I Became the First Prince

The Dragon Sword that Uncle showed me was not exactly the same as the Dragon Sword I know.

It is but a shell of a dragon sword’s power…

In fact, from the beginning, I knew why the Dragon Sword was treated like this insignificant training sword. The Dragon Sword lacked the will of the Dragon.

Maybe it was natural.

It was such a time now. It was an era of getting stronger with the technique of rings, not one will and one heart.

Damn mana chain.

I couldn’t even imagine that even the descendants of Leonberger would have abandoned the mana heart and chose the mana chain.

It wasn’t that old-fashioned.

Unfortunately, it seems that the descendants of my friend did not have eyes to discern the treasure. They chose differently, and the result was a fake dragon sword in front of them.

“Hoo.”

I exhaled deeply and cooled my head.

But even after cooling my head, my heart was still hot. The man-made heart made of mana has been troubled after seeing its half – the dragon sword.

That is a fake. It’s not your half.

I told my mana heart. I felt the mana sink. It’s as if it understood what I’m saying.

“… there is nothing more suitable for you who does not even know how to hold a sword.”

Even while I was feeling down like that, Uncle was talking loudly in the background.

“I don’t intend to pass on the family’s swordsmanship. If you want to learn other swordsmanship in the future, I don’t care whether you ask for your mother for another teacher.”

He uttered verses and phrases, but what struck me is that he said it was impossible to win a bet with a dragon sword alone.

“So…”

“I don’t need it all.”

I cut off Uncle’s words.

“I will not learn other swordsmanship.”

Then I declared.

“It is enough to win with this sword.”

The Uncle seemed to have a lot to say, but as always, he stepped back and simply looked at me.

“Do what you want”, he said, revealing he did not care whatever I decided to do.

“We’ll keep doing basic strength training like before, and after that, we’ll work on the sword.”

Uncle adjusted my training schedule as if nothing had happened.

A wooden sword practice was added to the list of my monotonous physical practice, and from that day on, I began to learn the fake dragon sword that was transformed, weakened, and became insignificant.

My heart wanted to have a real dragon sword, but unfortunately, my current body could not handle the real thing yet.

This body was too fragile to withstand its power.

I don’t want to risk my mana heart, as well. With mana hearts, if you did something wrong, you could end up breaking them.

So, I practiced the fake dragon sword that the foreign minister showed. To be fair, Uncle was incredibly good at training.

He held a wooden sword and repeated monotonous attacks and blocks, which I copied day after day.

Meanwhile, my body was slowly changing. The muscles needed to wield the sword are slowly getting built.

So another month passed.

“After hard work, I succeeded in changing my constitution.”

“The [high obesity] property has been changed to [normal obesity].”

『The metabolism becomes more active due to changes in the constitution.』

A message has been heard.

“I have become somewhat used to using my body through repetitive training.”

“[The body] has disappeared.”

『The effect of exercise greatly increases.』

It was a moment when two months of hard work, which had been done for a day, finally achieved a small fruit.

Besides, my change wasn’t just external.

『Constitution has changed after steadily accumulating mana.”

“The [Mana Response Disorder] trait disappeared, and the [General Mana Response trait] was created.”

However, I wasn’t really satisfied with these. There is still a long way to go.

The intensity of training was further increased.

Even after my daily routine with Uncle, I stayed alone in the training area and continued.

It was hard, but it was fun at the same time.

This sweat and effort are starting to bear fruit.

That made me feel a sense of accomplishment I’ve never felt before.

I was growing. Although the achievement was still insignificant, I was definitely getting stronger.

My body was inspired, and my spirit was infinitely elevated, the more I practiced.

I didn’t stop working.

“…!”

I stepped in and out quickly, practicing my footwork.

“…!”

I swung my wooden sword as hard as I could.

“Stop!”

I felt someone grabbing me backward.

“What are you doing outside?”

Uncle was staring at me with a distorted face. It was an emotional expression I had never seen before.

“What are you doing?!”

Uncle grabbed my hand.

“Uh?” I cried out and felt pain.

I saw my palm as he held it out– torn, swollen, with boils close to bursting.

Just then, I started to feel the rain beating down. Earlier, I didn’t even notice it was raining.

“Stupid! Why are you training on a day like this?!”

I was confused. Yeah, it’s raining, but it’s nice because it was cool. I thought Uncle was making a big fuss; then, I noticed the ground around me.

“Uhh…”

There were some blackened spots around me, spots that were not there when I started my training.

Blackened spots where lightning struck…

I measured the distance between me and a blackened spot near me.

Only ten steps, and I would have been a roasted pig.

I imagined the scene, then quickly shook off the terrible image.

At that moment, a message was heard.

『I was completely awakened from the extreme concentration.』

“But the body still remembers that extreme sense.”

『[Super-intensive] has been newly created.』

If you concentrate too hard, you will be hit by a thunderbolt, I thought.

“Training is over.” Uncle declared, and my crazy practice under the storm was forced to end.

“Your Majesty!”

I passed by the wizard on my way to bed. I nodded to return his greeting.

“Today, please give me your royal hand, Your Majesty…”

“Be quick.” I said, surprising him.

He immediately got to work and created a white flash in his hands. He trembled slightly when he saw the condition of my palms.

I don’t know how to feel.

Hundreds of years ago, there weren’t many skilled wizards. In the Great War and in the endless violent battles that swept across the continent, it was always the wizards who fell first, and most of the surviving wizards suffered.

It was impossible to enjoy the luxury of receiving healing magic, even for high-ranking commanders.

“Your Majesty, please do not resist, and ease your mind.”

The wizard healed the wound on my palms and gave a light healing to my whole body.

I felt light, with my physical fatigue melting away like snow.

Uh, I could get addicted to this…

I was smiling in that dull yet pleasant sense, but I suddenly noticed.

As I turned, I saw Carls Julius was looking at me with a strange face.

“Why?”

He didn’t answer and carefully led me to bed after the treatment.

* * *

The day’s experience of the thunderstorm made me look back on myself.

Now, I am not perfect.

My spirit, who lived as a sword, and the body of the weak prince had not yet found a compromise.

My weak body was like a leash dragging my spirit back.

But under the rain, the body rolled its limit.

Everyone wants to go one step beyond their limits, but transcendence always comes at a price.

And I couldn’t pay for it with my body now.

I have seen countless people fall like that. I never thought I’d do that stupid thing.

It seemed that I had to refine my mind.

“Sir Balahard has asked me to tell you that training without his observation is forbidden”, a knight told me.

Uncle was exactly as I expected.

“I’m going for a walk”, I said simply.

“I will come with you, Your Majesty.”

I left the room with the thought of going out for a walk in my heart, but I didn’t like to have a companion. I took a few steps down with the court knight and gave up quickly.

I went back to my room and looked around the knights’ blank and serious faces.

“Hoo”, I exhaled.

I promised that I would enjoy the luxury that I hadn’t enjoyed when I was living as a sword, but I forgot about it and focused on training every day.

Well, how about you start having fun, I thought to myself.

I walked around, deep in thought about what to do, then I saw a bunch of people approaching from a distance.

“The Third Prince has come!”, someone announced.

It seemed like it was my “brother”.

If it was the “Third Prince”, it should definitely be a brother of the prince I accidentally killed.

“You look pretty good for someone who died.” The eyes of the younger brother seemed to be eating at me as he spoke.

Oh right. It was a joke.

I belatedly laughed at his joke.

“Okay. I was so impressed with the legends, and I tried to reproduce the legend myself, but I put the sword in my body instead of a dragon!”

The Third Prince laughed at me. I laughed with him.

We laughed until the Third Prince turned red.

“Thanks to me, the royal family’s honor has fallen to the ground, but you can still laugh?” I told him.

“It was embarrassing but funny.” He answered, wiping tears off his eyes.

“By the way,” he added. “Was it true that you made a bet against Sir Balahard?”

The Third Prince’s expression turned serious as he said it.