I Became the First Prince

e man were their hair colors and age.
If Lionel had to pick out the key difference, it was the fact that the man in the mirror had a slightly softer look.
Lionel raised his hand and touched his face.
The silver-haired man in the mirror touched his face the same way.

Lionel gasped in surprise, and the mirror-man also became stupefied.
Only then did Lionel realize it: It was his own reflection.

He couldn’t figure out why his white-bleached hair had become a mystical silver and where all the wrinkles that had filled his face had gone.

‘Duk! Duk! Duk!’

While Lionel was looking in the mirror blankly, someone knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Lionel said quietly after hesitating for a moment.

The door soon opened, and the heads of the kingdom appeared led by the commander of the palace knights.
They were all visibly startled, stretching their eyes wide as they took in the king’s altered appearance.

Lionel frowned with embarrassment, not knowing how he could explain the situation.

However, it was an unnecessary worry.

Count Stuttgart, Marshal Bielefeld, Prime Minister Kirgayen; not one asked him about the change.

“We are overjoyed at your Majesty’s recovery!”

They simply congratulated him with thrilled faces, as if they knew everything.

Now, the situation was rather that Lionel had to ask them what the circumstances were.

“How the hell did this happen? I know that kid healed me, but I can’t figure out what this big mass of mana is next to my heart and how my appearance has become that of a stranger.”

The commander of the palace knights stepped forward and answered his question.

“His Highness said that he judged that your Majesty’s two rings would disturb the healing energy, trapping it in their chain.
To make the energy completely yours, he broke the rings and formed a new mana heart.”

Lionel could scarcely believe it.

Breaking rings is what he’s seen knights do to their enemies, and he’s never heard it to be possible to create mana heart in the body of another person.

But even if he couldn’t believe it, the heavy lump he felt in his chest was proof enough.

“I am glad that you have become more powerful, sire,” old Bielefeld suddenly stammered out a congratulation out of the blue.
When Lionel asked why he said this, the old marshal answered him with a smile.

“Your Majesty has absorbed the same amount of mana as a Master.
It will be very useless right now, but it is a strength that your Majesty will always have and can develop with constant effort.”

Lionel could not help but be surprised all over again.
Although he had thought the lump in his chest was heavy, he hadn’t realized just how much mana it contained.
But his surprise soon turned into a frown.

“You talk as if I am a champion.”

“If your Majesty achieves great success in gaining enlightenment appropriate to your spirit, to become a champion is not impossible.”

“With my qualities, I don’t think that it’ll be easy to not only battle with but also harden this heart.”

Lionel knew that even if he possessed the same amount of mana as a Master, he couldn’t break down the wall because of his poor qualities.

“Where is my son? Where is the prince?”

“His Highness the Crown Prince is in the process of replenishing his energy.”

Lionel now blamed himself even more.
His son had performed a transfusion to change the nature of the mana held by another.
How much effort had been spent to achieve this?

He wasn’t sure, but he knew that his body must’ve been hungry, and his son, the future of the kingdom, had surely expended a great amount of energy.

Lionel still considered his eldest son to be far too foolish.
On the other hand, the fact that his son had used the elixir on his father, a substance considered to be a heavenly treasure, felt good to the king.

His judgment was so confused and conflicted that he couldn’t easily speak.
He only smiled, but the Marquis of Bielefeld then smiled gently.
He said only half of the elixir was used for treatment and that the Crown Prince had kept the other half.

Those words comforted Lionel quite a bit.

“I have to go to my son.”

When Lionel started to move, intent on going to the Palace of the First Prince, Marshal Bielefeld stepped up and held him back.

“For the time being, the Crown Prince has to be disciplined to recover his energy, so he asked that your Majesty not visit him before he can come out on his own.
He told me to ask your Majesty to finish the rest of the work.”

“The child struggled so much to heal my body that he injured himself,” Lionel said and turned to Siorin Kirgayen.
“Prepare yourself to report everything that happened while I was away.”

“Your Majesty has just recovered from your injury.
I don’t think it would be right for me to act so formally.”

Hearing the words of the Prime Minister, King Lionel just laughed.

“I’ve never been more energetic and clear-headed in my lifetime than I am now.
No, Prime Minister, you should not be worried about me.
You should be bringing in the representative of Teuton.”

These weren’t just words; Lionel was really full of vitality.
His anxiety, always feeling like he was being chased by something, was no more.
And after his worries had disappeared, a lot has changed.

Lionel’s narrow vision broadened, and his narrow thoughts expanded.
It felt like he could do a lot of things that he couldn’t do before.
Countless things to be done right now came to his mind, and the king did not delay.

His emotions were different from the anxious impatience that had ruled his life as an incompetent monarch.
Now, he was filled with motivation and passion.
Lionel also had the same sense of purpose of his youth that he had lost after numerous frustrations and failures.

“Prime Minister, you should not delay for the sake of courtesy.”

Lionel’s voice was more energetic than ever before, and his eyes were glowing with a sparkling fervor that could almost be heard sizzling in the silence.

Seeing this, the Prime Minister and Great Marshal could not resist and accepted his order.
And so, they left the king’s bedside.

And at that time, Prince Adrian Leonberger, who had complicated the king’s judgment, was locked up in his palace.
His state was completely different than he had made the king and others people believe it to be.
He was not resting to regain his depleted energy.

“No way… My true body had rejected me because of my oath to the royal family!”

In his hand, he held a shining royal sword.