One day before Max's coronation ceremony a lot of officials from the Aurelius clan landed in Dombivli City.
The crown to be put on Max's head prepared by some of the finest goldsmiths in the vampire monarchy was escorted in a glass container and paraded slowly through the streets of Dombivli by four royal guards of the Aurelius clan.
At the front of the escort service walked a drummer who beat a rhythmical marching beat and behind him walked the prime minister of the Aurelius clan holding the Aurelius clan banner high.
Following him, as the prime minister of the Bloodfall clan, Asiva walked holding the Bloodfall clan banner at a height only slightly below the Aurelius clan banner with proud steps.
The Bloodfall clan banner was different from most vampire clan banners in the sense it did not follow the general color theme of red, black and golden that was popular amongst the other vampire clans.
The Bloodfall clan banner was white in the background and had a picture of the Titan Atlas holding the sky on his back as the main logo painted fully in black while he cried tears of blood in red which accumulated in a massive pool under his feet which completed the symbolism in the flag.
The design was selected by Max personally and it hid a deep message inside.
To an outsider it may look like a image of a giant holding a big rock, but only Max knew that it was Atlas, the Titan who was punished by Zeus to hold the weight of the sky for eternity.
In a way that Titan was whoever was the patriarch of the clan and their job was to keep the sky from falling even if they cried tears of blood in the process.
The flag symbolised every aspect of Bloodfall, both literally and figuratively and promoted the concept of self sacrifice for the greater good of the clan.
The entire town had come to watch this parade as there was an air of excitement and awe at the change of power that the city was undergoing.
So far, the reforms Max had announced were extremely popular amongst the general populace, as his city reconstruction and cleaning efforts touched the hearts of many.
The citizens were hopeful of a bright future under their new ambitious young lord and it was visible in their act of throwing flowers and scented perfume at the feet of the parading men that they welcomed the regime change with open arms.
The prime minister noticed these public sentiments expressionlessly as he more or less understood that despite it being only a few weeks since the fall of the Kingsman clan, the new lord had been successful in consolidating power and quelling rebellion.
Eventually, the parade reached the inner district and there a red carpet had been rolled out for the prime minister of Aurelius clan to walk all the way into the palace gates.
In the inner district, the Bloodfall clan soldiers held their weapons over their chest as they gave a grand salute to the crown which was being carried towards the palace.
Eventually when the parade reached the palace gate, Lucius received the prime minister and helped him carry the crown to his pre-prepared room where it was to be stored overnight.
At this point it remained ambiguous as to if Regus Aurelius would personally grace the coronation ceremony or not, but as per norms his room was also prepared if he did arrive tonight.
Once the prime minister settled, the other guests started to arrive a few hours later with many big names like the Vega Titus, Julian Caesar, Sam Saint Maximus, John Velter and Denver Sabitzer coming personally.
Out of the 36 vampire clan's, 12 patriarchs attended the event personally while 24 sent high ranking officials to the event, but all 36 clans sent someone with gifts as per tradition.
Apart from the clan leaders, some notable figures from outside the vampire world were also present in the form of Guildmaster Neatwit and The chairman of the seven galaxy bank.
What was especially shocking was that the patriarchs of clans ranked number 1,3,4 came personally to attend the Bloodfall clan lord's coronation ceremony when his preliminary standing was placed at 32 which was pretty much at the bottom of the vampire society.
Naturally, this lineup caused shockwaves to spread throughout vampire society.
While it was natural for Vega Titus to attend since he was a known ally of Ravan Bloodfall, however, for Julian Caesar, John Velter and Denver Sabitzer to personally attend the ceremony was shocking.
Currently the Velter clan was ranked 2nd in the clan rankings and John Velter was the son of the patriarch Leroy Velter.
The Velter clan were an economic powerhouse and a mostly neutral clan that maintained stable relationship with everyone.
If not for their thorough lack of ambition and unwillingness to become Regus's puppet, they could easily be ranked 1st.
Although Leroy did not come personally, for him to send John was also akin to attending the event personally.
The Sabitzer clan on the other hand was ranked 4th, and their patriarch Denver was attending the event personally, but the reason behind it was actually because of Lucius.
The Sabitzer clan had decided to support Lucius in the race to become crown prince and it was on Lucius's personal plea that Denver decided to attend the event personally and forge a bond with Ravan to rope him towards Lucius's faction.
The lower ranking lords who did not attend the event personally regretted their choice to not come personally after listening to this line-up.
Because if they did come, they would have had a chance to socialise with the big four at the gala dinner the night before the coronation ceremony.
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( Meanwhile Hazriel )
Hazriel looked at Dombivli city through her omniscient eyes and told her A.I. ' Nemesis ' to lock onto the planet's coordinates as she was planning to space-jump towards her destination.
12 hours later, it was Max's coronation and she intended to attend the event and meet with Max once again after saving him all those years ago.
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/// A/N - Chapter 20/20.
This bonus sponsored by patron Cervantez91, so please thank him in the comments for this one.
With this I complete all past promises ///