The first thing Adrian felt was pain.
Not the sharp pain of a broken bone or the dull ache of exhaustion.
It was a pounding headache.
His head felt like someone had spent the night hammering nails into his skull.
He groaned and slowly opened his eyes.
A white ceiling greeted him.
For several seconds, Adrian simply stared at it.
Where am I?
He tried to move.
The moment he did, something strange happened.
Memories that weren’t his came rushing into his mind.
A palace.
A woman crying.
A young girl with long brown hair laughing as she chased him through a garden.
A stern old man sitting on a throne.
Wine.
Parties.
Women.
Arguments.
Money.
A carriage.
Then—
Nothing.
Adrian suddenly sat upright.
“Ah!”
The movement made his headache worse.
He grabbed his head and squeezed his eyes shut.
“What the hell…”
His voice sounded unfamiliar.
Adrian froze.
He slowly looked toward the large mirror across the room.
The reflection staring back at him wasn’t his.
The man in the mirror looked to be in his early twenties.
He had black hair, pale skin, sharp features, and dark blue eyes.
Adrian stared.
The reflection stared back.
“No…”
He touched his face.
The reflection did the same.
He stood.
The young man in the mirror stood with him.
Adrian’s breathing became faster.
Then another memory surfaced.
A name.
Adrian Valerius.
Eldest prince of the Kingdom of Arvendale.
His stomach dropped.
“No way.”
He stumbled backward and sat on the edge of the bed.
He knew exactly what reincarnation was.
He had read enough novels to recognize the situation.
But knowing something in fiction and experiencing it were two completely different things.
He had been an engineer.
He remembered studying late nights, working on designs, arguing with coworkers, reading books about history whenever he had free time.
He remembered his old apartment.
His old life.
He even remembered going to sleep.
And now…
He was here.
Inside the body of a prince.
Adrian remained silent for several minutes.
Eventually, he took a deep breath.
“Okay.”
His voice trembled.
“Panicking isn’t going to help.”
He looked around the room.
It was enormous.
A large bed stood against one wall, covered in dark blue sheets.
Heavy curtains hung beside tall windows.
A fireplace occupied the opposite wall, and several pieces of expensive furniture filled the room.
Everything looked medieval.
Except it wasn’t quite medieval.
There were strange crystals embedded in the walls that gave off a faint blue glow.
Adrian stared at them.
Magic?
Another memory answered his question.
Mana crystals.
Used throughout Arvendale as a source of magical energy.
Adrian slowly rubbed his face.
“Of course there’s magic.”
He laughed once.
It wasn’t a happy laugh.
“Why wouldn’t there be?”
He spent the next hour doing something he had never expected to do after waking up in another world.
He studied himself.
More accurately, he studied Adrian Valerius.
The memories weren’t perfectly clear.
They came in fragments, like pieces of someone else’s life.
But enough remained.
Adrian was the eldest son of King Richard Valerius.
He had a younger sister.
Princess Elena.
She was seventeen.
And unlike most people in the palace, she actually seemed to care about him.
The original Adrian had been…
Adrian stopped reading the memories.
He already understood.
The man had been an idiot.
He had spent enormous amounts of money on expensive clothes, alcohol, parties, gambling, and women.
He rarely attended council meetings.
He hated studying.
He had never cared about military affairs.
He had little understanding of the kingdom’s finances.
And whenever someone tried to criticize him, he simply reminded them that he was the prince.
That reputation had followed him everywhere.
The Useless Prince.
Adrian sighed.
“Great.”
He stood and walked toward the window.
Below him was a massive courtyard.
Soldiers marched across it.
Servants carried supplies between buildings.
Nobles moved around in groups.
Beyond the palace walls, he could see the capital stretching into the distance.
It was larger than he expected.
Stone buildings filled the streets.
Smoke rose from workshops.
Merchants moved through crowded roads.
And far beyond the city were green fields and distant mountains.
Adrian watched everything carefully.
His mind immediately started working.
I need information.
That was the first rule.
Don’t make decisions before understanding the situation.
He had learned that from history.
And engineering.
A bad engineer didn’t start changing a machine before figuring out how it worked.
A bad ruler probably shouldn’t start changing a kingdom without knowing how it worked either.
There was a knock at the door.
Adrian turned.
“Come in.”
The door opened.
A young woman entered.
She wore a simple blue dress and had long brown hair.
She stopped when she saw him standing by the window.
“You’re awake.”
Adrian recognized her immediately.
Elena.
His little sister.
She stared at him for a moment.
Then she frowned.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Adrian hesitated.
Because he had never seen her before.
Not really.
But the original Adrian had.
He forced a small smile.
“Just thinking.”
“That’s new.”
Adrian blinked.
Then Elena smiled.
“Sorry.”
She walked closer.
“You gave everyone quite a scare.”
“What happened?”
“You collapsed after drinking too much last night.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Of course.
“Right.”
Elena folded her arms.
“You don’t remember?”
“Not everything.”
That wasn’t exactly a lie.
“I remember enough.”
She studied him.
Something about her expression changed.
“You seem different.”
Adrian’s heart skipped.
He kept his face calm.
“Different?”
“Yes.”
She walked around him.
“You usually complain about headaches for three hours, blame the servants, then demand wine.”
Adrian almost laughed.
“Sounds like a terrible person.”
“You were.”
She said it so casually that Adrian stared at her.
Elena’s expression softened.
“You’re my brother.
I can say that.”
For some reason, those words hit harder than he expected.
The memories of the original Adrian showed him something else.
Elena had always defended him.
Even when everyone else mocked him.
Even when he ignored her.
She had still been there.
Adrian looked at her.
“I’ll try to do better.”
Elena stopped.
“What?”
“I said I’ll try to do better.”
She stared at him as if he had just announced that he planned to fly to the moon.
Then she laughed.
“You really are sick.”
“Probably.”
Another knock interrupted them.
This time, an elderly man entered.
He wore a dark formal uniform with the crest of the royal family embroidered across his chest.
His expression was serious.
“Your Highness.”
Adrian nodded.
“Who are you?”
The man’s eyebrow twitched.
Elena covered her mouth.
Adrian immediately realized his mistake.
He remembered the man.
Marcus Hale.
The royal secretary.
He had served Adrian’s father for decades.
And apparently Adrian had rarely paid attention to him.
“Forgive me,” Adrian said.
“My head is still bothering me.”
Marcus gave him a long look.
“I understand.”
He handed Elena a sealed letter.
“Her Majesty’s physicians have requested that His Highness rest.”
Adrian looked at him.
“How is my father?”
The room became quiet.
Marcus’s expression changed.
“His Majesty’s condition has worsened.”
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
“How bad?”
“The physicians believe he has only a short time remaining.”
Elena lowered her eyes.
Adrian said nothing.
He knew what came next.
The original memories confirmed it.
If the king died, Adrian would become king.
Not someday.
Soon.
He walked back toward the window.
Outside, the capital continued moving.
People laughed.
Merchants shouted.
Children ran through the streets.
Life continued as though nothing had changed.
But everything had changed.
Adrian had been reincarnated into another world.
And now he was about to inherit a kingdom.
He didn’t know its full history.
He didn’t know its enemies.
He didn’t know how its magic truly worked.
He didn’t know which nobles could be trusted.
He didn’t even know how much money was in the royal treasury.
But he knew one thing.
He wasn’t going to rule the way the previous Adrian had.
Adrian looked at his reflection in the window.
The face staring back belonged to a man everyone believed was useless.
He smiled faintly.
“Let’s see how useless I really am.”
That evening, Adrian requested something that surprised everyone.
Books.
Lots of them.
History.
Geography.
Economics.
Military affairs.
Agriculture.
Magic.
Government.
Anything concerning Arvendale.
The servants thought it was strange.
Elena thought it was hilarious.
“You?”
She leaned against the doorway of the library.
“Reading?”
Adrian looked up from the enormous pile of books on the table.
“Yes.”
She walked over and picked one up.
“History of Arvendale.”
She looked at him suspiciously.
“Are you feeling well?”
“I’m beginning to regret telling you anything.”
She laughed.
For the first time since awakening in this world, Adrian smiled genuinely.
It felt strange.
But not unpleasant.
He opened the first book.
If he was really going to become king, he needed to understand what he had inherited.
A kingdom wasn’t a machine.
It was people.
Farmers.
Soldiers.
Merchants.
Nobles.
Mages.
Craftsmen.
Children.
Families.
Thousands upon thousands of lives.
And if he wanted to change Arvendale, he needed to understand all of them.
So Adrian began to read.
Outside the library, the sun slowly disappeared beyond the horizon.
And somewhere in the palace, the king took another painful breath.
The old era of Arvendale was coming to an end.
A new one was about to begin.