Chapter 1 - I Became the Scoundrel Prince (1)
Prologue
I reincarnated as a sword and spent my whole life cleaning up after others.
Then an opportunity came.
I took over the body of a prince notorious as a scoundrel.
It was a grotesquely obese body with not a shred of talent, but that was no problem at all.
"How many kids have I raised?"
The great knight called undefeated, the Dragon Slayer who struck down the mad dragon—I raised them all.
A little obstacle like this was nothing to me.
* * *
『I reincarnated as a sword.
After passing through many masters, I met a dear friend.
Together, we roamed the world and achieved feats no one else could match.
When we felled the white dragon of the Frost Mountains, my friend at last became the ruler of a nation.
"Please look after my descendants."
And so, along with the legend of the Dragon Slayer, I was passed down to my friend's descendants.』
* * *
[Mm.]
In a haze as though dreaming, I sensed a commotion.
Wondering what was going on, I opened my eyes, only to find some grotesquely fat pig picking me up and shaking me around like a lunatic.
"From now on, I am the master of this sword!"
"Your Highness! This is an object no one but His Majesty may touch! Please return it to its place!"
Just as I was about to make that pig, who did not know his place, into something neither dead nor alive, I heard a Royal Guard's plea.
[What? A prince?]
Belatedly, I recalled where I had awakened.
The Royal Armory of the kingdom.
And yet they were saying that grotesquely obese brat was a prince.
That meant there was a very high chance he was my dear friend's descendant.
[This pig?]
Nowhere on that blubbery body could I see the image of my friend, who had been as brave as a lion.
"Shut up! There is nothing in this country I cannot touch!"
The sight of him threatening his own knights like a thug in a marketplace was shocking.
[Impossible...]
I could not accept it.
So I used the power of [Assessment] granted to me.
□ Adrian Leonberk [Male, 16]
□ Aptitude. [None]
□ Traits. [Arrogant], [Obese], [Clumsy], [Lecherous], [Indolent], [Gullible], [Mana Sensitivity Disorder]
Seeing the evaluation of him appear before my eyes in a row, I was left speechless.
Since the surname Leonberk was written there plain as day, he really was my dear friend's descendant.
But his qualities were something I could never think belonged to the descendant of the friend once called the Sword Saint.
"With this in my hands, neither His Majesty nor the nobles will be able to look down on me anymore."
I had no intention of lending him my power, but the pig blathered on as he pleased.
He truly was an absurd fellow.
"O great Dragon Slayer! Lend me your power!"
No thanks.
"Gruhorn!"
I did not answer.
No matter if this fellow really was my friend's descendant, I had no intention of lending power to someone unqualified.
"Gruhooorn!"
He held me up and thrashed about like a madman.
The way he screamed made him look exactly like a wild boar struck by a stray shot.
"Eek!"
"Y-Your Highness! Please calm yourself!"
"You must not draw a sword inside the palace!"
As he waddled around and ran all over the place, he was nothing but a nuisance to everyone nearby.
Then it happened.
The stupid pig swung me around and fell forward.
But of all things, the idiot had been holding the sword in a reverse grip to look stylish.
"Ghk."
My body, which had even split dragon scales, sank far too easily into the pig's soft, tender flesh.
[Huh?]
It had been a long time since I smelled blood.
[N-No!]
But of all people, that blood belonged to the descendant of my oldest friend.
It was truly a cursed fate.
[Huh? Huh?]
But something was strange.
The one struck by the sword was that scoundrel, yet for some reason my consciousness was growing faint.
I tried to hold on by force, but in the end my vision faded to black, and I could see nothing.
And so I lost consciousness.
It was the first [fainting] in my hundreds of years of sword-life.
* * *
If asked what kind of person Adrian Leonberk was, most people would answer with an awkward face while avoiding the question.
If there was trust between them, one might at least hear an answer like 「the disgrace of the royal family」.
Perhaps one might even hear a relatively specific answer such as 「an irredeemable wretch」 or 「a hopeless damn scoundrel」.
「Though he has not inherited so much as a hair of royal nature, his arrogance is second to none」
「He has no ability, but his greed is the greatest in the kingdom」
「A stupid, lazy, violent pig」
If even a single drink was involved, one might hear an assessment so harsh it bordered on malicious.
Prince Adrian Leonberk was the disgrace of the brave and wise Leonberk royal family, and a being like a dark cloud hanging over the kingdom's future.
And yet this absolute damn scoundrel was currently the most likely heir to the throne.
The royal family had traditionally adhered to the principle of primogeniture, and unfortunately, this troublemaker was the royal family's eldest son.
[If Prince Adrian succeeds to the throne, the kingdom has no future.]
There was no disagreement.
Everyone worried for the kingdom's future.
Then one day, something happened in the royal palace.
[Prince Adrian has suffered a serious injury and is hovering between life and death.]
[The First Prince has not regained consciousness for four days.]
The hasty cheered that the heavens had aided the kingdom, while the cautious first asked around to find out what had happened.
[They say he made a fuss all by himself with a sword and stabbed himself.]
[They say that sword was the Founding King's Dragon Slayer, 「Gruhorn」, enshrined in the armory.]
The rumor spread in secret, but in the end everyone came to know it.
People mocked the First Prince's stupidity and chattered that the Founding King's spirit had watched over the kingdom through the sword.
But that lasted only a moment.
News arrived that Prince Adrian had regained consciousness.
They even said he was recovering his health without a single common aftereffect.
Those who had hoped for the birth of a new heir to the throne fell into dejection.
Meanwhile, a small change occurred in the royal castle.
[The prince has changed, if only a little.]
The first to sense the change were the maids of the 1st Prince's Palace.
[The prince, who used to overturn the dining table every day, has been quiet for several days.]
[Since waking, he has not once gathered his gang.]
They were trivial, insignificant stories hardly worthy of being called rumors.
No one attached much importance to the small changes that had occurred in the 1st Prince's Palace.
They thought even he must know shame since he was human, and that once time passed, he would soon return to normal.
People believed the stupid and violent prince was simply lying low for a very short while.
But Adrian, the prince at the center of the rumors, had not the slightest interest in what people were saying about him.
He was,
"Good heavens! I killed my dear friend's descendant and stole his body!"
in the midst of being confused over the 「accident」 he had unintentionally caused.
* * *
It had definitely been an accident.
The Scoundrel Prince had been excessively obsessed with the legend of the 「Dragon Slayer」, and he held the baseless belief that as long as he had the treasured sword, he could become a hero no less than the Founding King.
So when the royal family's treasured sword was placed in his hand, he became more excited than necessary.
So excited that he failed to realize just how deadly the fangs of the treasured sword in his hand were.
In the end, the Scoundrel Prince died.
And the prince's body, which had died in such an unsightly manner, became mine.
How dumbfounded I had been when I learned that fact.
[Please look after my descendants.]
My old friend had asked me again and again to look after his descendants.
But far from looking after that descendant, I had killed him with my own hands.
Though there had not been even the slightest bit of intent in it, I could not deny the fact that I was the one who had cut off the scoundrel's last breath.
On top of that, I had even taken over his body.
I did not know why, but when I woke, it had already happened.
That had already been fifteen days ago.
And now, I no longer had any apology left for the dying wish I had failed to keep, nor any shallow mourning for the prince who had died so absurdly.
"Since things have already turned out this way, what can I do?"
I have no choice but to live well for the dead bastard's share too.
Before I could even finish the words, a puhuhu laugh slipped out.
I had certainly lost more than I had gained.
What I had received in exchange for the powers I had built up over hundreds of years was nothing but this single blubbery, fat body.
And yet, even so, I did not feel I had taken a loss at all.
"That little bit of power can simply be built up again."
I had turned a timid and cowardly brat into an undefeated knight, and I had also turned an ignorant country bumpkin into the ruler of a nation.
Besides them, I had made countless others into heroes who would go down in history.
All that know-how remained intact in my head.
Making a body like this usable was nothing to me.
"First is the Mana Heart."
As always, the first step was the Mana Heart.
If there was anything different, it was only that this time, I had to take that step with my own feet.
