This is a work of a mere fan's fiction. Any similarities or likeness to any events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Magi belong to OHTAKA Shinobu.

Prologue: Promise Keeper

War came and gone. Two entered, one exited, as simple as that. The victorious lived to tell the tale, about how amazing they put their enemies in their places, while hogging all the spoils. The one on the losing end? Left as nothing more than a mere history, with bad tastes all over their names.

Like what had happened to the once-huge Kou Empire.

The eruption between Reim Empire and the magician nation Magnostadt had made the worst turn ever possible. Fanalis Corps jumped in, only to be countered with uber-level magics from the Magnostadt's part. Countless clashes sparked, unlimited numbers of bloods and victims were wasted.

It only got worse when Kou Empire had decided to jump in to stop the grand battle. No, 'stopping' wasn't the correct phrase, they were 'spicing' the war. Led by the third Emperor, Gyokuen Ren, the majestic nation had no trouble turning the tide of the war.

At least until he had appeared.

Sinbad, followed by his Eight Generals, as well as The Seven Seas Alliances had come to neutralize the war. Words and political things couldn't settle things anymore in that state. Flags were raised, arrows were shot, and blades were raining even more.

The biggest war in the history had ended after a full week of fighting, with Magnostadt emerged as the winner. Of course, that was mostly because of Sinbad's reinforcement, which contributed to the result the most. Most of the Fanalis Corps and Kou Empire warriors, especially the great Ren families were obliterated.

Kougyoku Ren wasn't.

Her brothers and sisters had persuaded her, her cousins and her bodyguards had joined to prompt her to join the fights, even the Emperor herself had personally ordered her to jump in to the fray. Yet in the end, she resisted from doing so, for she had made a promise. A promise to herself, and her only friend.

The consequences were pretty devastating for her, however. Kougyoku was quickly labeled as a traitor, and Gokyuen had simply ordered assassins to end her life. The eighth princess wouldn't go down without a fight, obviously. She had corresponded by running away of the palace to somewhere saner for her by herself, which miraculously succeeded. She had somehow managed to outrun her chasers, no thanks to her own capability on the battlefield.

Still, she no longer had a place to call home at that point. The only place she could resort at that time was… Her enemies' nest, the Magnostadt side. That was the only spot she could think of, for she had hoped Sinbad would at least lent her a shelter.

But just like they had said, the world was never all sunshine and rainbows. She had known it all herself.

The moment she had stepped in to the other parts of the raging battlefields, dozens of soldiers quickly surrounded her figure, pushing her down so that her face met the rough surface of earth painfully. Pinning her slender arms behind her back, countless blades were just before the tip of her neck, threatening to take her life at any moment.

At that moment she had just realized that that she had thrown her duties and dignity as a princess of the Kou Empire, and she was served with her just dessert.

But it was worth it.

Keeping a promise, and not to mention preventing more bloodsheds by her hands, were definitely worth it.

Kougyoku closed her eyes in reliefs, inhaling a very deep breath to prepare for her last moment. At the very least, she would die as a girl who had been honest to her own feelings and justice, and as a girl who had experienced her very dreams; falling in love.

This way, she wouldn't end up in Sinbad's arms like she had always dreamed, she was only going to be beheaded without any sense of honor. Yet again, it was worth it. The place she stepped on was another land where Sinbad had once resided. Even the faintest fact that he had been by her side on her last moment once was more than enough.

It never came.

The sharp and pointy blades never touched any part of her skins even further than that. Not only that, the strong hands that had rendered her arms unusable were loosening. The shadows of the soldiers that had surrounded her slowly distanced themselves from her as a single man approached her.

Alibaba Saluja.

Unlike how she had seen him the last time they met, his hair was tad longer and his expression was… manlier than that dorky face that she could still picture clearly, while still bearing the same tenderness and gentleness through the reflection of his glass amber eyes. His clothes were tore in some parts, and his façade was painted with cuts here and there, clearly showing the result of his battles against uncountable men that he had slashed down.

"Kougyoku?"

A simple question from his part made Kougyoku's knees weaker than ever as thousand waves of reliefs swept over her insides. Her expression didn't betray her hearts no sooner, crystal tears of eases fell from her eyes like a waterfall.

Alibaba had so many questions regarding her at that point; about what she was planning, about why she was here, about how did she get here in the middle of war… But he threw them aside for a moment as he ordered the most absolute order to the soldiers.

"Men, get back to your posts!" Alibaba controlled as he approached the crimson haired princess, kneeling down so that his height rivaled hers. "She'll be in my care, personally!"

Kougyoku could only stare at Alibaba beneath the tears that had soaked her eyes, as well as how hordes of soldiers quickly scattered back to their own posts. She didn't even make any attempt to wipe them with her sleeves. The only motion that her muscles did was sobbing.

"Why are you here, Kougyoku?" he asked her, worries were clear from his tones. "How could you be here unarmed?"

His question left the result that he hadn't expected. Instead of a clear answer from her mouth, she was only crying harder on her spot. The feelings overwhelmed her, which triggered her body to storm against his body, embracing him in a hug.

She didn't know what was happening anymore. She didn't care what was happening anymore; about the wars, about the politics, about anything else in this cruel world.

"Alibaba-! Alibaba-!" she buried her sweet face against his boyish chest. "I'm scared… I'm scared…! I-I don't want to do this anymore…!"

Those were the first and the second time she had called him —her first friend— by his name, something that she had always prevented to come out due to her place as a princess, a supposedly strong one.

But here she was, crying her heart out and confessing her fears out loud.

Alibaba himself didn't pursue the topic further. He didn't know what exactly she had gone through, but she was clearly distressed, and that was more than enough reason for him to help her. He replied her hug with something no less than a protective hug of his own, soothing her fragile back with his wounded hand.

"Kougyoku," he asked when he figured that a minute had passed after they had first ended up in that position. "Can you walk?"

Kougyoku muttered no words, only a small nod that was still brushing against his chest. Her knees were still weak, but gently, Alibaba supported her by holding her side as they walked to his personal tent.

As soon as they were inside, the third prince of Balbadd politely led her to his mattress, where she gladly accepted.

"Stay here, okay?" he smiled a reassuring smile, adding a small pat on her small shoulder. "It's going to end soon. Don't worry."

Her expression showed neither happiness, sadness, nor anger. She only stared at him blankly, unclear emotion reflected through her very eyes, in which that led Alibaba to downgrade his expression to a sadder one as well.

What had happened to her was definitely beyond Alibaba's understanding. He could read the traces of sadness from her dead fish eyes, but he couldn't tell the obstacles that she had to pass, along with how deep the fears had scarred her.

"Kougyoku."

When he called her name again, that was when she managed to respond with another small nod. Alibaba sighed in appeasement at that. He patted her once again on her shoulder, smiling lightly as he rose to head outside to partake in the war once again.

Kougyoku, however, prompted him to turn his head back at her again when Alibaba felt her soft fingers brushed against his pants. As his eyes met her, her eyes were no longer blank. They were filled with emotions and liveliness, but mostly were anxiety, if not fears.

"Alibaba…" she clenched his pants tighter, her lips trembling with horrors. "You will… You will come back, right? You will not die, right?"

If she said it like that… Well, he couldn't do anything much, to be honest. War was not something one should take lightly. A little opening, and it might cost you your life.

Regardless, Alibaba forced himself to smile at her. He turned back to face her completely again as he calmly removed the dark blue tunic that was slanting around his shoulder. As gentle as he could, he slowly covered her frail build with that. This, of course triggered Kougyoku to blink at him curiously twice.

"I'll come back for that," he assured. "And for you as well."

Blushes were slowly creeping up to her cheeks as his words entered her ears. But for once in her life, she didn't come up with any words or actions to deny it, she was purely mesmerized by his words, by his gentleness.

For once, she was admiring someone that wasn't her brother Kouen or her unrequited crush Sinbad.

As she was petrified on her point, Alibaba merely chuckled as he brushed up his clothes a bit, slowly walking out of his tent soon after. Kougyoku was once again left by herself, albeit this place was guaranteed for its safety compared to her prior lone journey.

Even though Alibaba's tunic was ripped, and presumably colored with red bloods, Kougyoku still kept covering her body with it. It was quite an indecent thing to do, but she brushed her nose against it, subconsciously smelling the adolescent scent of Alibaba from it.

For the rest of the war, Kougyoku Ren stayed by Alibaba's side.

And for the rest of her life, she still stayed by his side, and she never hated it.

To be honest, I don't know what I wrote in this chapter. Not to be dismissive of other characters' importance, but I've planned this story to be centered on Alibaba and Kougyoku, especially the latter, probably three fourth of this story from Kougyoku's side and the rest from Alibaba's. Yeah, this prologue is basically just a random setting to make a good setting where Alibaba would take Kougyoku under his care in Balbadd alone, which you would see by the next chapters.

I ship them and I don't regret it. They have the same voice actors of my two OTPs from other categories as well, which are Ace x Deuce from Final Fantasy Type-0 and Shu x Ayase from Guilty Crown.