I Became the First Prince

now quickly returned to their original states.

“You… I… I won’t let it happen like that.
I won’t just wait and watch,” she said and smiled gently.
Right then-

“It’s a really nasty trick.”

A welcome voice came from behind Ophelia’s back.

“Ann!” I turned in the direction of the voice.
Agnes, with a somewhat unpleasant-looking face, was approaching Ophelia and me.
The Dragon Slayer, the progenitor of the Leonberger family, was also there.

“I guessed it was you,” the king said.
“It wouldn’t have been possible to awaken all the deeply slumbering souls without you.”

“I just hope I didn’t interfere with your sleep.”

He and Ophelia exchanged greetings, for they had climbed Mount Seori together four hundred years ago.
However, Agnes did not wait too long for them to share in the joy of their reunion.

“Don’t you have to show us your grotesque form? Do you need to make it more disturbing by appearing alive?”

“I guess you don’t like my power very much.”

Despite Agnes’s overbearing reprimand, Ophelia did not show even a bit of agitation.

“I hated the prophets of olden times,” Agnes said.
“Even after hearing their foresights, I couldn’t figure out what to think.
I felt deceived.” Agnes frowned, and her mood did not seem pleasant.

“I was just worried that a deep-hearted person might miss something important because of his feelings.
There was no other meaning,” Ophelia assured her.

“Hey, that thing has been indecisive since time immemorial.
He talked about the magic sword and everything and didn’t fully grasp the atmosphere.
So, it didn’t get much of nutritional value from us.”

Agnes touched her chin for a moment, muttered ‘Yes’, and spoke on.

“In the end, it was useless.
Even if it wasn’t, I had predicted the situation and was about to kick his arse and return him to his original hole.”

Having said that, she glanced at Ophelia, then looked at me.

“Tchu.
You’re weak, you’re missing this.”

Agnes gave a short cluck of her tongue and suddenly reached her hand out to me.
Seeing the blobs of light floating above it, my eyes widened—because these were the pieces of my soul that had been shattered and swallowed by the darkness.

“How did you do this?”

“Somehow, I split the beast and took it out.”

I fell in love with her words, which she uttered as if they were insignificant.
Her attitude was absurd as she spoke of sundering the mighty darkness as if it had been the mere cutting of a fish’s belly on a plate.

“We’re not completely finished with him.
We just disabled it for a while.
Over time, he will regain his original shape,” Dragon Slayer explained the situation on behalf of Agnes.

“Then the other people…”

“By now, everyone will be recovering from their weakened souls.
Well, some of them may have disappeared, but I’m not interested in the weak ones anyway.”

Hearing Agnes’s words, I sighed in relief.
Contrary to her blunt words, when I looked at her warm expression, I knew everyone else was okay.

“Since when are you so worried about others?” Agnes asked, clucking her tongue as she looked at me.

“Hmm.” Then, the Dragon Slayer stepped forward, stretching out his hand.
A sliver of a weak soul was floating above it.

“This is not mine…”

“It is the soul of the original owner of your body,” he explained as I wondered about the soul’s identity.
“The weak guy had shot out at the terrifying darkness by himself and was eventually consumed by the void, losing his ego.
All that remains are weak thoughts and memories.”

“Why give this to me?”

“It will be necessary to get back to where you were.”

Before I could even say anything, Agnes took the piece and put it to my chest.

“Ah, stay still.
Think of it as a remedy that you don’t have to eat.
There is nothing more to say.”

When I looked at my chest with a grim face, the pieces had already been absorbed into my body, leaving no trace.

I looked at Agnes and gave an unsure laugh when the Dragon Slayer suddenly reached out his hand again.

“I feel the weight of the burden that you had to bear due to my excessive greed.
You can think that it because I am selfish, but honestly, I think you are very lucky in the kingdom you are in.
Please, the kingdom-”

“This bastard is still unconscious, and already carrying enough luggage.
Shut up… Fuck.
Because he still has to get out of here.”

Bearing the brunt of Agnes’s scolding, the Dragon Slayer’s face became hot.
His peculiar coercion as a knight, which had reached [Mythic] level, slowly spread out.

“Hasn’t he already done well enough?” Agnes demanded.
“Open your eyes.
You have to have a conscience.”

The king nodded at her criticism, spat out a pained grunt, and looked at me again.
Then he suddenly reached out his hand.

“I’m sorry.
And thank you.”

It took me a moment to realize the meaning of his gesture; I also reached out my hand and gripped his large palm.

“Get out of here.
Don’t pretend you have a conscience now.” Agnes pushed him away and came to stand in front of me.

“Take a good meal and eat when you wake up.
This prince doesn’t have good blood, and his body isn’t good enough.”

“It’s still growing,” I protested.

“Fuck, seems the same to me.
Maybe after your metamorphosis, you barely escaped being a dwarf.”

I was going to say something, upset at her attitude of mocking me, with the tips of her mouth curled into a smirk.

‘Warak!’

But then, Agnes hugged me.

“Don’t feel that you’re somebody else’s plaything anymore, don’t notice such things.
Live confidently.
Live this single life you have properly.
Live with an abundance of happiness so that you don’t have any regrets later.
Do everything that others do.
Do everything that others have not done.”

Hearing her soft voice, I also raised my arms and carefully hugged her back.

“You deserve it,” she said as she grabbed my two shoulders and looked me in the eye.
“Not as Gruhorn, but as Adrian Leonberger.”

Agnes pulled me toward her, and an unfamiliar sensation touched my forehead.

“Enjoy all the happiness you can attain as a human being.”

Before I even realized what was happening, Agnes grabbed me with force.

“Bye.”

Then she hurled me aside, throwing me away-

“Huh?”

…toward a place where there was a pure white light that I had not known had come into being.

“See you again.
Ian.”

As Agnes said goodbye behind my back, I was sucked into the light.

**

“Ah…”

When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on my fluffy bed.
While directionlessly shifting my eyes, I heard a voice come from nearby.

“I- Your Highness?”

When I turned my head, Adelia was staring at me with a ghostly face.
Tears quickly filled her drooping, haggard eyes.

“Your Highness! Your Highness! Your Highness!”

She ran into my arms, her face wet with tears, her nose runny.
I hated it, but she stubbornly buried herself into my arms.

“Your Highness! Your Highness!” Adelia cried sadly in my embrace.

“What? His Highness?”

I heard the sound of footsteps and voices outside the door, and this made me laugh.

It felt like I had finally come home after a long time.