Chapter 3
I Became the Third Prince, the Holy Family’s Delinquent (2)
That should have been the end.
* * *
What the hell is going on…?
Why was he, whose soul should have been burned away, lying comfortably on a bed while someone fed him porridge?
[Hahaha! This is hilarious! What are you, a baby? What’s with the bib?]
“…It’s a napkin, you idiot.”
And why was the Demon King, who had so dramatically declared he would burn his own soul, now noisily chatting inside his head?
It all started the day before.
He opened his eyes when he felt a cool, damp cloth wiping his forehead.
A beautifully dressed middle-aged woman was looking down at him with tears in her eyes.
“Mores! My dear! Can you recognize your mother?”
“Oh! Your Highness! You’ve finally awakened!”
Surrounded by people making a huge fuss, Seongjin blinked in confusion.
A luxurious old-fashioned bedroom.
Servants waiting on him hand and foot.
At first, he thought this must be the afterlife.
Then he heard a very familiar voice in his head.
[Hey, stop staring blankly and wake up already! Are you still half asleep?]
That annoying voice…
“…Demon King?”
[Yep! You recognized me! You kept your eyes closed for so long that I thought your soul had completely fallen apart. You know how terrifying the Flames of Gehenna are.]
Why was this bastard here?
Hadn’t he finished him off?
[Whoa, calm down. You need to stay focused right now. Your soul still hasn’t fully settled into this body. You barely got in here. If you’re not careful, you’ll get thrown back out.]
What nonsense was he talking about?
If the Flames of Gehenna and his punches hadn’t been enough, he’d gladly kill him again.
Grinding his teeth, Seongjin tried to sit up.
Instead—
He collapsed back onto the bed.
The people around him hurriedly held him down, but that wasn’t the only reason.
His body felt incredibly sluggish.
Heavy.
Breathing was difficult.
His arms and legs felt like they were made of lead.
“Mores! What’s wrong? Are you hurting somewhere?”
“Your Highness! Please calm yourself!”
Let me go!
The Demon King is still alive!
I have to kill him—
[H-Hey! Your blood pressure is going through the roof. At this rate you’ll die again right after coming back to life. Take a deep breath. In… out… In… out…]
Shut up!
Who are these people?
Why are they holding me down?
Let go!
“Urgh!”
A sharp pain exploded in the back of his head.
The room spun violently.
“Mores!”
“Your Highness!”
The panicked voices around him quickly faded away.
Darkness swallowed his vision.
When Seongjin regained consciousness…
He was still lying in the same room.
The same people surrounded him.
And the Demon King’s irritating voice was still there.
[Wow… I knew you had a bad temper, but you’re seriously on another level.]
“You bastard…”
His teeth ground together.
[A-Alright, alright! Sorry! I won’t say anything annoying anymore, okay? Let’s talk. A nice conversation. Sounds good, right?]
“What did you say?”
A peaceful conversation between the two still seemed impossible.
Yet surprisingly…
The Lee Seongjin who had looked ready to die from anger calmed down in less than half a day.
He learned that the Demon King’s physical body had already been completely destroyed.
Only a tiny fragment of his soul remained.
Getting angry accomplished nothing.
There wasn’t even a body he could punch anymore.
So he swallowed his frustration and quietly listened.
According to the Demon King…
After their final battle, the Flames of Gehenna completely destroyed both their bodies.
But for some unknown reason…
Seongjin’s soul had barely been harmed.
The flames had simply gone out.
[Maybe the Flames evolved faster than expected. That might be why a tiny part of my soul survived.]
“…”
[Even so, I have no idea why your soul survived almost completely while my magnificent soul burned away.]
“…”
[Anyway, I’ve lost almost all my power and status. What’s left is little more than the remnants of my personality.]
In other words…
The mighty Demon King could never return.
“Then why don’t you disappear somewhere instead of talking inside my head?”
The Demon King sighed.
[If only it were that simple. Do you think I haven’t tried? Every time I try to move away from you, the holy energy around you causes unbearable pain. It’s like my very existence is being crushed. If I stay away long enough, the last fragment of my soul will disappear completely.]
“Then the answer is obvious.”
“Disappear.”
“Simple.”
[You bastard! Would you do that if you were me?!]
Naturally, Seongjin wanted to erase even that tiny remaining fragment of the Demon King’s soul.
Unfortunately…
How could he kill something without a body?
He couldn’t exactly summon the Flames of Gehenna again.
Seongjin had always been the type to charge straight toward his goal without looking around.
But he wasn’t foolish enough to obsess over something impossible.
Once he accepted the situation…
He realized the Demon King was unexpectedly useful.
After all, he had once ruled an entire world.
He knew many things.
The Demon King had awakened a full day before Seongjin.
During that time, he had already gathered quite a bit of information about this strange new world.
His method?
Peeking into other people’s memories by directly touching their souls.
While Seongjin lay in bed being carefully looked after, he listened as the Demon King explained everything.
Apparently…
This world was completely separate from both Earth and Gehenna.
[We’re unbelievably lucky. Normally we’d have been scattered into the Void forever. Somehow, we drifted into the Origin World instead.]
“Origin World?”
[A higher dimension. At least two levels above worlds like Sigurd Earth-34 or Gehenna.]
“Lower worlds? And what’s Sigurd Earth-34?”
The Demon King clicked his tongue.
[Seriously? What kind of primitive Earthlings don’t even know the name of their own dimension? You people don’t even understand dimensional theory? Honestly, I should’ve realized that when you kept trying to punch me to death.]
For the first time…
Seongjin regretted not leaving the Demon King’s head intact.
At least then he could’ve punched him before he started talking nonsense.
The Demon King’s soul trembled.
Apparently he sensed Seongjin’s murderous thoughts.
Feeling someone else’s soul so clearly inside his own mind was honestly disgusting.
[You’re so cold. We’re soul partners now.]
“Shut up.”
This higher world was called the Holy Empire of Delcross.
It was a powerful empire ruled by the Holy Emperor, who had received the blessing of the Chief God for generations.
Countless kingdoms and grand duchies served under it.
The current ruler was the Seventeenth Holy Emperor.
Which meant…
He was this body’s biological father.
Lee Seongjin…
Had become a prince.
No wonder everyone treated him with such respect.
[Your name is Mores Klein now. You’re the Third Prince and the Holy Emperor’s fourth child. You’re fifteen years old this year.]
“And?”
[You’re also incredibly famous.]
“For what?”
[Being a complete delinquent.]
His mother, the First Empress Lizabeth Asein, was the daughter of Grand Duke Asein.
Among all the women in the palace…
She possessed the noblest background.
She never doubted that her own son, born with the purest bloodline among the imperial children, was destined to become Crown Prince.
That expectation eventually became excessive education…
And unhealthy obsession.
Fortunately…
When he was little, Prince Mores sincerely tried to meet his mother’s expectations.
He wasn’t as talented as his siblings.
But he diligently learned everything expected of an imperial prince.
Then…
Around the age of seven…
Everything changed.
He suddenly began exploding with anger for no reason.
Gradually, he became arrogant beyond belief.
He cursed at maids and servants.
Beat people for no reason.
Whenever he was bored, he smashed furniture and dishes.
Even the knights assigned to protect him became frequent victims of his bullying.
During lessons…
He insulted and mocked his teachers.
After being scolded several times by the First Empress…
He simply stopped attending classes altogether.
The Demon King enthusiastically listed every embarrassing story from Mores’ past, sounding as though he were happily gossiping about Seongjin himself.
“Isn’t this way too detailed for information you gathered in one day?”
“Can I even trust it?”
[Hmph! I gathered it by reading people’s souls directly. You’d never collect information this valuable by yourself in such a short time. You should be grateful.]
“…”
After that…
The prince’s life only got worse.
His elegant manners disappeared.
He grew lazier and lazier.
Eventually he even quit the only thing he still enjoyed—
Swordsmanship.
Instead…
He lay in bed every day doing absolutely nothing.
All he did was eat snacks.
No one understood why he had changed so suddenly.
Some guessed that perhaps the young prince had quietly endured enormous stress from trying to satisfy his ambitious mother all those years.
Years passed.
The once noble prince became…
An ill-mannered…
Hot-tempered…
Morbidly obese pig.
[Then he suddenly collapsed.]
It had happened four days ago.
Mores had eaten dinner normally and gone to bed.
Before dawn…
He was struck by a mysterious fever.
By that afternoon…
He had lost consciousness.
There was no sign of poison.
His symptoms didn’t match any known illness.
The imperial physicians did everything they could.
Nothing worked.
The Holy Emperor even postponed state affairs to visit him.
The First Empress stayed beside his bed every night in tears.
Then…
Four days after the fever began…
It wasn’t Mores who opened his eyes.
It was Lee Seongjin.
“Then where did the real Mores go?”
That was the question Seongjin wanted answered most.
He had unwillingly taken over someone else’s body.
Even without knowing much about souls…
He could tell something about this wasn’t right.
If the original owner had suffered because of them…
That was a serious problem.
The Demon King didn’t seem particularly concerned.
[Who knows? When I woke up, there wasn’t any other soul inside besides ours. Maybe he really died from the fever.]
So…
Had they simply entered the body of someone who had just died?
“Then what happens if we leave this body?”
[Leave? Why? It’s an empty body now. It’ll probably just die immediately.]
“…Is there even a way to leave?”
The Demon King answered mercilessly.
[Of course.]
[Just die.]
“…”
Seongjin frowned.
Unexpectedly returning to life wasn’t unpleasant.
When he died together with the Demon King…
He had accepted his own end.
He had even felt satisfied.
He had destroyed the Demon Realm.
Even if one annoying piece of trash had somehow survived.
That should have been enough.
Yet…
Now that he was alive again…
His previous life looked very different.
His entire life had been devoted to fighting.
To destroying the Demon Realm.
He had sharpened himself over and over.
Enduring hardship.
Pain.
Loneliness.
Calling that life “happy” would have been impossible.
So what now?
Was it really acceptable to live a new life in someone else’s body?
Could this miraculous chance…
Be considered compensation for his miserable first life?
While Seongjin quietly wrestled with those thoughts…
The Demon King interrupted him.
[Who cares if you’re fat? You’re the son of the most powerful man in the country now! Congratulations. You’ve hit the jackpot.]
“…”
Right.
That was another problem.
Seongjin looked down at his enormous body.
Even lying flat…
His swollen belly blocked his view.
His arms and legs were so bloated with fat that his joints barely bent.
Simply rolling over left him breathless.
It definitely wasn’t just because of the fever.
Of all the bodies he could have awakened in…
It had to be this one.
Thinking about the powerful, muscular body he once possessed…
Seongjin sighed.
“Is this really a good thing…?”
That was everything that had happened during the last day.
And now…
Lee Seongjin lay on a luxurious bed.
A neatly tied napkin hung around his neck.
The First Empress Lizabeth gently fed him spoonful after spoonful of porridge…
Like he was a baby bird.
“Come now, Mores.”
“Open wide. Ahh…”
He was dying of embarrassment.
But seeing the affection in the First Empress’s eyes…
He reluctantly opened his mouth again.
The Demon King’s laughter exploded inside his head.
[PWAHAHAHAHA! I’m dying! This is too funny! Are you seriously letting her feed you? HAHAHAHAHA!]
One day…
I’m definitely going to erase that bastard.
Swallowing the porridge, Seongjin stopped the First Empress before she could scoop another spoonful.
“U-Um… Mother?”
“I’m full now.”
“You’ve done enough.”
“Mores…”
She stared at him sadly.
Then lowered her head and wiped away tears with the lace on her sleeve.
“So…”
“You truly don’t remember everything.”
“You’ve never once called me ‘Mother’ before.”
“Ah… um…”
This is so awkward.
To avoid suspicion, Seongjin had already claimed that his memories before the fever were blurry.
Even so…
Every conversation with the First Empress made him nervous.
He was terrified she would realize he wasn’t really Mores.
Noticing his hesitation, the Demon King secretly whispered after peeking into the First Empress’s memories.
[Looks like you usually called her ‘Your Majesty Mother.’]
Like I care.
There was no way he could bring himself to say that.
Instead…
He quietly replied,
“…I’m sorry.”
“What are you apologizing for?”
“You suffered such a terrible fever.”
“Even after His Majesty personally treated you, your fever refused to break.”
“I feared something terrible would happen.”
She gently straightened her elegant sleeve.
Then carefully took his hand.
“As long as you’ve awakened healthy…”
“…that’s all this mother could ever wish for.”
Her hand was soft.
Warm.
Seongjin had to struggle to keep his expression calm.
Pretending to be someone else’s son…
Filled him with guilt.
The real Mores was already gone.
Even his soul had disappeared.
Yet this woman knew nothing.
She couldn’t even mourn her own son.
But…
He couldn’t exactly tell her the truth.
Who would believe that another soul had taken over Mores’ body?
And even if they did…
What then?
What if they tried to exorcise him?
What if they succeeded?
He wasn’t especially attached to this borrowed life.
But he certainly had no desire to commit suicide that way.
“But I suppose getting sick had one good result.”
“My son is sitting quietly with me.”
“I can’t remember the last time that happened.”
“Haha…”
Mores…
You crazy delinquent.
Just how badly did you treat your mother for something this small to make her so happy?
All Lee Seongjin could do…
Was smile awkwardly.
