Ydaz marched to war at my order. In these handful of months, we had recruited and trained many more soldiers. Whilst there was a limit to how many standing soldiers the country could maintain at any given time, I intended to blitz through Loyata's defenses. I would not be satisfied with any outcome short of utterly violating them.
Ah, I was waiting for you to say that. Yes, I had a hidden motive to invade Loyata. Even though Aaliyah had poured all her vitality into the soil months ago, the Qiraji was not yet fully green as it is now. And at that moment I expected that greenness to recede, like farmlands affected by the Blood of the Sultanah would typically do after a handful of years.
Whilst I know how to produce such blood now, I did not have enough vitality to make anything significant at that time. This meant that I feared that the currently fertile lands would turn into a desert in a matter of years and there would be no Blood of the Sultanah to turn them fertile again. This, of course, did not happen, but you cannot blame me for having such worries. A nation, much like an army, is moved by hunger, and I could not allow Ydaz to starve.
The plan was simple, I was already at war with Loyata and her lands were more fertile than mine, even if they were frosted tundra. If grass could grow there, they would already be more fertile than most lands of the Qiraji.
I marched into Loyata with the biggest army this world had seen up to date. The proto-Evergreen had done wonders for our food reserves, and I was going to make the most out of it until the effects of Aaliyah-al-Ydaz's vitality wore off. I brought with me the army – obviously – but also Rani, Aya, Mirah, a couple of my younger siblings so they could get experience, and my baby girl, Aisha.
Oh, do not look at me like that. She was more in danger in the palace than with me. I did not intend to rush into battle like crazy, and some of my older siblings may yet plan to assassinate her. Or at least maximize her chances of dying. This also meant that I needed to get pregnant yet again to have more potential descendants in case of any unforeseen consequences.
…
I am getting tired of those looks, Aloe. This was a common monarch practice, not even Ydazi. Having the greatest number of descendants is the only choice considering how high infant mortality rates were back then. And that is without taking into account any possible subterfuge.
To be honest, the number of peace treaties I had to sign those days tired me more than the battles I took part in. Rani refused to fight, so it was up to me to show the ropes of war to my younger siblings. It was also part of my plan. I was not only going to be close to my children but also my siblings, especially the young ones. I would reign through loyalty, not intimidation.
By then, Aya was already thirteen, and let me tell you, she certainly inherited the genes of her mother.
Uhm, I do not exactly know how to explain it. Genes are like the… inheritable information of a parent? I think that is a solid enough explanation.
Exactly like that, Rani got all of Aaliyah-al-Ydaz's genes and none of her unknown father. The same could be said for Aya. Maybe only thirteen, but she had more bosom than most grown women. An early blossom, you could say. It was looking like if she had a healthier lifestyle than her mother – which I was trying to procure – she would be even more beautiful than her.
By the time a third of Loyata had fallen to our zealous and aggressive expansion, I was pregnant again.
You have waited for two centuries and you do not have the patience to wait for a bit longer, Aloe? No, Aya would not be made my Vizier just yet. She was still a child, and I was not exactly one any longer. I had standards. But now that we had spent more months in the war camp together… I cannot deny my infatuation grew. She was a commoner and a young girl alright, but her mind was a prodigious one and her heart was as golden as the dome of my palace. My Aisha seemed to think the same as she would fall asleep faster in her arms than her wet nurse or mine.
Sorry, sorry, but yes, it is amusing. Here I was, the ruler of the biggest nation in the world with blood that could only be called purple falling for a young commoner girl. Love is a stupid yet wonderful thing. I see it in your eyes, Aloe, and I know you have not found it. At least not in the way I had. And no, I am not laughing at you with this. Let me be completely sincere, as a woman who has been lovestruck, I wish you find a love as pure as mine. Truly.
Where were we?
Right. Once again, I did not know of the father, but I took long enough to get pregnant that I managed to get a whole Haya in a single month thanks to the copious reaping going on in the war camp. Reaping soldiers is not a great idea, they are the country's fighting force. But there were so many that it did not matter if I lay with them at least once.
One of the most amusing factors of the Loyatan campaign was how the rumor that I would bed the soldier with the highest kill count of the day spread like wildfire thanks to the sneak-tongues made the young and highly impressionable young soldiers go into overdrive. Imagine these virgin sixteen-year-old boys from rural Ydaz hearing that they had the chance to bed their gorgeous Sultanah. I always loved older people in bed, but those faces were soooo delectable.
Ah, I see that shine in your eyes. You know what I am talking about, you cannot deny it.
Alright, alright. I will not press the issue. But yes, I did bed a handful of them if merely because it made the sex… less repetitive. Truth be told, I was drier than the Qiraji most of the time if I did not wield the charm stance as I was just tired of having sex every single day of my life up to three times. Having these inexperienced boys, whilst certainly did not bring me to climax, at least was amusing. And at that point, I could do just with 'amusing'.
It was dulling for body, mind, and heart anyway. I will not say I understood how Aaliyah-al-Ydaz had ended as she had for she had crossed too many lines, but considering she had to do what I was doing already but thrice to achieve her power... Reaping does take a toll, not on the body maybe, but yes on the mind and heart.
Anyhow, the first year of my ascension to power came by and much to my surprise, nothing exploded. I expected fire and death everywhere, but my siblings held true to their promise and had completely given up their claims on the throne and any future plans to try to seize them again.
Whilst more political than I expected, the total conquest of Loyata progressed without any issues. War had made me popular, and the fact that the nonexistent trade and exchange of goods thanks to the embargoes placed by the assassins prior to the war were now gone, the influx of trade goods was now merited as my own doing. In a way, it was. We only had access to them because I had conquered a third of the Loyatan borders by that point, but technically speaking, ending the war diplomatically would have ended in the same result as there were no longer assassins to enforce that embargo.
I was very popular during my early reign. I expected turmoil for the recent forceful seizing of the throne, but people had wanted change for a long time. Yes, I know it sounds stupid, but even the oldest generation had lived only in times of peace – remember that Aaliyah-al-Ydaz's reign lasted for five decades – so none knew what war truly meant, only that legend spoke highly of it.
Unrestricted trade, expansion of borders, lenient taxation, surplus of food thanks to the growing fertilization of the Qiraji… Maybe not all of them were thanks to my own decrees, but they made me popular, nonetheless. When it comes to politics, people will blame and congratulate others for something that they have nothing to do with them. I just learned that I should hoard the congratulations and push the blame to others. Fortunately, there was not much blame to be pushed around during those days.
By the time half of the Loyatan borders were under my direct control, my second child was born. Yet another hideous yet lovely babe I named Layla.
During those days I was close to the politics, systems, and cultures of other countries, so it is quite amusing to me, yes. If a monarch were to have two children in a row, their first ones at that, be females, they would have panicked and considered it a bad omen.
You may not be familiar with the old governments of other countries, but except Ydaz, all were patriarchal. They wanted 'kings' and not 'queens'. Here in Ydaz, we cared not for such things, and from the standpoint of Nurture we did prefer female rulers. Patriarchal government never made sense to me, the only advantage I can see is that their rulers live less on average, therefore senile stupid leaders would be less common.
But I am rambling, am I not?
The following months became a blur. I became pregnant yet again to the point I forgot what was to not have a swollen belly and finalized the conquest of Loyata two years later. The latter half of the coalition held the longest as we actually had to fight for it, but they had had a bad harvest that year and we were still living on the high of the proto-Evergreen, so we had a surplus. Even though we had more soldiers and of a superior quality, we practically won with only food as our weapons.
Four years I needed to conquer the entirety of Loyata after the fall of Aaliyah-al-Ydaz and the death of most of the assassins. In less than half a decade I had doubled our borders. I told you already, I was very popular, and that fact only transformed popularity into zealotry. The Ydazi people no longer saw Aaliyah-al-Ydaz's reign of peace as wise, but lazy. I had brought prosperity and order unprecedented with my sword in but a fraction of her reign.
After four years, I finally returned to Asina. All that time the seat of the government had moved to my moving war camp where I had managed all the state of affairs of both nations. But now, something else was needed. A Sultanate was not enough any longer, we needed something bigger. Those were the early dreams of a Caliphate that would inevitably come to be.
I've may have been reading too much as of late. Who would have thought that reading 16 hours in two days would make someone's vision blurry. And then, of course, why rest when you can "investigate" four volumes of manga for your writing the day after. At least these endeavors haven't affected my productivity.
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