He Freed the Kings He Once Chained, They Chose to Bind Him novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: The Wedding Feast

The wedding feast was held on the lawn of the Lake Palace, under paper lanterns, with four courts and two thousand freed servants at the tables.

Nobody wore silver, and nobody wore a cuff.

The baker from the causeway sat at the high table in a borrowed green dress, and had already told three kings she was not to be thanked.

Ren stood at the foot of the lake steps in a plain dark coat.

He had been standing there for ten minutes, trying not to shake.

"You look sick," Ken said, at his elbow.

"I'm fine."

"You look like a man about to be hanged."

"I'm about to be married to three people in front of a thousand witnesses."

"Same thing."

Ken grinned, and shoved a small velvet bag into his hands.

"Hold that. Don't drop it. I'll kill you."

The bag held three rings of plain gray metal, each one warm from his pocket.

Ren turned them over.

On the inside of each band, in tiny careful letters, the smith had cut a single word.

Ren held the first up to the lantern.

Keep.

He held up the second, and the third.

Keep. Keep.

"It's what the key does," Ken said gruffly. "It lets you keep or lose. We keep."

Ren's eyes blurred.

Ryu came down the steps in Northern black, with his hair tied back and a face that was visibly trying to look stern.

Su Ming came after in white and green, and for once he was not smiling.

The three of them stood in a row in front of Ren.

The lawn grew quiet.

"I'll go first," Su Ming said. "Because I'm the one who talks."

He turned to the crowd, and his voice carried to the farthest lantern.

"I spent three years saying yes to everything. I thought that was how you stayed alive." He looked back at Ren. "This is the first yes I ever meant. I choose you. I'll choose you again tomorrow. And if I ever stop, I'll tell you to your face."

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