Chapter 802: The Arrival
[Day before the event, Sanctuary city, Damian’s POV.]
Damian and all the Sanctum officials were neck deep in the workload for tomorrow’s event. The thousands of people coming every day to the Sanctuary through the waygates had surpassed all their estimations. A bit too much advertising was the cause behind all of it.
They had to put a lot of control over the crowd, separating them equally in all their cities and towns. Sanctum had to make an announcement that when the event starts, they would open waygates for everyone to participate. And confirmed that the event was going to happen right outside Sanctum City’s walls.
They changed the location to outside the city in the end; they couldn’t do it near the Sanctum building anymore. A giant stage was created overnight. Damian had asked Mindseer’s help to do that multi-screen projection, so all major cities and towns could see the live broadcast in the Sanctuary. The audio was already taken care of by his tower channels.
If people couldn’t come to see it, the audio channel was going to broadcast the whole thing in real time. That too they had repeated again and again, only then the people had somewhat calmed down, not rushing straight to Sanctuary city, and remaining in any other major city or town, where they could get a room.
Another reason for the city’s overcrowding was the scheduled arrival of the emperor and Faerunian representatives.
Finally, the day had come. Einar had set up knights and soldiers all around the Sanctum walls and even in the streets for a few hundred meters. People couldn’t come near, but still could see what was happening from afar. The first street was blocked for entry. Damian had set up the waygate so that it would open outside the Sanctum walls. All three countries and Highswords had their waygates set up right beside one another.
There was an old tree to the side, and the waygates were anchored to that.
Damian, Evrin, Einar, and Souldealer were fitted in their ceremonial dresses. They had to receive the royal guests. The emperor’s presence couldn’t be ignored, especially when the guy was coming here for the first time. For their people, they had to put on a show that everything was nice and perfect. Which more or less was in their case.
Damian hoped he could say the same for the Faerunian guests. The message mentioned Hellstorm, Alex, and the queen herself arriving today. He wanted to at least have a working relationship with them. With King Thaddeus and his daughter, being the way they were, Damian hoped at least the queen would have some understanding of the new political balance.
The first waygate opened at exactly eleven as mentioned in the message, and Faerunian knights stepped out of it. Only when one of them went back inside the portal with the confirmation of safety did Hellstorm step out of it. Right behind him was the queen, with several of her attendants, and lastly, it was the prince of Faerunia, Alex Seablaze.
The last time the man had shown himself was in the demon war. Since then, he was gone. Damian could sense the young man’s increased and refined mana signature. He had grown. At the transcendent seed level. Guess he wasn’t wasting his time in the castle walls.
Their eyes met, and Alex nodded slightly, showing respect. Damian replied in kind.
The Faerunians took a few seconds to get into the orderly formation; thousands of eyes were on them. The royal members maintained their elegant presence throughout the shifting of knights, and then they all stepped forward together. Damian and his group also moved forward to exchange formal greetings.
"Damian," Alex called out.
"Alex," Damian replied while shaking hands with Hellstorm, then added. "Nice to see you still remember us."
"I didn’t learn about your return till the last two weeks," Alex replied.
"Missed a lot then," Damian smiled.
"Yes, I did. My house was missing a roof."
"Asked your old man nicely, the guy wouldn’t listen."
The Faerunian queen, Hellstorm, and even his own side were staring at them with subtle surprise. Their casual tone was not something all of them usually dealt with in their day-to-day life. The noble circle conversations were usually full of witty remarks and hidden taunts.
But Alex knew Damian better than that. Putting up airs was never something associated with his name.
Damian then looked at the other two and addressed all three together with a smile,
"Well, regardless. Welcome to the Sanctuary. On behalf of the Sanctum, I hope you enjoy your time here."
"We are looking forward to it." The queen replied, returning the smile.
Damian had not mentioned in the letter about doing any political deals, but he had not put any particular restriction on it.
"I shall guide you to the Sanctum, if you wish. We have Highswords and the Emperor coming today as well." Evrin offered.
Before the Faerunians could reply, another swirling waygate opened a few meters from the first one. And once again, knights in steel armour stepped out of it, repeating the earlier back-and-forth process.
At last, the Emperor stepped out in his full, overly decorated robes. A 7-year-old chubby kid holding onto his finger. A coating of mana was wrapped around the little boy, protecting him from the nausea that usually came with waygate travel. A beautiful lady with that familiar southern dark-toned skin followed right behind; her dress was all sorts of fancy.
The emperor did not wait for his knights at all and walked ahead, smiling towards Damian. They also moved towards the guy to welcome him.
"Your invitation was so sincere, I had to come." Said the cheeky emperor.
Damian had barely put three full sentences in the letter. And it was just a copy and paste for everyone. He hadn’t even added when to come. All that was decided later.
"Of course, without you, this would all be lacking in grandeur," Damian replied in kind.
The eyes of Einar and Souldealer were boring holes in his back. When they were discussing the invitations, Damian’s exact words were, ’Fuck those pretentious bastards, good thing we don’t have to worry about them.’ And now they were greeting each other like lost brothers.
Damian smiled at the little kid, who was trying to hide behind his father.
"Who’s this handsome fella?"
"His name is Bai Shua. His job is pooping all day."
The emperor’s wife kneed the emperor in the side. But Damian and the dragon emperor were busy laughing aloud.
Einar took up the responsibility of guiding them inside. Damian chatted with the emperor about the event and the people crowding in the cities, affecting the markets and everything. The Faerunians had not left yet either. They didn’t come forward to greet the emperor either. The two parties simply exchanged a simple nod acknowledging each other’s presence.
Soon, the Highsword waygate also activated and stepped out Mindseer, Voidshaper, and even Land-breaker himself. The crowd watching from afar started shouting and cheering wildly, seeing the legendary fourth ranker.
This time, both the emperor and the Faerunians came together with Damian to meet the guy. Whatever their opinions on the political situation, the ancient warrior, older than their own countries, could not be disrespected.
Damian greeted the Highswords and then guided them into the Sanctum himself. Hellstorm and Land-breaker exchanged glances once, but there weren’t any concerning looks in either of their eyes. Hellstorm knew Land-breaker was way out of his league when he attacked. The guy was prepared to die; the embarrassment was nothing too great.
Land-breaker had also calmed down after so much time had passed. The guy had actively tried to save as many transcendents as he could in history, no matter which country or useless battle they were involved in. Many of whom, after being saved by Land-breaker, had decided to join the Highsword organization.
The guest rooms were already pretty fancy compared to the level of noble buildings the mainland had. Yet Damian had made some special adjustments for the VIP guests. All three countries were on different floors to avoid useless confrontations.
The nobles and other researchers, etc., invited were given residence in the army headquarters. Damian had built four more buildings there just for the event. The army could also use the extra room, so it wasn’t completely without reason.
The evening was also planned. A large open dinner and little pre-gathering for all the invited guests, nobles, and commoners. Damian wanted to use the evening to let everyone meet and get to know each other. Before the actual event tomorrow, Damian wanted to create a little hype for it by sharing little snippets of tomorrow’s events.
Sam was still busy managing the invites from different countries. Torvin had taken up the responsibility of managing the New Dawn side, with the help of half his assistants and Lord Silas. Damian still needed to do some last-minute adjustments on the New Dawn dungeon waygate side, but other than that, most things were ready to go. Now they just had to see through all that they had planned.