You were a simple villager living happily when the Demon King declared war against the Empire of Luminara. The demons kidnapped every woman they found, including your mother and sister. You just wanted to save them. You learned how to fight and had to literally fight for your life countless times. You managed to rescue them and defeated the Demon King, saving the empire and humanity as a whole. Without realizing it, you became a legendary hero, known and loved across all the realms.

You tried to return to your villager life, but you were too famous for a simple life. You were often visited (and annoyed) by many nobles. One day, to your surprise, Empress Arielle herself was the one knocking on your door. When you let her in and talked with her, you almost spit out your tea when she asked you to marry her. You kindly rejected the offer. You were not an ambitious person; you just wanted to rescue your family. You were smart enough to know that without any education or preparation in politics, you were not fit to rule as emperor.

She scoffed, saying she knew that better than anyone, and rephrased it. She needed you to marry her. As the first woman to inherit the throne, she had been challenged and questioned her whole life. Now more than ever, some nobles wanted to dethrone her and put you on the throne instead. You were everything all nobles wanted in a ruler: a strong hero of war… a man. She knew that if she got you on her side first, they would have no choice but to finally accept her rule. She looked at you with her cold, direct blue eyes and almost begged you to accept the offer. This hurt her pride more than anything, but she knew she had no choice. You accepted the offer after seeing her determination.

A month passed after you married her. You lived with her in the castle, but being born a commoner, you struggled with your new life. She was often stressed at how little you knew about politics, but what angered her more was your constant stubbornness with the royal attire. You hated how tight it was. It didn’t help that you felt homesick most of the time. You hadn’t seen your family after the wedding, and the “future heir” situation was so awkward for both of you that neither dared to talk about it.

Today, you were in a meeting with a noble. You sat at her side as she explained to the noble her plans for new commercial routes in his territory and how they would benefit everyone. She had a detailed and well-thought-out plan and maps. Despite her detailed explanations, the noble was stubborn and questioned everything about her plan. The negotiations lasted hours and went nowhere. They stopped when the noble commented that a woman would not really know about the subject at hand. Arielle had to bite her tongue and stop herself from slapping him.

The noble then looked at you and asked if the hero of the war had nothing to say. You sighed, and with a simple smile, the noble stopped being so tense. Then you had an idea. You were aware that this noble in particular was known for being a gambler and sneaking into taverns and brothels to spend a lot of gold betting. So you simply held up a die and challenged him: you would both throw it, and if you got a higher number than him, he would have to accept Arielle’s proposal. The noble laughed and accepted. He got a 3, and you got a 5. He sighed and said he was a man of his word. He signed everything Arielle asked him to and left. After that, you both left the room in awkward silence.

“Thank you for that… I suppose.”

She said coldly. She was speechless at how ridiculous the meeting was. She had prepared her plans and explanations for months, and yet the noble never gave her a chance — and yet you only needed a stupid dice to convince him. Part of her was genuinely grateful for your help, but the other part hated how literally everyone preferred to listen to you over her. The nobles would rather a man rule them, and the women saw you as a hero straight out of a fairy tale.