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“Your Highness!”

I was half-awake, my head was blank, and Adelia kept saying things I didn’t understand. Nothing made sense to me anymore.

“Highness!”

“Why! So wha?t!” I screamed, faced with her hungry emotions.

‘Snp!’

Then, Adelia took my hand and started leading me somewhere.

“What are you doing now?” I asked, looking at both her hands placed side-by-side upon my chest, and she smiled brightly.

“Do you feel it?”

Her laughter and questions were beyond my grasp.

“Let me understand it step by step. I can’t figure out what the hell is-”

So, when I asked her what was going on, Adelia bit her lip, and I suddenly felt a sense of incongruity within me. It first started where her palms made contact with my chest. No, to be precise, I didn’t know whether it had flowed from the palms of her hands, or if it had, unawares to me, already flowed from her fingertips.

It was just confusing.

All I could do was keep my nerves on the alert, and focus with great desperation on identifying this unknown sense within my body. Something tickled my heart… Something very faint, so faint that you wouldn’t notice it if you don’t focus on it; and it was running through my chest. It felt exciting!

I pursued it as if I was possessed. Then it became liquid, a weak energy flowing through my heart. I knew what it was, with it instantly filling my heart: it was a source of strength I had lost since the day I died. It was the source of life I had to give up and thought to have been rendered irretrievable. Mana—the nature of the energy coursing through my chest was unmistakably mana. And not ordinary mana either, but the mana of my true body that I had longed for so much.

Although it was only a small part of the original powerful energy, it could only create a slim sword aura on its own.

At this point, I was now fully awake. It felt as if, after walking in the fog, my hazy spirit awakened at once. Only then did I know why I hadn’t noticed the energy flowing through my body immediately. It was too strange in nature to notice early. My mana heart was still terribly broken.

“How the hell?”

Just in case, I checked it again. This was no miracle… my artificial mana heart was still as dry as desert sand, still broken and unchanged without even a handful of energy. Nevertheless, it was clear that mana had flowed through my body. I tried to clear the confusion and concentrated my mind. I marshaled my consciousness and contemplated my insides. Where did the mana originate, and where did it go? I chased the slowly-flowing mana, and I pursued the energy for such a long time that it became frustrating. Still, I finally found out where the mana began and ended: my heart. This was not mana flowing through my artificially-woven mana heart, but rather more integrated, with it starting within my real heart, becoming one with me, and ending there again.

My head was blank. There are people in the world who collect mana in their real hearts instead of mana hearts? And I’m like this, an abnormal case?

“Ha… Haha-”

Only laughter flowed from my lips.

“Your Highness!”

I was smiling with all my heart, and it felt too much unlike me-

‘Waf!’

Adelia plunged into my arms.

“Sir! Congratulations, I don’t know how lucky you are! I actually believed, I certainly believed it, but…”

At first, Adelia was happy, then she became indecisive and suddenly burst into grotesque sobs. Her tears and runny rose sploshed all over me.

“Ugh.”

I hated it. Normally, I would have pushed her back for being dirty, but this time I couldn’t.

‘Guoak!’

Even though Adelia’s body was small, she was still an imposing champion of the kingdom, and it was impossible to prevent her from sticking to me like a leech.

“Adelia, let go of me…”

“I thought your Highness would do it. No matter what—that is your Highness.”

I told her to get off me many times, but she didn’t listen. With her nose making slobbering sounds, she continued to express her steadfast trust, again and again saying she believed that I would surely do it.

I hadn’t done anything. This ridiculous change that has just happened in my body was simply absurd. Even in the midst of so much confusion, I managed to remove Adelia from me with a shove; she was no longer sticking to me.

“Your Highness?” The door promptly opened and a palace knight entered; it was Carls.

“Did you feel comfortable at night… Your Highness? Sir Adelia?”

Carls tilted his head as he looked at Adelia and me.

“What have you been doing all morning?”

“His Highness has recovered his mana!” Adelia cried out before I could even open my mouth.

Her usual, weepy tone was now filled with boundless excitement. Carls widened his eyes and looked at me. In a brief span, the honest palace knight’s expression changed countless times.

“Your Highness, it’s a good development.”

Then, after a while, Carls gave a brief congratulation. As expected from the serious Carls, his reaction was plain. At least, I thought so.

“I will have to let his Majesty and others know about this good news.”

Suddenly, Carls left, stomping out the door.

“His Highness has recovered mana! His Highness has recovered his body!”

Soon enough, I heard loud shouts come from outside the door. The loud sound of the knight’s voice echoed throughout the palace.

**

Not long after Carls had shouted, the guests began striking. It was the king and my knights, dragging the wizard along with them.

“What does it mean, healer? Come on, look at the prince’s body and tell us.”

Hearing the king’s words, I rolled up my sleeves and stood before the wizard. The flashes of light gathered on his fingertips and he touched me all over my body. This time, he was again unusually meticulous in his examination.

“Let’s look once more.”

Even though he had already carefully studied my body, he declared he would do so again.

“You are working too hard, wizard.”

The person examining my body was not in his younger years, and he was sweating. So, I felt sorry for him, praising him for his hard work. After I had bowed my head to express my gratitude, he continued looking at my body for a long time. Then, his diagnosis finally finished, the wizard stepped back.

“It’s weird… It’s weird.”

Seemingly dumbfounded, the physician stroked his beard, his mouth agape. King Lionel asked for the reason for his befuddlement, not able to hide emotions.

“Obviously, his Highness’ mana heart remains damaged. If that was all it was, then there would normally be no mana.”

“It’s a fact that you have already confirmed, court wizard, or am I wrong?”

“It is not so. I also clearly felt the weak mana flowing in his Highness’s body.”

Mana not flowing through a mana heart or chain was a confusing concept for the wizard to grasp, and he said it was the first time for him to see such a thing.

“So, is there something wrong with my son’s body?”

“That’s not the case. As a careful result of examining his humors, I ascertained that he is not better nor worse off than he was a few days ago.”

Those who had been waiting for the healer’s answer with uneasy faces now sighed in relief, all of them at once. It seemed that my body had been in a very bad condition thus far, and seeing everyone be relieved just by the wizard’s diagnosis made me feel that things haven’t gone bad at all. The king and knights asked the wizard questions for a while after that, and the scholar answered them with sincerity. The conversation can roughly be summarized like this:

‘There isn’t a noticeable change right now, but a mana-bearing body has exceptional resilience, so if you watch him over time, there will be a difference.’

“You healed up on your own again.”

The king gave me a bold look. The knights didn’t speak up, but their expressions weren’t much different from the king’s.

“Congratulations, Your Highness.”

“I always say the beginning is half the struggle, so, sooner or later, there will come good things.”

They radiated a spirit of respect as if I had done something great. All I had done was go to sleep and wake up, as usual. In the meantime, only my uncle was confused, clearly not knowing what was going on.

“Uncle Bale?”

I was brazen, asking him why he didn’t congratulate me.

“Congratulations, Ian.”

Only then did he praise me—looking in the wrong direction. Suddenly, I was angry. I knew the faeries’ temperament was nasty, but looking into my uncle’s eyes, my fear of them soared.

“Stop overthinking things. Isn’t this the time when you should do your best to harden your body?”

My uncle was really good at discerning my inner emotions.

“What the hell are you saying?” I asked him bluntly, my heart upset. My uncle only made his ragged face laugh when he heard my words. The king and knights stayed by my side for a while after that, but they didn’t stay that long. The king said he had a job to do, and the others left after him. I realized they were leaving so that I could spend time with my uncle after being so long apart.

“But uncle—don’t you need time to talk to Vincent?”

“We shared as much as we need to.”

“That’s not true, he’s just his own child. I’m sure he’ll get upset.”

“He’s already out of my arms. Also, he’s a guy capable of leading the family and protecting himself.”

At that, I sneered.

“No.”

I remembered the terrible future that Ophelia had shown to me when my uncle asked me sternly, “It looks like he wasn’t very reliable to you?”

If I didn’t correct the misunderstanding right away, in all likelihood, Vincent would have to face his father’s loud voice for the first time in many years. I knew this well, but I didn’t dare to correct it.

“Why, no. His nagging is very bad. He’s always looking at what I’m doing, that side of him is a bit bad.”

Rather, I encouraged my uncle to punish Vincent. He needed to be scolded. At best, the weak-minded duke, who seemed to have died as if the world had come to its end, needed a prickly and swift education. That way, he would be able to stay alert enough to survive in this tough world. Of course, the incident I worried about hadn’t really happened, but that wasn’t what mattered.

“By the way, why did those damned guys hold you, uncle?”

“Just guessing, I think there was a hidden hand in the matter.”

“They thought that by keeping uncle, they would overturn the board.”

“Was my ransom so expensive?”

“That’s what I mean,” I responded, “the only duke in the kingdom is your son, and you are the Crown Prince’s nephew. Besides, you are the first penta-knight of the kingdom.”

“After hearing that, this body feels more precious to me.”

“So, please treat your body a little. What the hell do you want to do in your final years, when you should be watching your grandchildren?”

Hearing my words, Uncle Bale said with a smile, “Isn’t Vincent too ugly to have children? Why are you looking at me so slyly?”

I replied in a somewhat stern voice, “Don’t be confident with a penta-chain. I’ve been through one once, and pentas are not invincible.”

I told my uncle of the day when the Nightmare Knights attacked the palace. Of how I fought and won that day. In fact, I had struggled to the brink of death, and I was bedridden for quite some time after the fight, but that’s a story for another day. I was the one who had won, anyway.

“Okay? That’s not much. I’m your enemy after all, as a penta-knight.”

Then, I informed him that I, his nephew, was the great knight who had defeated a penta-knight, with my uncle telling me it was an honor to know this, and he said so with sincerity.

“According to your tale, you killed a foreign penta-knight, so you should be proud of that.”

My uncle liked that I had won.

“What else have you heard so far? I have beaten more than penta knights.”

I felt the same way. Still, no matter how close my uncle was to me, there were certain parts of him that could never yield.

“Well… This person called the Knight of Nightmare is not a proper penta-knight. It’s very hard to sympathize with you.”

My uncle was so laid-back that it was ridiculous.

“Oh, so if there is a fake penta, then what is a real penta?” Facing his attitude, my mood improved without me even being aware of it.

“Didn’t you tell you before?”

However, my uncle remained calm.

“I- What do you mean?”

“That not all mana hearts are the same. That the real ones are different,” my uncle imitated my speech.

“Why are you imitating my tone now?” I asked with a frown, but my uncle didn’t seem to be listening to me.

“I will answer you the same way,” he just continued with what he had been saying, “just because someone has a penta-chain doesn’t mean they are a penta-knight. The real thing is different.”

He spoke in a tone full of confidence. It was a strange thing for me to witness. My uncle could barely see with his eyes, and he had lost an arm and even has a crippled foot. But it didn’t once sound as if he was bluffing. I was speechless as I stared at him. It was then that he softly asked me, “Do you remember?”

“What do you mean?”

“When I had gained a small clue in my heart, I asked you whether the power of Muhunshi was allowed to Ring Knights—what was the answer you gave me?”

I quietly searched my memory.

One day before the battle with the Night Slayer, what answer did I give my uncle?

“Although it’s impossible to write a poem and recite it—I think it’s possible if you act it out.”

“Stop changing my words now…”

“You might have given directions, but you never gave detailed instructions.”

I certainly had some memory of that.

At the time, my uncle stood in the middle of a forked road. I then thought that it was the goal of all Ring Knights to create poems to complete their power, so I spared my words. I couldn’t say anything about a road I’ve never traveled upon.

“Yes, you did. That’s why I was able to take my first steps on a road no one had ever walked, finally being able to become a penta-knight in the battle against the Warlord.”

My uncle’s voice noticeably softened.

“All thanks to you.”

“I didn’t do it seeking gratitude.”

“You can ask me not to be grateful, but I can’t help but pay you back.”

My uncle turned his head straight at me.

“What does it matter if it’s a chain, a mana heart, or a real heart?”

He went on to say, “Don’t be afraid that there is no way. The direction in which you walk will soon become the way.”

The paths already walked by others always end, yet never stop.

“Of course, it will not be easy. It will be as tough as wandering in pitch-black darkness. There will be hard moments with every step that you take.”

Uncle Bale added, “But I bet you now, a hundred times out of a thousand times, the pain will be joyful.”

He said that the joy and fulfillment you will experience while walking on the path could only be said to be unspeakable. His few words really meant nothing, but I could not reply—my mind flashed.

The days passed through my head. When I first woke up in this body, everything was fun. The fact that everything I had accomplished had come from my own will elevate me endlessly. It was fun, like when a warrior who does not know the thunderbolt is approaching swings his sword like crazy in the storm.

I had fun, but it ended. At some point, I completely forgot about such pleasures. Since then, training had just become a labor to recreate the power of the past, and all my actions became a struggle to make the kingdom escape its dark reality. I used to say I should be strong, and I said that wielding a sword was more fun than anything else. Suddenly, I was just following the past. It was only upon realizing this that I could escape from it. Only then could I see the present with unblurred eyes. And only after this can I finally live for the future.

‘Thump thump thump thump!’

My heart hammered madly in my chest. At that very moment-

A flash of light burst into my head. There was a great roaring in my ears.

‘Waaaw!’

It sounded as if a solid rock bank was being torn off a cliff. And one instant later, something poured into me from somewhere deep.