Prologue
Like many others, I met my fate and died, leaving behind everything I used to be. Though inevitable, death is never permanent. I was soon reincarnated, but this time as a sword. Without a human body of my own, I waited in silence as the world around me continued to turn and change. But this patient waiting eventually ended when an opportunity presented itself.
The hard metallic body that has been my home soon became flesh when I managed to take over an infamous prince’s body.
His body was stouter than most; others would even bluntly call it obese. But this was no concern for me since he still had a lot of potential waiting to be polished.
In my time, I have raised a few kids—the great knight known as the Undefeated, and the feared Dragon Slayer. I raised them both, so handling this new body is nothing for me.Prince of Mangani (1)
Fate had other plans for me when it decided to bring me back to the world as a sword.
Like any sword, my existence revolved around serving one master until a more worthy one claimed me; this was the natural law in the life of knights—only the strong can wield a strong sword. Eventually, I found my fate sealed in a worthy champion’s hands, one I would eventually call my friend.
Together, we soared to heights others could only dream of. Countless foes and monsters have met their end at the tip of my blade. No one stood a chance against us, not even the White Dragon of the Frost Mountains, whose death in my friend and companion’s hands made him into the king of his nation.
He ruled with wisdom, and his kingdom prospered. But all things that begin must soon face its end; not even the Dragon Slayer of legend can evade death forever.
“Please take care of my descendants as you had with me.”
And just like that, what looked like an inseparable partnership ended. And I was passed down to my friend’s descendants along with the legend of the Dragon Slayer.***
‘Uhm.’
Years of peaceful dreams were suddenly disturbed by a commotion. I awoke to investigate what roused me from my slumber to find myself in the hands of a fat human who was waving me in the air wildly.
“From now on, I am the master of this sword!” he declares, thick air of arrogance swirling around him.
“Your Highness, no one other than His Majesty is allowed to touch the sacred sword. Please return it at once!” pleaded the escort knight to get the prince to let go of me.
‘Prince?’
I looked around the area and found the royal crest of the kingdom. The obese person who arrogantly claimed to be my new master is indeed the prince, a descendant of my friend.
‘Is he a prince, or a pig?’ I can’t help but wonder. Not a single inch of his body resembles that of my friend whose bravery was comparable to that of a lion. This person looked more like a pig than a mighty beast.
“Shut up! There’s nothing I can’t touch in this country!” he fumed, anger and frustration swelling inside him.
I have seen a lot in my lifetime, but this one was a truly shocking experience.
‘Nonsense!’
News of what became my friend’s lineage is hard to accept, so I decided to use the power of Judgment to find the truth.
□ Adrian Leonberger [male, 16 years old]
□ Aptitude. [none]
□ Characteristics. [Skeptic], [High Obesity], [Sheltered], [Horny], [Indolence], [Gullible], [Mana Response Disorder]
Leonberger… The very mention of the name was enough to knock the words out of me. It confirmed my deepest fears. He was indeed my friend’s descendant, but he was a descendant only by name, for his qualities could never match those my friend Gruhorn.
“With this sword by my side, His Majesty and the other nobles will have no choice but to follow meI” He announces arrogantly in the room for everyone there to hear.
“I don’t intend to lend you any of my powers.”
“Great Dragon Slayer! Give me strength!” The fat prince shrieked.
“No.”
“Gruhorn!” He shouted even louder with a tone of impatience.
This time I didn’t answer. The prince may be my friend’s descendant, but whether or not he is worthy of my power is another story.
“Ugh-woo-oh-oh-oh!” He grabbed me and ran around like the lunatic that he is. A fat prince turned wild boar with a deadly sword on his hands.
“Oh, this is bad!”
“Your Majesty! Please put the sword back!”
“You must not take the sword outside of the palace!”
All of their words fell on deaf ears as the prince went on with his theatrics. The other people didn’t react much to his actions, hinting that his antics might as well be his typical behavior every day.
Everything seemed like a harmless joke until he tried to use me to slash the air. His untrained body couldn’t maintain his balance, and he ended up falling forward.
There was a loud bump as his entire weight crashed onto the ground. My body, which was sharp enough to sever even the scales of mighty dragons, quickly burrowed itself into his soft flesh.
‘Huh?’
The smell of blood permeated my entire senses, something I have not experienced for a long time.
‘Oh, no!’
Panic engulfed me as I realized there was only one possible source of the blood that now coated me—my oldest friend’s descendant. Ironic that I who was charged with keeping him safe was the one who ended his life.
But the feeling of anguish was quickly replaced by a weird sensation that overwrote my entire senses. Suddenly, I don’t feel like my usual self. Physical pain, which I have not felt since my reincarnation as a sword, suddenly hit me. I could feel a large wound throbbing in my abdomen.
I tried to make sense of what was happening, but my vision was starting to fade. Even my consciousness began slipping away. Soon, everything turned dark, and I felt myself succumbing once more to a deep slumber.
***
When asked about who Adrian Leonberger is, most people would avoid the question with an awkward face.
If the one asking was one they trusted, you would hear them tell the story called the “The Royal Shame”. If you’re lucky, you’ll get more specific answers like:
“There’s nothing to say about him.”
“He is beyond any form of help.”
“The only thing great about him is his greed. No one in the kingdom can best him in terms of greed!”
“Stupid, lazy, cruel pig. That’s all there is to the prince.”
Criticisms like these are thrown around casually over drinks as long as there are no royal guards around.
King Idrión Leonberger was a courageous and wise ruler of the kingdom. But the same could not be said for his eldest son, Prince Adrian, who would inherit the kingdom from him when the time comes. He was like a dark cloud that hangs over the future of the
kingdom, casting a shadow dark enough to eclipse the sun.
Everybody in the kingdom feared that there would be no future for them should he succeed the throne. There was no disagreement regarding this matter; nobody wanted Prince Adrian on the throne.
But something happened one day that took everyone in the palace by surprise. Guards found the prince severely wounded. How he survived was a mystery to even the greatest healers of their kingdom. Although alive, the prince was unconscious.
Some quickly thanked the heavens for helping the kingdom avoid the fate of having Prince Adrian as their next ruler, and there were also those more prudent who asked first what happened.
Rumors of him getting stabbed by a sword he reckless swung around quickly spread. The fact that it was the sword engraved with the founding king’s mark, Dragon Slayer Gruhorn, did not help either.
This short celebration lasted only for a moment, for reports saying Prince Adrian had regained consciousness surfaced. It also says his body was also recovering without a single issue.
As expected, many were disappointed, and some even cried out, saying that the heavens abandoned their kingdom to the hands of the greedy and vain prince.
The prince’s recovery brought about changes that not many noticed. The first to detect these changes were the ladies of the royal palace.
“The prince isn’t flipping the tables recently like he used to do daily, and he has been silent for several days!”
“He has never called out my group since waking up, not even once!”
The ladies in the palace casually exchanged these words behind the prince’s back. They who had been accustomed to the prince’s madness daily are taken aback by the lack of commotion since he has woken up.
Despite these rumors flying around the castle walls, there were still those that paid no attention to the changes. Most of them simply assumed that the prince was merely hiding out of embarrassment of what happened. No one was willing to admit that the prince had a genuine change of heart. They were simply quietly biding their time until the prince slowly returns to his usual vanity.
But Prince Adrian, the center of these rumors, was not interested in what they had to say about him. He was more worried about something far more serious—the accident that he had committed.
‘Oh my god! I killed my friend’s descendant and stole his body!’ was all he could think of at the moment.
***
It was an accident. No one could blame me.
It wasn’t my fault that the legend of the “Dragon Slayer” bewitched the ruined prince, and he callously believed he could become a hero to rival his ancestors.
The feel of the ancient sword on his hands made the prince throb with excitement. He didn’t realize how dangerous the sword of legend was until it was too late. He died due to his ambition and carelessness. And now, somehow, through some weird trick of fate, the prince’s body lives on as my vessel.
‘Please take care of my descendants.’
His friend’s old request echoed in his mind once more. But instead of keeping them safe, he ended taking away the life of one of them. But what’s worse is that he also took over his body.
Time passed, and it was nearing the full moon. And yet I still could not find it in me to testify what truly happened and how the person who stood in front of them was no longer the same prince they once knew. He couldn’t even make himself mourn for the loss of the prince he killed.
“Oh, what can I do now?”
The answer was simple. I have to live on as the dead prince. But before I could even finish my thought, I found myself screaming out in laughter at the irony of the situation.
This was no equivalent exchange. Hundreds of years of accumulated power enough to fell dragons and monsters withered away in exchange for a fat prince’s body. The sword of legend that brought this kingdom into existence turned into a pile of flesh.
But I have not faltered before, nor will I now.
If, in the past, I managed to create an undefeated knight out of a submissive child, then surely this would not be a problem for me. Surely, I, who was able to turn numerous people in history into heroes, would succeed in making a hero out of this one.
“First, I need a mana heart.”
As always, the first step was to acquire a mana heart. The only difference this time is that I have to take the steps using my own two feet.
