“I do,” Rina said as Aron slipped a wedding band onto her ring finger.
“Then by the powers vested in me, I declare you husband and wife,” the wedding officiator said, then turned to Aron. “You may kiss the bride.”
The crowd at the venue broke out in applause and cheers as Aron leaned down and passionately kissed his empress.
But not everyone was as happy.
The sound of shattering glass rang out in a small suburban home in South Central Los Angeles, followed by a scream of rage.
“That fucking BITCH!” Rottem Morgan shouted as he watched his former wife remarry. This time she was definitely marrying up, though he refused to admit that, when she had married him, she’d been marrying down. But deep in his heart, he knew it.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})He felt like he had just discovered his woman cheating on him. And not only was she cheating on him, she was cheating on him with his worst enemy. And beyond that, she was doing that thing he really liked that she would only do on special occasions while he got to do it whenever he wanted and not just on special occasions! The only thing he could do, though, was stew in helpless rage as he continued morbidly watching the rest of the traditional wedding events, unable to tear his eyes from his television screen.
It was probably for the best that he didn’t know that he himself was the initiator of Aron’s “blessed life”. Aron had received the system after Rottem did his level best to ruin his life, and everything had quickly happened after that. Had that never happened, Aron wouldn’t have written BugZapper, nor would he have created Nova, GAIA OS, the Olympus and Zeus personal electronics, BioGen.... The list went on and on, but the heart of it all was that Rottem’s mistake had been Aron’s fortune.
As he watched Rina throw her bridal bouquet over her head and behind her to her laughing bridesmaids and the women invited to the ceremony, Rottem could only pick up his whisky bottle and drink from it. After all, the latest in a long string of his bad decisions was throwing his last glass against the wall in his impotent rage, leaving him forced to drink from the bottle.
The wedding continued for a while after that before smoothly transitioning to the reception party. Rina disappeared for a few minutes to change out of her wedding dress and into a sleek white evening gown that, while still absolutely gorgeous, was far less inconvenient to wear.
The emperor was married and the empire had grown more stable because of it. Soon, heirs would come, ensuring the dynasty for generations to come. The only thing that had marred the otherwise perfect ceremony was the lingering hubbub over Aron’s forced migration decree and the controlled chaos of the imperial colonization program. Those being forced to leave their homes wished the pair nothing but the worst, in contrast to the celebratory atmosphere that pervaded the wedding reception.
......
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})“Whew,” Rina breathed in Aron’s ear as they sat at the head of a table on the lawn next to the plaza where the wedding had taken place. “I can finally breathe. And pee! I didn’t know I’d need two of my bridesmaids just to help me pee!” she grumbled through the brilliant smile on her face.
Aron couldn’t hold back a chuckle at the mental image and clasped hands with her under the table. “Well, Mrs. Michael, I’m glad you’re finally potty trained.”
Rina playfully slapped at his shoulder, then the newlyweds turned their attention to Felix, who was drunkenly trying to embarrass Aron by telling an anecdote from when they were younger. Aron facepalmed and laughed at the silly story and Rina laughed so hard she couldn’t even sit up straight.
Felix, seeing that his job was done, concluded by saying, “But it all worked out in the end. Aron, Emperor dude, Your Imperial Majesty, and so on... you’re a lucky man. You’ve found the love of your life and I wish you a blissful marriage and a happy family in the future.” He raised his glass and continued, “Here’s to His and Her Imperial Majesties, long may they reign!”
Aron chuckled and raised his glass to Felix and gave his own toast, “To my brother in all but blood, Felix. With friends like you, who needs enemies?”
Everyone who merited a table near the bridal party laughed as they stood and raised their glasses as well, then they all drank them empty.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Soon after the toast, the chefs wheeled in the wedding cake. From where people were sitting, it almost looked as tall as the government spire the reception was being held at! Stretching a full twenty tiers into the sky, Aron guessed that whoever had baked it had had to incorporate gravity plating into the design in order to keep the enormous thing from falling over. It was decorated to within an inch of its life, and nowhere on it could anything as plebeian as “frosting” be seen through the layers upon layers of elaborate decorations.
The patissière delivered the top tier of the cake to the wedded couple herself, smoothly sliding it to the table in front of Aron, along with a cake knife. He would cut out the first slice of wedding cake himself and he cast a mischievous glance at Rina, then smooshed the cake across her face and chortled like a schoolboy.
Rina returned the favor, but in a much messier fashion. In lieu of a cake knife, she simply grabbed a handful of cake and smeared it all over the emperor’s face, then pointed at him and belly laughed.
Aron wiped a glob of frosting out of his eyes, then grabbed Rina’s cheeks and drew her in for another kiss, this one tasting of a delicious red velvet cake.
Soon after everyone had received a slice of cake, the band began playing and Rina stepped out on the dance floor, accompanied by Aron for the first dance. As Aron was an extremely busy man, they hadn’t choreographed anything particularly special, but the pair’s genetic enhancements ensured that they still gracefully moved across the dance floor.
The night continued and the reception finally came to an end in the small hours of the night, leaving Aron and Rina to fall exhausted into bed, too tired to get up to any hanky panky.
“Goodnight, Mrs. Michael,” he whispered in her ear as they lay in bed, still dressed as they were too exhausted to even strip out of their clothes.
“Goodnight, husband,” Rina whispered in return and planted a soft kiss on the tip of his nose as the house VI turned down the lights in the bedroom.
