A hollow laugh escaped me as I watched my original body, which had always looked down on me so arrogantly, fawn over me in its hunger. It was absurd. But more than anything, it left me wondering.

"Who the hell are you?"

Something had taken possession of my original body while I was away, and I had not the faintest idea what it was.

HUMMMM.

My original body simply kept pestering me, as if it couldn't care less about my questions. Now it was even leaking cold, looking for all the world like a beggar who had gone hungry for four days drooling over a sumptuous feast.

All the while, Moonveil quivered and wailed.

ZINGGG.

Its sword's song was so pitiful and mournful that anyone hearing it would have felt sympathy. To me, of course, the display was utterly ridiculous. This from a monster that had sustained itself and grown fat on innocent blood.

"Why make such a fuss now? You've done plenty of this yourself."

The difference was that this time it was being eaten rather than doing the eating, but that was none of my concern.

With a snort, I lifted my original body and brought it toward Moonveil.

ZIIIIING!

Moonveil began shrieking madly. Watching it, I abruptly stopped my hand.

It was entirely thanks to Moonveil that I had glimpsed memories beyond a seal I hadn't even known existed. Letting it become food for my original body felt like something of a waste. If any more seals remained within me, Moonveil might help remove them.

I quietly set my original body down and began considering the matter seriously, my eyes scanning my body. Where could I stab myself to get this over with cleanly, without any lasting harm? My arms, legs, stomach, chest...

I held Moonveil against one spot after another. It was so enormous that even a shallow thrust looked liable to ruin my body.

"Your Highness. Your change of clothes..."

Just then, a familiar voice reached me. With my back still to the door, I turned only my head to find its owner.

"Y-Your Highness? What are you doing...?"

A maid from the Prince's Palace was staring at me, her face pale.

Only then did I realize how easily the scene could be misunderstood.

"Oh. Don't get the wrong idea. This isn't self-harm or anything..."

I lowered Moonveil and turned around.

Her gaze went to my face and chest, and she turned deathly pale. Not understanding why, I followed her gaze down to my chest.

"Ah..."

The front of my clothes was stained scarlet with the blood I had shed while forcibly breaking the seal.

"This isn't a sword wound. I just coughed up a little blood—"

"Aaaaaah!"

The maid screamed before I could finish.

"What was that scream?!"

"That's His Highness's room!"

A commotion broke out beyond the door.

"Your Highness! What's happened...?"

Karl burst into view.

"H-His Highness..."

The maid pointed at my bloodstained chest.

"He was h-harming himself!"

Karl's eyes widened as he looked between me and Moonveil.

"Wicked demonic sword! How dare you bewitch His Highness!"

Without warning, he lunged at me.

CRASH!

The Royal Knights who arrived after him joined in.

"What the hell are you doing?! Let go! I'm perfectly fine!"

I bellowed, but no one listened.

"Silence, you wicked demonic sword!"

* * *

It was a long while after the commotion had settled.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness. I misunderstood..."

The maid bowed her head over and over, apologizing.

"It's fine. I don't mind, so you can go."

"I'm truly sorry."

She bowed deeply once more, then all but fled the room.

"Why didn't you say so sooner?"

Karl, who had been keeping his distance, cleared his throat and spoke.

"I did. Several times. But nobody listened."

At my sulky reply, he began explaining how urgent the situation had seemed, as though making excuses.

He said he had rushed over at the sudden commotion to find me drenched in blood, clutching a demonic sword. At my feet, the royal house's treasured sword had been pouring out cold and ringing furiously, leaving him no time to consider anything else.

"Given the precedent, I could only conclude that the wicked demonic sword had bewitched you."

By precedent, he surely meant the Third Prince being devoured by my original body. It wasn't an unreasonable excuse. So I did feel a little sorry.

Seeing Karl flounder before me with a swollen black eye, I wondered whether I had been a little too heavy-handed. But I wasn't all that sorry. I was just as much of a mess as he was.

The Royal Knights had pinned me down so mercilessly that my clothes were torn in several places and my hair was wild. Breaking the seal had already left me drained; after wrestling with them, I was twice as exhausted.

"More importantly, what is all that blood from?"

"I gained a little insight. But it demanded a rather steep price."

I couldn't tell him I had seen memories of a past life, so I offered a vague excuse. Karl looked at me with shining eyes.

"How much stronger do you intend to become...?"

"It wasn't that sort of insight. But, well. Let's leave it at that."

As I answered indifferently, the maid returned.

"Your Highness. I've brought a change of clothes."

"Thank you."

As she helped me change, I finally let out a relieved sigh.

"At least the commotion didn't spread any further. If His Majesty or anyone else had heard—"

I stopped mid-sentence and looked at Karl. There was something awkward about his expression.

"Well, His Majesty gave us strict instructions to notify him immediately if anything happened to you, however trivial..."

"So? You're saying you've sent someone to His Majesty?"

Karl nodded.

"Damn it! Hurry up and get me dressed!"

I urged the maid on. If the king saw me like this, there would be no escaping a lecture.

"His Majesty has arrived!"

But it was already too late.

"What on earth is all this commotion...?"

The king strode into the room, saw the state I was in, and froze. His visits were usually so leisurely. Why had he chosen today to hurry? I scowled at Karl.

"What in the world have you done to yourself?!"

The king roared.

"I know your passion for the sword is extraordinary, but before you are a knight, you are this kingdom's crown prince."

"Your Majesty, that isn't—"

"If you only ever charge straight ahead, you may go quickly, but you will not go far. You must learn to stop at times and look around you. If you cannot stop yourself, I will stop you."

I had to endure his lecture for a long while after that.

"Do not leave your palace until you are fully recovered. Devote yourself to recuperating, so that all those who worry over you may be at ease again."

As a bonus, he issued an order that I couldn't tell was house arrest or prescribed bed rest.

After unleashing that storm of scolding, the king suddenly looked at me and added belatedly,

"Still, I'm glad there is nothing wrong with you."

His gentle voice and expression made me so unbearably embarrassed that I glared at Karl for no reason.

"I would like to stay longer, but I stepped out of a meeting with the envoys, so I cannot. Do take good care of yourself."

The king left. After suffering a lengthy tongue-lashing from me, Karl left as well.

"At least they didn't confiscate Moonveil."

I decided to look on the bright side. That said, I no longer had any enthusiasm for using Moonveil to remove whatever seals might remain within me.

I had already suffered dozens of sword wounds while fighting the Nightmare Knight, Mort de Mort. Some had been potentially fatal cuts that sliced deep into my flesh. Any seals Moonveil could break would surely have been broken by now.

"This is the end for you."

I lifted Moonveil and laid it atop my original body.

SCREEEECH!

Moonveil screamed.

CRUNCH!

The whitish cold rising from my original body engulfed Moonveil, though the demonic sword was larger than it. Moonveil struggled, spilling streams of dark red, bloody energy.

But from the outset, the difference in stature between Moonveil and my original body had been overwhelming and insurmountable. Its resistance ended in vain, and soon it was frozen solid. My original body's meal began.

It devoured Moonveil very slowly, as though savoring the energy accumulated over hundreds of years.

"You've got quite an appetite."

Watching it, I smiled in satisfaction. Somehow, it felt as though I were raising a child.

Whether a foul-tempered creature that spewed cold at every opportunity, turning the world into a frozen hell, deserved to be called a child was another matter. Still, like a child making a sweet last, my original body took hours to devour Moonveil, eating with excruciating slowness.

Eventually, it even withdrew the cold restraining Moonveil and continued eating it alive.

ZIIIING.

The centuries-old demonic sword groaned in agony. My original body devoured even those groans, leaving nothing behind.

By the time the meal was finally over, Moonveil was worth less than scrap metal. Then the steel that had formed its blade crumbled to dust, leaving not even its shape behind.

HUMMM.

My original body hummed contentedly. I watched it for a moment, then picked it up. Its sword's song cut off abruptly. It played innocent, as though nothing had happened.

I was almost too dumbfounded to speak. To think it would act like this after I had even filled its belly.

"Now that you've had your fill, it's time to pay for your meal."

Only after I coaxed it with uncharacteristic patience did a response begin to reach my fingertips.

At first, it was faint, like dipping my hand into a stream. But as time passed, the stream became a surging river, then a great wave. Suddenly, it rose like a tidal wave and swept through my entire body.

My depleted strength was replenished in an instant. Yet my original body's energy did not stop there; it continued filling every corner of my body. A gasp escaped me at the overwhelming fullness. My spirit soared without end, until I was almost giddy with ecstasy.

My heart began pounding with the hope that, at this rate, I would soon regain the stature I had once attained.

I was mistaken. My soaring spirit abruptly plummeted. The vitality filling my body drained away, and a sense of loss rushed in to take its place.

"Ah..."

A sigh escaped me before I could help it. My original body shuddered. I glared at it.

HUMMM.

It hummed cheerfully, as if mocking me. It seemed to be bragging that this was all a low-stature demonic sword could buy me, or perhaps pestering me to feed it more if I wanted the real thing.

I was so dumbfounded that I simply laughed.

"Well, it's not as if I gained nothing."

I took stock of the mana within me. An immense quantity, almost too much even for a Master's vessel to contain, circulated ceaselessly through my body. Filled to its limit, my Mana Heart kept stirring.

It was a sign that my Mana Heart's capacity, now at its limit, would expand once again. Once its turbulent movements stopped, my heart would be larger and stronger than before. That was ample payment for a meal.

Besides, I chose to place greater importance on the fact that, for the first time, this thing that had always rejected me had shared even a fraction of its strength. The first time was always the hardest. What followed was invariably easier.

"I'll feed you until you're fit to burst soon enough."

The Empire's Paladins and knights would make a decent meal even for it. Once it had eaten its fill, it would show me what it truly had to offer.

HUMMM.

My original body rang. To my ears, it sounded exactly as though it were wishing the war would begin soon.

"Don't pester me. We'll be fighting this war whether we like it or not."

Despite my words, it kept whining.

As if answering its complaints, a vast presence rose in the distance. It was a towering martial spirit, the kind one might expect from an army about to march to war.

I leaned out the window and traced the presence to its source. That martial spirit was surging from the Great Hall, where the king and the envoys would be.