Covered by my comfortable fur blanket and submerged in my soft bed, I abruptly woke up in distress. A specific phrase was inside my head. “You are not allowed to leave the palace unless I say so.” What the fuck! I just want the benefits of a prince! Not a fucking caged animal!

  I tried to get out of my bed and open the door to ask Orfield, who, I am one hundred percent sure of, was standing outside my room. Well, that was what I planned to do, but my bed was just far too comfortable. It was like glue was preventing us from being set apart, and I do not mind that.

  The forest, a wooden bed, this was so much better than even my past life’s bed. With my small body, I could even roll three times and not fall off. It felt majestic. This is all I wanted from being the prince. My smile dripped on the side of my lips and my eyes were barely open to view the world in a blurry reality.

  “Fuck!” I forced my body up and I shivered, immediately slapping my arms and my face. It was just last night that I planned to change and yet I’m now forgetting about it. Is it me? Or is this just how humans are? I questioned my every being, but I was used to it, so it really meant nothing.

  But I am given another chance. I mean… unlike before, my body doesn’t feel sore. My head doesn’t ache either. The only thing keeping me from moving is a good bed and nothing else. Not held down by an unhealthy body and spiraling mental health.

  I sighed at myself. The giant blanket over my body was heavy yet warm. The air in my room was so hot I could feel it from just the air I breathed. Thankfully mana was cold, which allowed me a wonderful sleep.

  Once my mind returned back to its level-headed state, I was now standing in front of my drawers. For days, my clothes were the same, and today marked the two and a half days I wore this blue cloth. The crown prince should have multiple arrays of clothes.

  And for my expectations, that was true. Just a single cabinet held more than 20 clothes, though calling them “individual” clothes was, kind of a stretch. However, unlike the clothes I was currently wearing, they had something more similar to the ones I had in the past.

  There was a detail in the clothes that I really did not pay much attention to. Actually, it was all over the palace itself, but I already understood what they were, and being someone who was cultivating and not really studying magic, they aren’t that useful to me as of right now.

  Sigils were placed on the clothes. They were magic circles that looked complementary to each other part, completing a certain feature to the wearer. However, such a matter didn’t matter to me. So, I picked the best clothes for me. A simple white shirt and black pants. I never said they actually looked good.

  Unlike what I first wanted to do, I didn’t instantly barge out of my room, instead the window caught my eye. There were beautiful flowers outside, fluttering like beautiful butterflies. I opened the window, letting the refreshing wind brush onto my face along with the tantalizing aroma of flowers.

  “Hah…” I took a chair and placed it directly in front of the window in the middle of the room. With the curtains flying in the air like a superhero cape, I placed my chin on top of both my hands, smiling at the view.

  There was a possibility of me being watched, but, that is precisely why I feared what the King said.

  If you think about it. Living a life where you are in constant observation, it’s quite horrifying. The original body went against the King? Maybe, being evil is valid in this case. I would be stuck in a rebellious phase too if I knew my own father was always watching me. I don’t even have the time to act freely, always needing to be serious and alert. That must be exhausting. No, it is exhausting. I’m going through it right now.

  My mind was completely blank as I stared at the garden of flowers. There were a few people working, but it seemed they were too far to notice me. After realizing and truly facing the problems I must overcome, giving up seemed so easy. However, I knew I couldn’t give up. Not because of some will to live but just that I don’t feel like dying again.

  “When life gives you problems, just die.” I stood up and closed the window. The curtains then covered my entire body as the wind stopped coming in. It was a bright morning and my stomach began to ache.

  Once I left my room, Orfield wasn’t there. I thought he would be waiting for me or guarding me for my every move. His not being here makes his remarks of always watching me absolutely pointless and stupid. Maybe my father made him stop watching me. I don’t know the reason, but if I was in his situation I would have cringed from all the words I’ve said.

  While standing still in front of my room, a servant came to me. “Good Morning, Your Highness.” His face was expressionless. Void of emotions. The man was wearing a black suit and held food in his hand. “I was just here to bring you, your breakfast, Your Highness.”

  “Huh. I just noticed, Orfield never always said Your Highness.” I said, instantly realizing I said that out loud. “I’d like to eat outside.” I said, brushing the previous sentence like it never existed.

  “I’ll ask the maids to clean the garden, Your Highness.” He bowed then turned around.

  “No need, just take me there.”

  “Yes, Your Highness.”

  The servants from yesterday were all afraid of me to the point some would cry, but this man was different. There was not a shed of fear in his eyes. His entire body was moving without an inch of shaking. It was like a robot.

  I tried sensing the mana inside him, but there was nothing in his heart. Then, after a few more seconds, a small source of mana was inside his heart and there was something inside his brain too.

  Before I could completely think of what was inside the servant’s body, I was shown the reaction I expected from the very beginning. Multiple maids carrying clothes on a basket greeted me a good morning with their bodies shaking. Once they said their greeting, they immediately walked away.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Oh well, I’ll care when I’m faced to care. I’m not a hero. But, I did want to increase my reputation a little bit.

  While walking to the back of the palace into the garden, I constantly stared at the servant in front of me. But whatever happened, I just couldn’t understand what was going on. Mana was constantly going around his brain and heart. They were so small yet so fast that it was hard to detect if you didn’t think of looking for them in the first place.

  “We are here, Your Highness. I apologize for the lack of cleaning in the garden’s dining table.”

  I was so engrossed with my thoughts that it was only when he talked that I realized we were here. He placed the food on a small square glass table with four glass chairs on each side. The table was in the middle of a small patio made with marble and designed like Greek architecture. It was a round base with pillars supporting the half-spherical roof.

  The patio was placed in the middle of the garden, surrounded by all the flowers. I sat at the glass chair and the servant bowed and was about to leave. “Stop, come here.”

  “Yes, Your Highness.”

  He walked up inside the small patio. “Kneel.” Then he followed my order with his head looking at the floor. Perfect. I placed my hand on his head and directed my mana inside his brain. With my eyes closed I tried my best to sense what my qi could feel inside someone else’s body. It was like walking on an empty road on a dark night with not a single star or the moon.

  It felt extremely cold. If I wasn’t careful, I would enter deep depression with just the feeling of this emptiness. After going deeper, I don’t exactly know where I am without having my eyes look at where the qi had already gone, but then soon a beam of mana dashed in front of me, appearing and disappearing instantly.

  I stopped the qi from moving and waited. That was the same mana I saw moving around his brain and heart. After a few more seconds, the mana passed again, then again, and again. After a few more times, there was nothing more special than just a single orb of mana rotating around the brain.

  Without knowing what else to do, I decided to simply take the mana from the brain and absorb it. Then I went ahead and did the same thing to the one inside the heart. Once I opened my eyes I ordered the servant to stand back up.

  “Please don’t kill me, Your Highness!” His hands immediately grabbed onto my shorts. Tears started to fall from his eyes without even a second passing. “Please don’t kill me, Your Highness!” He repeated again. This time much louder.

  But after a few more wails, he looked around and went into silence. “I won’t kill you, so calm down.”

  His eyes were swollen and tears filled his cheeks, making ponds for ants on the ground. After looking back at me, he stared at his hand for a split second and immediately took it out. In the process of being shocked he was about to trip and he stood up, bursting his entire body off the patio and then bowing on dirt.

  “I am sorry, Your Highness!”

  Based on his face, he was incredibly confused. It wasn’t just the simple fear the servants had at me, but it was more. It wasn’t the fear of me, but the fear of death.

  “Stand up.”

  The servant jolted up with both his arms glued to his sides and shoulders stiff like a rock. His entire body was shaking and I could see from his cheeks that he was trying his best to stop his tears.

  “Stop biting your teeth.”

  I sighed, it wasn’t just him who was questioning what was going on, it was me too. Before I continued, I tried to look around for Orfield if there was any chance that he was hiding. The mage I had in my party before was able to conceal her mana but not to the point it was invisible. However, I truly believe Orfield could make it invisible. From the moment I met him, there was only a small amount of mana in his body, yet his prerogative to not address me as “Your Highness” in each sentence, proved all that mana was just a lie.

  Maybe my thoughts were all for nothing. Just a useless rumble, but that is the whole point. All this overthink is how the people in this world can survive. Fuck! I tried to remove the thought of being exposed away at the current moment. So what if Orfield sees I’m not acting like how the Crown Prince really acts, I was out right? I don’t know where, but I was definitely gone from the palace for a long time. I could have changed. Personality at the very least.

  After being done with my wasteful thoughts, I asked the servant his name first.

  “I don’t th-”

  “I know what you're gonna say so shut up. Your gonna say you're not worthy for me to know your name? Then how dare you think you’re worthy of talking back to me.”

  He flinched, then immediately shouted his name. “Rits, Your Highness! My name is Rits!”

  I chuckled. Of course, I want to increase my reputation. The reputation has to be of good nature too, but just playing boss is such a fun time. However, acting like a good person is just as fun. It was like that time I talked with the girl from the clothing shop. Well, that one was kind of embarrassing, but if I was a woman and I saw my face, I understand her reaction. Though a little pedophiliac, hey, this is the time were people get pregnant at the age of ten.

  After covering my mouth with my laughter, I stood up from my chair and walked towards Rits. “Rits, I am sorry,” I said calmly, with my eyes shaking and my lip lightly smiling. “But, some circumstances had made me forget some things, and… so… can you tell me what I was going to do with you? Why are you begging me not to kill you? Can you tell me what you remember?”

  His eyes were still trembling from fear. But with a little tug of his shirt, he started to speak. “It… was…” Though his words struggled to come out. “Jus…t yes-terday. You. Told me. That. I would be turned into those things…”

  Those things?

  “When I came. To. The du-du-du…ngeon. I met you. Then. I woke up here, Your Highness”