Sitting in the horse carriage that I had made sure was discreet enough for the purposes of my journey, I could feel the mood inside the carriage was tense -- no one having spoken since we got in a while ago

Eventually, Lia was the one to speak up first.

"Your Highness... This one does not mean to question Your Highness' judgment, however, this one is curious... Why did Your Highness execute those knights?"

"Hm? Was it not obvious? I thought I had made my motives clear in sentencing those knights."

"...Because of treason towards the empire...?"

"No, that was simply the pretext for the order..." I glanced out the window of the horse carriage and pretended to let out a troubled sigh, "You still do not know? Very well then, I'll say it clearly. It was simply out of pure love for my three beautiful wives."

"...?!"

The three wives were now staring at me with bewildered looks on their faces.

"Waking up without any memories and seeing only my three beautiful wives caring for me by my side, I've come to realise something important. That there is nothing more that I cherish in this world than the three of you. That is why I cannot bear the sight of anyone that would dare try to hurt my beautiful wives and trample upon their smiles."

"But Your Highness..." Alice spoke, "Those few number of knights would not had been capable of hurting any of us--ow!"

Lia had reached out and kicked Alice in her shin, sitting directly opposite of her in the four seater carriage.

Lia turned back to her side to face me.

"Your Highness, this one, and I'm sure the other two too, are used to being treated like trash and lower class citizens. We have been banished from our respective empires, abandoned by any family members that we might of had, and joined the Tzuya empire as members of a foreign race. Naturally, with the dominant race in the Tzuya empire being humans, the legitimacy of Your Highness' marriage to the three of us is seen at most as a crude joke and a sham by the populace."

"I understand."

"With Your Highness' actions just then..." Lia continued, "Your Highness has effectively legitmised the marriage... a marriage that had only up until now been seen as a crude joke and a sham..."

Lia spoke slowly at the end of her words as though trying to make sure that I understand what she was trying to say.

I understood perfectly what she was trying to say.

And, it was exactly what I had intended to do.

By sentencing those knights to their deaths for raising their swords at Lia, Alice and Sephiel, I had set a precedent.

A precedent that gave forth grave implications.

Anyone that does not accept the legitimacy of the three foreign raced helots as Empresses of the Tzuya empire shall receive death.

And that precedent will ripple across the empire, creating confusion, hatred, and no matter how faint, the possibility of an usurping.

"Lia, my beautiful wife,"

I raised an arm, placing it around Lia's shoulder and pulling her close to me.

"For you, I would burn down the whole world if you had so said that you hated trees."

"..."

"And that goes for the both of you too, Alice and Sephiel." I said, "Really, that's all there is for the three of you to know."

"I understand, Your Highness..."

But the faces on all three girls clearly said that they didn't understand.

"...Well then, what of Count Caldwell?" Lia changed the topic.

"What of him?"

"Your Highness allowed him to go free, did you not...?"

"Would you had rather me ordered his execution right there and then along with the knights? My, you're a rather resentful one, Lia."

"...No, that is not what this one means..." Lia let out a heavy sigh, glancing the other side, "Nevermind..."

Seeing Lia's troubled expression, I leaned in close to her, whispering in her ear so that only she alone could hear me inside the cozy carriage.

"I've reserved a very special place for you to deal with the issue, don't you worry."

I knew exactly what she meant.

But, it would take Lia several weeks for her to understand what I had meant.

At this point, the three wives were still blissfully unaware.

That the first motions of my masterplan had already been set forth with the execution of the knights.

~x~

Tall stone and marble buildings that were a remnant of their original glory, streets filled with people moving in all directions, mostly in drags, pavement that were littered with rubbish, and every second business everywhere I looked appearing to be closed.

The capital of the Tzuya empire was just as I had envisioned.

"Remember, do not address me as Your Highness outside the castle, the three of you will address me as Kazuo."

"B, but, Your Hig--ow!"

Lia kicked Alice in the shin, stopping whatever she was about to say.

"Kazuo? That is a strange name if this one might say..." Lia said. "Might this one suggest another name that would not stand out as much?"

Kazuo was my former name in my old life.

A Japanese man in his mid-twenties that had spent most of his days, shelled up in his apartment, playing video games after having made a sizeable fortune from the stock market in his early teens.

I could had picked a name that was more conventional for this world but to be honest, I just felt more comfortable with the girls referring to me by my original name.

"Do not question it, let's go."

"Yes, my apologies."

With the three girls trailing behind me as I stepped out of the horse carriage, I glanced around for a second before picking a direction and walking along the path of the streets.

Clearly, there had not been much public investment on infrastructure as most of the buildings and streets were worn down heavily and dirty.

The streets were also filled with homeless people, dressed in tatters, begging on the streets to passerbys.

Even though I had worn a traveller's cloak over my clothes and so too did the wives under my instructions, we still stood out amidst the crowd due to the lack of wear on our cloaks.

"Pl, please, sir, please spare me a few copper...! I just want to eat something...!"

One of the beggers on the street cried out to me.

I kept my head forward, continuing to walk without stopping.

I knew that if I stop now and heeded the begger's call, a flock of them will quickly follow.

That would ruin the purpose of my journey today.

"Please stay close to me, Kazuo," Sephiel whispered on my right side, pulling me closer to her, "There are many thieves outbound."

Then, I was pulled to my left side, glancing over at Lia.

"No, stay closer to me, Kazuo," Lia said, tugging onto my arm, "I will keep you safe. Under my protection, a thief wouldn't so much as steal a single strand of stray fabric or body hair."

"I, I see..."

On my right, I could feel a murderous glare coming from Sephiel directed at Lia.

Continuing to walk alongst the streets, I glanced over at a crowd that had gathered at the side of the street.

"Kazuo...?"

Sephiel glanced at me from my side, seeing that I had stopped.

"Interesting..." I said, staring at the crowd. It appeared to be a demonstration of some sort. "Let's head over there."

"Yes..."

Standing at the outskirt of the crowd with my wives, I listened to a man that was standing at the centre giving a speech, surrounded by several of what I assumed to be were supporters.

"...is why we can't let things go as they are! Look around you all! What do you see? A crumbling city! With a royal family that has blinded themselves to the cries of its people! They take and take with their ever rising taxes! But what have we received in return? Again, the answer is all around you! We must rise agai--"

"Blasphemy! What you are saying is blasphemy!" Someone from the crowd shouted, "Curse be to your tongue for lashing out against the Emperor!"

"Here, here!" Some others in the crowd chanted. "Long live the Tzuya empire!"

"Wake up!" The demonstrator shouted back, "Don't you see that this empire is crumbling apart?! They keep sprouting nonsense about how great the Tzuya empire is, how we are the strongest empire in the lands, but it's clearly baseless propaganda! An empire that is the strongest in the lands would not be having trouble to feed its own citizens!"

"H, how can you know that for sure...?! The royal family are already trying all they can to stop the famine...!"

"That is a lie! Fed by the royal family to brainwash its people! They have cargoes and cargoes of food being delivered up to the royal castle every day, most of it being sent back spoilt and not even eaten! They are just too lazy to provide to its citizens! We have no drought, the crops out in the farms have no problem, a shining sun every single day and yet there is not enough food to go around?! Does that not seem suspicious to you?!"

"..."

"The Emperor has blinded himself to its people, and the Count that has been appointed as his advisor is an incompetent dictator, sucking this empire dry! Mark my words! The time has come fo--"

At that moment, the sound of a group of horses approaching came from the side, and I glanced over to see knights dressed in the same armour as the ones I saw inside the castle riding the horses.

"I, it's the royal knights...!" Someone in the crowd shouted. "Demonstrating is a capital offence!

"Run!"

"I was just listening in! I'm not a demonstrator!"

People in the crowd were running away in a chaotic panic, and I felt Lia grabbing onto my arm at my side, pulling at me.

"Let's go..." Lia said.

I nodded, then glanced at the other two, signaling for them to leave.

"Stop! You! Hold it right there!" A few of the knights broke out from the rest of the group, heading towards us.

"Tch," I glanced over, "What a pain in the ass..."

Then, I started running, following Alice's lead as she tried to find a path amidst the crowd of passerbys for us.

"This way, Kazuo!" Alice was saying as she led us into one of the smaller streets.

Fuck.

Just as I was in my past life, this body wasn't athletic at all!

I was barely able to keep up with Lia and Sephiel who had been purposely running slower to stay with me.

"Are you okay, Kazuo...?" Sephiel asked worriedly.

"Y... yeah... let's just find somewhere where there's no crowd..."

"I'll let Alice know..."

Sephiel sprinted ahead at an inhumane speed that I didn't know was possible, catching up with Alice in the front with ease and giving her the instructions.

After running for a bit more to the point that I thought my legs were going to break off, Alice had led us to a dead-end alleyway where there was no one around.

I stopped, gasping for air and turned around.

The three knights that had been chasing us had been slowed down by the crowd in the streets but had still been right on our tail.

"Demonstration is a capital offence that is punishable by death!" The knights stopped their horses in front of us, and one of them got off, "To add to that, trying to flee from a royal knight, the four of you are going to wish that you had simply received the death penalty...!"

I was still trying to catch my breath, leaning my arms against my legs, panting at the ground, whilst I waited for the fool to finish his speech.

"Ah, and the four of you picked the perfect spot too with no one around," The knight that had got off his horse was now laughing, his fellow knights chuckling behind him, "this will make performing your executions much easier."

Sephiel raised her eyebrow, glancing at Lia, and Lia shrugged in response.

"Under the Emperor's decree, I hereby sentence you to death!"

The knight pulled out his sword, and Alice was about to move forward but I raised my hand, stopping her.

The knight pointed the tip of his sword at me and I let out one last sigh to catch my breath, before pulling myself up and drawing back my hood to reveal my face.

"I am the Emperor, you insolent fool!"

The sound of the knight's sword hitting the ground clattered in the air, and the knight stumbled backwards.

Suddenly, his fellow knights behind him weren't chuckling anymore.