Chapter 267 - Decorations (Patreon)

The path to the palace was straightforward. All that Hera had to do was follow the road up and pass through a couple of checkpoints. The closer she got to the castle walls, the more heavily armored dwarves appeared. In a way, it looked like they were preparing for war. After using her [Observe] on the people standing around, she only got more confused.

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Kul Dorul Royal Guard
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That's all that the skill gave to her, no level, no name, no affinity, nothing. Even during the Kobold Battlefield, every kobold there had a name and a level. It wasn't like they were just objects in the area, but here things seemed different. She tried to interact with a couple of the guards, but they only repeated the same handful of lines.

'Where are you going?'

'Show me the permit.'

'Follow the road.'

And some other variations of the same responses. That felt really weird. It was more like a simulation from the guild than an actual dungeon made by the MAZE. At least some people didn't act like robots. If that were the case for everyone, it would be a big letdown for the dwarves from Boothudurn.

When Hera crossed the final checkpoint, an enormous structure that was more like a mix between a temple and a castle greeted her. The entire building was decorated with large columns around it before coming into an actual entrance. However, that was only on the ground floor. Several smaller structures in different shapes were stacked on top of the main building. Some were round, while others had a pyramid shape, and they all varied in height. In the center, there was one taller round one with four gigantic stone anvils under it. That felt like either the throne room or the royal bedroom. In front of the castle, a woman in a maid uniform was pacing from side to side while biting her nails.

Since even the guards in this area would give the same responses, Hera decided to try her luck with someone different.

"Excuse me. Can you give me some directions to the princess?"

The maid turned to Hera, "And why, pray tell, do you wish to see the princess?"

"I have to deliver her wedding dress."

"Oh," the maid's face darkened, "You can give it to me, I'll deliver to the princess."

"Sorry for asking, but who are you? I don't want to be rude, but I'd rather deliver this myself if I can," Hera remembered the time when she gave a package to someone else and ended up getting in trouble because the book was never delivered.

"I understand, but I promise that this will reach the princess. I'm Helena, her personal maid."

"Helena?" Hera was taken back by the name.

"Yes… why?"

"Oh, sorry. You just have the same name as a friend of mine. It's beautiful."

"Thank you. Now, do you mind giving me the dress?" Helena asked.

"Sure, but is everything ok? You don't seem all that well," Hera gave the box with the dress to the maid.

"It is. I'm just worried about the princess."

"Don't worry. You can tell her Highness that this will be a wedding people will never forget. I guarantee," Hera tried to cheer the maid up. Maybe it was because of the name or the look of helplessness. But Hera really wanted to help her. Besides, that wasn't exactly a lie. The dungeon was created because of the ceremony.

"Thank you. I hope the princess enjoys the ceremony," despite her response, Helena's expression didn't seem that excited about the situation.

Hera wanted to help her, but Blue was alone dealing with the tables. She thanked the maid again and rushed back down towards the venue. This was just the first time they were doing the dungeon. She could try to help Helena during a different run, even if it was just because of her name.

Walking back to the venue took only ten minutes. People could call it part of the palace, but that didn't mean they were side by side. The first thing that Hera noticed when she arrived was that now the dwarves had stopped running around carrying boxes, and many different sounds were coming from the dining room. She crossed the hallway and opened the door.

The dining room was now a completely different place. There were four very long tables, two on each side, with a large open area in the middle. Behind it, there was a small stage being built, and on the other corner of the room, someone had already decorated a more ostentatious table with a red and golden cloth and some gems on a plate. The tables were set up so that it didn't matter the side of the table you were on. You could always see the main table, which Hera assumed was where the bride and groom would dine.

Blue was in the middle of the room, giving orders to all the two dozen servers. They were placing the plates and silverware on the tables, along with any other decorations they had on hand. Hera walked over to her friend.

"Did I really take that long?" she asked.

"Nope, this is called efficiency," Blue replied with a smile and looked to the side, "No, no, no. Spread the decorations. We don't want to make a single table have everything."

"You know. I never expected this to be your element."

"Me neither. I mean, I knew I could do it, but when I started, things just felt very natural."

"Ok, boss. Tell me what I should do then."

"Can you help the guys with the stage? I think they can't use spells, and your stone wall thing might help a lot," Blue asked without looking away from the journal in her hand.

"Sure, and is that that girl's journal? Where is she?"

"Yeah. Her name is Lervia, and she's probably in the kitchen getting the names of all the dishes that are going to show up for dinner. We need to pick an order for them later."

"Right. Maybe all those cooking shows I watch will be useful," Hera said.

"We can hope. Now, do you mind finishing up the stage? The band got here a bit earlier, and they have to play before agreeing with their spot," Blue turned around and took a couple of steps before tripping on her own foot.

Hera quickly grabbed her and helped her find a seat, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. That pollen is just annoying. I still can feel my body cramping up randomly."

"Want me to use the poison to see if there is any pollen left in your system?"

"Not unless I'm dying," Blue replied.

"Let's hope that doesn't happen again," Hera chuckled before going to help set up the stage.

Hera took a look and used a spell called Raise Stone, which she had learned from Lija and used during the Sky Ruler fight, to raise a part of the ground to create a small platform where the band could perform. It was right in front of the dance floor, just like a high school prom. After Hera used the spell, the other dwarves around her started using the same spell to create the stairs and other minor details to polish the area. Including a small decoration surrounding the platform.

"Why didn't you guys did that sooner?" Hera asked.

"We didn't know how, not until you showed us," one server replied.

Hera thought for a moment. This should be something that only happened because of the dungeon. If the dwarves could actually replicate spells just by seeing someone cast them, they would be way too strong. It wouldn't fit with the system's fairness if they had a trait like that. The dwarves from Boothudurn would have that ability too since they were supposed to be their descendants.

She focused on helping to set the rest of the decorations under Blue's command. And just one hour later, the dining room was ready for the grand event. The humans went back to the main hall to think about what they should do next. Before anything, they looked at the time. According to the hole above the orchard, it was still bright outside, and it didn't look like the sun would set soon. Hera also noticed that this way of telling the time should only work for the people near the castle. The ones living far away wouldn't be able to see the sun, much less the orchard. Even if they had a clear shot to the castle, most of the houses that seemed to belong to the lower classes were higher up on the incline, which made the hole in the cave be hidden by the rock formations in the ceiling.

"Well, should we take care of this outside or check with Lervia for the dinner plans?" Blue asked.

"I don't know. Are you hungry? We might be able to get some food if we do the menu thing," Hera replied, after thinking for a moment.

"I could eat, but let's take care of this part first. I mean, this is kind of easy. All we need is to set up some lights around the area to guide them when it gets dark. There were a bunch of long candle holders in one of the boxes. We put them out and light them when it's time," Blue suggested.

"Sure, we can grab a couple of spare tablecloths and make an arch right about the entrance. To make it more… I don't know. Classy? Fancy?" Hera was staring at the front of the building. It was a beautiful place all by itself, but the vines made the annex feel abandoned. She actually wanted to remove them or make them grow over the entire thing, but she was worried about triggering more flowers if they messed with the vines too much.

"Hum… how about a cloud?" Blue was staring at the front of the building.

"What do you mean?" Hera asked.

"Gimme a second," Blue had a quick discussion with Stormcloud before making a cloud cover the entire front of the building. The dark clouds would clash against the white of the venue, and streaks of blue lightning kept flying around the puff of black smoke, illuminating the building, giving it a magical feeling to the area. That wasn't all. The vines also seemed to be affected by the lightning. Every now and then, they would pulsate in the same blue light.

"This looks incredible, but I have two questions. How long can you keep that up for, and can you do anything with the pollen?" Hera turned to Blue.

"Well, according to Stormcloud, the lightning should be drawn to any pollen, so even if those flowers are around, we won't have to worry. For the second question, I can keep this up for an hour," Blue stopped talking and looked to the side, "Oh, neat! Scratch that. I can keep this until the wedding."

"Really?" Hera was surprised. This seemed like a huge spell, and she knew that Blue only focused on increasing her mana after she got the legacy.

"Yeah. Apparently, creating a cloud is the hard part, but I can maintain it for a long time after it's done. Well, as long as it is not doing anything. If it was attacking, raining, or moving, it is another thing, but just to keep it up is pretty cheap. So it's like, great for decoration, but that's about it," Blue sighed.

"I think you are underestimating this. Imagine if you made something like that in the Kobold field. A way to hide some siege weapons or part of an army. Hell, you might even be able to hide an entire camp. And we can use this for the decorations inside too. I have an idea," Hera said, already walking inside.

"Can you stop talking and walking? You always do that and it's really annoying. Anyway, hiding big things wouldn't work that well. It's fine to do this here because there is no wind, but just a gust is more than enough to push that cloud away unless I use mana to keep it in place. Maybe in the future that will change."

"You got the legacy less than a week ago, and you can already do this. Are you really complaining?" Hera scoffed.

"No. I'm just saying," Blue crossed her arms.

Hera walked over to the cluster of vines they had removed from the balcony. No one had cleaned that up yet, which was a good thing for her plan. Before anything, Hera gave  every vine a once-over to ensure that there wouldn't be any flowers around. After that, she grabbed the roots and made a line, going from the edge of the door to the front of the stairs. Then, she did the same thing on the other side, creating an aisle for the bride to move through. Inside each small bundle of vines, she placed one dancing light, making the grass shine with the same light.

"Ok, now I need you to do two things. First, make a cloud for each of these lines, and don't worry about the lightning. Make it a bit tall to work as rails so the other dwarves can be on the sides watching the ceremony. The second one is to make another cloud like you did outside on the ceiling. I'll make another group of dancing lights and keep them up there," Hera demonstrated by making six lights that danced around just above their heads, "With the amount of mana I have, I can keep all this up for...45 minutes or so."

Blue stared at the ceiling and made the clouds to test Hera's idea. After completing everything, the ballroom had a completely different feeling. The lights gave a more mystic air to the entire area, and since there were many clouds around, a slight mist was forming, which only resulted in light shafts that increased the effect.

"I'm going to call you the next time I'm throwing a party. This is awesome," Blue kept looking up at the lights hidden by her cloud. As the globules flew, they would, at times, peek out of the cloud like small sprites who were too shy to come down.

"This looks much better than I expected," Hera smiled, watching the show. They stood there for a couple of minutes before Hera stopped the spells. Unlike Blue's clouds, she couldn't keep that up indefinitely, and there was still a lot of work to do.

##### Author's Note ####

How feasible would it be to set a wedding up like that? Asking for a friend.

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