I have conquered six nations and won the hearts of many of my people. But you know how this world works, no matter how much you are loved and appreciated by everyone, there will always be people who do not like you for no particular reason. Especially when you are in a special position, of course, I was hated by some people, but I never let them be successful at bringing me down.

I loved serving my people, and I have never regretted anything I have done for them. I have always lived for my people. However, I do not have an heir because the love of my life passed away too early. I have no idea who is going to replace me if anything happens to me.

Right now, I just know one thing that I am slowly dying, and to tell you the truth, I forgot the reason why.

Was it because of revenge for my country? Did I die fighting on a battlefield? Or was it just old age? Who on earth is going to replace me?

I could not come up with a reason for my death. I just knew that every inch of my body was hurting. I slowly closed my eyes, feeling all the pain in my body fade away at a slow pace. My mind was fading away into a deep slumber. All my senses were fading away one by one. The last thing I heard was a lot of people yelling and crying, probably they were crying for me. I was happy that some people still cared for me, even when I was dying.

You may wonder why would such a thing make me happy. Well, I grew up on my own. I always wondered what it would have been like to have an actual family who genuinely loved and cared for you. I had never experienced true affection except for the one from my significant other. I have never had a family of my own, so I never knew what it’s like to have one. I never had any siblings or any family. Even if I had loved someone, she passed away earlier in my life, without bearing me any children that I could look after and take care of as my hair turned grey. In a nutshell, I have been alone my whole life.

Anyway, when I finally stopped hearing those painful voices crying for me, everything went blank. I felt numb and knew that I have died and can now finally rest in peace, away from this corrupt world. As I parted from this world, the only thing that made me sad was that I could not have a normal life as other people did. I could not get up in the morning with my mom knocking at my door, calling me downstairs for breakfast. I had a very different life than others.

As I took my last breath, everything went black, and I could not feel anything at all. Well, I thought it was my end. I was dead until I was able to open my eyes again, but the light peeking in was unbearable after being in the darkness for a while. I slowly opened my eyes and could see a bright white light blinding me from the other end of the tunnel. The tunnel was cramped and slimy.

It felt like I was in a closed space, and it made me uncomfortable. I wondered where I was? What is this place? The light at the end of the tunnel was getting closer and closer as if I was being pulled towards it. As I got closer, I heard many high and low voices, but unfortunately, they were all unclear. There was also someone screaming things that I could not quite understand.

The situation was quite awful. I could not figure out what was happening with me, as all I knew was something awaited me at the other end of the tunnel. I tried to reach out towards the light, but my arms were kept in place by the tunnel walls.

Why was it cramped up anyway?

I closed my eyes as the incoming light blinded me just a bit. The next thing I noticed was the warmth of a foreign but familiar that I lost a long, long time ago.

I felt so safe and warm.

I slowly opened up my eyes to see a woman smiling down at me with warmth. Her face and arms were covered with sweat. There were trails of powder-like substance going down her face and her eyes were red and puffy, which were clear indications that she had been crying.

I thoroughly examined her face. There was only one word that would describe her and that would be beautiful. Her hair was dark brown with natural auburn highlights peeking out through, showing itself in the light. Her skin was smooth and pale, with a small beauty mark on the underside of her chin. She also had bright green eyes with specks of gold near her pupils. They were brilliantly glowing in happiness, even though she looked so tired.  Her natural pearl-white teeth smile pulled through.

"Hello, my sweet baby."

I was still staring at her, admiring her features. It took me a second or two to process what she just said.

Baby? BABY?

The first thing I did was bring my hands up to my face to look at them. I did not care if that woman thought that I was crazy.

My hands were small and chubby. I tried to bring up my head to see the rest of my body, but I can't. I didn't even have the strength to get out of her hold. I looked up at her to see her concerned face.

Wait, so if I am her baby, then that tunnel must have been her-

I honestly wondered if my facial expressions are the same as those of adults because, at that very moment, numerous expressions flushed from my face. I had been given birth to just now, and this woman looking down at me is probably my mother.

The knock from the door interrupted my disturbing thoughts. Maybe it could help me figure out what was going on.

"Come in, honey. We have another boy." Mom's voice was soft and straining, probably from exhaustion from giving birth.

A tough-looking guy came in with the word 'worried' all over his face. He didn't even notice that he slammed the door shut. When I made eye-contact with the guy, he gave me a small smile before looking back at the woman or should I say 'mom'.

He had jet-black hair that was darker than black. His eyes stood out more than mom's. His eyes were blue that shined brilliantly even when his bangs were covering them with a shadow. He had a nice clean face, without any signs of a beard or mustache. His facial features were very sharp. His built matched perfectly with his face. He wasn't overbuilt either. He was pretty tall from my point of view. He could also be a strict and stern type of guy. In my opinion, he was a perfect match with the woman holding me.

"Honey!" The stern-looking and robust guy turned into a - you know, a man that turns mushy and lovey in front of his wife. I turned away to give them some space. It is cute for a couple, but they should learn how to restrain.

Mom cleared her throat, turning dad's attention towards me.

Dad came closer, picked me up, and held me like all the parents hold their newborn babies. I could feel his hard arm muscles underneath my body, and it was pretty uncomfortable. I could not say anything either because I had no teeth, or perhaps I had to go through the lifecycle of a human being all over again. Even the thought of it was so scary. How could I not speak?

"Hey, there…"

Dad looked up towards mom.

"What are we going to name the baby?"

"I kind of thought of a name for him already."

"What is it?"

"Alexander."

"Oh, so I have two sons that are named after kings."

Even though I was an emperor and not a king, I liked that name. The name 'Alexander' suited me probably better than Deacon.

"Hey, now that I look closely, Alex has my good looks too. The only thing he has of yours is your hair and eyes."

What was this guy rambling on about? And how did that nickname just smoothly roll into that sentence?

I watched as my dad kept on talking to my mom, and my mom kept on rolling her eyes at him. Out of all the noises from the conversation, I heard a soft click coming through the door. I glanced over to the entrance just to see a tiny boy excitedly walking into the room. He had dark brown hair and icy blue eyes. He was pretty.

The boy stared at me curiously and then made eye-contact with me. We were both staring at each other, not blinking, as if we were having some kind of staring contest. It was the boy that broke off first. His eyes wandered above, probably towards mom. I looked back at mom to see her smiling at the young boy and waving him over toward us.

"Come on, Arthur. Look at your new baby brother."

So his name was Arthur. The boy finally cracked a smile when he heard 'brother.' Arthur ran towards us and jumped up on the bed. He slowly crawled to the side of the bed and sat next to mom. Arthur started cooing once we made eye-contact again. Then after two minutes of him giving me affection, my stomach started growling. Dad took it as a signal to leave and took Arthur with him.

The next thing that happened was unbelievable. Even if I looked like a baby, I was still an adult male on the inside. I was disgusted, and I knew I was not going to drink the milk. Imagine being an adult soul in the body of a little child, how creepy is that? However, my stomach started to hurt, and my mom started getting worried that something was up with me, so I manned up and started drinking.

The way I am saying this is going to sound very wrong, but it tasted so good. The MILK, not-

Anyway, it is a biological process of a mother giving food to her newborn child. The milk was tasty and delicious. I am pretty sure only newborns will understand the feeling.

As my stomach got full, my eyes started to grow droopy. As my mind went blank, the last image I saw was my mother's warm smile that I am grateful to see.