The Kingdom of Gamelda and the Kingdom of Darsen.
The two nations had been at war for nearly three hundred years.
Because of this, the people of Yulen Island, where the two kingdoms were located, and even the rest of the world had come to call them this:
[Three-Hundred-Year Enemies].
It was a name born from nearly three centuries of hatred and conflict.
Over those nearly three hundred years, countless wars had been fought, and countless lives had been lost.
Roland, a mage officer of the Kingdom of Gamelda, had also been swept up in the wars created by the Three-Hundred-Year Enemies, and now his life was on the verge of being extinguished.
“Are the reinforcements still not here?!”
Covered in blood, Roland raised his voice.
All that remained beside him now were a small number of soldiers and the firmly barred gate of the inner citadel.
Roland himself, the few remaining troops, and the inner citadel gate were the last line of defense at Volpert Fortress, which stood on the front line where the Kingdoms of Gamelda and Darsen faced each other.
If that gate fell, Volpert Fortress would be captured by the enemy in an instant.
And so Roland and the other mages poured every last bit of their remaining mana into keeping the gate from opening or breaking.
Even as he gave it everything he had, Roland was gradually coming to a realization.
Unless a miracle occurred, Volpert Fortress would become his grave today.
The entire outer section of the fortress had already fallen into enemy hands.
Their only hope was for reinforcements to arrive and defeat the enemy before the inner citadel gate opened—or for the miracle of the enemy sparing at least the survivors inside the gate.
“Damn it, damn it!”
With what little hope remained on the verge of dying out, Roland desperately poured mana into the gate to keep it from being destroyed.
But an enemy soldier had struck his shoulder with a sword not long ago, and he could no longer put much strength into his hand.
At some point, he had even dropped the sword he had refused to let go of until now.
Am I really going to die like this?
I came this far serving my country faithfully despite being nothing more than a low-ranking noble, and this is how it ends?
If he completed this mission safely, Roland had been promised glory for himself, his family, and even his entire house.
Believing that promise, he had risked his life in battle and made it this far.
For his own sake, for his family, and for the glory of his house, he had always fought at the forefront of every battlefield.
And he had always been prepared to die.
The moment the outer fortress fell yesterday, he had sensed that the end was near and had even written his will.
But he still did not want to die.
He had not even married yet, and his mother and younger sister were still alive.
Somehow, he had to survive this place and return to them....
“……!!!”
Roland’s eyes widened as he gritted his teeth and held on.
It was not only Roland. The other Gamelda military mages here must have felt it as well.
No, even those who were not mages must have sensed it.
The overwhelming mana emanating from beyond the inner citadel gate.
BOOM—
The inner citadel gate, which Roland and several other mages had been desperately preventing from breaking, shattered in an instant.
A monster as large as a house? A gigantic siege weapon?
No.
Something even worse had appeared.
Beyond the shattered gate stood a mage whose long black hair streamed behind him.
A black iron mask covered his face, while a cloak concealed his body, making it impossible to determine his face, his age, or even his gender.
But Roland knew exactly who that mage was.
Darsen’s renowned Archmage, the one hailed as the strongest battle mage on Yulen Island.
Kastel.
In the Kingdom of Gamelda, that terrifying mage was known by another name.
The Black Star of Ill Omen.
Having destroyed the inner citadel gate with a single spell, Kastel turned his masked face.
His gaze came to rest on Roland.
From behind the mask came an androgynous voice, making it difficult to tell whether the speaker was a man or a woman.
“You must be their leader.”
“…….”
This was hardly the time to feel pleased that Kastel had recognized him as the leader of Gamelda’s survivors.
Roland did not even need to fight him to understand.
The ‘Black Star of Ill Omen’ was not an enemy that someone like Roland, a mere ‘promising young mage officer,’ could hope to face.
And if Roland could not face him, then no one here could.
This was the very moment Volpert Fortress was about to fall.
His body trembled with instinctive fear.
But he could not die disgracefully.
If he was going to die, he had to die with honor.
For the sake of his father and his two elder brothers, who had died in the war against the Kingdom of Darsen.
And for the sake of his mother and younger sister, who were still alive back home.
If he died disgracefully here, the kingdom might turn its back on his surviving family—or even persecute them.
Even if he died, for the sake of his family and his house....
Roland gathered every last trace of mana within his body and cast the strongest spell he was currently capable of using.
Fire Storm.
A spell capable of reducing enemies to ashes in an instant beneath a massive tempest of flame.
But the fiery storm vanished with a single gesture from Kastel.
“Not bad.”
With those words, Kastel extended his hand once more.
There was an explosion of dazzling light, and then multiple streaks of light engulfed Roland and everyone around him.
“…….”
It felt as though something had pierced its way into his body.
There was a sharp pain, but it was not nearly as agonizing as he had expected.
“Farewell.”
With Kastel’s final words, Roland’s vision plunged into darkness.
And then....
“This is insane.”
Lying on a bed and staring at his own face in a mirror, Saul, the Fifth Prince of the Kingdom of Darsen, muttered under his breath.
It was because he had remembered his previous life.
A life in which he had been ‘Roland,’ a mage officer of the Kingdom of Gamelda, Darsen’s enemy nation.
***
Yulen Island.
A land stained by the bloody wars between the Kingdom of Gamelda and the Kingdom of Darsen, the nations known as the ‘Three-Hundred-Year Enemies.’
The Kingdom of Darsen had divided the island with Gamelda and fought against it for three hundred years.
And now, a minor commotion had broken out within Darsen’s royal palace.
“The prince has been injured?”
“Call a healing mage at once!”
Saul Darius, the Fifth Prince of the Kingdom of Darsen, had suffered an accident.
The maids and attendants hurried about in a frenzy, and a mage skilled in healing magic rushed to the ‘Ivory Palace,’ Saul’s residence.
Saul lay on his bed with a bandage wrapped around his head, unable to open his eyes.
After examining him, the healing mage was questioned anxiously by an elderly attendant.
“How is His Highness?”
The healing mage replied.
“It is not a serious injury.”
“That is a relief. Please treat him at once.”
“Of course.”
Both of the healing mage’s hands began to glow.
A white light of healing enveloped Saul’s head, then spread across his entire body.
“Mm....”
Saul groaned.
He did not wake immediately, but his expression relaxed.
After confirming this, the mage rose from his seat.
“He should awaken soon. I will remain here for the next few days.”
The elderly attendant bowed his head.
“Thank you.”
“By the way, what exactly happened? I came here in such a hurry that I did not hear the full story.”
“Books came tumbling down from one of the shelves in His Highness’s study. Unfortunately, they fell directly onto his head....”
“My goodness.”
The healing mage clicked his tongue at the absurd nature of the accident.
Fortunately, just as he had assured them, Prince Saul regained consciousness before long.
“His Highness is waking up!”
The healing mage hurried over and saw Prince Saul opening his eyes.
He was a beautiful boy with pale blond hair and blue eyes, having inherited the features of his mother, who had been a peerless beauty.
As he grew older, his features would likely become more masculine, but if he continued to mature as he was, he would undoubtedly grow into a strikingly handsome young man capable of captivating many hearts.
“…….”
Prince Saul slowly opened his eyes and blinked several times.
Then he clutched his head.
When he remained that way in silence for some time, the elderly attendant looked toward the mage.
“What is wrong with him?”
“He appears somewhat confused. But please do not worry. His eyes are becoming clearer, so he should regain his senses shortly.”
Despite the mage’s reassurance, Prince Saul remained confused for quite some time.
He said nothing, merely continuing to clutch his head.
Eventually, even the mage who had told everyone not to worry began to grow concerned and was just about to cast another spell.
Prince Saul held out his hand.
Understanding what Saul wanted, the elderly attendant quickly ordered,
“Bring him a mirror.”
Saul treasured his own face because it resembled that of his deceased mother.
Even in a situation like this, he must have thought of his appearance first.
Before long, one of the maids promptly presented him with a hand mirror.
Prince Saul took it and stared at his own face.
“This really is....”
Muttering quietly, Prince Saul lowered the hand mirror.
Then, as though overcome by dizziness, he slowly collapsed back onto the bed.
Another commotion erupted around him.
“Bring water and medicine at once!”
“I will cast the healing spell again!”
Amid the uproar, Prince Saul closed his eyes.
He needed time to calm the storm raging inside his head.
Thoughts concerning his own identity surfaced in Saul’s mind.
Saul Darius.
The Fifth Prince of the Kingdom of Darsen.
Until the accident, that had been the only identity existing within Saul’s memories.
But now, at this very moment, another identity had emerged.
Roland Jenista.
A noble of the Kingdom of Gamelda and an officer in the kingdom’s military mage corps.
He had been a low-ranking noble whom no one in the central political establishment would even recognize, but he had nevertheless remained loyal to his kingdom.
Until that day came.
That was right.
That day had come.
Roland’s final day.
While Roland was giving everything he had to defend the fortress, the ‘Black Star of Ill Omen,’ Kastel, had appeared.
He had tried to stand against the Black Star of Ill Omen, but his opponent had been far too powerful.
In the end, Roland had been defeated by Kastel.
And he had died.
Yet now he had opened his eyes again.
As a prince of the Kingdom of Darsen, the nation that had once been his enemy.
The shock was so overwhelming that Saul could not speak for a long while.
Could I have gone mad?
But both identities and both sets of memories were far too vivid.
It did not seem like madness.
If so, there was only one hypothesis capable of explaining his current situation.
He had once been Roland.
But now, he was Prince Saul.
Roland, who had died on the battlefield, had been reborn as a prince of the enemy kingdom.
And the injury to his head had somehow caused him to recover the memories of his previous life, which he had completely forgotten until now.
The claims some mages made about previous lives and reincarnation surfaced in his mind.
He had always thought such stories absurd, but at present, they were the most reasonable explanation.
The dead Roland had been reincarnated as Prince Saul.
A noble of the Kingdom of Gamelda had been reborn as a prince of the enemy Kingdom of Darsen.
‘This is insane.’
A vulgar phrase unfit for a young prince rose all the way to his throat.
This was unquestionably reality, not a dream.
Both identities he remembered had truly existed.
But how was he supposed to accept such an unbelievable reality?
“…….”
Still bewildered, Roland suddenly raised his head when he felt eyes upon him.
He saw the maids and attendants staring at him with concern.
To ‘Roland,’ it was an unfamiliar sight.
There had only been two servants working in his entire estate, one male attendant and one maid.
Those two had needed to care for his sick mother, so Roland had always handled his own affairs himself.
But to ‘Saul,’ this was perfectly familiar.
Saul might have been treated as an insignificant offshoot of the royal family because he was the son of a deceased concubine, but he was still a prince who carried the king’s blood.
Naturally, there were attendants and maids assigned solely to serve him.
Everyone was watching him.
He could not simply remain silent.
“So... what exactly happened?”
The attendants and maids looked surprised at the words that came from Saul’s mouth.
The elderly attendant asked him,
“Your Highness, do you not remember?”
“Hmm....”
Even with Roland’s identity and Saul’s identity tangled together inside his mind, it was not difficult to find the memory of ‘that incident.’
Saul loved books and had been searching for one in the library inside his palace when he lost his footing and fell.
He collided with a large bookshelf, and the impact caused several books resting on its upper shelves to fall onto Saul’s head.
The wound had been severe enough to make his head bleed, and the shock had somehow restored memories from before his birth.
As soon as he recalled the incident, Saul realized the mistake he had just made.
‘Roland, the low-ranking noble,’ had spoken politely to almost everyone.
It had been a survival strategy intended to prevent others from taking offense at him, finding weaknesses to exploit, or obstructing his path to advancement.
‘Prince Saul,’ on the other hand, did not speak politely to maids and attendants.
He did not mistreat those beneath him, but he did treat them precisely as that—people beneath him.
The body he occupied now belonged not to ‘Roland,’ but to ‘Saul.’
He needed to behave like Prince Saul as well.
“Gray, what happened?”
When Saul’s manner of speech changed, the elderly attendant, Gray, answered with a slightly relieved expression.
“You were in an accident, Your Highness.”
“I remember the books falling on me.”
“Please be at ease. Your treatment was completed successfully.”
When Saul had looked in the mirror a moment ago, he had seen the bandage wrapped around his head.
Even with magic, a serious wound could not be healed perfectly in an instant.
The faint ache in his forehead was probably proof that the injury had not fully healed yet.
“I see.”
The elderly attendant before him, Gray, occupied a significant place in Saul’s memories.
He could be called the person closest to Saul at present.
Saul had lost his mother almost immediately after he was born.
After a difficult labor that ended with Saul’s birth, his mother had soon developed childbed fever.
Severe childbed fever was difficult to cure even with magic, and in the end, his mother had passed away, leaving Saul behind.
Afterward, Saul had spent ten years living almost unnoticed as an insignificant branch of the royal family, without status or powerful backing of his own.
He was a quiet boy who had inherited this ‘Ivory Palace’ from his mother and spent most of his days immersed in books and daydreams.
That was Saul Darius.
Gray had served Saul’s mother even before Saul was born, and after her death, he had continued his service by attending to Saul.
In Saul’s memories, Gray was closer to him than the ‘king and father’ who showed little interest in his son.
But how would Gray react if he discovered whose memories the ‘prince’ before him now possessed?
And what about everyone else?
What would happen if Saul began talking about Roland and a previous life?
If they did not believe him, he would be treated as insane and confined.
If they did believe him, they might decide that a member of the royal family who had inherited the soul of an enemy noble was a dangerous element. They could imprison him—or perhaps even have him quietly killed without anyone ever knowing.
‘For now... I’ll pretend I know nothing.’
He made his decision.
For now, he would thoroughly become Saul Darius, prince of the enemy kingdom.