MTLNOVEL Chapter 215: The Feast Begins
The ribbons on the box came undone with a whisper.
Inside, nestled in black silk, lay a robe unlike anything I'd worn before. Deep obsidian with metallic embroidery so fine it caught the candlelight like a blade. The threads weren't silver—they were steel, shaped into thorned vines and curling phoenix feathers, as if forged instead of stitched.
It wasn't beautiful, and it definitely wasn't my trademark green. But it was terrifying.
And that was exactly the point.
By the time the final bells rang through the inner court, I stood at the doors to my suite, ready to be escorted to the main hall. I was wrapped in thorns and steel, my hair bound in a high knot, and the Crown Prince's jade seal hung at my waist like a burn mark.
The eunuchs and maids trailed around me, guiding us through the palace grounds that weren't ours yet, but soon enough, would be home.
When we got to the doors of the banquet all, they opened with a groan of wood and gold.
The crowd rose.
The feast had begun.
And Mingyu rose from where he was seated across the room and strolled toward me.
Mingyu didn't take my arm. He didn't need to. We moved as one—him in formal black with a single green sash wrapped around his waist, and me at his side in silence, my shoes not making a single sound on the stone tiles.
The hall was a sea of silk and polished eyes.
Ministers. Warlords. Their wives and sons and favored daughters. Perfume thick in the air, laughter too loud. No one sat without scanning the rest of the room first, even when the tables were assigned according to status.
Even the favored princess, Princess Liang Yiran, was already in place, dressed in white and green, a wine cup in hand and slight smirk on her face.
I wondered how many knives she had hidden beneath her sleeves.
I wondered how many I had.
Mingyu guided me to the table set on the highest tier, beneath the gilded dragon lattice, then took the seat beside me without a word.
And just like that, the music resumed.
The feast began.
Dancers emerged from the side curtains, their sleeves a blur of red and white. Wine flowed. Platters of roast duck and wild boar were passed around by servants who moved too quietly and smiled too tightly.
I didn't eat.
Neither did Mingyu.
We simply watched.
"This is different than a normal banquet," I murmured, my eyes scanning the crowd.
"Because tonight," he said, "they know who won."
Lady An was not present. I knew she wouldn't be.
But Lord Han was.
So was his boy.
They stood behind the southern ministers, heads bowed this time, eyes downcast—at least publicly.
But that boy was watching everything. Just like I was.
Mingyu followed my gaze and said nothing.
He didn't need to.
Beside him, the Chancellor whispered something to a younger official, who stood too quickly and spilled wine on his robe. It wasn't important. But it was a crack in the mask.
And every crack meant something.
I kept my hands in my lap.
Kept my back straight.
Let the rumors bloom around me like frost.
Some said I'd poisoned the Baiguang army with mist from my lungs.
Others whispered I'd seduced the Third Prince into madness.
Still others claimed I'd slain the old Emperor in his dreams.
All of it was wrong.
All of it was useful.
"Do you want me to toast first?" Mingyu asked.
"No," I said. "Let them wait."
He leaned slightly toward me. "You enjoy this."
"No," I said again, without blinking. "But I've learned how to use it to my advantage."
A young woman at the warlords' table lifted her wine cup toward me, her eyes wide and reverent. She looked no older than fifteen, probably Lord Fan's niece or granddaughter.
I nodded once in return.
It was all the permission she needed to beam.
Mingyu noticed. "Another admirer?"
"She won't last," I said flatly. "The court will eat her unless someone protects her."
"Will you?"
"No. But I'll watch. She's not stupid."
He paused. "Neither are you."
I turned my head just enough to meet his gaze. "Are you trying to compliment me or claim me?"
"I don't need to do either," he said calmly. "Because you're already mine."
I stiffened.
He smiled. Slightly. "And I'm yours."
I didn't answer.
Because the truth was—he wasn't wrong.
A gong sounded once from the far end of the hall, and a servant stepped forward with the ceremonial wine cup—jade trimmed in gold.
The signal.
I rose to my feet.
Mingyu stood beside me, shoulder to shoulder, his presence as silent as his threat.
"My lords and ladies," I said, raising the cup, "tonight, we feast not just to celebrate, but to remember."
The room hushed.
"Baiguang thought we would fall. That the southern winds would tear us apart. That our loyalties were for sale."
My voice didn't rise.
It didn't need to.
"But what they failed to understand," I continued, "is that when Daiyu is threatened, we don't kneel. We stand. We sharpen. We unify."
I turned slightly toward the warlords' table.
"Some of you came here hesitant. Afraid. Waiting to see which side offered more coin."
Several gazes dropped.
"I don't blame you," I said. "Survival breeds caution."
Then I looked toward the southern ministers.
"But survival also demands conviction. And from this day forward, the Daiyu Empire will remember who chose conviction over coin."
I tilted the cup once in the air, then downed it in a single breath.
Mingyu followed.
And then, slowly, everyone else.
One by one, the room lifted their cups and drank—not because they were thirsty, but because not doing so would mark them.
When I set the jade cup down, my fingers were steady.
But inside, something coiled.
Something ready.
Mingyu leaned in once more, his voice brushing my ear.
"Tonight," he whispered, "you're not just the Crown Princess. You're the storm they feared."
I didn't answer.
But I didn't smile either.
Because storms didn't need to announce themselves.
They just arrived… and made the world bend before them.