Chapter 413 - 413 Day of the Wedding

Since having arrived on Azade, Avery and his team had been frantically trying to repair his smirched reputation.Fortunately, the plan that Kasandra had come up with had worked wonders.

The entire narrative had chaged from Avery being sort of swindler mercenary that had tricked the chancellor's daughter and was trying to exploit Azade's resources, to him actually being an amazing and heroic mercenary that was friends with Cerise Gunvald and Nianni Taador.

Once this news had gotten around, the stories that had previously speculated that Avery was some sort of manipulative villain were drowned out by the truth.

The hearsay and circumstance evidence being used to slander him were revealed to be allegedly false as more reports dug deeper into the truth.

Though Avery was certain that some of them had already known this and only shifted their coverage to avoid potential trouble now that it was spreading that Avery was not the propertied schemer that a number of conspiracy theorists had been spreading over Azade's worldwide network.

Of course, shifting Avery's reputation from negative to positive was only an impromptu matter that needed to be attended to. The main event was the wedding, and there were a number of things that Avery and Jasmine needed to do.

First was their clothing.

Originally, they should have spent a couple of days leisurely picking out their outfits for the ceremony, but that time had been desiccated to traveling around the world and holding presentations instead.

Thankfully, Regina had already prepared a dozen suits for Avery to try on and nearly three times as many dresses for Jasmine.

Surprisingly, it took Avery a little longer than Jasmine to decide on what he planned to wear.

Almost immediately, Jasmine had spotted the dress that she liked and had chosen it without giving the others a second thought. While Avery had taken a few minutes trying on two different suits that he had trouble deciding on.

They were both primarily black, but one had gold accents simar the mercenary clothing he usually wore, and the other had some purple accents the same color as Jasmine's eyes.

Eventually, he went with the one that had the purple incorporated into it. Though he typically would have gone with the gold sense it fit his atheistic better, for today, he felt that the purple would be more appropriate.

After that, Regina had them choice floral arrangements and the main dishes that would be served.

This was stuff that would normally been done well in advance, but all of the spare time that Avery had allocated had been eaten up by one emergency after the other.

Luckily, Regina had used an immense number of resources to make sure that there was enough prepared for every option. With the surplus that was not chosen planned to be given to the staff that ran the chancellor's estate to avoid waste.

After about an hour of viewing decorations and tasting food, Avery and Jasmine came to a consensus and told the planner that Regina had hired what they wanted.

"Whew. This has been more work than I was expecting. You know, it's not too late to get on the Dauntless and go to a Dramid Alliance governmental building and get eloped." Avery said jokingly.

"As tempting as that sounds, I think that my mother might actually try to hunt you down and kill you if we did that. She has put in a lot of effort for us to make sure that everything is perfect for today."

Jasmine said her reply sarcastically, but Avery was pretty certain that if they actually left without notice, that there would be hell to pay.

Of course, neither of them had any plans to actually run away. It was just a bit of humor to settle their nerves that had been building.

Avery found all of this ceremony to be a bit extravagant and unnecessary, but he was will to go through with it for Jasmine's sake.

While perhaps not to the scale that her mother had planned, she did want to have beautiful wedding, and Avery would certainly make that wish come true.

After just a few more minor decisions on certain aspects of the ceremony, Avery and Jasmine were finally awarded a short break.

The wedding itself would take place in around three hours now.

'Now that it's so close and I finally have room to breathe, it feels like there's a ball of fire in my stomach. I don't think that I've ever been this excited and nervous at the same time in my life.' Avery thought, glancing over at Jasmine and then towards Kasandra who was assisting nearby.

Originally, it had been planned that he would marry Jasmine today and at a later time he would be officially married to Kasandra as well.

However, Jasmine had insisted that they both get married to Avery on the same day, and she had expressed a bit of regret that she was taking a small lead on Kasandra considering she was actually Avery's first lover, and that it was only because of her acceptance that the two of them were even together.

Once the main ceremony and reception was over and only the closest family members and friends remained, a second smaller wedding would take place between Avery and Kasandra. It would be a much smaller affair, but still, the thought of going through two marriages in the same day would throw anyone's thoughts and emotions into a bit of disarray.

Naturally, Avery was far happier than he was nervous. He felt incredibly blessed to be marrying two beautiful women he had come to love. Only a bit more than a year and a half ago, his entire attention was devoted to earning enough money for his father's care.

'Things have been hectic and dire recently, but at least for today, I think that we'll be able to enjoy ourselves in peace.' Avery thought, his lips forming into a bright smile.

Yet, just a few minutes later, something unexpected that threatened to derail the wedding occurred.