This country’s singular military general was a handsomely muscular man tied to the empress through deep bonds of love. He was an outstanding warrior, having become commander of the imperial forces for the sake of his beloved empress and succeeding so thoroughly in forcing back all those who’d tried to invade that he’d ended up expanding the empire’s territory in the process.
He’d temporarily taken the throne when the empress was with child, and though he was praised for his political talent, he believed that his role was solely that of someone who protected the country and so would ordinarily avoid giving his opinion on such matters.
Little Wiki over here had photos on its pages as well. I was desperate to know how on earth someone had managed to do that, but either way, the general was yet another great catch. He was really tall too. There was a picture of him and the empress together, and she only stood about as tall as his chest.
The muscles on foreign martial artists and military men are incredible. His biceps were the size of a woman’s thigh. He looked so rough and tough, with beautiful but incredibly stern facial features, and yet, he was head over heels in love with the empress.
The empress herself looked like a strong-willed woman and she had beautiful red hair. Is she a tsundere? What the hell, this was the perfect couple! You could write three whole books about a couple like this.
Ah, I personally wasn’t big on bulky men, though. I preferred my men lean.
It seemed a part of my Japanese self remained within me because I found myself feeling a little lonely that there wasn’t a single fellow Asian around. I wanted even just a glimpse of someone with a different skin color.
All of that said, I was still only two years old—it would be a long time until men would start to notice me, even if I found a good one.
In any case, thanks to all of this, it appeared the country I was in was stable. If any country showed even the smallest sign of attacking, the empress would use her political power and the general his military might to crush that country before it even got the chance. Most places much preferred trading peacefully with us to starting a war.
I looked up info on my family too while I was at it. As it turned out, margraves were in charge of the areas that bordered foreign countries—known as marches—so on top of being given large swathes of land, they were also permitted their own military forces. Since they served as border guards, they had a lot of sway it seemed.
Despite what you’d think, we weren’t out in some remote region. The west and south of Azelia were bordered by the sea, so we had a navy and a large port. To the south was the large island nation of Luftanen, and to the west was the Kingdom of Stark, separated from us by a channel. If a war were to begin, we would be on the front lines, but right now, the only front lines we were on were the front lines of trade.
What was more, since it was a pleasant temperature here year-round, summer saw people coming from all over the empire to escape the heat. In other words, all the social gatherings moved to our land. There was no way the imperial family wouldn’t put special care into this area.
Oh, and it turned out that the March of Belisario, our domain, was the greatest producer of tea in the empire. Not green tea, though—black tea. But even I knew that the difference between black tea and green tea was merely the length of fermentation.
Aren’t Japanese teas amazing? Hojicha, and matcha too! We have access to so much seafood as well. Bouillabaisse is the best!
All right, back on topic...
There was no way we alone could handle all this land when we had work at the imperial palace and other functions to attend, right? Well, those of the rank of marquess or above could apply for the appointment of noble titles, which gave them the power to divide their territory among various counts and lower-ranking nobles and assign them as lords of towns to help manage the land.
The imperial family was like the managing family of a company, which made us branch managers. We were valued because we were helping to manage a massive branch in a huge city, so they took special care of us. If we did anything questionable, though, we would be fired.
That meant that the nobles within our domain viewed the Belisario family as their direct superiors. Hell, our manor house was so big you could probably call it a castle. Seriously, the first time I saw the floor plan, I practically jumped out of my seat.
To prevent invaders storming the castle directly, it was built on top of a hill with a gently sloping path circling it. Within the outer castle wall was the nobles’ residential area, and then behind the inner wall lay the castle itself and the sprawling parcel of land dedicated to it. There were various buildings within that land, including the lodgings for the knights who protected us and their training grounds. There was a lot of space dedicated to the stables and parking for carriages as well.
My brothers and I all frequently had other noble children coming to visit us, likely because their families hoped their children could one day become our attendants—not unlike how the leading noble families wished to do the same for the imperial family.
Given that I was still only two years old, I estimated that I had two more years before my peace would be truly broken. The real challenge would come in the winter of my tenth year. That was when I would have to attend the academy on the outskirts of the imperial capital, and I could already see things getting much more troublesome at that point.
It might be good to become as strong as I can while I still have the chance.