The Fall of the Family and the First Resurgence

The guard let out a laugh "Wary are we now, my Prince".

"My father does not have enough power over the empire to hold control over any part of the government, or the army in this case" I replied. Even though the man had just saved me, I had to be wary. I had just faced an assassination attempt, and most of the kingdom's nobles want me dead, and the rest want to use me to gain power. However, what the guard told me gave me a fresher perspective on the political situation.

"Your father as an emperor doesn't, however, your father as a businessman does. I am sure with your intelligence; you may have realized that since a few decades the power of the nobles has been increasing. This was mainly due to the early death of your great grandfather. His wife, unable to bear the pain passed away soon after. During this time, the Prime Minister to your great grandfather appointed himself the regent. Rest of your grandfather's uncles and aunts passed away in quick succession under suspicious circumstance, till the only one from the royal family was your grandfather. The Prime Minister then had your grandfather wed his youngest daughter, to whom he did not give much importance. That girl, though smart and pure at heart, practically hated her father because of the negligence given to her and her mother at the household. By the time your grandfather turned fifteen, he realized his perilous situation. Nobles were running the empire guided by the inflows into their pockets from the merchants and traders. He had realized that if he tried to assert his power as an emperor, there was a high probability of him being assassinated. Hence, he decided to deal with the nobles with the on thing that they loved the most, money. He managed to set up a transportation business anonymously, transferring goods and people from one place to another. He along with his wife expanded the business, and in a few years, they had complete monopoly over the kingdom's (now not large enough to be called an empire) transportation business. This served two purposes. First, since nobles were transporting their own goods using your family's business, your family had complete information and access to what these nobles were transporting, and the second being the people using your businesses themselves. Becoming friendly with them provided an excellent source of information, the general public. Using the information, your grandfather provoked many noble houses into fighting with each other, while retrieving the spoils from both the sides through various sources. In a few years your grandparents retrieved enough resources to play a war of intrigue with the Prime Minister. Both sides bleed, though the losses on the Prime Minister's side was higher, due to him not able decipher who exactly the enemy was. Finally, your grandparents managed to assassinate the Prime Minister. When all seemed well and back on track, your grandfather suddenly suffered a heart attack and passed away in just a single night, leaving behind his wife and your father who was just 10 years old. Your grandmother, the Dowager Empress, realized that due to her not being the emperor, she could no longer make big waves in the empire without risking anonymity since her position was not as prestigious as the emperor. She however was clever enough to make herself the co regent alongside the new self-appointed Prime Minister, who was the previous one's son".