I am now three years old. Over the years I have learned quite a few things. The first thing I learned was that the Shirg Empire was the majority of the northern continent shipped like a jagged rock. A small portion of the north west belonged to the Sardina Kingdom and a small portion of the south east, the Jagged Tooth Peninsula, belonged to the Palent Empire. There was almost constant fighting at the border with Sardina. It seems we were in open war with them; although the war was a dragged out slow conflict. The Palent Empire seemed to be in a tense treaty with, however. They seemed to have very well-respected warriors, strong inbreachable island chains, and a group of female warriors similar to the Amazons. From the little I heard, that Empire seemed remarkable. Mother was not a fan of them. She found them too assertive and battle prone for a proper female. Father seemed to find them interesting… No one seemed to have anything but hate for the Kingdom.
I also got a good look at a map when my father was holding me during one of his meetings. There was a dwarf nation called Dargalia, a merchant nation called Merge, and a Republic that was squished in-between Sardinia and us. No wonder politics were very complicated. The only dedicated peace we had was with Dargalia who seemed to ‘annoyingly’ always declare its neutrality. I still didn’t know how they were able to maintain it in a state like this. Ah! There was also the elf country of Qiell. They seemed to have general non-intervention for everyone with their Neet like behavior. The Merge Alliance, I heard, was walking the line as a country that was filled with not only merchants, but the majority of mercenaries on the continent. They must of pimped them out to every side. The Republic was currently in peace treaties with both us and Sardina, because different congressmen seemed to prefer different sides there was no concluding vote. It seemed to irritate both my parents and the prime minister. In fact, they seemed to have the worst reputation of the three. Every time they came up someone called them weak spineless bastards who are also lazy and have no actual use in the world. Officials of my country were very harsh, sharp tonged and patriotic people.
I think the most amazing thing I learned in these three years was the general history of my family. The Empire was originally a small country. However, the third prince had an unknown father. It seems he was actually the child of the First Princess and was in his place because the King was a coward, and his two sons all had major personality flaws. This prince was said to be the son of the War Spirit. He was blessed with incredible ability and skill. It was this prince who conquered the biggest expansion in the Shirg Empire’s history, and later became crowned King Richard the first. He married a princess from a one of the countries that’s land was now part of the Merge Alliance.
The next notable King after him was Wilhelm the Conqueror. He was the 15th King and the person responsible for conquering the 2nd most amount of land. He was talked about a lot in military meetings. It seemed he was the more practical example than King Richard. Richards all seemed to be weirdos in the Shirg Empire. In fact, the 17th King was a Richard obsessed with magical tools. While the 37th King was a Richard obsessed with hygiene. Although they were weird, they were mentioned quite a bit in civil affairs meetings for their usefulness in the development of the Empire.
But the most surprising thing of all, was the history of my parents. Everyone in the castle loved to gossip about it, especially the girls. It was like the ultimate love story for everyone. It seems that their love was quite a complicated situation.
My father’s father, King Weinhertz Von Shirg, was a very aggressive man. He was known to be active in land expansion anywhere he could, and was a major factor in why it was so tense between the countries. However, he started a line of miserable fate. King Weinhertz had a fiancé since childhood. Her name was Elise Von Salisbury. She was a cousin of his and from the most prominent Duke household. Further, she possessed immense talent with darkness magic, wind magic, and as a swordsman. The maids say it is a shame no woman has been as skilled as her. Apparently, Elise often bested the country’s top knights.
All the problems started when my grandfather met a common girl in the streets. She had been a commoner that had received a scholarship to the Royal Academy and had become slightly known for her immense beauty. The maids say nothing was more radiant than her hair which resembled the sun, or her jade green eyes. Not only that, she possessed the blessing of the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of Good Fortune and the Spirit of Health. No one had three blessings for five generations now. It also seems like her humility had her surviving happily under the radar outside of school until she met grandfather. As the Spirit of Love definitely had a say in fate. Grandfather, walking around town incognito, ended up saving her from a stray carriage. Their eyes met and it was instant love. The two soon later married in secret.
This woman was actually the mother of my father. How he became the Emperor was even more of a story like tale. It seemed that although Elise Von Salisbury was loved by the Spirt of War her children were not. The Spirit of War always blessed offsprings of the royal family, but her children were not so lucky. Although they were technically blessed, both were physically very weak and untalented. As the Shirg Empire is mostly a militant nation it didn’t matter how smart they were. The first prince was a shrewd cunning individual and this caused my grandfather great distaste for him. While, the second prince had no interest in the throne. He was a beautiful man blessed by the Spirit of Luck, the Spirit of Friendship and the Spirit of Water. By all means, in some right he was the more powerful one. Yet, he ran away to become the very priest that spoke on the balcony that day.
My father was completely different on the other hand. When he was born, the war horses seemed to all go buck wild in their stalls. The maids often whisper to me, thinking I don’t understand, that my father was a man so loved by the Spirit of War nothing could move him from his path. Not only that, but he seemed to also receive his mother’s blessing of the Spirit of Love and the Spirit of Health. What was even worse my father had his own blessings from the Spirit of Fire and the Spirit of Lightening. He was being held as the miracle child born from the Aggressor King and his Royal Consort.
His overwhelming strength, good looks, and charismatic personality quickly made him the country’s cherished crown prince. This caused the Queen to start to become mad. In the end, in one of her fits of rage grandmother was killed. Grandfather was so mad he banished the Queen and as an afterthought allowed his sons with her to hold Duke positions. He really did cause a lot of problems for everyone.
My father, distraught about the death of his mother, ended up turning to military work for coping with his grief. In his 2nd year as an Army official he had returned to the Royal Academy to officiate the freshmen assessment. It was meant to be a gesture of goodwill, but it turned into a whole big mess. It seems mother was there. When my father locked eyes on my mother people say the Spirit of Love reached out her divine hand. I think father, just was shell shocked by the first person who seemed to not care about his talents or status. Mother seemed to get annoyed by father’s introduction and challenged him to a fight. It seemed the entire country was shocked that day by the result. Mother had completely won the match by trapping this legendary prince in a block of ice. That was the day the world learned about a second genius. Lunaria Von Magnolia, the daughter of the poorest and least notable Marquis family had the blessings of four spirits. Mother was blessed by the Spirit of Water, Spirit of Wind, Spirit of Light, and the Spirit of Ice. Her abilities with the weapons offered seemed a distraction enough to freeze my father. The staff all say this was the moment that truly began the revival of patriotism in my country.
My father spent four years pursuing my mother. She was trapped in the stress of a complete otome game like situation during her school years. Not only my father, the crown prince and miracle, fell in love with her, but the future knight captain, the son of the head magician and the son of the minister of finance also did. I don’t know if it was lucky that father won, even though my parents are happily in love.
The prime minister at the time had arranged my father to marry the daughter of his Uncle, the first prince, as a way to heal the stress from grandfather’s decisions. This was a woman by the name of Rosalina Von Salisbury. She was the mother of my recently born twin siblings, Josephine Louise Von Salisbury Shirg and James Marius Von Salisbury Shirg.
Father originally broke off the engagement, much to the Salisbury households rage. He immediately married mother and announced her as the Queen of the nation. The citizens all seemed to love this, as she was popular. Rosalina Von Salisbury was not popular, and disliked for her haughty spoiled attitude. However, the Salisbury family didn’t give up and kept up pressure for her engagement to the Emperor as a Royal Consort. It seemed they were determined to reclaim the throne through her possible children.
Thanks to my birth, and the disasters caused by it, the Salisbury Dukedom found a strong enough excuse in the cause of extreme damage due to natural disasters and clean up expenses. No one in the castle seemed to blame me. When she walked down the halls the maids said the world was unfair for her to be the price for the Empire to have a Holy Maiden. The rest of the staff just cursed her being gaudy and arrogant.
It seems my…Well, my other… Rosalina entered the house enraged with my mother. She often used her position amongst the nobles to try and make life harder for mother since her arrival. She even actively tries to make my brother Alexios’ life harder and looks for opportunities to try and kill me. However, we are both too heavily guarded for that and the risk of my mana going crazy scared even her.
I feel really bad for being a reason why this woman was able to enter our household. She wasted all our money, threw lavish parties, and stalked father. I wasn’t a good daughter for bringing this upon him. Although, I still had some hope for my ½ siblings as they were adorable. Rosalina was very distant to them, unlike me. My head maid often said to me when she saw this it was because some women were never meant to be mothers. That all she could do was corrupt a child and pass down inferior genes. She too was like her father and not very blessed at all. Although she had some skill with knives, and was blessed by the Spirits of Darkness and Wind she was at best an intermediary ranked fighter. So far, my ½ sister only displayed blessings by the Spirit of Darkness and the Spirit of War. While, my ½ bother received blessings from the Spirit of War and the Spirit of Wind. Comparative to my brother and I she was put in an even worse position.
This made her try and scar my brother and I to compensate. Whenever she could find the few moments we were not near mother and father she would say cruel things and abuse the staff. Especially, the non-human staff. Alexios was not like me, and could not control his temper. He often had childish tantrums at her. My mother was fond of them and only put on a show of punishing him for it. My father didn’t even bother with it and continued on with his day. This was the complicated family dynamic the Shirg Empire found itself in. Suddenly, two generations had introduced political instability, domestic instability, and too many rare individuals.
These are yet more reasons why the Sardinia Kingdom is enraged by us. Not only are we not a human supremacy country, but we are too talented. And although non-human races are treated worse than humans comparative to the rest of the continent they had outstandingly good treatment. Really discrimination was only in a few parts. In fact, the real problem was our crazily harsh and strict treatment of criminal slaves. I’m surprised how any of them are alive when the prime minister talks about putting them to use. But I can’t feel too bad, they are criminals after all.
Non-humans were not though. While, I hid my temper better than my brother, with the excellent excuse of being a quiet three year old, I hated Rosalina when It came to this issue. My Head Maid was a very capable dog Beastman. She even let me stroke her ears and brush her tail when no one was looking. It really was amazing. Plus, they were a ton of hot elf men running around in the magic departments, funny dwarves who appeared from time to time to report some infrastructure issue to my father and really strong dragonoids that visited from their big trade town to discuss the economic trends. This was the one pro of my family. I got to see all kinds of interesting, pretty and cool people. And although I hated the obsession people had with me, I was secretly glad about it when it came to them. They taught me so many interesting things and could keep secrets about what I learned.
The last big thing I learned was that my brother and I already had nicknames. My brother with his silver hair, green eyes, and charismatic personality was known to people as the Moon That Lights Up The Day. While, because I had gold hair and my mother’s violet eyes was being called the Sun That Shines At Night. They were very cliché nicknames, but they really gave the citizens pride and hope so I had to be conscious not to do anything in the future to upset that.
Things are really complicated here, but all in all, I think I am blessed to be surrounded by so many people who love me. Sorrev maybe got one thing right…But I won’t ever tell him that after everything else he did to me.
Everyone Is Totally Insane – Dandy Warhols
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