I Became the First Prince

o the First Palace.
Carls visibly brightened when he saw me, but corrected his glee when he saw that the old marquis was following me.

“I need a private talk with the marquis.”

Carls glanced at the other knights to see whether they had grasped the meaning of my curt order.

Those who had followed me to Winter Castle quickly sent out all the knights newly stationed to the First Palace.
I went in only after all the palace knights had been driven out, and the doors thudded shut.

“Your Highness,” Adelia said and bowed her head.
She had been tidying my bed.
“It’s because I like it,” came her justification as I stared at her.
A woman with the skills of a Sword Master was making up beds.
“Please do not take away my joy,” she demurely said.

Faced with her consistent attitude, I felt a bit better after having been alone with the king.

“Shall we serve tea?” Adelia, who has become quite shameless, asked me with a smile.

“I think whiskey is better than tea,” the marquis answered, and I frowned at him.

“I didn’t know that it is wise to enjoy a daytime drink,” I stated.

“If the person is strong, it matters not,” came the marquis’s impudent response.

Adelia smiled at his words and quickly placed two glasses and a bottle on the table.

“If you have need of anything else, please send for me,” Adelia said and left us.
I stared at her as she exited and then asked the marquis, “So what do you mean to tell me?”

The marquis made sure that the door was closed and then picked up his filled glass.
He emptied it in one gulp and then smacked his lips together in satisfaction.

“How do you feel?” the marquis asked, and seeing me frown, added, “I’m asking if you’re a little excited.”

I stared at the marquis after he had asked me such a blatant question.
I couldn’t be sarcastic, and things didn’t seem encouraging.
I would be too embarrassed to admit this before the marquis.

So, instead of answering, I drank whiskey.

I took a moment to organize my thoughts while my mouth blazed.
I had pushed the king, who considers me a thorn in his backside, into a corner.
I had reclaimed my body, and as a bonus, I have been recognized as the successor of the throne.

“It feels different than I thought it would,” I finally stated.
Instead of being happy, the resentment that had lurked in the corner of my heart now felt greater than ever.

“I dare say, it must have felt like persecuting a powerless old man,” came the marquis’s blatant comment, and I could not refute his words.
His words exactly matched the feelings I felt but a while ago, so I could not deny them in the slightest.

Even if he had not won them through battle, I still felt like I was forcibly taking away the possessions of an old, worn out and exhausted man.

I drank again, and the taste of the alcohol was as bitter as my heart.
While I frowned and wiped my mouth, the marquis smiled.

“It is the way of the world,” the marquis stated.
I didn’t think it was funny, as I listened to the marquis talk about the reasons for things occurring in the world.

I suddenly felt dizzy.

My past as a sword was an incomplete existence, wherein strength and violence was all that mattered.
I wracked my wisdom to gain insight into everything.

Up to this point, I was nothing but a child who had accidentally obtained a sword that was too good for him.
I only realized this fact after mixing with people and wearing Adrian’s body for a while.
I could only admit my foolishness after I became a Sword Master.

“The son cannot see the way his father has taken, and the father cannot see his mature son along straight lines.”

Now I thought I knew what the Marquis was talking about.

“It’s not that kind of relationship,” I said as I filled the marquis’s empty glass and then mine.

We clinked our glasses and emptied them at once.

“But I’ll listen to you, this once,” I said as I held the bottle, which seemed to have been half-emptied in mere moments.

“We will need more whiskey,” the marquis stated.

“We will die if we only drink, and eat nothing.”

“We must have some snacks, then.”

“A man can only wish,” I replied.

“I will tell many stories yet, so why don’t we fill our stomachs?”

As the marquis said this, I clapped my hands.
Adelia appeared, having awaited my summons.
I asked her to bring some simple fare, and it wasn’t long before so many platters were stacked before us that we couldn’t eat it all, even if we ate all night.

I bit into a piece of jerky as I sank deep into the sofa and waited for the marquis to begin his tale.

“Since your opportunity to become the king of this realm has arrived, I will tell you everything, right from the beginning.”

The marquis’s eyes deepened.

“It was about twenty years ago, and His Majesty had just ascended to the throne.”

The Marquis of Bielefeld had such a rich voice that it felt as if my mind had been transported twenty years into the past.
The story began.
It was the history of the kingdom that was unknown to me, a royal secret that none spoke of.

It was about the tyranny of the strong and the fleeting resistance of the weak.

I drank in silence.
I simply filled my glass when it was empty, emptied it when it was full, and listened to the marquis’s story until as the night passed.

His was a tale filled with tearful efforts and would be a difficult one to hear had I not drunk.
It was a story about a man who worked hard for a great time, only to have his limbs severed, and eventually, his will broken.

It was also a long, long story that seemed without end.
However, there was no such thing as an endless story in this world, so the marquis’s story did end after some time.

‘Thuk,’ came the sound as the marquis’s head struck the table, with him passing out just like that.
I quietly summoned my palace knights.

“Your Highness, what is this?” Carls asked with wide eyes as he saw the fainted marquis, his head resting in a puddle of whiskey and among rice cakes.

“It’s a cumbersome thing to explain, so just lay him out in any room,” I ordered.

Carls nodded and did what I told him to do.

I stared at the bottle and then grabbed it.

“It’s really not enough,” I muttered as I downed it.
I suddenly looked into the clear glass of its bottom, so I threw it aside and buried myself in the sofa.

“It is lost, but not taken away…”

I had learned many things thanks to the marquis, but my head got muddled by all the complexities as well.

I was not given the time to organize my thoughts.

‘Dookdookdook,’ someone pounded on my door.
The sound echoed like cannon fire in my hungover mind.

“How dare you!” I shouted as I grabbed Twilight and ran from the room.

“Your Highness!” Carls cried as he came to me.
His face was filled with an urgency I had never before seen.

“Explain while we go!” I ordered.
It seemed that there was no time for hesitation.

I just wished I could forcibly awaken my body.