Chapter 3 - I Became the Scoundrel Prince (3)
The messages did not wait for me to sort out my thoughts.
『Power, [Assessment], can now be used in a limited capacity.』
『You can now check the qualities of opponents whose level is lower than or similar to your own.』
"Hey! Wait! What are you!"
And it did not answer me.
『Power, [Third Eye], can now be used in an extremely limited capacity.』
『You can now see better.』
『Power, [Third Ear], can now be used in an extremely limited capacity.』
『You can now hear better.』
The messages merely prattled on, just as I had once done.
"Hey! Wait! What are you?!"
A long while passed even after the messages cut off abruptly.
I still could not understand this sudden 「phenomenon」.
But understanding the 「result」 was not difficult.
[From inside ... sound ... words ... won't go in...?]
[...doesn't know his temper... went in... won't come out unharmed...]
The faint whispers of the maids were thanks to [Third Ear], and the world that had become unusually clear was thanks to [Third Eye].
I did not know why, but my powers had recovered.
For now, that was all that mattered.
"Ha ha."
The unexpected good fortune left me dazed.
And before long, I found myself excited by the 「possibility」 that small stroke of luck suggested.
[...that ... ...memory loss...]
[...irresponsible even to the end... ...the people he hurt... can't sleep...?]
[...don't know for sure, but ...if it gets out... anger illness... quite a few people...]
"Ugh."
I had been eavesdropping thoughtlessly on the maids outside the door when I clutched my head.
『All mana within your body has been depleted.』
『Use of powers will be forcibly terminated.』
The messages, which had been quiet, informed me of my condition.
Only then did I understand.
I understood what the qualifier [extremely limited] in the messages had meant.
The absolute senses I had possessed as a sword, senses that caught everything in all directions without a single blind spot, no longer existed.
With my current abilities, I could do no more than perceive my surroundings in a limited way, exactly as stated.
For example, I could eavesdrop on sounds beyond the door, or appreciate a painting on the wall in relatively fine detail without going closer.
Even that was impossible once I squeezed out my nearly nonexistent mana.
"First, I need to expand my mana capacity."
The change had occurred right after I created a Mana Heart, so I was certain another change would occur in some way as I increased the amount of mana I had.
GROWL.
But for now, the priority was supplying fuel to this body with its terrible fuel efficiency.
Unable to endure the hunger that had belatedly reared its head, I called the maid outside the door.
"Your Highness?"
"I'm hungry."
The maid's gaze turned briefly toward the window.
The moon was high in the sky.
It was not a particularly ideal time to eat something.
"I shall bring it at once."
But she obeyed my order without complaint.
"This guy must have eaten late-night snacks often."
It was the first time I was glad for one of the scoundrel's habits from when he was alive.
* * *
From the next day on, I devoted myself to filling the Mana Heart with mana.
Because this body's qualities were so wretched, I could not even get half of half of half of half the efficiency I had originally expected, but I did not give up.
I was spending all day pushing and pulling with mana like that when a guest came.
"Your Highness. From today onward, I have been assigned to your guard."
The guest was a very handsome young man.
His golden armor and the royal crest engraved on his chest revealed the young man's status.
He was a Royal Knight of the Royal Knights.
"I suppose the people who were here before are gone?"
"They have all been dismissed."
I closed my mouth.
Because I immediately understood why his predecessors had been dismissed.
A lot of people are suffering because of one scoundrel.
The young men who had surely joined the Royal Knights with dreams in their hearts had been thrown out of the palace before they could properly spread their wings.
All because of the ugly accident caused by their stupid master.
I could see plainly what they must be feeling now.
Nine times out of ten, they were probably grinding their teeth over the scoundrel.
It felt terribly unfair that the scoundrel was me.
But I had no choice but to think of this as another price for obtaining a new body and bear it.
"Then please call me at any time if there is anything you need."
After finishing his brief greeting, the new Royal Guard rose.
Judging by that straightforward attitude, he was surely a simple, honest, and diligent man.
"Wait."
I stopped him just before he left the room and tried using the power of Assessment.
Since he would be guarding me from close by from now on, I thought I should at least learn what his qualities were.
□ Karl Ulrich [male, 24 years old]
□ Aptitude. [Cannot be confirmed]
□ Traits. [Cannot be confirmed]
Unfortunately, however, the only information I could see was his name and age.
This must also be because of that qualifier, 「limited」.
"Your Highness. Do you have something to say?"
"No. Nothing."
I waved roughly and sent Karl Ulrich out.
Then I was about to work on increasing my mana capacity as usual when another guest came.
It was the Queen.
"I heard you ate every last bit of the medicine your mother sent you. How commendable."
She was extremely pleased by the fact that I had not thrown away the tonics she had prepared.
"You must have matured. You must have finally learned to cherish your own body."
After offering praise that did not sound very much like praise, the Queen called someone in.
As if he had been waiting, the door opened and a fairly old man appeared.
"Do you recognize who this is?"
When I shook my head, the Queen sighed.
"You see? This is what has happened to him."
"It seems the rumors were true, and he really has lost his memory."
"That is why you must help this child, Brother. He has nothing left."
So that was who he was.
He was the Queen's older brother.
"You speak as though he lost something great. It was not as if he had a good past anyway."
But that brother of hers, the man who would be my maternal uncle, had an extremely harsh tone.
It was obvious at a glance that he did not like me.
"Even so, he is your one and only nephew, is he not?"
"I came here because I could not refuse my sister's request, but before that, I must make one thing clear."
He glared at me as he spoke.
"What I will do is merely shave off that mass of flesh. Nothing more than that is within my power to fill in for him, so do not get your hopes up."
The Queen bit her lip.
It seemed she had been expecting something after all.
"Even that is more than enough to be grateful for."
"Be sure not to forget that feeling you have now."
After saying that, the man called my uncle disappeared outside the room again.
His attitude suggested someone like me was not even worth his attention.
"Do not take your uncle's words to heart. He has never been good with words."
No, that is not being bad with words. He just has no affection for me.
I had many things I wanted to say, but I held them in.
Because dealing with the Queen was still difficult for me.
"Work hard and keep trying until you change your uncle's mind. You are still blood, so he will not treat you like a stranger for the rest of your life."
After saying that, the Queen rose from her seat.
I saw her off with a deep bow of my head.
BANG!
No sooner had she disappeared than the man called my uncle opened the door and came in.
"If you expect me to treat you like a prince, give up now."
My uncle's face drew closer.
He was close enough for his breath to touch me.
"I came to kick my useless nephew in the ass, not to prop up some rotten Scoundrel Prince."
It was not just a common figure of speech.
"Gah!"
A dull pain struck my backside, and I sprawled out in an unsightly heap.
That bastard uncle had really kicked me in the ass.
"From now on, eating, drinking, even breathing will all require my permission."
At first, I stayed still because everything had happened too quickly.
And later, because he handled my body so casually, I found myself going along with it in confusion.
By the time I came to my senses, I was already at the training ground set up in one corner of the 1st Prince's Palace.
"Let us see how well you do."
My uncle bared his teeth and smiled.
It was a fierce smile, like a wolf's.
"Who knows? I might change my mind and teach you even a little of our family's secret swordsmanship."
The words he presented as if they were some kind of carrot were truly absurd.
I was the instructor who had taught an undefeated knight, and I was the teacher of the Founding King who established this nation.
And to me, he said what? A little swordsmanship?
It was so ridiculous that I could only laugh.
"Seeing your flesh quiver, you must be quite resentful."
Unfortunately, however, my face was not well suited to expressing delicate emotions.
My uncle arbitrarily interpreted my expression and sneered.
His face was so hateful.
Phew.
Endure it.
I forced my emotions to settle and organized my thoughts.
I, too, had been feeling the need to train.
This obese body was certainly a headache.
Even moving a little made me gasp for breath, to the point that the sound of my own breathing disgusted me.
On top of that, I sweated so much that no matter how many times I changed clothes, they were soon drenched.
Besides that, the discomfort caused by flesh rubbing against flesh was no small matter.
Thinking about all that, starting to train my body now was not a bad thing.
The problem was my pride.
Ha.
What should I do about that?
I really did not like the gaze of this man called my uncle, looking down on me as if I were beneath his eyes.
Being shoved into training in this manner was not what I wanted.
So I gave myself my own motivation.
"Uncle."
Damn it.
What an awkward way of speaking.
Forcing back the self-loathing that washed over me, I continued.
"Let us make a wager."
Instead of answering, my uncle lifted his chin.
His attitude seemed to say, Go on, let us hear you prattle.
"Within half a year, I will make you acknowledge me."
"And if you fail?"
"I will do as you say."
"Anything?"
"Anything."
My uncle burst into hearty laughter at my words.
It was the first pleased expression he had shown.
The problem was that his pleasure came from the thought of giving me a hard time.
"Then what if you win?"
"Then, in return, you will have to grant my wish."
When I grinned, my uncle showed that fierce smile of his.
"Good. This should be amusing. I ought to have at least one thing to enjoy."
I wondered whether he would still be able to say that later.
We would see.
STOMP, STOMP.
I began to run.
I even used my rat-tail's worth of mana and focused on burning away the masses of flesh all over my body.
Grabbing hold of my jiggling fat, I ran around the training ground like my life depended on it.
"Wait."
I was running around the training ground like that when my uncle snatched my wrist.
A faint energy flowed into my body through my wrist.
I did not resist.
Rather, as if to show him, I activated my second heart.
"Did you perhaps create a Mana Heart?"
Puhaha, laughter slipped out of me.
How must he feel, now that the scoundrel nephew he thought had achieved nothing had brazenly created a Mana Heart?
He must regret making that wager.
"I succeeded in creating it a while ago."
I looked my uncle straight in the face as I spoke.
I was greatly looking forward to what expression he would make.
"Where on earth did you learn a method for refining a Mana Heart?"
But my uncle's expression was far too different from what I had expected.
He was neither surprised by the small achievement his scoundrel nephew had accomplished, nor worried about the outcome of the wager.
My uncle was merely looking at me as if I were pathetic.
"No, before that, I cannot understand what you were thinking when you created a Mana Heart."
His tone sounded exactly like a rebuke, and I was truly flustered.
"Judging by your face, you do not even seem to know what you did wrong."
Creating a Mana Heart was something to be congratulated for, not something to be reproached for.
That was the common sense I knew, and it was the common understanding of this world.
"A Mana Heart, you see."
That common sense of mine,
"is a low-grade technique learned only by low-ranking mercenaries."
was completely denied by a single sentence from my uncle.
