Chapter 3

Let us go back two months.

That day, Alexei was also busy with his work. The sunset shone into the office, highlighting Alexei's beauty as he sat with his back to the window. It was hard to imagine that he had spent seven years on the battlefield, fighting with his own sword, so graceful was he. Since ascending to the throne, his sun-tanned skin had become completely white.

"Your Majesty, relations with the neighboring countries have stabilized considerably. Perhaps it's time to get married and welcome an Empress. You know well from the struggles over the succession that you need a suitable Empress to support you."

Alexei crossed his long legs and smiled up at Sergei, the prime minister.

"...Your head is reflecting the sunset, it's blinding."

With those words, Sergei suddenly put his hand to his head, touching his hair as if to check it.

"My head still has hair, unlike my father's!"

"It's a joke. But, we should welcome an Empress before your head becomes completely bald."

"I won't go bald!"

Sergei Bazalov, a calm man with an excellent mind inherited from his father, the previous prime minister, often panics when his hair is mentioned, so Alexei occasionally teases him. Incidentally, the previous prime minister had a beautifully shiny head and was known as the "Prime Minister of Light Magic Stones."

In the empire, there are several veins of light magic stones, which glow when infused with magic, and there was a history of conflicts with neighboring countries over them, but that is now a thing of the past.

"Then, let's invite suitable young ladies to the ball the month after next. What kind of woman do you prefer, Your Majesty?"

"As long as it benefits the empire, I don't care who it is."

"We can't just pick anyone, but I'll try to find someone who meets your preferences."

"There is no one. Any woman will do."

"Can't you dream a little more about marriage? For example, someone with big breasts or a big butt."

"Sergei, that's your preference."

Alexei, exasperated, put his hand to his chin and thought for a moment.

"If possible, I want a woman with green frog-like skin, soft and squishy like a slime. Yes, her eyes should be covered by her skin, her nose and cheeks drooping, and she should have a hoarse voice and be kind to animals."

Alexei's very specific and unusual preferences for a woman were so shocking that Sergei was speechless.

"...It's a joke. I apologize for saying something ridiculous. Anyway, I don't care about appearance or age. No, I do want someone who can bear children."

Thus, the search for Alexei III's bride began.

As night fell, the light from the light magic stones illuminated the office. Alexei, eating a light snack with one hand, was reviewing the documents Sergei had given him. On the other hand, Sergei was still preoccupied with Alexei's ideal woman, unable to focus.

"What's the matter, Sergei?"

In response to Alexei's question, Sergei answered hesitantly.

"Your Majesty, the ideal woman you mentioned earlier, could it be the image of someone who helped you when you were young?"

Alexei put the documents on the desk and furrowed his brow.

"So what if it is?"

Seeing Alexei's face, which looked as if he had bitten into a bitter bug, Sergei knew that the wound in his heart had not yet healed.

Alexei was killed by the then Empress when he was six years old. Alexei's birth mother was a priestess princess from a neighboring country, who died after giving birth to him. Soon after, a new Empress was welcomed from the anti-imperialist nobles. This Empress, in her quest to make her blood-related child the emperor, eliminated the troublesome Alexei.

Alexei was said to have died in a landslide while on his way to a palace in the countryside for a summer retreat, but in reality, he was strangled in a carriage. His body, stripped of its clothes, was then dumped in a forest infested with magical beasts.

The plan went smoothly according to the Empress's scheme because the anti-imperialists held overwhelming power at the time.

However, Alexei's body, left in the forest of magic beasts, was revived by the blessing given to him by his mother, the priestess princess, on her deathbed. That said, even if he came back to life, he was in a forest full of magical beasts.

The naked, newly revived Alexei was immediately attacked by a magical beast.

"Stay back! No, stay back!"

Crying and screaming did nothing to the magical beasts, and no one came to his rescue. A three-eyed red bear, three times the height of an adult, bared its fangs at the young Alexei, tearing into his abdomen and devouring his soft lips and cheeks while he was still alive.

However, even if he was eaten and died by the magical beasts, Alexei would revive when the sun rose the next morning. And the next day, he was quickly eaten by the magical beasts again and died.