Ah, this is a dream.
Suddenly, I realized that truth.
Now, it wasn’t my body moving.
I was merely a consciousness.
They say in a lucid dream, you can do anything you want, but I learned that isn’t exactly true.
“An ambush!”
“Aike! Move!”
The backdrop of the dream was the Crown Prince’s debut in high society.
I was too scared to move, and it wasn’t until the very end that I could barely do anything at all.
But the me in the dream was different.
At the command of my father, I drew my sword and sprang into action at the report of an ambush.
I could tell from what I saw.
This was the ‘real’ Aike Akses.
“Aike! Cover the rear!”
“Yes, Father.”
It was different from what I had experienced.
Though the Crown Prince suffered a fatal wound, the situation was resolved much faster with Aike’s joining in.
My father had said Aike had no talent for this, indeed.
But as an outsider, I thought that was a lie.
Delivering swift, heavy strikes that one wouldn’t expect from a fourteen-year-old, his moves were hardly different from those of other adult knights.
He could even be compared to my father.
“It’s over.”
With Aike’s declaration, the last of the intruders fell.
No one was hurt.
It ended much more quickly.
Only then did I understand.
Why my father was disappointed.
What it meant to believe in Aike’s endless effort.
I could see it all clearly.
“Aike!”
My father approached the Aike who sheathed his sword, smiling.
And in that moment—
“It’s dangerous!”
The Crown Prince, who had been coming this way, suddenly dodged to the right.
A final strike from some intruder that no one else had noticed.
The dagger flew at incredible speed, not towards the Crown Prince, but towards Reina.
Yet Reina seemed not to have the capacity to respond, not even moving upon seeing the dagger.
A horrifying future came to mind, and though I wanted to close my eyes, I couldn’t.
It wasn’t me moving this body, but the real Aike.
“Guhh!”
And the dagger pierced the right side of the Crown Prince’s chest who had thrown himself to save her.
After that, Reina would fall in love with the Crown Prince who saved her.
Day after day, she visited him, compassionate and dedicated to caring for him.
Of course, the Crown Prince had no such feelings, but there was no way for her to know that.
Ah, this is a big problem.
The story started to twist from the beginning.
As that thought crossed my mind, I woke up.
★
When I woke up, my head was foggy.
“…I feel like I had a really important dream.”
Even trying to recall it, the memories were blurry and wouldn’t surface.
If it was truly important, wouldn’t it come to me on its own?
I dismissed those thoughts.
It had been two weeks since the incident at the ball.
As expected, all the intruders had been executed.
The imperial family had tried to uncover their backers, but it was impossible.
Some committed suicide on the spot at the party, and those captured by magic refused to talk.
In the end, there was no information to be gleaned.
“Well, it’s probably those guys anyway.”
At first, I thought it was all internal strife related to the succession to the throne, but on second thought, that seemed odd.
The Crown Prince’s noble faction was virtually nonexistent in the current situation.
Factions exist simply to highlight the Crown Prince’s overwhelming talents.
So even just adequately sabotaging the party would have been enough to lower his standing.
If no one gathered around the Crown Prince, his path would become obstructed.
Thus, to say this incident was a fight for the succession was an overstatement.
It was serious enough to raise suspicions of another backer.
In the end, there was only one possibility left.
It was probably an operation orchestrated by the final boss’s forces from the original story.
After all, the Crown Prince and the female lead would eventually solve it, so I had no worries.
Come to think of it, the Crown Prince had properly started external activities in order to expand his faction.
As if the label of genius wasn’t a lie, his faction was rapidly growing.
Despite suffering a severe injury at the ball, the Crown Prince fought hard to protect the other nobles.
That story circulated, and the incident actually gave wings to the Crown Prince.
Of course, compared to the other princes, he was still weak, but his growth rate was out of the ordinary.
The fourteen years he had spent standing still was like a handicap in seeming to say otherwise.
Lastly, there was one more thing that had changed.
“Young Master. Lady Reina has come to visit.”
…My time spent with Reina had increased.
It was originally just once on Mondays.
And that was only for a short two hours.
But now, it was three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
We would get to speak for about four hours.
Reina approached me with an even brighter demeanor than before, and I was glad about that.
Seeing her come to visit, smiling and chatting little by little, was delightful.
The cold demeanor she usually displayed, maintaining distance from others while always acting noble,
That too, was undoubtedly beautiful, but I knew all too well that it wouldn’t melt the Crown Prince’s heart.
Thus, seeing her change progressively and move toward future happiness brought me immense joy.
However, there was one problem.
“Your Highness? For now, let’s meet once a week. And let’s have light chats before parting ways. Even if we’re engaged, we still don’t know each other well, so we should take our time.”
It seemed Reina hadn’t fallen for the Crown Prince yet.
In the side story, she was clearly depicted as having fallen for him after that incident.
What could possibly have gone wrong?
No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t imagine the Crown Prince saving Reina from that incident.
A man who had no interest in others and hadn’t loved Reina until the end wouldn’t sacrifice himself to save her.
In other words, there must be a separate reason why Reina fell for the Crown Prince.
…Am I being too hasty?
Perhaps I should wait a little longer.
Well, that incident might lead to something else happening too.
Let’s try to be a little more patient.
For the sake of the world where Reina can be with the Crown Prince and be the happiest she can be.
★
“Huff!”
“Slow down, Aike!”
Training had become my routine now.
Swinging the sword, refining my magical power.
If it had been my original body, I wouldn’t have been able to endure even a minute, but the trained body of Aike could manage the task just fine.
But after the ball, one more training had been added.
“Identify the enemy’s path, predict their attack, and counterattack. That was meant to be the basics of combat, wasn’t it?!”
“Guhh!”
A formal duel with my father.
Initially, I was just supposed to listen to his insights about movement and mindset, but now we dueled for at least an hour.
My father believed I hadn’t moved that day due to the sudden tension of my first real battle.
And after the first duel, he sighed with a look of disappointment.
‘…I’ll keep having these duels until you expel all the tension you currently hold.’
Of course, I couldn’t reveal the whole truth, so I decided to go along with that.
After all, this was necessary for me too.
“Distract your opponent’s gaze! Only aiming for a strong strike means it’s that much easier for the opponent to read you! Unless it’s a sure opportunity, don’t use it!”
For me, the purpose of this duel was singular.
To reproduce that movement that had happened at the end that day.
Though it was not my will, it was the movement my body had shown.
That was my objective.
“Your movements are too large! In a life-or-death combat, a single mistake can lead to your end!”
I could guarantee that my current movements were less than 10% of what I had done back then.
I had to at least draw it up to 50%.
I didn’t think it was impossible.
I still had no clue as to how, but after all, that too was ultimately the movement of this body.
Surely, I can do it.
“That’ll be all for today. I’ll leave first. Aike.”
“Yes, Father. Thank you.”
The fear I had thought of that day still lingered.
But the fact that I was too weak to stop Reina from getting hurt, that she had almost died, felt even scarier.
So here I stood now.
To be able to protect Reina.
“Hah, hah.”
I was out of breath.
Other training didn’t tire me like this, but after finishing a duel with my father, I always ended up in this state.
“Aike.”
Reina, who had been watching from under a tree, approached me.
“Here’s a towel and some water.”
“Thank you.”
I wiped down my sweat-drenched body with the towel Reina handed me and gulped down the water.
“That was impressive. Both you and Duke Ados.”
“Compared to my father, I’m still far from it.”
After finally catching my breath, I continued the conversation with Reina.
“Is watching this fun for you?”
“I’ve got a bit of insight myself.”
Reina was a talented young lady recognized for her exceptional abilities in the original story.
If she hadn’t been, she wouldn’t have been able to hold out against intruders all on her own.
In the original story, there had been readers hoping for a connection between the Crown Prince and Reina at first.
The cold, aloof lady Reina, paired with the seemingly kind but cold genius Crown Prince seemed like a match.
Of course, those opinions disappeared in the blink of an eye a bit later.
“…But I see it’s still there.”
Suddenly, Reina looked at my chest with a solemn expression.
“Oh, this.”
My clothing had slightly ripped due to the duel with my father.
And between the torn fabric, one could see a large scar.
The mark of having been pierced by a sword in the right side of my chest to save Reina.
I had healed it with magic immediately, but the wound had been too deep; I had been told the scar couldn’t be erased.
“Are you okay? Does it hurt?”
“It feels weird if you touch it, but it’s not painful at all.”
That was a lie.
Sometimes it still throbbed, but I wanted to ensure that Reina wouldn’t feel guilty about the scar.
“Thank you.”
“It’s okay. I think of it as a badge of honor in becoming a knight.”
Since that day, Reina had always greeted me with thanks whenever she saw me.
To be honest, it felt a little burdensome, but I assumed she had her own thoughts, so I couldn’t stop her.
“Let’s go for a walk by the lake. I’ll change my clothes and be right with you.”
“Okay. I’ll wait here.”
While I changed my sweat-soaked clothes and moved towards the training hall where Reina was waiting,
“Aike.”
I ran into my mother in the hallway.
“Mother.”
“You mentioned earlier that you’d be going to the lake at home with Lady Reina, right?”
“Yes.”
“Is it alright if I ask a favor?”
“Of course.”
For some reason, there was a different atmosphere from my mother than usual.
It wasn’t dangerous or unsettling.
It was as if she was looking forward to something fun.
“Could you visit the market together? I have some items I need.”
For some reason, my mother appeared to be smiling more joyfully than usual.
