The Grand Duke Receives an Invitation

"Your Excellency, a letter from the Capital has arrived."

I lifted my head from the stack of documents I was currently fighting with. A polite smile automatically broke through my face, much to my distaste, as I took the letter that the old butler handed me.

I already had an inkling about this particular missive. Most letters addressed to me would be dealt with by the butler himself, except if they came from someone higher in the hierarchy.

And I was right. The letter was from the imperial palace. A formal invitation from the emperor was sent to request my presence in the official proclamation of the Crown Prince as well as to attend the founding anniversary of the Yarina Empire.

I thanked the old butler and dismissed him. As usual, the letter from that side are ostentatious as ever.

If you are wondering how important I am to be sent an invitation by the emperor himself, then you must know a few important points about the empire first.

The Yarina Empire is a long-standing country that has endured for over a century. It is known for its love of peace and acceptance of its citizens, no matter what kind they are. And I am not referring to whether they are good or bad.

When I say no matter what kind of citizen; I mean whether they be children of mana, the so-called magicians, or wielders of aura and even those of a different race than humans.

This world is fantastical because of these points. And of course, there are many more, but we shall get to that later.

If you ask me, however, it is merely a hypocritical claim. Acceptance is a concept that is far different from tolerance.

Anyhow, in the east of Yarina was a vast land that possessed the deadliest terrain, Sonomi. As much as the empire wanted to conquer it during its founding, they were unable to.

The rulers of this land, the Konstantin family, have roots older than Yarina itself. Their unfathomable strength proved to be an unworthy risk for what was then an unstable empire.

Thus, an allegiance was instead forged with the condition that Sonomi will become a part of the empire while Konstantin will be considered as part of Yarina's nobility. It was a tie-up of interest and benefits. Since Konstantin wasn't a fan of wars despite their capability.

The Konstantin family then became the sole possessor of the Grand Duke title and is given free rein to manage their land.

The founding emperor made an unbreakable oath that the empire will never have the right to meddle in the affairs of the East.

And I, Skandar Aleksandr Konstantin, am the current head and Patriarch of the Konstantin family, the ruler of Sonomi, king of the East.

"How troublesome." I tapped the elaborate and scented invitation unto my desk.

I have never liked the capital and the socializing that came with it.

But ever since my carefree parents dumped their responsibilities on my shoulders at the tender age of 18, I have learned to live with it.

Not to mention that my upbringing, courtesy of my wonderful mother, is impeccable. And when I say such, I mean that her every lesson was deeply ingrained in my body and psyche.

I would love to reiterate it all but I would rather have such trauma kept from young children.

All I can say is that even if I wanted to deviate from proper manners, I will always fail to do so. It is quite a frustrating phenomenon.

Let us have the situation with the letter a while ago. As much as I want to frown or scowl, my face automatically becomes cordial and polite.

Despite my best efforts to be rude, people still feel as if I was merely being polite and gracious. How hateful!

Hence, every social season is a dreadful experience for someone like me who prefers to be the wallflower.

It is always a horrifying experience being surrounded by women whose perfumes are fragrant enough to suffocate. With makeup thick enough to change their very being.

It would be fine if they were even half as attractive as I am. But no, none even comes close. It is a never-ending dilemma.

Of course, the women aside, the noblemen are divided into a few factions with one being more annoying than the other.

Some only know to boast of their wealth. Oh please, all of them combined can't even measure up to a tenth of mine.

Some are muscle heads, only knowing to challenge random people to a spar or a duel. And they don't even learn their lessons. Beat them once and they will keep knocking on your door for more beatings.

Some take pride in their magical abilities that they turn up their noses to those who are unable to use magic. Those men irritate me the most. If they are so good, then why is my territory at the top in the manufacture of magical devices and not their magic towers, despite the unique situation of my land?

Alas, I can foresee my future hardships at these coming events.

My distaste may be due to my nature but more so could be contributed to the gift passed down in my bloodline.

Yes, the Konstantin family keeps a secret.

The male successors possess memories of their past life. It manifests unfailingly on the eve of their seventh birthday.

My ancestors did not know how this gift came about. But it does not diminish the fact that this ability enabled the family to survive even longer than some empires around. Not to mention it has become the source of the family's unbreakable solidarity.

The Konstantin is by far the most unfazed by struggles of succession. Mostly because none of them want the responsibility and prefer the life of a vagabond, so they just fight it out with the loser taking up the mantle.

For those whose generation only has one heir, they can only resort to giving birth to heirs as early as possible. My dearest father is a magnificent example.

Thereby, being the sole successor of this generation, I have been resigned to my fate the moment the gift manifested itself.

I had no hopes for a sibling as well since my father refused to let my mother suffer the pains of childbirth for a second time.

I guess my birth has been traumatic for his poor, infatuated heart.

That aside, my past life was vastly different from the one I have now. It is not even in the same world.

I lived in a world called Earth. A place where no magic or aura or anything of the same nature exists.

But the science and technology it had enabled it to be even better than the world I am in now if I do say so myself.

I was an archeologist and a history professor at a prestigious college. Even in my past life, I have to say I was quite well-known.

I do have a peculiar penchant for reading web novels and comics with villains and anti-hero tropes.

Being in a world like this now, I realized early on that I could try to be like the favorite characters that my past life has read about.

I lived a fulfilling yet relatively boring life back then. I feel like it is just right to live as I want now especially since I am capable of it.

You could put it as an attempt to heal my inner child. Ambitions are, in the end, the culmination of a child's wildest dreams and fantasies. This just happened to be mine.

And being the perfect noble is a matchless weapon if I wanted to succeed.

I stared at the words in the letter.

The coronation of the Crown Prince and the Empire's Founding Anniversary. Now that I think about it, these are the perfect events that a villain will never let go of.

The perfect time for a villain to debut.