NOVEL WEB Chapter 83: Dowry
Shortly after the incident in Italy-
“You’re awake?” Fei Xiang asked as he walked into the room where PeiZhi was sitting up with a confused expression.
“You were knocked out when we found you, luckily my disciple didn’t reach you before we did.” Fei Xiang murmured.
“Oh…how did everything go?” Fan Peizhi asked as he rubbed his head a little, he had a pulsing headache.
“It was all dealt with. Qinglong defeated the Lich and Li Chaoxiang and The dungeons were cleared so everything settled down.” Fei Xiang murmured and sat down in a chair near Peizhi’s bed, sipping some tea.
“A-And Qinglong?” Peizhi asked.
“He’s fine.”
—
Fei Xiang silently observed as Yue cried while hugging Viktor. Lian Bai had a soft smile as she watched them. She was so happy for Yue.
“Hehe, That’s my boy.”
Lian Bai turned toward the voice with an alarmed expression, she was ready to fight the person that had sneaked up on them. Fei Xiang just slowly glanced at Elena and Aylin with an expressionless face.
“Your Majesty.” Fei Xiang murmured and bowed to Elena a little.
“It’s been a while,” Elena said and grinned.
“Indeed.” Fei Xiang said and nodded.
“I have some information that might be useful to you. Since you seem to be dealing with Hundun more actively than I am.” Elena said and put her hand on Fei Xiang’s shoulder. Fei Xiang raised an eyebrow but he heard her out regardless.
—
“Right! About the founder of Hundun! His library—“ Peizhi suddenly exclaimed, he found out some crucial information the day before the incident in Italy but he didn’t have the chance to tell Fei Xiang about it.
“Has exact copies of the Ivanov family’s secret records. I figured as much.” Fei Xiang cut him off.
“H-Huh how did you know?”
“The Ivanovs know more about dungeons than anyone else. And Hundun also seems to know a lot about them….and there seems to be a connection there.” Fei Xiang murmured as he thought back to the fight he saw between Viktor and Zhao ZhiHao.
—
“I’m going to China during the weekend,” Yue said to Viktor as they had tea together.
“S-So suddenly?” Viktor asked, surprised by Yue’s sudden announcement, “why?”
“I have to check on the temple, and tell them I’m engaged,” Yue said, “They’d be really surprised if we just showed up.”
“Ah...I guess so.” Viktor murmured.
“They’ll probably make a huge deal about it though…” Yue murmured, wondering if it was a wise idea to tell them before everything.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Viktor said and grinned.
“From what I remember, Chinese weddings are very length-- never mind I will definitely tell them!” Yue suddenly cut himself off as a prophecy suddenly covered his line of vision.
Viktor looked confused as Yue suddenly moved his seat so they were sitting right next to each other.
“Would you wear a Hanfu for me?” Yue asked with a pleading look.
“Sure,” Viktor said, he didn’t know why Yue felt like he needed to beg him to do so but he just chuckled and kissed Yue’s cheek.
“Why though?” Viktor asked.
“Because…I want to see you in it.” Yue murmured and blushed. He had seen a prophecy of Viktor in a red wedding Hanfu and now he desperately wanted to see it again.
“Hmm…Would you wear a suit for me?” Viktor asked with a smirk.
“Eh? Sure but it won’t be that interesting, I’ve practically worn suits in front of you before, my expedition uniform, what I wore in Italy…” Yue said and raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah but I want to see you in a proper one,” Viktor said and chuckled.
Yue felt a sort of foreboding feeling, maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to this?
—-
“My Lord! You’re back!” Jinghua exclaimed with a bright smile as she saw Yue walking into the temple with some other followers that were fawning over him.
“Sorry for coming back so late, I had planned to come back in March but I got held up,” Yue murmured.
“No no it’s fine my lord, how long will you be staying?” Jinghua said and handed off the task she was in the middle of to someone else.
“Only two days but I’ll be back sooner this time,” Yue said and smiled.
Jinghua nodded and smiled.
“Can you have someone gather the elders? I need to announce something.”
Jinghua nodded, “As you wish.”
“I will be in the treasury,” Yue said before walking off on his own.
—
Yue looked around the treasury, he remembered a certain item being there that might be able to make his hair at least look normal. There were actually a few items that could probably do it but one of them would return the mana to his hair so he would end up with white hair again after a while.
He didn’t hate the look of his hair but Viktor seemed so obviously worried about it so he decided he should at least make it look like nothing was wrong. He had spoken to the other Azure Dragon incarnation about it and he had said that there was something that might work.
There was a mirror that could transform the body for very long periods of time. The mirror would’ve been useful when Yue first went to Europe but It wasn’t actually what Yue was looking for at the moment. The mirror would be a little inconvenient. He was actually looking for a small pill that looked like the pearl in his room at the temple.
--
“It simulates the effects of swallowing the pearl but without the annoying parts. I gave one of them to my son and it blocked against the soul crawler monsters from the Green Island dungeon.” The other Azure Dragon incarnation said to Yue a few days prior to his trip to the temple.
“Huh? The dungeon from 100 years ago? My Master cleared that one, is your son friends with my master?”
The other incarnation ignored the question, “Swallowing the pearl makes your ‘human form’ even less human. Your outward appearance is human but your mana becomes stuck to you as it would be in your dragon form. Dragons rule over mana, you can’t steal it from them...Unless your lover is stronger than a dragon in which case I’m in favor of you staying far far away from him.”
“Doesn’t matter if he’s stronger than me, Viktor wouldn’t hurt me. Especially not on purpose.” Yue said, deciding to ignore the incarnation in return.
--
‘This would probably be it.’ Yue thought to himself as he found a small box full of small little pearls, he took the box into his hands. He was going to just take one but the other incarnation hadn’t told him how long the effect would last. There were a lot of them so he wasn’t too worried.
He took one of the pearls and popped it into his mouth, quickly swallowing it. He expected it to take a little while longer but his hair quickly returned to its original black color.
‘I wonder why Viktor’s ability only started taking my mana back then…’ Yue thought to himself for a second. He figured it was because of the dungeon and the negative energy and everything going on at the time that might’ve triggered it but he wasn’t sure.
He stepped out of the treasury after looking around for a bit after taking the pill. He could sense Jinghua waiting outside so he decided not to keep the other followers waiting for too long.
“Ah...Your hair…” Jinghua murmured as she saw him.
“This is its normal color….In this form.” Yue explained and walked with Jinghua to where he could sense the elders waiting.
The room where the elders were waiting was like a large banquet hall with a decorated throne in the center that was similar to the Azure Dragon Throne in the temple where the four beasts meet. Yue sat down on his throne and silently thought about how to word everything.
“Elder Li, you don’t need to work on processing my Pact of Sovereignty anymore,” Yue said to an elder who wore large round glasses.
“H-Huh? Why, My Lord? It would greatly benefit you!” Elder Li exclaimed worriedly.
“I’m getting married so I don’t need it, I will be added to their pact of kin,” Yue explained.
“M-Married?!”
As Yue expected, the room exploded with the elders asking all kinds of questions.
“Into what family?!”
“What is the dowry like?!”
“What is their occupation?!”
Yue cleared his throat to make them all quiet down, even Jinghua who was closest to him had bombarded him with questions.
“I am marrying Black Tortoise’s son.”
More reactions erupted throughout the room. No one would even dare to say they disagreed though. One thing, however, was never voiced but seemed to be written all over their faces.
‘Black Tortoise’s Son?’
None of them knew what Viktor looked like since, during the last meeting, Yue had arrived before Viktor did.
Yue was going to explain that he dressed as a woman in Europe so he needed to marry a man but he worried that the elders would misinterpret that and not understand that he and Viktor were very much in love.
“The dowry…”
“Don’t worry about that...I don’t need it.” Yue said to Jinghua, he was definitely worried they’d make a huge deal out of every part of the wedding/engagement process.
“Just have someone make a hanfu for my fiance.” Yue aid and smiled.
“As you wish my lord!”
Some of the elders left to get started on that while others stayed behind and continued to ask questions.
“A-Are you sure we shouldn’t prepare any part of the dowry?”
“Not even a single tea set?”
“...” They were trying to get Yue to change his mind about not having a dowry and it was almost working, he felt bad to turn them down because this was something parents would usually prepare. For their daughters that is. How they came to the conclusion that Yue had the role of the ‘wife’ was a mystery.
“I’ll allow 3 things, nothing more,” Yue murmured after hearing them whine for a while.
The elders organized themselves and began a poll on what items to gift Yue. Yue decided to walk away while they were discussing, but he paused a little when he heard some of the elders’ suggestions for what to give him.
“Sets of Chopsticks and bowls are Non-negotiable. We Have to gift him those!”
Xia Guiren’s wife and Lian Bai had explained to him the purpose of every single gift in the Dowry so it was a bit embarrassing that the elders were insisting on sending gifts that were meant to wish for him to have children.
“My Lord, may I gift you something myself? Personally?” Jinghua asked with a pleading look.
“...If you must.” Yue sighed, he had a feeling he’d end up with a lot of gifts no matter how much he asked for them not to give him gifts. He was a little glad that Viktor probably wouldn’t know the meaning of certain gifts but he would be embarrassed regardless.
--
“How interesting,” Viktor murmured, he was engrossed in a full report that Anya wrote on Chinese weddings. Mai was sitting in front of him, sipping some tea.
“Yue probably feels burdened by it, but I’m sure his followers will get him to ease up.” Mai chuckled. Anya quietly laughed and nodded in response.