Ilias, Spoon, and Inara stood at the entrance of a cave, waiting. They all held their weapons tightly and seemed to be ready for battle.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

The sound of footsteps echoed from inside the cave. They immediately check out their weapons and pol for the third time. Ilias and Inara drew their swords, and Spoon opened his magic book.

While they were doing this, a bearded man came out of the cave with an ax on his shoulder.

When they saw him, they heaved a long sigh of relief and, with a smile, returned their weapons.

Ilias said, "Hello, Mr. Duhuwa. My name is Ilias, this is Spoon, and this is Inara. We are sent here by Princess Nostalgia."

The bearded man kept his eye on Ilias and studied him. After a while, he sighed and said, "If she sends you then why are you armed and ready to attack?"

Ilias turned and pointed to a large mountain in the distance and said, "We went to that mountain at first. Forgive me for missing it, but the princess' description of your hideout was a bit off. Unfortunately for us, we met some unforeseen circumstances there. I'm sure you can understand."

The man still stared at them suspiciously.

Ilias smiled bitterly. Was he that terrible at convincing people? This was the third man in a row and none of them believed him at first. He retrieved a stamped letter from his pocket and showed it to the man. "Anyway, she said you will understand once you see this."

Having seen the stamp, the short man smiled and said, "What brings you here? The princess' message was just a few weeks ago. I don't think it's already time for another."

Ilias cleared his throat and replied, "She wants to see you, face-to-face."

Duhuwa narrowed his eyes in confusion. He was a wanted man for openly going against slavery, so the princess wouldn't just meet with him or their relationship would be exposed. "Are you sure she said that?"

Ilias nodded. "Correct. She said you'll meet her at the intersection of the gentleman's living quarters. Whatever that is."

Ilias gave him a piece of paper containing some coded information. Then they turned around and left, leaving the man with a frown.

***

Armad had been sleeping for three days since his return from secluded meditation. Nostalgia had told Ilias how to get fighters for Armad. These fighters were supposed to get a new ability to use lightning from Armad. And since Nostalgia could share the bond in Armad's place, they wanted to finish everything before Armad woke up.

The people that Ilias gathered were the ones Nostalgia had vouched for. They fit the criteria to be in Armad's antislavery army.

Ilias and his team recruited members for the next seven days. All this time, Armad was just sleeping. On the seventh day, Ilias returned to report.

Iliasis said, "We only got six people. Others didn't like our proposal and some gave excuses. Two people didn't believe you can go against slavery and decided it was a trap."

Nostalgia nodded with a sigh. She sent them to get the ten people she was most close to, but only got six. Well then, six would have to do for now.

Now all that was left was to bring these six people to swear allegiance to Armad and then share the bond with them. She couldn't rule out the possibility of someone refusing to sign the contract which would further reduce the number.

*Sigh.*

Similarly, plans continued between Nostalgia and Ilias without Armad's knowledge.

The six men eventually received the bond after swearing allegiance and signing the written documents (surprisingly, none of them refused to sign the contract, which could mostly be attributed to their devotion to the princess since they didn't know Armad), and Ilias began training them secretly.

Among the six people, four of them already had elemental abilities. Two had fire element, one had wind element, and one had lightning element. Now the two people with the fire element and the one with the wind element would have additional lightning element. How that would turn out was yet to be seen. But everyone was enthusiastic about it.

***

Finally, it was the eve of the wedding day and the city was already full with visitors from every corner of Sisiya. The sound of music and laughter filled the entire city.

Everything was for him but, right now, Armad was sleeping peacefully without a care in the world. Even he needed a break.

When he opened his eyes next, the first thing he saw was his wife's beautiful smile shining in front of him.

He quickly sat upright and asked, "What day is it?"

Nostalgia pouted her lips and looked angry. "Today is June 1st, 1856."

"Huh...? That's not possible! How long have I been sleeping?"

"I am serious. You missed your wedding day," she said.

Armad Jumped and disappeared. He reappeared somewhere in the palace in front of some maids and asked them about the date. After recovering from their daze, they told him it was the 30th day of the fifth month. A day before their marriage.

Armad disappeared again and returned to the room, laughing, "I thought I missed it."

"That's cheating," Nostalgia protested.

Armad ignored her and went to the bathroom. He took a shower and got ready. When he came out to the dining, everything was ready for him. He ate his full without any concern for etiquette. For some reason, Nostalgia just stared at him, enjoying herself. She preferred the simple and genuine types to those fake princes that bothered themselves with excruciatingly painful details about etiquette and always pretended to be genuine.

When he had eaten enough, they began to talk. Armad said, "I have wanted to start sharing my new ability before we get married, but I overslept and missed the chance. I guess it will have to wait then."

Nostalgia had already decided not to bring up anything related to Bending until after the marriage. Armad, too, should be allowed to have some rest.

So she changed the topic and said, "Er... I don't want to talk about Bending until after the wedding. This is my time. I want you to focus on me and forget about training. I don't know if we will have another chance like this in this life"

Armad frowned slightly at her last sentence and said, "Of course, we will have several chances like this in the future. We'll always have a chance like this. It isn't as if we're going to die, anyway."

Nostalgia sighed. She didn't know why she said that. It just came. "I didn't mean it like that. Don't be angry..."

"I'm not angry." Armad smiled. He didn't know how he managed to sound angry despite being unusually excited. "By the way, you look amazing today."

"Really? I look amazing?"

Armada nodded with the best charming smile he could muster.

"Well... it's a pity. You don't look amazing today."

"Huh? I changed my mind too. You don't look amazing at all."

"What? Stop it. You have already said I look amazing. You can't change your mind midway."

"But I did."

Nostalgia ground her teeth. Armad laughed teasingly.

The two young men spent the entire day chatting about their lives. It was beautiful not being able to think about trouble or matters of pol throughout the entire day.

That night, a group of professional hairdressers came and took Nostalgia to a hair salon. Armad returned to his friends and began a new conversation. They kept teasing him about being a groom.

"You, do you even know what it means to be a groom? I'll teach you everything you need to know about it," Spoon said.

Armad had the urge to call him off, but he resisted. For some odd reason, the burly man seemed bitter about the marriage.

When Armad didn't take the bait, the man grabbed him and said, "You are one lucky bastard, you know that, don't you? Tell me, how exactly did you get a beauty like that to marry you and I get nothing?"

Armada helplessly looked at Ilias for support. The man just shrugged and said, "It just doesn't seem equitable. So, I... think I understand my brother's pain."

Armad smiled bitterly.