"Your Majesty, I have just received news, the Daughter of the Villarreal Family has departed for the capital to fulfill the engagement agreement."
Ciel was sitting at the dining table, enjoying the breakfast prepared by the palace maids when an old man with blond hair and thick mustache wearing a white shirt covered in a black coat came and reported some information to him.
Hearing the information, Ciel showed a surprised expression.
"Does she really agree to marry me?" He wondered.
The Empire in his father's time was powerful to the point where the neighboring Empire was almost subdued. In those years, his father had made many engagements between him and the daughters of influential families.
It's just that, after his father died and he became the Emperor, those agreements seemed to disappear.
Maybe the time hasn't come yet, but no one talks about it anymore.
"Your Majesty, you are the Emperor of the Great Sun Empire, your bloodline is filled with glory... You are also very handsome, who refuses to marry you," the old man replied.
Ciel looked at him and snorted.
"Don't comfort me, I may be useless as an Emperor, but I'm not stupid as a human," he said.
The old man laughed softly.
His name was Joe, Ciel's butler, the only one who was truly loyal to him.
He is also quite intelligent, unfortunately he does not have the courage to go against the Prime Minister.
"Your Majesty, this isn't necessarily a bad thing," Joe said again.
Ciel stared at him, waiting for him to explain.
"As you know, the Daughter of the Villarreal Family is renowned for being intelligent and ambitious. The Prime Minister certainly won't be able to rest easy if that woman sleeps in the same room as you. I'm sure he will send his daughter to be your wife."
"Zara Wallace? Hmm, she's beautiful, well-mannered, virtuous, and her reputation is impeccable, definitely a perfect wife. — Maybe it's all true but her father is a wolf. We know how girls with fathers are like that. Plus Jasmine, I might end up living under the game of two women." Ciel smiled wryly but at the same time, he showed interest.
These two women have the perfect definition. Their beauty and quality is way above average.
He first met Zara Wallace when he was 7 years old and met the daughter of the Villarreal Family, Jasmine Villarreal when he was 11.
And every time he met them, he found their quality improved drastically.
A man might feel like he owns the whole world if he could be the husband of one of them, let alone both. This was a privilege only an Emperor could have.
"Your Majesty, you underestimate yourself too much..." Joe said, he looked like he had good advice.
"It's true that you don't have any particular special talents, but that's not necessarily the case if we're talking about women. --- If you can completely subdue them, you can definitely sweep everything away."
"How could it be so easy." Ciel shook his head.
"I might be able to make a hundred noble daughters obey because of my status, but they…" He paused and sighed.
"If I have the same power as my father, I can control them, but that doesn't mean I can win their hearts."
"There is no other way, Your Majesty." Joe reminded.
"You're right..." Ciel couldn't argue. "The worst of the worst, I'll just be their toy, but I'll kick them out if they refuse to make love to me."
"Hahaha, don't say nonsense, Your Majesty! They are also human, making love is a necessity that cannot be thrown away." Joe laughed.
Ciel also laughed, not knowing why he said that, he felt as if it was something he heard often.
"Mm..." He suddenly felt his head throb, causing him to drop the fork and knife in his hand.
"Your Majesty!" Joe immediately panicked.
He wanted to touch him but Ciel slapped his hand away.
"I'm fine," he said.
Surprisingly, he recovered quickly.
But if you pay close attention; there was a difference in his eyes as he looked around.
'Who am I? Ciel Johnson or Ciel Clawsen?'
Ciel wondered but he was also able to conclude quickly.
This concept was no stranger in this world where the magic of the Gods sometimes descended.
To Ciel Johnson, this was very familiar as he was a student of literature and arts, often writing webnovels and working part time drawing comics.
'This is really unexpected, this kind of thing happened to me,' Ciel thought as he continued to look around.
Ciel Johnson has a different perspective to this world, maybe because of his curiosity towards things here, in terms of consciousness, he dominates even though he remains unsure which one he really is.
Earth, his original world is a place where science is developing rapidly.
This world, on the other hand, is wider, having 15 known continents.
Life in this world is somewhat similar to the Medieval Era while the fashion is more similar to the Victorian Era.
The men wore pants and shirts while the women wore beautiful dresses.
The buildings also have good paint.
And intellectuals have started to study all kinds of knowledge. Machines may not have been invented yet, but some cities already have hospitals and universities.
The striking difference is the Spirituality side.
Things like magic and a knight who could fight against hundreds of soldiers could be found here while the churches could create some miracles.
Of course, whether it's the church and magicians, they can sometimes be a threat.
On different continents, there are even different races.
Humans themselves have different skin colors, similar to on earth where there are east, west, south, and north people.
He happened to be in the west.
"Your Majesty..." Joe called Ciel again.
The last one to stand up, he then stepped away.
Ciel was worried that he would put on an expression that he shouldn't have, so he decided to return to his room.
The room is not far from the dining room.
It was luxurious with a large mattress where every fabric was made of silk.
There were four windows in the room, two facing east and two facing north, each of them showing a view of the city.
Ciel headed to one of the windows.
From there, he could see the vast palace grounds and the huge city with a 20 meter high fortress surrounding it.
At first glance, it was similar to European cities.
"This city has about 7 million inhabitants, even if it is the capital of an empire, it is still very large for this era," he said.
"But it seems Ciel Clawsen's life in this world is not so easy." He smiled wryly.
Actually Ciel Clawesen can't be blamed entirely. He was too young when he became Emperor and it was so sudden.
With his still weak mentality, lack of insight, low political ability, and little influence, it wouldn't be surprising if he became the Puppet Emperor considering that around him were cunning wolves.
They used to be under the control of Ciel's father, but since the latter died, their ambitions rose rapidly.
Ever since Ciel fell under their control, even developing himself became quite a difficult thing.
That doesn't mean he's stupid.
Even on the earth, there is no shortage of leaders who are just puppets even though they are very smart.
'Calm down, calm down, first, I have to continue acting as usual,' thought Ciel whose thoughts had changed due to the memories of another life.
There are several reasons for that.
One of them was because the current imperial side was really in a weak state.
Of course, the imperial power is still very strong. But the empire's control over that power was minuscule.
In the capital, most of the power is held by the Prime Minister, be it civilian or military forces. Even Intelligence.
In simple terms; he can basically screw up a lot of things including crashing the economy.
As the Emperor, Ciel was the one who would receive the greatest impact if this empire went into chaos.
His position and his family, his mother and thirteen year old sister.
They can become victims in the chaos.
Very few can actually fight the Prime Minister, most likely only the Villarreal Family in the west.
They excel in many fields and their influence is spread over the various provinces there. Many Marquess had become their subordinates.
Unfortunately this one family also has its own ambitions.
The fact that they had not founded their own kingdom until now was shocking.
...
Far from the capital, in the west of the empire, there was a group of more than 10 luxury carriages.
The group was escorted by 200 cavalrymen, they carried flags bearing the crescent moon with the word Villarreal underneath.
They were followed by many other parties, who probably followed them to avoid the bandits.
Among the luxury carriages, there was one carriage that was three times larger than the other carriages. It was pulled by four very beautiful and clean white horses.
The inside of the carriage looks more like a hall, there are mattresses and sofas, even a dining table.
Two women sat on the sofa. One of them was wearing a maid outfit, had light brown hair. She was peeling an apple and handing each piece she peeled to the woman sitting in front of her. She was reading a book.
This woman had long purple hair, looked to be in her mid-20s, she was about 175cm tall with snow-white skin.
She wore a long black dress that was closed but also tight enough so that her beautiful curves were not hidden.
Her face was so beautiful it was hard to paint it.
Her lips were neither too wide nor too small, it was a size that perfectly matched her oval face.
What was most interesting were her eyes which were also purple in color, they faintly emitted a calm but sharp light like the full moon.
The maid, Elena couldn't help but stare alternately between the woman's face and the book in her hand.
The book is entitled, (1001 Proof of the Puppet Emperor's Foolishness.)
Every now and then, the woman smiled as she read the book. Her lips curved beautifully when she smiled, making anyone who saw her smile think about the meaning of her smile.
Elena had a lot of questions, but she couldn't ask because she had been reading the book since yesterday, so until now, she could only wait until she read the last page.
Among the servants of the Villarreal Family, there is one absolute rule, not to disturb the young lady while she is reading a book.
---
"Is there something you want to ask?" The woman, Jasmine Villarreal looked at Elena after she closed the book.
Elena opened her mouth but ended up closing it again without saying anything.
"You want to know why I suddenly agreed?" How could Jasmine not know her thoughts.
Elena nodded subconsciously after she heard here words.
Before Jasmine could continue, Elena finally said, "N-now some people say that you only want to use the Young Emperor as your stepping stone to rule this country."
Elena looked around as if she was looking outside the carriage, perhaps she heard that from the group itself.
Jasmine followed her gaze and smiled.
She leaned back and crossed her long legs.
"That's right," she replied in a gentle tone.
"But I seriously want to make him my husband."
"Mmm?" Elena was shocked and confused at her words.
"It's time for me to get married! As an adult woman, I'm starting to feel uncomfortable living alone. Maybe I can endure it for another year, two, or three, but I think it's better if I do it early so that my mind won't be distracted by my body's natural desires. The Young Emperor is the candidate I like the most so far, he is not strong and at the same time he has the highest status. He also has a face that I think is cute. Given the previous Emperor's kindness to the family, I don't mind taking care of him and protecting him. As long as he remains obedient to me, he will still be the Emperor even when I rule over the entire world."
Jasmine showed a faint smile as she said that while Elena opened her mouth in surprise.
...
Prime Minister's Residence.
In a study room filled with ancient books, sat a handsome middle-aged man with light brown hair.
He was drinking a cup of coffee while reading a pile of white papers.
His eyes occasionally glanced at the window, staring at the palace not far from his residence.
He was Anson Wallace, the Prime Minister of the Great Sun Empire.
Creaky!
Suddenly the door opened.
A mature-looking woman, wearing a long, loose-fitting white dress then entered.
She had long, thick black hair, even when she put her hair in a ponytail, it still went past her hips.
She is about 175 cm tall while her white skin is quite pale as if she is rarely exposed to the sun.
She seemed expressionless because of her very serene eyes, which matched her diamond-shaped face perfectly without a single hair falling in front of her face.
Whether it was appearance or style, she gave off the feeling of a virtuous holy woman.
But she wasn't completely like that middle-aged man, she had the appearance of a mix between the west and the east.
Her body resembles that of a westerner while her face is more like that of an easterner.
Anson stopped reading when he saw her, he waited for her to arrive by his side.
"Is there anything you need, father?" asked the woman, Zara Wallace.
Her voice was calm and gentle, soothing the hearts of those who heard it.
"Ehmmm..." Anson cleared his throat.
He picked up another paper on his desk. It had a golden color and had a sun symbol on the top.
Zara looks at the paper and her eyes blink for a moment.
"The date of the agreement is almost here, according to this agreement, you will be engaged to the Young Emperor. Of course, this is not an absolute agreement, the two parties involved must agree first." He said.
Zara remained calm, she replied, "as I said before, I don't mind being the Young Emperor's wife."
"You said that when the Old Emperor was alive, how about now?"
Hearing that question, Zara looked at her father with quite deep gaze.
"There's nothing bad about that... He may not be as skilled as an Emperor, but he's a good man. I've thought about him a lot and I think I can be happy with him."
"I see!" Anson nodded.
"This afternoon, we will go to the palace to confirm it."
...