Chapter 345: Mawage

Mila

“Why’s he here?” Aalam teleported in front of Daevic, who, wearing a nice black suit like almost every other man in the room, had just entered the large main hall of the Imperial Cathedral on the Twelve Element Spirit Universe's B rank capital planet.

“Um. I was invited.” Both from vision and sensing his aura, Mila could tell just how nervous Davic was, bordering on terror, and, from her position at the front of the cathedral with Nana Xara, up on the dais where sermons about her and Aalam’s greatness were usually given, she found herself smiling slightly.

“No. That’s not possible.” Her husband, wearing a well made red and black suit, shook his head, his previously perfectly arranged shoulder-length blue hair moving out of position to look more like it normally did, like he’d somehow just come out of a romance novel cover. “I made and personally sent all the invitations. And I only sent them to people I like.”

“He’s Krysta’s plus one.” Mila whispered the words, but Aalam’s sensory domain was up, and, as she was wearing a red and gold dress with a cutout showing a bit more cleavage than usual, he was finding it hard not to focus on her.

“No.”

Krysta then entered the cathedral, wearing the pretty green and black dress she’d been sent for the event, matching every other woman in the room other than Mila, Immortalia, and Nana Xara, and she hooked arms with Daevic, causing Aalam to stumble several steps back.

“No.”

“Aalam, you’re being rude.”

Aalam turned to look at Mila, his face starting to show anger even if his aura was non-existent. “He can’t be here. This is supposed to be a special day. And he messes up the feng shui.”

“Aalam, both of us know what you just said makes no sense.” Mila felt her smile grow a bit wider. “Also, you were the one who insisted Krysta should get a plus one even though I tried to warn you.”

Aalam blinked rapidly a few times and Mila could see his emotions change as he thought back to the conversation in question. “You were subtle, and I didn’t pick up on it.”

“Yeah. And who’s fault is that?”

Instead of appearing more irritated, or calming down, Aalam began to smile in that same way she did, the one that always seemed to have Edi wanting to flee. And Mila did not like it one bit, very much starting to regret having slightly disconnected the bond between the two of them over the last year, cutting off their ability to share each other’s senses and feel each other’s emotions.

Then he turned back to Daevic and Krysta and gave them a warm hug, causing a chill to start going down Mila’s spine, before teleporting next to her and Nana Xara up on the dais, his face neutral.

“Now entering the family of the bride.” From the entrance of the cathedral, Edi, wearing a suit and a big grin even while his aura was showing immense nerves along with excitement, called out. And, arm in arm, Mila’s grandparents entered, Irena wearing a purple dress and Dai-Zhao a gray suit.

“Why is he here?” Part of Mila’s mind had already figured out what was happening, knew she’d been set up, but the rest of her mind was almost blank, so she fell into the trap anyway.

“He’s Irena’s plus one.” Aalam grabbed her hand, his smile growing wider even as her body started to shake with either anger or excitement.

She couldn’t figure out which.

She could barely think.

“No.”

“You were the one who insisted she should get a plus one even though I tried to warn you.” Aalam’s grin grew to the point Mila kind of wanted to punch him in the face. “It’s not my fault I was too subtle and you didn’t pick up on it.”

Mila thought back to the relevant conversation, her immense Spirit stat allowing her to view the scene as if it had just happened. And she watched as Aalam let her bulldoze through the guest list, only occasionally speaking up as he knew everyone he wanted to be there would be.

He had said it might not be a good idea to allow Irena a plus one, but there had been no smirk, no sign at all, just the unfocused expression he usually had when he was thinking about a new invention or how the multiverse worked. Obviously, he’d allowed a different mind, one focused on studying, to control his face immediately after saying the words, and she was honestly kind of impressed.

She turned to look at him, at his stupid grin, and she couldn’t decide if she should be angry or proud. “The student becomes the master, huh?”

“Yeah.” His grin didn’t fade and Mila decided her pride in her husband finally tricking her, something he hadn’t accomplished once since their marriage, was a lot higher than her anger. Also, both her grandparents looked happy, even if they were also nervous.

Still, while she smiled warmly and nodded toward her grandparents as they took their seats in the front row of the cathedral’s pews, feeling the last bit of unresolved tension she had about her grandfather finally leaving her soul, she didn’t really feel like acknowledging that pride.

“Well, if the student would like to keep sleeping with his master, he might want to stop rubbing it in with the stupid grin on his face.”

“No.” Aalam leaned closer and whispered into her ear—though everyone in the room, all being at least C rank, could still almost certainly hear. “I’m going to milk this rare occurrence for all it is worth, banking on the fact you’ll almost certainly cave before I will.”

“Now entering the groom’s family.”

As Diana, arm in arm with Isaiah and wearing the same colors as Irena and Dai-Zhao, entered the cathedral, Mila found herself frowning slightly. He was right. She didn’t have the normal leverage in that department given Aalam’s ability to get super focused on anything that interested him. And it was annoying.

Still, she couldn’t help the genuine smile that crept onto her face at the playful flirting.

“Would everyone please be seated.” Nana Xara, standing between them wearing a white and gold dress, looked out over the hall as Diana and Isaiah joined Immortalia—who was wearing an orange and green dress—on the groom’s side of the front row.

Then, as all 123 guests took their seats, the only goddess of the United Federation of Planets started the ceremony. “Mawage—”

“No!” Mila spoke the word a little louder than she intended and Aalam, Diana, and seven other members of the crowd started laughing, Mila noticing Diana handing over seven primal energy crystals to Isaiah under the pew.

Then she herself started laughing and most of the crowd understood what they’d just seen was a joke.

“Sorry.” Nana Xara smiled, obviously not at all apologetic. “The maid of honor bribed me and I am very susceptible.”

The goddess then released her divine aura and all laughter instantly stopped, everyone’s attention again focusing on the ancestor of all human life from Earth as the recording of the wedding, which would be broadcast on the Twelve Element Spirit Universe’s soul net, officially started.

“Let me get a bit more serious. We are here to celebrate the belated wedding of my apprentice, Empress Li Mila, and her husband, Emperor Aalam Alvaro, and I for one couldn’t be happier.

“Originally, this wedding was delayed by our maid of honor’s temporary death. Then the couple were focused on making sure everyone in this universe survived the gods of the Prime Material wanting to kill us, so it was delayed again. And, finally, it was delayed for a third time so I could be revived so as to provide this ceremony with the decorum it deserves.”

About a third of the guests laughed, mostly those who’d had more interactions with the woman.

“I was lucky enough to see the start of Aalam and Mila’s journey to power, just after Mila had been killed and Aalam had saved a billion lives by committing suicide.

“Neither were in a good place emotionally, and, for rather good reasons, a large part of Aalam wanted Mila dead.

“An even larger part, however, to no surprise from anyone who truly knows our lord, was more focused on optimizing his own power—not because he wanted to actually do anything, but purely because he had a hard time not optimizing—so he needed someone to get him resources.

“Mila had the right skills to get what he needed and the guilt necessary to go along with his insanity. Thus the partnership to end all partnerships was born.

“Science and social skills. Laws and contracts. Raw purity of energy and the ability to almost completely bypass soul defenses. In terms of magic, Aalam and Mila have always been complimentary, as their legendary feats have shown.

“More important to those of us here, however, are the other ways the two complement each other. Aalam makes things, some of which are dangerous, some of which have the ability to transform the lives of everyone for the better, but he doesn’t always have the foresight to know which is which. Mila, on the other hand, does, and her presence allows him to not have to worry about what he creates. Mila, by the nature of the tasks she takes up for the United Federation of Planets, is often surrounded by lies and deceit, sometimes making it hard for her to even trust those she’s close to, but Aalam, even at his current age, can barely lie better than a preteen when he wants to, which is rare, so Mila can let her guard down around him, giving herself a break and keeping her from burning out.

“The two of them know each other. They help each other. And they, even after all this time, still have fun together.

“As someone who was married for several million years, I know the joy of play is one of the keys to a long lasting happy relationship, and I see no problems on that front for this couple.”

The smile on Nana Xara’s face was large and genuine, her aura showing happiness.

“But enough from me. The two of you have words you’d like to say to each other and I think we’d all like to hear them.”