I Became the First Prince

—neither alive nor dead, between the abyss and the surface.

Where is that vague boundary?

I wandered and wandered through the empty dark, hoping to get back somehow, hoping to escape the empty space.
Even after wandering through the darkness for a long time, I found no way back to them.
I existed in a completely isolated reality, knowing that the only way to return to them was to forcefully break through the walls.
But now, I didn’t have the power to do that.
I was so weak.

Several times I tried to break through the barrier with all my strength, only to realize how insignificant I had become.
The feeling of total helplessness that I felt for the first time in my life ate at me.
I was exhausted and finally decided to just wrap my knees around each other, curling up into a ball.

The only thing left to me was the shimmering fragment of my soul.
I looked into it, endlessly looking back on the life of Adrian Leonberger.

Sometimes I just watched it flow, while at other times, I repeated a certain moment again and again.
The happiest moments, the saddest moments, the most joyful moments, and the most sorrowful—I cherished and embraced every instant.
It was the only warmth I could feel in this cold reality; it was the only pillar that supported me, sustained me on the brink of collapse.

I grabbed onto the most intense instant of my life and repeated that time indefinitely.

Then, at some point, I became dazed, lost.

What was I doing? What had I been trying to do?

I thought about it, but there was no answer.
It was so frustrating that I stood up and sat back down, again and again, never ceasing to worry.
I sat blankly, my arms wrapped around my head.
My mind was a mess.

Then I walked around for a while but suddenly stopped, feeling uncomfortable.
I looked around to identify the source of my discomfiture and finally found it.

In a world of endless emptiness, a small light flickered in one corner.
I ran towards the light, finally reached it.

At a small campfire sat a wizard, garbed in a white robe with a hood covering the head.
The wizard looked up at me.

“Nice to meet you.”

Her soft voice made me laugh.
In this empty world, I was finally becoming mad, but I didn’t mind.
It was good to meet a friend in this void, even if that friend was an illusion created by me.
It was much better to be with someone like her than to be alone in a world of nothingness.

‘Dump!’

I sat down by the fire.

“I think of the old days.
Even when I first met you, you suddenly appeared from the deepest night.
At that time, unlike now, I was just a sword.”

“Sure.
It was nice then.”

I stroked her chin and stared at her, and Ophelia smiled as she met my eyes.

As we gazed at each other after speaking, I suddenly felt uncomfortable.
Then I realized why—I didn’t feel any of the energy peculiar to the High Lich, which should have been felt immediately.
Ophelia was as fresh as when we had met four hundred years ago and just as lively.

At first, I figured that because it was an illusion, she could easily possess the veneer of false vitality.

However, as time passed, my sense of discomfort became stronger.

Is the Ophelia in front of me really an illusion?

At first, it was just a simple question, but it soon got me all confused.

“Sometimes, what you see isn’t everything.
But sometimes… what you see is everything,” she said with a smile, looking at me.
Her words were so clear, her smile so vivid.

I couldn’t help but ask, “Are you really Ophelia?”

She laughed out loud at me.

“Gruhorn.
That’s the most ridiculous question you’ve ever asked me.”

Her clear laughter echoed in my ears, and I felt a bit embarrassed.

“But, as always, I will answer your questions with all my heart.”

Ophelia jumped up from her seat.

“I am not an illusion.”

Then she hugged me.
The warmth of her body was so vivid that I naturally realized: the Ophelia before me had never been illusory.

“You endured well.”

“What the hell?”

I was confused, both by the way she had appeared in front of me, and the fact that she was alive in here.

“Aren’t you supposed to go back to them?”

Ophelia slipped out of my arms, and then she glanced at me.
Seeing her unique golden eyes, I snapped awake.

“Yes! Ophelia! Send me back!”

My heart quickened at the thought that if she had come here looking for me, she would know how to go back.

“You have to hurry!” I urged her.
“ Even at this moment…”

“Where are you talking about?”

“That’s, of course… Agnes and the others…”

Ophelia quietly stared at me.
Her eyes seemed to tell me that going back wasn’t that easy.
I frowned.
Then, the moment came when I realized that my head was empty.
It felt like I had forgotten something big, something very important and precious.

“I’m late,” Ophelia sighed as she saw me like that.
Then suddenly, she looked at my hand.

“But I’m not too late,” she said with a sigh of relief, and I followed her gaze, lowering my head—and stiffened where I was.
There was a small, faintly shining fragment that I gripped tightly in my hand so that I would never lose it.
The moment I saw that little piece, my heart started throbbing.

“If the night is long, the dreams are deep,” Ophelia whispered into my ear.
“But no matter how deep a dream is, there is no dream that one does not wake up from.”

Hearing her strangely clear voice, I raised my head as if possessed.
Ophelia looked at me with a gentle smile.

“It’s time to wake up now.”