Chapter 104 104 Different Custom

But the next words that came out of Braxton's words grabbed his attention like a fish dangling in front of a cat.

"That bastard is called Zach. I wouldn't have found out about him since he is so far away in Elizabeth city if not for this thing called Trucks that he has produced recently. Even though he is hiding behind the Elizabeth family, my sources got me this sketch of him so I could confirm it with my own eyes."

Prince Kolt smiled a little awkwardly like it was his first smile in a decade. His lips twitched at the corners but the jubilation he felt was as real as reality itself.

Braxton who was excited beyond limit was unable to process the change of expression that occurred on Prince Kolt's face but he was happy that Kolt was willing to take a look at it which meant that Prince Kolt was willing to help him get his revenge.

Although Braxton was his wife's brother, Prince Kolt didn't have any affection for him. If it hadn't been for the royal family that wanted to give Braxton special attention and care because of his potential of a rare element mage at a very young age, Prince Kolt would have thrown him out of the house a long time ago; brother-in-law or not.

But this was the first time, Kolt wanted to accept Braxton as his brother and exact righteous vengeance on his behalf from them monster who terrorized his dreams and caused him to go sleepless for several nights in a row.

Kolt couldn't hide his shining white teeth as he thanked whatever gods there were for giving him the opportunity to follow the path of life he had chosen for himself and for guiding him towards the beacon that would light up the path he wished to tread.

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Several weeks had passed since Zach had gotten engaged and he still hadn't gotten used to the fact that he now had a fiancée whom he was going to marry very soon.

In his previous world, Zach hadn't even had a girlfriend let alone a wife. This was a big step for him no matter how much he tried to ignore it.

Even though he wanted to forget about it and focus on training the Special Forces unit, the preparations for his wedding ceremony with Christina didn't let him escape into fantasyland. The scale of the wedding preparations was so large that he couldn't understand how these rich families were still rich after indulging themselves so much.

Even the Luther family that was previously considered a low end family of Elizabeth city was spending rivers of money every day preparing for his wedding.

Apparently, this was quite common in this world.

When Zach questioned why Bruce was making it all so extravagant, he was thrown off by the condescending look that Bruce gave him in return as if he was some bumbling fool from thecountryside who didn't know tradition at all.

As a result, Zach didn't disturb the arrangements and let Bruce handle everything for him. The result was a never ending party that started a week back and wasn't about to end any time soon.

Thankfully it was like a little grandiose in-house pre-wedding celebration where the presence of the groom or the bride wasn't necessary. Although that didn't stop Christina from coming over to visit every now and then using the excuse of seeing the wedding ceremony arrangements.

When the scale of preparations started to get even more out of hand, Zach wanted to convey his intentions of keeping it simple and constrained to Bruce who was spearheading the whole thing even when he was busy dealing with several families who wanted to ally themselves with the Luther family after the launch of the trucks.

Of course Bruce completely ignored his wishes. For him, this wedding was a method of announcing the Luther family's alliance with the Elizabeth family to the world which would only be beneficial for the Luther family. Therefore, Bruce ignored Zach whenever he started this conversation and made the excuse of being busy all the time.

But Zach finally got a hold of him at the dinner table and conveyed the anxiety he had been feeling in his heart.

"I don't understand how I can get married to someone I hadn't even met before we got engaged." Zach scratched the back of his head in irritation and confusion as he asked Bruce.

Bruce couldn't help but think that Zach was acting like a normal teenager despite being such an accomplished dark mage. He acted mature in other matters but his wedding got him stumped as well.

"You say that even though you proposed the marriage in the first place. I hear that it was your condition to let bygones be bygones with the Elizabeth family." Bruce looked towards Luna for confirmation as he asked Zach rhetorically.

Luna nodded uncharacteristically in response even though she usually wouldn't have answered such a question that was intended to put her master in a difficult position.

"I didn't know that she would…" Zach wanted to retort but halfway across he stopped since it really was his fault that this situation had come up. Had he not made such a poor attempt at a joke, Christina wouldn't have agreed to it.

"Whatever you did to bring about this result…I am happy that you did it. This is for the best not only for you but also for the business."

"I know that is exactly what I had in mind but I am not so comfortable with it anymore." Zach was adamant which irritated Bruce but he still used the soft approach to convince Zach.

"I don't know how weddings happen in the place you come from. But this is very common in this area. There have been high profile weddings where bride and groom hadn't even seen each other's face before their wedding day and their married life turned out completely fine. You have at least talked to each other a few times before and Christina isn't bad looking either. I am sure you will figure it out on your own later."

Zach couldn't help but curse his past self who wanted to make an unnecessary joke just to see Christina getting worked up for the apology. And now, he didn't dare look her in the eyes because he was unsure what to talk about with this stranger who had suddenly become his fiancée.

Even though Christina jumped at the opportunity that allowed her to tie herself to Zach, he thought otherwise. He regretted every millisecond of that moment when he decided to make that joke but didn't stop Christina from saying 'yes' as the answer.

Everything would have been different if only he had said, "I was just kidding" after she said yes. Maybe he would have embarrassed her but that was better than getting stuck with each other for the rest of their lives.

Making use of various excuses, Christina had visited several times after his strange proposal. No matter what her intentions were Zach was always wary of seeing her and usually avoided her by heading off to train the Special Forces unit.

Despite her father's displeasure, Christina was quite happy with her decision. She was sure that this union would elevate her Elizabeth family to new heights, making it stronger than it was before; stronger than even in her ancestor's time when the family was at its peak.

After returning home several times without meeting her fiancée, Christina had been in low spirits but she didn't give up. Her goals and ambitions kept her from feeling down and she took the initiative to go see Zach once again.

No matter what the servants had been trained to tell her, she was adamant on seeing Zach. Fortunately, she found the leader of the Luther family, Bruce and decided to hold the discussion with him since Zach was obviously unwilling to see her for some reason or was truly too busy to spare some time for his future wife.

"I needed to discuss something with Zach but since he isn't here, maybe you can make the decision for him. He is a member of your family, right?"

Christina didn't leave him any way out. If Bruce said that Zach didn't belong to his family, then the marriage alliance would have nothing to do with Luther family. Therefore, he had to tread on the narrow path between offending Zach by making decisions on his behalf or to deny the newfound alliance between the Luther family and the Elizabeth family.

"What do you want to discuss? I need to see if it is something I can make a decision about."

"I was thinking that since we are going to be allies by marriage in the future, can you allow me to bring some of my people to learn how to operate and maintain this truck? Of course, I am not shameless enough to ask you to divulge the core techniques used in the development of the trucks. I just want my own people to understand some basic things about the trucks so we can carry out basic maintenance at our end so it would save us both some time and fuel. What do you think?" Christina asked in a begging tone totally believing that Bruce could grant her request if he wanted to.

But of course he couldn't take such a decision on his own. He needed to ask Zach's opinion since it was all his idea and his product. What if he made a decision and Zach felt that Bruce was taking advantage of his generosity?