The Guarded Princess

XXXI

As the sun began setting, the preparations had been completed and lanterns were being hung and lighted. The cries of joy and laughter rang through the town as Sinbad, Lucy, and the others made their way back to the castle to celebrate the festival. Stalls were set up and the people changed into their clothes for the festival as they began lining up to eat. The men drank beer as they watched the street performances and the women chuckled with one another, setting out the food out on the plates.

The castle preparations were done and seeing the castle, they believed that Kouen and Koumei really had outdone themselves despite their initial objection. Lucy chuckled softly to herself for she knew that even though the two might reject tedious stuff at first, once they take on a job they always bring out the best results.

"Kouen, you really did an impressive job," Sinbad remarked with awe and grinned. "Despite your initial distaste."

Kouen scoffed. "Seeing your General do all the work is quite pitiful so I decided to help. That's all there is to it," he said. "And so?"

"Hm?"

"What did you do?" he eyed him.

"Huh?" Sinbad stopped as he turned the other way.

Kouen narrowed his eyes. "Should've expected," he said with crossed arms. "You did nothing, didn't you?"

"S-i-n," Ja'far raged from behind him. "What did I tell you?"

"Sinbad was just showing me around and even though we did play around a little, he did keep a keen eye on everything on all the preparations," Lucy said, stepping in. "Part of it was my fault, too, so he's not to blame."

Aladdin grinned. "Then I'm also to blame! I wanted to show Lucy-neesan around!"

"You three," Ja'far shook his head and waved the problem off since Lucy had said so. "I understand. At least you guys had made sure that all the preparations went smoothly."

Lucy smiled. "Thank you, Ja'far."

Ja'far returned her smile before looking towards Sin who winked, knowing exactly what he wanted him to do. With the sounding of the drums in the distance and the blowing of horns, Sinbad put his hands onto the side of his hips and smirked.

"Now then, let the feast begin!" he ordered.

Inner Palace~

As the others were busy celebrating outside the castle gates near a solitary balcony overlooking the country itself, Lucy was ushered into the Inner Palace by the maids where she was immediately stripped of her clothing, much to her surprise. Her eyes began circling as she was pushed around by the maids, each of one of them busy deciding what kind of clothing and style suited her best.

"Wait, wait, what is this?" she asked as they began pulling out different clothes.

"Since it's Mahrajan, of course, you have to dress up, Princess," the maids gushed for they were finally able to dress Lucy up for the first time.

"Now come on, lift up your arms."

"There, a perfect fit. As expected, it looks perfect on you, Princess."

"T-Thank y-!" Lucy yelled as she was pulled to a different corner and forced to sit down in front of a mirror.

They began brushing her hair as they formed two loops of hair on the top, clasping it together with a golden accessory - a style of the Kou Empire. Coming out from it was a thin braid of hair and a long white ribbon with a golden line at the end as they let her hair fall loose, falling beside her in a silky, wavy pattern. A white flower crown was propped up in her hair as tiny pink flowers fell from them. Lightly putting some make-up on her face, her beauty was further enhanced and seeing so, the maids all blushed.