Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: I Got Possessed, and Now the Heroine is Coming to Kill Me
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A survey popped up from the game I'd been playing every single day for ten years.
A unique bound character?
These guys, infamous for never communicating with customers and just cranking out whatever they wanted on their own, were suddenly doing this?
'This is suspicious.'
The devs from a company whose title was basically a joke, where a dragon never even appeared once in ten years.
But there was no downside to trying, so I poured my heart and soul into the survey.
I really put everything into that survey.
Brown-nosing the devs? I could do that all day.
If it meant I could snag that unique character they were giving to first place.
And for a few days, I waited with bated breath.
I believed no one had responded more sincerely than me, but with so many hardcore players around...
But then a new announcement shattered my excitement completely.
What the hell? Why are you doing this to us?
I told you to stop with the free service and monetize already so you could make some money.
I told you not to alienate newbies just to cater to veterans.
I filled every section to the 10,000-character limit.
And you shut down the servers?
You said there'd be an expansion pack!
I stormed into customer support and hammered out a furious complaint.
Just before hitting send, there was a flash of light in front of my eyes.
And when I opened them...
I had become the prince of the Arcana Kingdom.
The spoiled heir of a kingdom doomed to fall in the tutorial.
After falling into the world of Dragon Defense, I finally accepted reality.
I still didn't know if I'd really entered the game or if Dragon Defense was just another dimension that actually existed.
What mattered was that this country was going to vanish.
Not just fall—it would be erased completely.
The first quest players get during the tutorial is called <Fall of the Fallen Kingdom>.
The tutorial ends with the destruction of Arcana.
Once players finish the linked quests and leave the kingdom, a massive explosion rocks the capital, wiping it off the map.
All that's left is a crater hundreds of kilometers wide.
Eventually, it turns into a sea.
'Looking back now, that survey was fishy too. Was the "expansion pack" code for "possess a body and play it yourself"?'
Dragon Defense has incredibly high freedom.
The same quest can end differently for every player.
Even in the same game, every player's story unfolds uniquely.
But <Fall of the Fallen Kingdom> always ends the same way.
That's why veterans were always curious.
Was Arcana's fall an immutable constant baked into the scenario, impossible to change?
Or could players alter the outcome?
Countless veterans challenged it.
I was one of them.
And we all failed.
But now I've possessed—bound to—this prince?
At this rate, I'm dead.
"Arrrgh! You goddamn dev bastards!"
Fury boiled over, and I shouted before I knew it.
The door burst open. Attendants and maids rushed in, prostrating themselves and trembling.
"Prince! Please, calm yourself!"
"We dared to breathe too loudly! Punish us harshly and quell your anger, we beg you!"
I steadied my breathing.
The reason they were so terrified?
The original owner of this body—the crown prince—was a psychopath and a sociopath.
Hanging attendants upside down and flogging them for breathing too loudly was routine for this scumbag.
'First things first, let's try to fix my reputation.'
I'd tried being gentle at first, but it backfired spectacularly.
They just trembled even more, convinced they were about to die.
Digging through the prince's memories, I saw he had a habit of acting kind and sweet right before unleashing something horrific.
...Seriously sociopathic.
"I can't stand the vulgar sound of your trembling breaths. All of you, get out. I'll ring if I need anything."
"We are deeply honored!"
They scrambled out like they'd been spared execution.
Right now, that was the least damaging way to preserve my reputation.
No one would buy a lifelong scumbag prince suddenly turning kind and gentle.
They'd just think he was planning to flog them and rub salt in the wounds.
Ragna Volter Arcana II.
Curious if there was some tragic backstory, I'd sifted through his memories in detail.
All I learned was that pure evil needs no reason to be born.
'Even after possessing a body, it's a tutorial extra NPC doomed to die. There are tons of playable NPCs out there.'
Frustrated, I checked my character info.
'Stats'
Seeing the stat window exactly like the game UI made me think this really was inside the game.
These pitiful stats were why I couldn't just sneak out at night, even knowing the kingdom was doomed.
'I figured an NPC name would pop up over my head, but nope.'
Half game, half reality?
At least something good came with me...
The mod I'd installed to make the game easier had come with me.
It wasn't some OP cheat—just a time-saver.
Some high-grade items required appraisal by an appraiser NPC in a city before revealing their true specs.
And to get that, you had to visit a city of decent size.
It was a hassle.
Without it, you couldn't tell a pretending-to-be-normal Legend (A) or Myth (S) item from a Common (D).
So it was a convenience mod to instantly sort loot from trash.
'But F-rank? Does that mean it can grow here?'
The mod-turned-unique skill worked perfectly.
The names and full specs of the ceremonial weapons lining the hallway were all visible.
'If the skill rank goes up, maybe it'll pierce through more than just items. Lucky the mod came along.'
That said, what the hell was up with the Arcana palace?
Everything in sight was top-tier gear.
The ceremonial weapons in the halls were all Relic (B), Legend (A), or Myth (S) grade.
Yet the palace folk had no clue about the treasures right under their noses.
Knowing they'd all vanish at the end of the tutorial made me sick with regret.
What good were legendary and mythic items scattered like junk if I couldn't grab them?
This whole country was about to become a massive lake anyway.
"Prince."
An attendant snapped me out of my thoughts.
I deliberately snapped at him.
"Do you want to die? Want to be hung upside down and flogged?"
"P-Please forgive me."
Seeing the attendant brighten up and bow deeply filled me with pathetic misery...
To them, lines like that meant, "The prince is in a good mood!"
"Speak, you vulgar-tongued wretch."
The attendants' faces lit up even more.
Stay in character. Stay in character.
If I acted polite, they'd tremble thinking they'd be stripped and whipped.
For their mental health,
For preserving my reputation,
Keep up the scumbag act in moderation...
"Duchess Ceres of the Elryad Duchy has set out."
"What? Say that again. Speak."
"Duchess Ceres has departed for the wedding. She is expected to arrive at the palace in seven days."
'Damn, it's starting.'
Ceres was this body's fiancée.
She dies in the Arcana destruction.
The real problem was Ceres's younger sister, Canelian.
No one—not even family—knew she was the continent's youngest Swordmaster.
She's the NPC who gives the tutorial's first quest.
And that quest is...
'Help assassinate the scumbag prince.'
In other words, she's coming to kill me.
Two reasons for the assassination.
Prevent her frail sister's unhappy marriage.
Stop the scumbag from ruining the kingdom.
Pull it off without a trace, disguised as a natural accident for a perfect clear, and you get extra rewards.
'Unlocks the Canelian heroine route.'
I mainly played mage, and Swordmaster Canelian was a huge help.
Perfect clear the assassination quest, build affinity step by step through the story, and you could even marry her later.
'The marriage buff gives +5% EXP gain. Can't ignore that.'
The heroine who always tanked monsters in front of me was now coming to kill me...
'If I break off the engagement and renounce succession rights, will she call off the assassination?'
Probably not. No one would buy it.
"And... Duchess Canelian is in the guest palace."
"W-What? Why is Duchess Canelian already here?"
I yelled in shock, and the attendant trembled as he replied.
"Sh-She is the one who brought the news!"
The assassination route must've already opened.
Time to bolt. Today if possible.