THE PAST

18 years ago, Helian Imperial Palace

"General Knight ( A/N: Knight is a surname here), we were able to win this war because of your bravery and intelligence. The bravery and ideas you used time, have really amazed everyone. My Nicholas has considered you as his ideal. As long as the Helian Empire has your support, no one would be able to defeat us!"

A handsome man in his thirties, also known as the Emperor of the Helian Kingdom, Emperor Andrew, praised the man enthusiastically in front of him, who was none other than General Roman Knight. General Roman Knight was in his early thirties, with a tanned face, muscular body and a well-built structure.

The maidens still blushed after looking at this handsome General.

Now also many women can't take away their eyes from him. He was full of a dominating aura and masculinity!

"It's my honor to serve His Majesty and the Helian Empire! We will try our best to keep serving the nation", claimed the General and the thousands of soldiers behind him cheered as loudly as they could! It was a sight that could inspire anyone.

"Daddyyyyyyy!" A nine-year-old doll-like creature with pigtails came running and crashed into the General's legs, "Daddy, I missed you a lot! Big brother Brandon snatched my toys once again!" complained the little girl.

"How is my little angel? I have brought a lot of toys for you, but now pay your respect to the Emperor!" General Knight dotingly told his daughter.

"You didn't tell me, that your family is back as well!"

"It was not like that Your Highness! My wife and children came back from their maternal family today itself! His Majesty has already allowed me to live in the Imperial Capital, so I sent a message to bring them back!" replied General Knight.

General Roman Knight and Emperor Beckham were childhood friends. Till now both of them behaved like fast friends and were very frank in their speech. But due to disturbances on the border of the Helian Empire, General Knight has been posted there to stop the unnecessary wars for a long time.

Since the power of the Lianne Kingdom, that was trying to create chaos, had already declined in recent years, so Emperor Andrew allowed him to come back. General Knight's wife was Alexandria, a rich merchant's daughter.

Their marriage was arranged but still, they found love and were considered to be the perfect couple. It had been fifteen years since their marriage, but the General had never taken a mistress. It was not uncommon for high ranking ministers to take concubines. But General Roman clearly loved his wife very much.

The couple had two children- Brandon and Rosella. It was known that Rosella was born with great difficulty. So, the family members pampered her a lot. It was not a secret that Rosella is the apple of the General's eyes. Since General Roman had to leave for the borders, he sent away his wife and children to his father-in-law's home. The capital was not a safe place for them in his absence.

It had happened once. It was said that the daughter of Duke Kinsley was completely smitten by General Knight sixteen years ago. Duke Kinsley was not a simple character. He rose from a commoner to the position of a Duke with his hard work and strong will power.

But his useful advice in the most drastic war in the history of Helian Kingdom was the only thing that made him achieve the title of the Duke from the previous Emperor that is Emperor Andrew's father.

He had a lot of sons from various concubines, but he had only one daughter, Senmira from his main wife whom he loved immensely. But she died very soon. So, the Duke doted on his only daughter a lot and pampered her beyond imagination.

She was the object of envy and affection of a lot of misses and masters in the city. It was not uncommon that beauty takes a fancy to a man with great valor. Similar was the case with Senmira. She started admiring General Knight, and soon this admiration turned into infatuation and then obsession.

But on the General's part, it was one-sided love and he was not at all interested in her. Senmira might be beautiful but her overbearing and haughty nature was an eye-sore. Moreover, she lacked self-defense skills and was spoiled beyond belief, so General can't take the responsibility of such a pampered miss. It's better if she married some prince rather than a minister whose life would become hell after marrying this little pampered miss.

On many occasions, she had expressed her desire to marry him. Senmira was straightforward and didn't shy away from chasing after General Roman. She demanded her father to create pressure on General Roman Knight to marry her. But it was useless as Emperor Andrew sided with Roman.

Out of respect for women and politeness, Roman still tolerated her but that didn't mean that he was ready to take Senmira as his wife. But there was no reaction from the General's side.

When General Knight went for one of his battles in the Zayar battlegrounds, he met his wife, Alexandria Fyre's family. Both the Knight and Fyre family were good friends, but due to the distance between their living places, they were out of touch for years.

So, when General Roman Knight went to the Zayar district for the war, the Fyre family invited him after the war ended peacefully within a few days. It turned out that both the families had decided decades ago, that their firstborns would be married to each other due to an old friendship. Both Alexandria and Roman were not happy, this marriage was so sudden. But both of them complied due to Roman's late father's wishes.

Initially Roman was not happy but when he thought about his obsessed chaser, Senmira, he didn't feel bad anymore. In the Zayar District, Fyre family was a prestigious one. When Roman went to roam around the district, he heard people talking about Fyre family with the utmost respect.

Alexandria was famous for her fighting and self-defense skills and knowledge in weapons. Instead of learning to sew, compose poems or anything that was considered as conventional activities for ladies, she devoted her time to perfect her defense skills. She had studied the weapons and techniques very deeply, thus Roman was amazed.

In the capital, it was not considered good for a woman to learn such skills. Thus he was intrigued. After conversing with Alexandria and talking about the common topic of weapons, he started looking forward to their meetings and slowly started admiring her. Alexandria was not as beautiful and groomed as Senmira or other ladies in the capital but it didn't matter to Roman. He was smitten by Alexandria.

When the time of marriage came, Roman was very much satisfied with his bride, his amazing Alexandria. With her skills and knowledge, Alexandria would never let him get bored whenever he would be in the Capital.

Moreover, this lady was down to earth and lowkey, unlike the pompous and pampered Senmira, thus Roman had no grievances.

But on the other hand, he was not able to impress Alexandria. She was still unsatisfied with the marriage. She used to have long discussions with her brothers and teacher about weapons, thus it was not something new to her and definitely didn't impress her. She would rather sleep than have a discussion with Roman. But her father strictly warned her to give face to Roman. Thus Alexandria was helpless.

This news of General's marriage was kept a secret to avoid stirring any trouble during the marriage. Hence, the Imperial Capital was unaware of it including Senmira.

Roman married Alexandria in Zayar district and took her to the capital with great pomp. The Fyre family were a merchant family so they were very rich. Though they were in business. the head of the Fyre Family, Alexandria's father never stopped his children from learning defense skills. Zayar district was at the border. If there were any attacks from the enemy, then the first one that would be implicated would be them. So, learning about weapons was not a bad thing.

The whole wedding procession screamed wealth and looked intimidating with thousands of soldiers flanked around the wedding procession.

It took them months to arrive at the capital. When the procession was only days away from the capital, the news of the handsome General Roman Knight's wedding reached the capital. The masters of rich families were happy as one of their enemy lessened by marrying outside of the Capital, whereas the young misses were heartbroken.

Some even cried in their rooms for days. Though they knew that it was not possible for them to have a chance with Roman but human beings are like this.

Naturally, Senmira was the worst. She couldn't believe that instead of marrying her, a Duke's rich, respected and beautiful daughter, Roman would marry a merchant's daughter, a nobody and that too, very far away from his home!

She must do something to break this marriage which was a great obstacle for her. If she married Roman now, then she wouldn't be the only woman in the General's house. Moreover, it was rumored that Roman was smitten by Alexandria and Senmira couldn't bear to share his love with other women.

There had to be some way to separate them. Meanwhile, Roman was completely oblivious to the fact that some people were trying to destroy his marriage which was not even six months old. He was relieved that Senmira would no longer pester him!

Roman's parents were deceased, he only had one brother, William, who was also a general but of lower rank that is the third rank.

Roman and William's father, Patrick was also a General and he was very strict in disciplining his two sons. Roman was the elder son, so naturally more responsibilities felt on his shoulders. Patrick treated him like a soldier from a young age and trained him very crudely and harshly, beating Roman whenever it was needed, thus Roman turned to be aloof and distant from his parents.

Roman's mother, Catherine was very angry with her husband for making her eldest son like this, so she refused to let William go through the same harsh treatment. Patrick also became soft-hearted and thus this younger son of his was not trained like a soldier. The outcome was obvious. While Roman turned out to be an outstanding general with extraordinary skills, William was only mediocre.

But still he was trained by Patrick's subordinate, so he was also capable of being a General though not as much as Roman.

Roman was quite busy on the borders when he was newly appointed a General. So, Catherine started looking for a bride for his younger son, William. At seventeen years, William was married to Prime Minster's daughter, Lilian, borne from a concubine. Lilian herself was William's concubine instead of the main wife due to her low birth.

Her concubine mother died early leaving Lilian alone to protect herself from others in the Prime Minister's residence.

Though she was considered a virtuous woman of humble birth but only William knew of her sly nature. If not, then how could she have survived in a wolf's den for so long. The main wives and favored concubines often created problems for the children of deceased concubines, Prime Minister's residence was no different.

Lilian had given countless advice to William, which was proved to be rather valuable. So, William was also satisfied with this wife and didn't take any more concubines to avoid unnecessary cat fights in his home.

After one year, old General Patrick and his wife Catherine were killed by the bandits when they were traveling to another city. Both the brothers, Roman and William were very much upset and killed all those bandits mercilessly.

But after Alexandria came into the picture everything changed...