You are cordially invited to witness the wedding of King Alibaba Saluja and Princess Ren Kougyoku in the Royal Palace of Balbadd on the 8th day of the 8th month of the 6th year of the New Age. Festivities will start one week before the ceremony so please come and stay with us as we celebrate this joyful union.

The invitations were sent to the leaders of all the countries of the world three months before the wedding. As per tradition in the Royal House of Balbadd, the king's marriage festivities would start a week before the actual wedding, and continued until the couple returned from their honeymoon which started three days after the wedding. The current record for the longest royal wedding party was four months. Guests were expected to arrive before the festivities started in order to honor the soon-to-be-wedded couple. But, actually, in reality, it was just so they'd actually remember to congratulate the couple before they get swept along in the celebration. It is a week long, and nobody could stay sober when there's delicious food and free flowing alcohol everywhere.

King Alibaba stood on the balcony overlooking the city and the sea which was teeming with large ships and small fishing boats. The breeze carried the smell of cooked food and perfumes. The sun was shining brightly in the mid-morning sky as he gazed over his beloved kingdom. He could hear the music and laughter waft through the palace and the king was elated with joy. His kingdom had come a long way to achieve the same happiness he had once envied Sindria for. The slums were no more and people were happy with their lifestyles and freedom. Since free trade was established between all the kingdoms after the Great War six years ago which eradicated Al-Thamen once and for all, Balbadd had become a more prosperous kingdom than it had ever been before. Ever since jurisdiction had been given back to him, Alibaba had done his best to realize the ideals he fought tooth and nail to protect. He proved to them that he wasn't naïve in envisioning his country unlike Sinbad and Kouen used to.

"Alibaba, I've been looking everywhere for you," Kougyoku appeared on the doorway, walking over to her future husband. Alibaba threw her an apologetic look and opened his arms to receive her. Kougyoku willingly walked into his arms and followed Alibaba's gaze as they watched over the capital city, "They're arriving soon. You better get changed."

Alibaba smelled her fragrant soft hair, "Don't I look fine already?" he might be wearing robes fit for a king but Kougyoku always had a keen eye for fashion and he bet she had already set out the clothes he's supposed to wear in his bed. She never did forgive sloppiness. Even Morgiana never stood a chance. And speaking of the Fanalis…

"Had Morgiana arrived yet?" he asked Kougyoku. He was getting a bit worried that she might not be able to attend the wedding. As a general, royal body guard, human rights commissioner, and ambassador of the Kingdom of Balbadd, Morgiana had taken on a lot of duties since she served Alibaba when he became king. Add to that the two years she used to be his lover and had performed the duties of a queen by his side. But that was four years ago and they had both moved on. Morgiana had been with him when he was just a runaway prince and even when they were together and even when they're not, nothing would change the fact that he had loved her and he always will. When they broke up, many people thought that was the end of Balbadd's most powerful household vessel holder, but the two of them had proven them wrong. Their friendship, which had always been there, stood the test and here they are, king and general, friends and allies.

"She hasn't. She's running a little late. I wonder what's keeping her," Kougyoku, of course, knew about that certain bit of the past but she never begrudged the both of them that. He had been close friends with Kougyoku ever since she was his brother's intended, she knows the ordeals he went through. And Kougyoku truly adored Morgiana from the bottom of her heart. She had only ever recognized two women as her sisters, Ren Hakuei and Morgiana. The princess would admit that she too had come a long way to get to this point in her life: willingly getting married to the true love of her life.

When she was younger, a bit more sheltered and innocent, she had fallen in love with the king of the Seven Seas, Sinbad. But after the war, the Kou Empire proposed an eternal truce with the Seven Seas Alliance on the condition that King Sinbad would marry a princess of Kou. Her fragile heart broke when Ren Hakuei was married to a reluctant Sinbad two weeks later. She had despaired in her little corner as she watched the only man she thought she'd ever love marry the woman she had always wanted to be. But what broke her out of her reverie was the emperor of the Kou Empire, her respected brother Ren Kouen himself. He had found her wallowing in a dark corner of the garden and told her the truth. Ren Hakuei had sacrificed herself in her sister's place. "He may never hurt you but, nonetheless, he will make you miserable. Hakuei told me that your greatest wish was for love. If that's the case, my dear youngest sister, Sinbad is not the man I would give you to," she had cried over Sinbad for the last time that night and the next month, she was sent to Balbadd as Kou's official ambassador to what was just being built as the continent's greatest trade city.

It was amazing that she had been there all throughout Morgiana and Alibaba's two year relationship and now, she was marrying the man from the very couple which had inspired her to believe in finding her true love and the woman was the first to congratulate her and her fiancé when they broke the news of their impending nuptials. Kougyoku would not lie. Even her relationship with Alibaba was not a perfect one. They had their fair share of fights, and at many points of their relationship, Kougyoku had found herself expecting that their relationship wouldn't last for another year. But it didn't, and now, after a tiring trial from Ren Kouen for the hand of his youngest sister, King Alibaba is set to marry Princess Kougyoku in seven days. Kougyoku seriously prayed every night that the world wouldn't end until then.

"She might ruin our surprise for her." She said worriedly.

"I told her to leave the work for later." Alibaba sighed in exasperation at the thought that Morgiana might miss the festivities. She did like dancing and eating the most. And she'd see all her friends again, that's always a bonus.

"You can't blame her. The central government is going on holiday for the next three months,"

Alibaba almost nodded his head before blushing red and blowing a fuse, "Three months?! You want three months?!" he almost yelled.

Kougyoku blushed a fiery red and tried to cover her face with the sleeves of her dress as she tried to look at anywhere but Alibaba's face, "Y-yes. I thought you deserved it. Y-you've never had a real vacation since you became king, right? I should know. I've always been here the whole time."

"It's not a vacation! It's our honeymoon! I'm certainly not getting any rest and neither are you!" Alibaba suddenly blurted before he realized what he was saying. Needless to say, that was the end of their conversation as Kougyoku whipped out Vinea in embarrassment and knocked him out.

Because my plot bunnies just keep running all over my mind so they had to be let loose. :)