CHAPTER NINE
Five o’clock in the morning was a truly hideous time to be awake.
Even in summer, Galandanish nights could be cool, and Ryu hunched his shoulders as he stood at the podium that had been set up at the top of the hill, trying to stop the wind from stealing down inside his suit jacket.
They were positioned at the high end of a wide, grassy park situated above the city, and up here, there was nothing to stop the wind surging in from across the plains, bringing with it the last hints of icy drifts from the mountains far to the north.
“Gosh, it’s a bit fresh out here, isn’t it?” Jasmine said from beside him. She was dressed in a flowing gown, swirling colours little more than muted greys in the dim light, and Ryu felt a rush of sympathy for her. He, at least, had a jacket to keep him warm. The poor woman looked half frozen.
Sadly, though, decorum prevented him from offering her his jacket.
The day of the Festival of the Goddess had finally arrived, and in just a few minutes, they would begin the Dawn Ceremony, the early morning prayers and the offerings of flowers and grain for the Goddess televised across the nation.
After the priestesses gave their opening prayer, Ryu and Jasmine were to read a prepared speech, thanking the Goddess for her gifts over the past year and reciting a traditional request for her blessing for the year to come.
A bevy of television cameras were set up just metres away, while the king and queen sat in the front row of a bank of chairs, alongside Jasmine’s aunt and a handful of other distinguished guests.
Kentario was waiting off to the side, staying out of the way of the cameras, but still keeping a close eye on things.
He was in a foul mood this morning, having had an argument last night with Maro over whether or not the Captain was going to pull him off duty again during the Festival.
Maro had basically told him to pull his head out of his ass, and Kentario, predictably, had taken exception to the comment.
Even so, he still looked absolutely gorgeous in his Royal Guard uniform – or perhaps even more so, given his brooding air – and Ryu was having trouble concentrating on his official role in the ceremony.
Gamely, a few hundred members of the public had also come out for the ceremony, and they stood just down the hill, the podium’s elevated position giving them a prime view of the speeches and prayers to come.
Off to the side, a handful of priestesses were gazing at the sky, eagerly anticipating the exact moment that dawn would arrive, so they could begin their prayers.
“I take it you’re not a morning person either?” Jasmine asked, keeping her voice low so that the waiting cameras couldn’t pick up what she was saying.
“Not at all,” Ryu said. “Until last week, I didn’t even know five o’clock in the morning existed.”
Jasmine laughed, though her teeth chattered at the same time. “I would kill for a cup of coffee right about now. What do you bet that by nine o’clock, there are four different rumours that you and I are getting married?”
Ryu raised his eyebrows, a sardonic smirk on his lips. “I said the exact same thing to my mother when she told me you were coming to visit.”
“It’s only to be expected,” Jasmine said, sounding far calmer than Ryu felt about the ongoing intrusions into his private life.
“After all, I’m nineteen and I haven’t announced my soulmate yet.
You’re seventeen and you haven’t even registered your mark yet.
There are plenty of blanks people want to fill in, and if we don’t give them answers, they’ll just make them up.
Odin’s balls, it’s cold up here!” she complained, swiftly changing topic.
“Dawn will be here any moment,” Ryu said, trying to sound optimistic.
Then, to try and distract her from the cold, he asked, “Do you know who your soulmate is yet?” Just because she hadn’t announced it publicly didn’t mean she didn’t know.
And though he didn’t want to admit it, he was curious to know whether she was actually serious about that marriage comment.
It wouldn’t be the first time a foreign princess had started eyeing off the Galandanish throne.
“Nah,” she said dismissively. “I got a notification from SoulWorks, but I never followed up on it. I just think I’m too young at the moment to be worrying about marriage. I want to work on my business and travel a bit more…”
“You’re worried someone’s going to pressure you to start having babies,” Ryu guessed, and from Jasmine’s grimace, he knew he’d hit the nail on the head.
“Maybe I shouldn’t be so worried,” she said, shrugging her narrow shoulders. “After all, my mother’s an omega, and the queen, and she just damn well puts her foot down whenever anyone gets in her face. Maybe I could do the same thing.”
“But?” Ryu prompted her, when she didn’t continue.
“But it’s all just so stupid. Everyone said an omega could never be queen – or king, for that matter – but my mother’s dad was an only child, and she was an only child, and by the time her father died, there were no other real options but to let her be queen.
But even though she’s proven an omega can wield power just as effectively as any alpha, people still look at me and think ‘oh heck, she’s an omega, she’s never going to be a decent queen’.
Can I ask you a really personal question?
” Jasmine asked suddenly. “I don’t mean to be rude. I really don’t.”
“What do you want to know?”
“For the last couple of years, there have been rumours about you. That you’re secretly an omega that your parents are trying to pass off as an alpha. That’s not true, right?” It was said more as a statement than a question.
“No, it’s not. I’m an alpha,” Ryu told her, managing to keep his temper in check. His patience had worn thin in recent months with the media’s constant badgering, and it didn’t help to know that the rumours had managed to cross the ocean, as well.
“Yeah, cool,” Jasmine said, moving on without the slightest hesitation.
“But there are people out there who are absolutely convinced that you’re an omega, and they’re just waiting for you to suddenly pop up one day and announce that you’re pregnant, or some shit like that.
So my question is this; does that bother you?
That some people are hell bent on believing what they want to believe, no matter how often you tell them the truth?
I mean, it’s not true, but it’s still there, in your face, and every month some shitty magazine or cheesy talk show is going to drag it up again. ”
Ryu sighed, rubbing his hands together to try and keep them warm.
It was just one more reason why he should let go of his ridiculous crush on Kentario.
If he ever dared get romantically involved with an alpha, the rumours that he was secretly an omega would multiply like wildfire.
“The thing about being an omega doesn’t bother me,” he replied to Jasmine’s question.
“I mean, not specifically. It’s not true, and that’s not going to change, no matter what people say.
It’s more that some people just won’t listen to the truth, no matter how much evidence you give them.
They think that we’re secretly drugging our citizens through the water supply, or manufacturing viruses to infect people, or hiding evidence of UFOs.
We spend billions on free education and building new universities and people still come up with this crap?
It’s all just kind of depressing. Oh, hey, here we go,” he interrupted himself, seeing the priestesses suddenly getting active.
“Not too much longer and we’ll be able to go back to the palace where it’s warm. ”
The first sliver of the sun crept above the horizon, and simultaneously, a chant rose up from the gathered priestesses.
The prayer continued until the lower edge of the flaming ball cleared the horizon, then the priestesses stopped as suddenly as they’d begun, and a tranquil silence settled on the crowd.
A spotlight was turned on, lighting up the podium, and that was Ryu and Jasmine’s cue. “Time to smile for the cameras,” Ryu said through clenched teeth. “Because really, where else would we rather be at five o’clock in the morning?”
In an instant, Jasmine transformed before his eyes.
The hunched shoulders relaxed, her head came up, and a serene smile settled on her face.
Looking at her now, it was impossible to tell she was freezing cold and wishing she was still in bed.
She stepped up to the microphone, looking every bit like the princess she was.
“A new day dawns,” she announced, diving right into the speech, “over Galandeen, and over the world. And a new year begins, under the benevolent gaze of the Goddess Selene…”
Heavens above, she was absolutely amazing, Ryu thought, as he tried to stand up straight, not quite managing to ignore the way the wind blew his hair into his eyes. He brushed it aside discreetly, only to have it blow right back into his face.
But Jasmine looked completely at ease, all traces of sardonic disdain wiped from her voice. Perhaps one day, Ryu would feel as at home in his role as prince as she did as princess.
? ? ?
Sitting on an elevated platform at the side of the palace’s main courtyard, Ryu found himself actually enjoying this part of the day.
It was coming up for six o’clock in the evening, and the vast majority of the day’s events had been completed.
The Ceremony of Flowers had been held at the temple, followed by a light lunch of finger food, and then the wedding ceremony, which had gone off without a hitch, despite his mother’s ongoing anxiety about the last minute shoe-ins of the gardener and the housekeeper.
In the end, she’d admitted that ‘they looked a very handsome couple’, once they were safely back down the aisle and out of sight.