The Ancient Imperial Calendar Year 1815
Months had passed since the repulsion of the Sapharos Invasions.
Ricardo was now twenty years old, even more handsome than before.
He had long, dark blood-red hair and eyes, with a short beard and mustache. With his thick chest and arm muscles, abdominal and leg muscles, and broad shoulders, he reminded those who saw him of his father.
Seliarnevre was one of those who observed these changes in her son most closely.
"Every day, you resemble your father a little more, Ricardo."
Ricardo answered with satisfaction.
"Yes, I do."
After drinking her wine, Seliarnevre smiled broadly.
"My son, I can't beat around the bush any longer. I have wonderful news for you."
Ricardo was curious.
"What is it?"
Seliarnevre answered excitedly.
"You're getting married."
Although Ricardo was initially surprised, he accepted it as completely normal.
"Good. Who am I marrying?"
Seliarnevre was disappointed by her son's reaction.
"I thought you'd be a bit more surprised."
It was normal for Ricardo not to be surprised because, in his previous life, he had ten wives and ten concubines. Marriage was nothing new to him.
"Well, I'm actually late, Mother."
"You're right. Normally, we would have married you off as soon as you graduated from the Blood Academy, but what with the Kerbel Forest, the Pleyciys Rebellion, and the Turvig, Arfas, and Sapharos Invasions, it's been delayed a full two years."
Ricardo looked back in wonder at what he had lived through in the last two years.
"Seriously, so much happened in two years. Starting a family and relaxing a bit is my right."
Seliarnevre looked at her son with affectionate eyes.
"You're right, my son."
Seliarnevre took a file from a drawer and handed it to Ricardo.
"Take this, look."
Ricardo opened the file curiously.
"What the hell is this?"
The file contained the candidates he was obliged to marry.
"The Dynasty Lord sent the file, Ricardo. He wants you to marry everyone in here."
All the marriage candidates in the file were chosen from the Western Lands Dynasties, and each one was from the Kislavein bloodline, meaning they were descended from VIII Harloumen, Ricardo's own ancestor.
"I'm fucked, Giskar," Ricardo said telepathically.
Giskar replied via telepathic magic.
"You are correct, my lord, you are fucked. How do you plan to get out of this?"
"If I knew, would I ask you? Damn it. All these years, I've been trying to chase away all the girls from my bloodline, but was it all for nothing?"
"Well, I guess it was. But what did you expect? Political and dynastic marriages to strengthen alliances and family ties between the Great Houses are inevitable."
There were many familiar names in the file: Marilin Kislavein, Luna Eduvali, Arnheid Payrist, and many others.
"Shit, at least Arnheid isn't from my bloodline, so that's fine, but the others are a big problem... Wait a minute."
One name had caught Ricardo's attention.
Xiao Meiran Ashterah.
"Who is this girl, Mother?"
Seliarnevre looked at the girl in the file.
She had golden, sun-like shimmering hair and eyes that reached down to her legs.
She was a very beautiful girl with a thin waist, large breasts, and fair skin.
This girl was a blonde bombshell who featured in every man's dreams.
"Hmmm, yes, I remember. This girl is one of the children taken as political prisoners to Kislathor after the Second Great Kislavein-Ashbrum War. She is the daughter of XXI Carl Ashbrum."
After the war, Xiao Meiran had been held as a political prisoner in a room, confined to a limited area.
The successive suicides of her siblings had broken her psychologically.
The Kislavein authorities, worried that Meiran might also commit suicide, assigned guards, maids, and healers to watch her twenty-four seven.
"The daughter of an old enemy. Given her lineage, it would have been strange for her not to be on this list."
Seliarnevre agreed with Ricardo's words.
"True, she is a worthy candidate to be your wife. But I truly feel sorry for the girl. Perhaps you could be a healing balm for her broken soul, Ricardo."
Ricardo didn't agree with that idea.
"I doubt it, Mother. Until now, I've only brought death, not healing."
Seliarnevre shook her head as if to say 'no'.
"Ricardo, you've done more than you think. You gave hope to many people, you overcame impossibilities. No one gave you a chance of surviving the Heirs' War; you were one of the youngest children. Let's put the Heirs' War aside; you emerged from the Kerbel Forest with only a few dozen casualties, not to mention you defeated the larger Turvig and Arfas armies."
Ricardo felt proud as he listened to his achievements.
"Thank you, Mother, but that doesn't change the fact that I brought death. By a conservative estimate, I've killed 35 or 40 million people. Most of them were Westerners. Using their rebellion as a pretext, I gave the order to kill them all. I turned thirty percent of the country into ruins."
Seliarnevre interrupted her son.
"If my father, your brothers, or any other commander had been in your place, those genocides would still have happened. Genocide is an inevitable outcome in this world. If those rebels had entered Kislathor, they would have committed genocide here too. Focus not on the lives you took, but on the ones you saved, Ricardo."
Ricardo found inner peace with his mother's words.
"Thank you, Mother. Without you, I'd probably have gone insane."
'In my previous life, I took many lives, yet for some reason, it's only now I feel depressed, as if I've committed a massacre for the first time. Is my soul playing tricks on me, or is it an effect of being a different soul in this body? I don't really understand. Oh well, never mind, my brain is frying,' Ricardo thought to himself.
"All that aside, Ricardo, all your weddings and concubine acceptance ceremonies will be held in sequence. Your father left the order of that sequence to you. Who will you start with? Although I have a guess."
Ricardo's face fell.
"Wait, let me guess. Are you talking about Marilin, Mother?"
Seliarnevre answered joyfully.
"Yeees! Who could be better than her for the first? You've never been apart since childhood. You'll make a wonderful couple. On the other hand, Marilin has been declared not just the West's, but the World's most beautiful and powerful woman. Your children will be beautiful, handsome, and extremely powerful. I already see Marilin as the mother of the next Dynasty Lord."
"She talks too much. Does she love Marilin that much?" Ricardo thought.
"You seem to love Marilin a lot, Mother."
Marilin answered in a serious and loving manner.
"Of course. After all, she is the granddaughter of our Master Richard, who sacrificed his life to protect us. And I watched your childhoods unfold before my eyes. I was certain you two would marry one day."
Ricardo felt the deep sorrow of being about to disappoint his mother to his very core.
"I'm sorry, Mother, but I won't marry her. I won't marry most of the people on this list either. I wish I hadn't been reincarnated, or that Marilin wasn't from my bloodline. Everything would have been so different," Ricardo thought.
Ricardo stood up, adopting an extremely serious expression.
"I will first marry Arnheid. We'll see about the rest later."
Ricardo turned and left the room without even giving his mother a chance to object.
"I can't understand why he's so cold towards Marilin."
The event-filled wedding of the Kislavein Dynasty Heir was approaching.