How to Live as the Enemy Prince

The memories of the original Calian made it easier for him to keep to his duties and classes – which in turn made it easier for him to step outside and head to the artificial lake around his palace without worry of getting lost. 

There was not another soul around – only Calian, and Yan who followed him from a distance.

“Haa…”

Calian stopped by the lake and breathed out the heavy sigh he had held back, and it was then when he saw there was a small statue in the middle of the lake.

It was a black dragon spreading its wings toward the sky, its eyes studded with red jewels.

‘Isn’t that Sispanian?’

The statue was of the dragon Sispanian, who was also the first queen of Kyris. 

He remembered a story that said she had black hair like a still night and red eyes that burned with a sacred fire.

Black hair and red eyes. Just like Calian.

‘Cursed bloody eyes.’

Franz’s voice echoed in his mind.

‘Has my mentality become more fragile because my body is younger?’ Calian laughed at his own thoughts. 

Bern was a knight who had fought and died alone, protecting the gates of his kingdom. Just yesterday his arm was severed, and countless arrows pierced his body as he wielded his sword.

There was no reason for him to lose his head here.

The priority at the moment was not to kill Prince Franz. First, he had to figure out how he got in this situation.

With that thought, Calian closed his eyes for a moment and ordered the thoughts in his head, attempting to get a firm grip on the events that had occurred.

‘…The Axis.’

The Axis of Time.

It had suddenly appeared at the Palace of Secretia one day, shaped like a large hourglass, and it had the power to turn back the clock only once.

That very Axis of Time must have been the cause of this. However, it was also the very cause of the war between Secretia and Kyris.

Before the war began, the Kingdom of Kyris demanded The Axis of Time. Secretia rejected their demands. It was clear to King Chase that it was a dangerous object, and so he stood resolutely against them. And without knowing how the Mad King Franz would use such a power, how could he just hand it over to him?

When King Chase expressed his refusal, a large army had greeted them. Franz had skipped all formal war declarations and did not even attempt negotiations. He thought himself too great for the concept.

With that war, the kingdom of Secretia was eventually defeated, the consequence was its utter downfall.

‘My brother must have witnessed my death.’

Chase must have seen Bern, the last knight alive, finally die, and so he must have turned back the clock. He could not know that this would be the result, but if it was Chase – then he must have tried to save Bern. 

Calian lamented to himself,

“If the Axis of Time is the cause of this…that means there’s no way back.”

It could only be used once, and if time had already been twisted, there was no way to return to the previous timeline. 

And if that was the case… then what should he do? Calian contemplated the question.

If he were to accept that this was not a dream, if this was now his reality, then certainly this was a second life. He could not afford to waste the opportunity that Chase had given him. And so, Calian decided not to go back, but to live. He will live first and find another way.

Calian fell back into his thoughts.

The fourteen-year-old Calian would die soon.

He was accused of attempting to poison Queen Silica but failed and hung himself in fear of punishment.

Of course, no one believed that story.

When news of his ‘suicide’ was revealed, all surrounding gossip around his ‘assassination’ had to been heavily censored. It was rumoured that whoever killed Calian would of course be a certain powerful figure.

And that person also had a certain connection to Calian’s biological mother, Freya.

The concubine Freya was famous for her beautiful appearance, but her heritage was that of a commoner. She had won the affection of the King and had given birth to Calian, but soon died from the ‘aftereffects’ of childbirth.

The aftereffects of childbirth being vomiting black blood after drinking the tea sent by the Queen.

And so, Calian lost his mother.

Because of this, it was unimaginable that Calian had any help. It made no sense that the weak prince obtained some rare poisonous herb and tried to kill the Queen who held even greater power than the King.

Additionally, Calian has been despised by the Queen and Franz ever since he was born. Under these circumstances, the original Calian would have felt suffocated.

No matter how large a beast is, it will grow weak if it was only fed milk and was trained to lick its master’s feet from birth. And that was why Calian grew up so pathetic, to the point where he could not imagine ever killing someone.

Calian laughed bitterly.

“I’ll just clean up after him since I can’t stand seeing this mess.”

He had heard that his appearance was just like Freya’s, except for the colour of his hair.

The Queen hated Calian’s face, as it was a reminder of his mother’s, so she had Calian killed and made up a story, and the King ignored it because the Queen held all three orders of the royal guards, except for one knight order under the King’s command.

Calian died two or three months before he turned fifteen, and Yan had said that his fifteenth birthday was four months from now.

“I may be killed anytime soon.”

The remaining time for Calian’s supposed suicide by hanging was about one or two months.

His red eyes reflected in the water keenly.

He did not have the slightest intention of dying by their hands.