.

“Yup…” Victor nodded.

“Isn’t she a little too young to marry?” Margret asked, making the other girls take note of this very important fact.

“She is old enough…” Victor replied. Elise nodded.

“Legally enough?”

“I have the consent of her parents…”

“Tell that to the cops!” Margret replied as she inspected Elise. Fresh and pretty. Just the way Victor liked them… She knew because she liked them that way too!

“I will if they dared to come. Help her put on her dress and get ready… You only have 15 minutes… And make sure to wear the masks and the ‘prop’ I prepared!“

“You call that thing a ‘prop’?”

“It is whatever I call it to be…”

“Not that I am not into this bondage play… But some of the girls here are shy and do you know how much it weighs!”

“It is pure gold… It has to be heavy! Think of it as a big necklace!” he said then, turning to the priestess girl, Ruby. “You did good earlier, I will be counting on you again, I might need to improvise a little, so play along!”

“I understand!” Ruby replied as she looked at Elise. She was not much older than her.

“Did you finish with Alex?”

“Yes… he already took his new role!” Ruby said, “You should really find a manlier butler… he kept squeaking like a little girl as we shaved his head!”

“He is the manliest I could find, For now…” Victor said, “You will get to like him if you spend some time with him and dig deep enough behind his stupid persona…”

“Victor… About that Nova… Was she really that foolish guy?” Margret suddenly interrupted.

“Oh, so you realized!” Victor wasn’t really surprised, he already noticed that Margret had some crazy intuition. He suspects it has something to do with her soul, but he was not sure.

“Of course I did…” she said as the other girls frowned. They knew that Nova was a fake, but they didn’t know her identity… Was he really a guy like Alex?

“Yes… It was him… ” Victor nodded.

“Holy sh*t…. Then he and that arrogant idiot Caspian are...”

“Already did! He took it like a man!” Victor interrupted.

“Hsss… Really? In the butt? Or would the body changing pill give him....” she didn't continue as Victor got the idea.

“Who knows… You can ask him if he returned alive!” Victor shrugged.

“Like I would ever do that…. No… I probably would…” Margret nodded, she was really that curious.

“Who are you talking about?” Mina asked curiously. As the other girls looked at Victor.

“... Later… I will tell you privately tonight…” Victor told them, making them blush. He didn’t want to affect their mood or cause them to be absent-minded during the ceremony. “That is for now…” he added.

“Then get out, the girl can’t change with you looking at her like a pervert!” Margret quickly said pushing Victor out and then turning to Elise… She only had 15 Minutes to interrogate her.

…

Victor, who got the door shut in his face, chuckled and then turned around to face a very pretty girl. Lily who was following him from the hall.

“Is everything ready?” he asked.

“Um… 124 corpses are being burnt now as offerings instead of the 11 originally planned!” she nodded. “Thankfully, those guys came and offered themselves to us!”

“Yeah… The more we offer the stronger the bond would be. I didn’t think that we would be this lucky to get all of those selfless people volunteering!” he said then looked at her. “Don’t worry, you will be able to pull it off. Just relax and remember your lines!” he said as he held her hand, realizing that she was a little bit tense.

“Um… I understand…. “ she nodded, biting her little lip.

“Is that stupid priest still hanging on?”

“Barely! Sorry I was careless earlier, I didn’t notice that he was planning to stab you… Does your hand still hurt?” she said in a worried tone.

“No, I already took a healing pill, and that curse is useless against me… It was my fault for not appraising him quicker. I didn’t expect him to be so high level or to attack this quickly,” Victor said. “He must have wanted to quickly subdue me, then order me around!”

“No, he wanted to really kill you after making you act a little on stage… The extra dose of soul wine made him spill much more than his morning breakfast,” she said.

“What did he say exactly?” Victor was surprised.

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“He is a sleeper agent for the Von Zwei family… They wanted to kill everyone here, forcing the families to host a grand funeral afterward. There they planned to release the ultimate weapon to kill all of the important people who would attend… That’s all he knew…”

“Oh… I didn’t take that into consideration. This must be their backup plan because my grandmother's grand birthday party was canceled!”

“...” Lily didn’t say a thing, she had no idea of what the original plan he was talking about was. “Why can’t we just kill him?” she asked hatefully. That bastard planned to kill her young master. Unforgivable.

“I need him alive for now…”

“Then at least allow me to cut his balls and feed them to him!” she said. Her worldviews had gone very astray ever since she began serving Victor. It was definitely his effect. It could be Margret's too, but that girl was not on friendly terms with Lily.

“No…… He wouldn’t be able to walk for three days if you castrated him!” Victor said. “ This guy definitely holds a big position, I need him to walk out alive out of here with an intact body… He will be carrying a hot potato with him!”

“Hot potato?” she frowned.

“Scalding hot… Will tell you later, and don’t worry about killing him, he will not live to see tomorrow's sun… Just keep him drunk for now, I want him to be as docile as a lamb…”

“Understood…”

“Now go help the girls guide the guests to the other hall… And make sure to bump into Yulian, I want him to feel relieved that you are not a bride!”

“I know what to do… ”

…

James Trove III smiled and nodded to the polite maid who guided him as he sat at the table in the replacement hall with the other invitees.

This hall was 2 times wider and 3 times more gilded than the previous one.

It was as if this was the real wedding Venue and the old one was just a mockup. A stage for a lousy play!

Not only he, but all the invitees were also looking around in shock at the walls and the ceiling. They were not filled with screens like the previous hall, on the contrary, this hall was more traditional yet more magnificent as everywhere you looked, was filled with all kinds of colorful roses and flowers of all kinds.

Many of the girls who attended wished they had their phones to take some photos. They all wished for a wedding like this.

The stage was two times grander, like a real dragon temple… If he didn’t know better, he would have thought that this temple was built using otherworldly materials.

It had a unique and authentic atmosphere that was highlighted by the distinct smell of blood and bleach. Many of the guests didn’t notice a thing, But he could tell that a massacre happened here minutes ago. Many people died a horrifying death.

There was evidence everywhere, from the signs of furniture flipping on the marble ground to the well-concealed blade and bullet marks on the walls.

They must have quickly sprayed paint over them with gold paint and then dusted some gold leaves around after that. It was nearly perfect, but old snakes and foxes like him could notice it easily.

James already knew that someone wanted to attack the wedding as there were many reports about the Von Zwei movements. That’s one of the reasons he came here to protect Lily and extract her if needed.

But he didn’t expect the Von Weise family to be able to single out every one of the assailants and lead them to a separate hall from the beginning to finish them off cleanly!

He sighed. Theodore was smarter and more shrewd than what is on the reports… or was this Alice’s plan? It could also be Mike….

He was not sure. The von Weise family was not easy at all. Especially Ann and her offspring. They were smarter and stronger than all the others.

No matter what, they managed to finish things cleanly, without anyone noticing… He felt it ever since he entered this place, the array that had been monitoring his every movement… Alice must have used one of the Heavenly sect’s exclusive arrays!

James, like many others, didn't suspect Victor at all. Although the lass was as smart as a fox, he was too young to weave such a scheme that saved the wedding from a disaster and was able to fend Caspian off easily and avoid a bullet.

James finally understood why it was a mass wedding… if it were to be just a double wedding like his men reported were originally planned, losing a bride to Caspian would make Theodore and Victor lose a lot of faces, but in doing it a mass wedding with 8 brides, losing one bride meant nothing much… She could easily be replaced and no one would ask too many questions!

James sighed and looked at Yulian… He was in a deep conversation with Alice about free wrestling. He dabbled in it to earn some money a year ago so he had a unique perspective that Alice seemed to find entertaining.

Hopefully, nothing would happen between them. It is not that Alice didn’t have enough background, but the problem was her reputation. Yulian’s mother was very particular about such things. Being a princess from a hidden power and all.

“Ahm…” a slight cough alerted him. It was the same fake priestess girl from before. She stood on the stage and was preparing to talk.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you may return to your seats, we will start shortly… Sorry for the disturbance!” she said. Being a trained prostitute, she didn’t really feel shy.

The attendees who were having random conversations and sampling the delicacies quickly quieted down and looked at her.

“First of all, I have an important announcement. Because of the situation earlier, we were missing one bride,” she said, “So Nova Astra who ran away will be replaced by Elise Von Geldstadt…”

“Oh… “ James nodded. He guessed right! He didn’t expect that the old fogey Harvey was also in on this.

The other attendants also began to nod.

“Another bride?” Elena frowned. “Did you approve of this?” she asked her husband who was sitting at her side pampering his other wife.

“Yes… I had nothing to do with arranging it though. It was an agreement between the girl’s grandfather and Victor…” he said as he looked smugly at Olaf who was, as expected, having a nervous breakdown.

Theodore had realized earlier that Olaf was not an ally, especially after he stopped him from helping Vector earlier. From the desperate look in his eyes now, it was easy to tell that Olaf didn’t expect Victor to marry a Von Geldstadt bride… He seemingly didn’t like it at all.

Theodore had an idea now that Olaf must be working for the other branches of the family. They must have been aware of Nova’s problem and probably hid it from his mother Ann on purpose!

Thankfully, Olaf couldn’t say a thing to ruin the wedding now as Harvey was sitting in the hall, and if he dared to anger the patriarch of the Von Geldstadt family his position as a main Butler would be lost. Even the one behind him would probably not be able to help him.

“Now…” the priestess said as she moved around the stage elegantly. “Due to the constant delays, and our young master’s need to reach the wedding chamber before his medications kick in, we will quicken things up a little…. “

“What medications?” Lara asked.

No one answered as no one knew for sure, but in a way, what medications does one take on his wedding day?

“I think it is some kind of electrical…no erecti...” El, who had been a little drowsy on wine for a while now, began to speak but a smack on her little head stopped her. It was from Mike who realized what she wanted to say.

“It is not time for that!” he scolded as he looked at the stage.

“After the ceremony, we will move on to the dance immediately… Finishing that, the groom will leave with the brides to their bridal chamber, leaving you to enjoy the entertaining evening program we prepared!“ The priestess said as Lily slowly stepped onto the stage with a wobbly priest in her hands. He was wearing a black garb with his dragon bone mask falling all over his face. She just threw him on the dragon throne like a bag of dirt then retreated as if in a hurry.

"Wasn't he wearing a white robe earlier?" one keen-eyed girl called Mia asked.

"Due to the grenade explosion earlier, the priest wetted his pants… so he had to change!" a mindful maid clarified, making sure that all the attendees heard her, especially Mirage who squinted her eyes at the priest and then gasped.

"Oh…" Mia nodded as Iris smacked the back of her head so that she could stop being a smart ass and making trouble… Since this morning, she planned to expose Victor for the villain he really was and had been failing miserably. How can she investigate Victor if she couldn’t even lift her mouth from the delicious dishes on the table! She would probably become a little piglet by the end of the day!

“Ahm…” The priestess cleared her throat as she looked at the watch in her hand. “LET THE WEDDING BEGIN!” she shouted as the venue grew dark with only some of the flowers which kept giving off a fluorescent light.

“Would they repeat that stupid ritual from before?” some smartass asked.

“Don’t be rude…” his father smacked his head.