Chapter 18: Preparations

      The castle has been in chaos for the past few months. Time was running out, Aldous' and Harriette's wedding day was swiftly approaching. Some guests have already arrived at the castle, which made preparations all that much harder. I'm honestly surprised everything has been going so well. A couple of days ago, Harriette had her dress fitting. It was perfect, she was as gorgeous as ever. She had fun designing it with her soon to be sister in laws, she was nervous it wasn't going to turn out the way she hoped, but her fears were unwarranted.

I dodged through various servants carrying decorations and supplies, trying to find Harriette. Suddenly I was grabbed by Viviana, she pulled me a long with her. "We have a problem, and since you are the maid of honour, you need to fix it."

"What is it?" I braced for the worst.

"You know how we were supposed to have Yotorthain Mums for the center pieces of each table, well the shipment had an accident in Storia. By the time a new shipment is ready and arrives, my brother will be celebrating his first anniversary!" She squeezed my arm in frustration.

I snapped my fingers, "I know a guy. We just need to find him. I need a piece of paper." Viviana dragged me to a study, and I drew a symbol on the paper. I then opened my PD pouch, handing her an enchanted net. "He may hate me afterwards, but it's worth it. Go to Forfeit Forest, tap this paper three times, this will summon a ghost called Garth, use the net to catch him and bring him back here." I instructed.

"Is this the Garth I'm thinking of?" Viviana raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yes. Don't worry, he is harmless, mostly, just keep him away from Ignatius and your mother." I warned her. "He is terrified of them."

"My mother I understand, but Ignatius?" Viviana didn't believe me.

"There is a story there. Long ago, in an attempt to break out of the seal, Ignatius was able to remotely possess Garth to do his bidding." I explained.

Viviana took the net and the paper from me. "I'll be back in an hour tops." She then ran off.

In forty-five minutes, she had returned with Garth. Despite him no longer needing to breath, he was hyperventilating. We took him to my room where, Viviana let him out of the net, he scowled at her, not realizing i was there until I tossed a bag full of pearls at him. "Amice?" He sounded relieved for a moment before he transferred to anger. "What the heck is the big idea!? Did you get this pirate to kidnap me?!"

"Pirate?" Viviana growled. She then took a step towards Garth. "I am the admiral of the royal navy."

"Chill you two!" I yelled. I then regained my composure. "It was the only way I could think of to get your help in time. Don't worry, I'll pay extra." I handed a illustration of the flowers. "How fast do you think you can get ten thousand Yotorthain Mums here?" I requested.

"Hmm, that's a tall order." He thought for a moment. "Four days, three if I had an extra thousand pearls." He scratched his chin.

I handed him a bag of pearls. "You have two. Now what is your base price?" I walked over to my bed and reached under it.

"Eighty thousand. Eight pearls per flower." Garth half grinned as he stated his price.

I yanked out two large bags full of pearls. "Here is forty thousand, I'll get you the rest after they arrive." I handed them to him.

Garth smiled as he checked inside one of the bags. "I'll get started immediately." He took the pearls and fled out the window.

I turned to Viviana. "That is taken care of, is there anything else that requires immediate attention, princess?"

Viviana thought for a moment. Without warning, a maid ran past the door, then quickly came back, latching onto the door as she panted. “I was asked to get my supervisor.”

“That.” Viviana stated as we began to follow the maid to the banquet hall.

When we arrived, Joelle, the young duchess of Storia was yelling at various servants trying to set up. The maid brought us over, “This is Lady Amice, the maid of honour.” The maid introduced me.

“You’re a lady?” Joelle huffed. “Wait weren’t you that maid that would accompany Harriette everywhere? Yes, yes you are! So you aren’t like a real lady, got it. That doesn’t matter. These chairs are terrible!” She motioned to the chairs that were stacked upside down.

“They are the best chairs we have, what’s wrong with them?” I asked politely, bracing myself for a full on Karen moment.
Joelle snapped her fingers, “Maid take this chair out of the stack.” The maid did as she was rudely asked. She took the chair off the stack and was about to flip it over but Joelle ripped it out of her hands. “You are too slow, I’ll do it myself! Idiot!” She practically threw down the chair and sat down while it was still upside down. “See!”

Ignatius and Narcissus had come over to see what was happening. I put my hands together and brought them up to my mouth as I took a sharp breath. “Your grace, the chair is upside down. We store them that way to protect the seats.” I calmy explained, using my customer service voice.

“Well, that’s stupid!” She screeched as she stood up. “On another note, I heard that the tablecloths are supposed to blue, I don’t care for the colour, I think a nice soft pink would be much better.”

“Well,” Narcissus began, “when you get married, you can have the tablecloths whatever colour you like, but this isn’t your wedding, and blue is the colour the king and Lady Harriette picked out.” He politely explained.

“Do you even know who I am? It is such a common colour, you might think any colour is luxurious where you are from, but around here-“ Her tangent was interrupted.

“Do you even know who he is?” Ignatius growled as he motioned to Narcissus. He put his hand on his shoulder to show is support.

“Ugh, does it matter?” Joelle squawked.

“This is Narcissus, duke of the dark dimension, you should speak more politely to your peers. Well, to everyone it seems.” Ignatius explained as he narrowed his eyes as they began to glow.

“Who are you to tell me to speak more politely?” Joelle questioned accusingly.

Ignatius took a couple of steps forward, his tongue slipping out of his toothy grin. "I am Ignatius, the duke of demons."

It finally dawned on her. "Wait." She pointed to Ignatius, "Duke." She pointed to Narcissus, "Duke." She pointed to Viviana.

"Heh, Princess." Viviana almost half laughed.

Joelle took half a step back, as Ignatius rested his index finger on his cheek. "We aren't going to let you change anything from how our liege and his bride want their wedding. You may have been top dog before, but now, you have us to compete with, and no, we won't hurt you, physically, but we don't intend on losing to the likes of you."

Joelle grabbed onto the leg of the chair as she couldn't step back any further."Are-aren't you worried that threatening me will ruin your relationships with the human duchies?"

"Threatening? Oh, ho ho, I'm not threatening you. I'm simply telling you that you can't hijack someone else's wedding, how would you like it if someone showed up at your wedding and started changing things from how you like it?" Ignatius got in her face. She pushed him away from her and ran off. "Well, that is solved." He put his hands on his hips triumphantly.

"I'm worried on how she will spin this interaction." Narcissus mentioned.

"No matter how it went, we would still be the villains in her story. At least there are plenty of witnesses in case she tries to say you attacked her." I remarked.

The rest of the day wasn't as exciting. At night after getting ready for bed, I gazed out the window. I began to wonder about some of my promises that I had made years ago. The first oath I took in the world was to stay loyal to the kingdom of Bugalas. In spite of what many people may say, I believe I kept that oath. Always in the back of my mind when making any decision, was 'is this best for Bugalas?' Bugalas is more the just the humans that reside there, but the many other peoples, the boar monsters, the goblins, even other humans have been treated poorly for generations, the Ofenjen clan for instance. Now seeing how Aldous rules, I am confident that he will do what is best for everyone in the kingdom.

I know that at his core Aldous is a good person, which brings me to my next promise, finding Harriette the perfect husband. No one is perfect, but Aldous was the best bachelor in all of Bugalas. They love each other, they are able to put centuries of animosity to pursue that feeling. I know they will lead Bugalas into an era of peace. Harriette has been through so much, she deserves to get a full happily ever after. In the games, Harriette's story always ended bittersweetly, most of the time she lived, having suffered major losses, the others, she gave her life in battle. Even though I knew she would return in the next game, each time it hurt, seeing that life come to an end. I am confident she will live a long and happy life, filled with love, something she has deserved for soft long. She will soon have a husband, and she has her wonderful children.

My third promise was to protect Harriette's children at any cost. I know they will be safe with Aldous as their dad. He seems to truly care about them, family has always been his motivation, throughout the games he was always fighting for his sisters, all he wanted was to keep them safe, he will be a good father. Now, with the biggest threat to the twins' safety their strongest protector, I can rest easy. They will grow up safe, free to lead a life of their choosing, not repeating a destiny full of bloodshed.

I am wondering what I should do with my life, I touched the collar on my neck, I do not have much of choices. I will be working in the library and I have a curfew, but I wonder, what should I do in my freetime since I no longer have to worry about protecting everyone and scheming. Ah, whatever, I know something will come up, everyday there will be something new, the twins with their shenanigans, whatever drama comes long with Ignatius and Narcissus, life will never be boring in this world, even if we are safe.

I laid down in bed, I blew out the candle on my nightstand and readied myself for sleep in my bed. Soon Harriette would be getting married, and I needed to make sure it was perfect.

The following days up until the eve of the wedding were as chaotic as the day before. Garth had managed to bring the Yotorthain Mums on time, they were all we had needed to complete the center pieces for the tables. Everything else went according to plan. Joelle didn’t cause any more trouble, she seem scared every time I saw her after the incident, she must of realized that her nonsense was not going to be put up with. In the games she would give you quests, most of them would be annoying in real life, most of her main story quests were along the lines of ‘go get me this to prove you are the reincarnations of the prince and princess’. She always seemed spoiled, but in a charming way, but in this life, she is a full on Karen.

On the night before the wedding, after the ceremony rehearsal, we were in the Ofenjen Temple chatting. “You know,” Aldous began, “when you said you wanted to get married here, I wasn’t sure that there would be enough room for everyone, but this place is a lot bigger on the inside.”

“Yeah, it actually is. This place uses the same kind of magic as Pocket Dimension Pouches, fun fact, the temple being larger on the inside predates Pocket Dimension Pouches by about seven centuries.” Harriette happily explained.

Aldous then turned to Ignatius, Narcissus, Viviana, Cloelia, and I. “Alright, and we are all prepared if anyone objects?”

“Yes my liege, we will all have hidden weapons on our persons in case things get out of hand.” I answered.

“Remember, no getting ahead of yourselves. We have to hear them out first, wait for me or Harriette to give the word, then one of you can chase the person who objected out. Once they are out of the temple, you stop giving chase and go back to where you are supposed to be, and no hunting people down afterwards, putting a hit on them, or paying them a ‘visit’.” Aldous sternly instructed us. “Vivi, make sure our sisters know about these rules, I am going to tell them, but I need to make sure they understand.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Viviana shrugged.

“Well,” Aldous turned to Harriette, taking her hands in his, “I will see you tomorrow.”

“I will see you tomorrow, right here, at the altar.” Harriette reassured him. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” Aldous leaned his forehead on hers.