The Wondrous Dream of the Genius Prince
“Rua!”
I jolted awake, my eyes snapping open. But the master was nowhere to be found.
The dream my teacher had sent me was terribly heart-wrenching.
In my previous life, Rua had become a woman after winning the civil war within the Reichland Empire. She had then proposed we fight together.
But at that time, I had already overthrown a tyrant from another country and formed a wandering mercenary knight squad.
Therefore, I could not accept her offer.
Was this the dream I had longed for?
Then, a small note left beside me caught my eye.
What is this?
It read: “I have adjusted your body to my liking. Go ahead and feel it for yourself!”
What a creepy message.
Thinking about it, when my teacher appeared as a woman, she had been extremely beautiful.
Across all my previous lives, I had never seen a woman more beautiful than her.
But that was not the issue.
It was clear that my teacher could change not only her appearance to an elderly form but also her speech patterns entirely.
I must never be fooled by the form of a beautiful woman.
After all, even the legendary teacher, the great mage Merlin, who appeared in legends, had been a notorious lecher who would immediately start flirting with anyone who seemed female.
Countless mages admired Merlin for his magical prowess and saw him as the ideal figure, but his character was entirely beyond reproach.
“Adjust my body to my liking and have me feel it myself…”
My teacher’s words that I should feel it myself had carried a slightly lewd joke, but I understood what she meant.
To reexamine my physical condition and the flow of mana.
I didn’t need to look closely; the lingering dream had vanished, and I immediately felt refreshed.
When I checked the clock, I had only slept for an hour.
Yet my body felt light, thanks to my teacher’s care in many ways.
In my previous life, I had scrimped on sleep to devote myself to swordsmanship training all day, but now I felt no need to pour my entire day into it.
The path to the training grounds was already open.
Lying on the roadside bed, I examined my physical condition as my teacher had instructed.
My muscles had been adjusted to move easily.
But what astonished me most was this.
Mana flowed through every part of my body.
Normally, one would condense mana in the chest to form a circle and manipulate it. That was the basic of mana manipulation.
But my body had completely broken from that theory.
Now, my entire body was one massive circle.
‘If a mage were to look inside me, they would be horrified.’
Anyone who manipulated mana had worked to increase the number of circles they carried in their chest.
Yet it was rare to find someone with seven or more circles.
When the Alliance formed, the continent’s strongest gathered, but even among them, only about ten 8-circle individuals existed.
Even the 9-circle I had met in my previous life numbered just three.
Saintess Anais, myself, and one more who was not of this world.
The Demon King.
‘Wait. I only reached 8 and 9 circles because my teacher helped, right?’
I had acquired eight circles when I first received the sword named Regret from the old man and began wielding it.
It was strange; when I held Regret, mana flowed more smoothly.
Thanks to that, I could manipulate mana more cleanly and efficiently, and I was able to condense it into eight circles.
Reaching 9 circles had been the last thing in my life.
Right when I shattered the mana crystal.
The mana crystal had exploded, releasing filthy mana.
Some of my companions could not withstand the filthy mana and went mad or lost their lives.
Originally, I should have met that fate too.
But even then, Regret had helped me.
The sword Regret had absorbed the filthy mana pouring from the mana crystal instead of me, purified it, and filled my body with pure mana.
When I came to my senses, I had nine circles.
‘How fortunate.’
Even thinking about it now was bitter.
Even in my previous life, the teacher who had constantly helped me.
If she had helped me just a little more, my companions and I might still be alive.
Knock, knock.
Someone was at the door. The guard knocked.
“Your Highness, are you awake?”
“What is it?”
“Lord Godfrey has come to see you.”
“Lord Godfrey? Please let him in at once.”
Godfrey von Aden, the captain of the Kingdom of Solea’s knight order.
He was none other than my grandfather’s personal disciple.
The veteran who had protected Solea from its founding to the present, older than my father.
A knight who had reached the upper echelons of the 7-circle, just short of 8-circle.
Despite his long white beard, no one in Solea could defeat him.
Of course, there were few such skilled individuals across the entire continent.
“Prince Erewon, I am honored to meet you. I apologize for the sudden visit.”
“Not at all. You are my swordsmanship teacher.”
“What are you saying? I am not the prince’s swordsmanship teacher. I would like to guide you properly, but His Majesty has forbidden it, so…”
My father had disliked me intensely for neglecting all duties to focus solely on swordsmanship. Thus, I had to train alone without a swordsmanship teacher.
Godfrey, as captain, had managed a busy schedule but had secretly taught me little by little.
“That was all my fault. I simply couldn’t help but enjoy swordsmanship too much.”
“Even if His Majesty dislikes it, I believe there is no problem in devoting oneself to swordsmanship. Swordsmanship is not just swinging a blade; it is a rigorous academic discipline that encompasses life and philosophy.”
“Words fit for an 8-circle knight.”
“8-circle? It is merely reaching the 7-circle realm.”
“Ah, you are leaving soon anyway.”
“Haha, that would be best.”
When two people who loved swordsmanship met, smiles bloomed.
I asked my attendant to let me speak with Godfrey longer.
“Prepare two cups of tea.”
“Eh? No, Your Highness. You just asked to prepare tea?”
Godfrey’s expression suddenly stiffened.
“I-Is there something wrong? I only came to share tea with you after such a long time…”
“I came specifically to take you to your training session, which you had missed today. And now you want to drink tea? What nonsense is this!”
There was no secret teaching.
Everyone in the palace knew that Godfrey taught me swordsmanship.
My father knew as well, but he could not complain because it was Lord Godfrey himself guiding me.
No matter how much of a king, he was an unignorable founding hero and the strongest in Solea.
He was a peculiar old man who insisted I train at the fixed time every day, claiming he was not my swordsmanship teacher.
That was Godfrey von Aden, nicknamed “The Irate Tiger.”
“Your Highness, you can swing your sword a hundred more times while waiting for tea!”
Godfrey’s shout echoed through the palace.
It probably reached my father’s study even from afar.
Sometimes, when I skipped training, Lord Godfrey would come to my room and drag me out. That was the daily routine.
But things had changed now.
“You cannot train by merely swinging the sword, Lord Godfrey.”
“Hm?”
Godfrey’s strict expression softened for a moment.
In his puzzled look, I could sense the thought: ‘What is this brat saying?’
“However, Your Highness is still a novice knight who has not even reached the 2-circle level. What can you do without swinging a sword?”
That was right.
It had been Lord Godfrey who opened the path of the sword for me when I reached 1-circle.
But I had already surpassed higher realms than that.
“Consider this, Lord Godfrey. Do you think I spent my time away from training in vain?”
“That could be true.”
“No… What do you think I am, Lord Godfrey?”
“I felt an interest in the sword, but I still consider you a novice.”
Lord Godfrey kept repeating the word “novice.”
He was probably trying to dismiss my opinion by exploiting the gap between us.
“Usually, thirty minutes have passed since Your Highness was supposed to come out, yet you didn’t. That is why I came to escort you personally. So, what did you do for thirty minutes?”
If I could not give a proper excuse here, I would have to swing the sword for thirty extra minutes during normal training time.
I needed a plan.
“Actually, I was surprised by my own achievement.”
“What achievement? Tell me at once.”
“Lord Godfrey, if I had created ‘Sword Qi’…”
“I do not believe you.”
Godfrey cut me off sharply.
“Let me ask you instead. If you were this old man, would you believe what the prince says?”
Indeed, it sounded sudden.
But thanks to my teacher’s touch on my body, I could now manipulate mana regardless of circles.
Since my body was not yet fully accustomed to it, I might not create even a solid Sword Gang, but if I could hold enough mana, I believed I could create the 5-circle stage, the intermediate between Sword Qi and Sword Gang.
Beginners should start from the basics, of course.
But I, who had already reached the peak, would rather die than start from the basics again.
“If you do not believe, I will show you. Let us go.”