I Became the Youngest Prince in the Novel

They found themselves at the sea.

A sea made up of an endless array of lifeless bodies.

Stretched out as far as the eye could see.

A battlefield filled with the dead, humans and monsters alike undistinguished.

Broken spears, dull swords buried in the earth, and deformed helmets littered about.

"I have something to ask."

From amidst the sea of death, a knight, missing his lower half, strained to speak to a man standing frozen in shock.

"Please, live for yourself."

Blood was pooling, his eyes growing dimmer.

"No more protecting, no more sacrificing. Just live for yourself."

The knight managed a weak smile at the man.

"Marry, have kids, enjoy the farming you love. That's my... our final wish."

With those last words, the spark of life extinguished in the knight's eyes.

"..."

The man, having watched the knight's life end, quietly spoke.

"Maybe it's time to stop."

His voice was barely audible.

---

---

"Sir, will you teach me to use a sword!"

A girl of about fifteen, notable for her vibrant blue eyes and brown hair, shouted. Her name was Ferna.

Ferna was pleading with a man in his mid-thirties who was quietly planting carrots in a garden.

"I don't know anything about using a sword."

The man responded without even turning to look at the shouting girl.

His attention focused only on the carrot seeds he was planting.

"Then, please teach me how to use a spear, or any other weapon. I can pay for the lessons……”

"I don't know about any of that either. So, please leave."

Ferna's eyes filled with disbelief at the man's response.

Even though the man had been in the Kurd village for a year, Ferna and the villagers knew little about him.

He never spoke of his past.

They only knew his name was Liam and he enjoyed farming.

"Wow, you're really not budging. If I were you, I'd at least pretend to think about it."

Ferna, however, was convinced that Liam knew how to fight.

The many scars crisscrossing Liam's body.

They were unmistakably the result of combat, something even Ferna, who knew little about battles, could tell.

"Sir, why are you in this quiet place? Honestly, you're not very good, are you? That's why you quit early and are just farming here, right?"

"......"

She tried to rile him up, hoping for some reaction, but Liam remained impassive.

"Teach me how to fight with a sword!"

"I told you I can't. Even if I could, I wouldn't teach you. So, stop bothering me and leave. If you're that desperate to leave, study and become a civil servant or something."

"Ah, just a little!"

How long did they keep up this argument?

Ten minutes later, Ferna finally gave up. With slumped shoulders, she left Liam's garden.

"Ah..."

As she walked the path from Liam's house back to the village, Ferna let out a long sigh.

She'd been trying to persuade Liam every day for several months, but each day ended just like today.

It was like talking to a brick wall.

"I need to get out of here soon..."

She didn't like it here.

This quiet village where strangers only showed up once in a few years.

The warm villagers who treated even outsiders without judgment.

The peaceful vibe of the village.

Especially the peace. Ferna hated it.

Because she knew how delicate that peace was, like glass ready to shatter at any moment.

She learned this harsh truth when her parents were killed in a bandit raid a few years back.

There was no one to stop the bandits in the village, and the empire ignored these remote areas.

They were helpless.

They couldn't do anything.

The villagers, her parents included, bent their heads to those who had killed their family and offered their wealth.

"Please, don't kill any more of us. Just take what you want and leave."

"Being weak is a crime."

Since then, this belief had rooted itself deep within Ferna's heart and hadn't changed.

That's why she longed to become strong and leave the village, but as a mid-teen girl, she was powerless on her own.

Then Liam came to the village.

"Yes, if I keep pestering him, he'll eventually give in and teach me a few things."

Right now, this was her only way to get stronger, so she couldn't afford to quit.

He didn't seem very skilled, as she'd mentioned before, but it was better than learning nothing at all.

Then.

"......Huh?"

Ferna's eyes widened.

Two strangers were approaching her on the woodland path.

They weren't any of the villagers she knew.

"Strangers?"

They were indeed odd.

A man with skin so white it was nearly see-through and dark grey hair, and a woman with jet black hair and piercing red eyes.

The woman was eerie just to look at.

But the man leading the woman caught her attention more.

Despite the daylight, there was a strange darkness around him, as if it were night.

The unsettling, foreign aura he gave off.

His indifferent eyes, which seemed to disregard everything, made her drop her gaze involuntarily.

"......"

The man and woman passed by the dumbfounded girl.

"Who are they?"

Ferna watched them until they were entirely out of sight.

---

---

"So, Master, you're suggesting that the Phantom Army will manifest here?"

"Yes."

Kurd was a village situated significantly west of the Empire's capital, Hubris. Zion and Liushina strolled down a woodland path leading away from Kurd.

"But why here?"

Uncertainty flickered in Liushina's eyes.

From Zion's stories, she understood that the Phantom Army did not spontaneously appear, but was triggered by certain circumstances. However, Kurd was an unremarkable, rural village.

There seemed to be no reason for the Phantom Army to appear here.

"They need to eliminate someone."

With these words, Zion glanced at a log cabin visible at the end of the woodland path they trod.

"They?"

Liushina's question deepened at Zion's cryptic words.

In that instant, a man, busily planting carrot seeds in a garden beside a house, caught Zion's attention.

'It seems right.'

Upon their arrival, the man stopped his work, turning his head towards them. An inward smile curled on Zion's lips.

A body covered in scars, muscular and formidable, with closely-cropped hair.

A rugged beard, and steadfast, unyielding eyes.

Everything matched the description in the annals.

'Liam Rainer.'

The emergence of the Phantom Army in this location was primarily due to this man.

Even though magic had stifled all surface invasions for over a century, the war was far from over.

Countless skirmishes large and small occurred at the boundaries of the empire and magic. Numerous armies stood vigilant at these borders.

Liam Rainer, one of the commanding officers of these armies and captain of the Demons' Destruction Squad—an elite force combating the demons—was the greatest war hero to mankind and an object of unending terror to the demons.

'But now he's retired.'

Retired hero.

That was the title that best encapsulated the current Liam Rainer.

The 'coordinates' causing the Phantom Army to appear were currently held by the demons.

Upon discovering Liam's whereabouts, they used the 'coordinates' to summon the army.

And So, the legendary war hero was to meet his end in this unassuming village of Kurd.

Zion intended to alter this fate.

"Master, may I kill him?"

"No."

Restraining an unusually excited Liushina, Zion approached the man.

"Who are you?"

Liam, hands still smeared with soil, asked Zion in an emotionless tone.

In reply, Zion met his gaze and began to speak.

"Zion Agnes. That's my name."

Upon hearing Zion's reply, a subtle change crossed Liam's expression.

His hair's hue suggested royal connections, but Liam found it hard to believe that the man before him was the 'disowned pureblood'.

Even in retirement, he wasn't oblivious to the world. So, he had heard rumors about Zion Agnes.

Yet the man before him was nothing like those rumors.

'The rumors must be mistaken, or he's been concealing his true nature.'

Liam concluded, asking Zion,

"What brings you here?"

Even after learning Zion's identity, Liam's demeanor remained unchanged, only his tone shifted.

After all, he was retired and had no intentions of re-associating with the empire.

Zion replied in his uniquely languid manner, "Join my command."

A sudden proposal completely incongruous with his tone.

"Assuming I would agree to that..."

Before Liam could scoff at the absurd proposition,

"This village will soon be annihilated."

Zion continued, his voice steady.

"......!"

It was a startling revelation, yet an inevitable consequence.

The Phantom Army would not simply eliminate Liam and disappear.

"In exchange, I'll spare you and this village once."

With these words, Zion's tranquil gaze settled on Liam.

"......"

After a moment's silence, holding Zion's gaze, Liam spoke slowly, "I decline. I don't trust your words, Your Highness, and even if... this village is destined for destruction, simply leaving beforehand is the obvious choice."

Even if it resulted in the villagers' death, it didn't concern him.

He had no responsibility to protect this village.

No, not just this village. The duty to safeguard anyone else was non-existent for Liam.

He was no longer part of the Demons' Destruction Squad at the magic frontier, and everyone dear to him was already gone.

"I see."

Zion, his inscrutable gaze never leaving Liam, chuckled and turned away without a second thought.

"What's this? I thought you'd coerce him like you did with me."

With a teasing grin, the thousand-year-old witch followed him.

Watching their retreating figures, Liam's gaze fleetingly strayed towards the adjacent forest.

"......There's no need for concern."

Murmuring his conclusion, Liam, free from any lingering thoughts, returned his attention to his vegetable garden.

"Are you truly giving up so easily?"

Walking beside him, Liushina turned towards Zion, her voice laced with curiosity.

"He must be quite exceptional if you personally sought him out. I didn't expect you to back down so quickly. If this was your plan, why did you tell me not to kill him?"

Zion met Liushina's questioning gaze.

Her eyes, both haunting and mesmerizing.

Zion contemplated the notion that in times past, when she was known as the thousand-year-old witch, there might have been those so captivated by her gaze that they offered their lives to her.

"Do heroes emerge naturally, or are they crafted?"

Zion mused aloud, his gaze drifting forward once more.

"What are you talking about? Out of nowhere."

Liushina regarded Zion as though he was speaking gibberish.

To her, a hero was simply a being more challenging to kill than others. She had never pondered such things.

"I believe they are born. A hero's fate is determined at birth."

Just as lifespans are preordained at the moment of birth.

"That's why it's unavoidable."

Regardless of how fiercely one may resist, the environment, or indeed, the entire world, would ensure otherwise.

"That's why he, too, will eventually succumb."

"So, what you're saying is… that man we met earlier is a hero?"

At Liushina's question, Zion replied with a faint smile.

"Isn't that what he's already being called?"

"Well, if you say so. What's next?"

As though it mattered little what transpired, Liushina shrugged and questioned Zion again.

"First..."

In response, Zion abruptly stopped, surveying the surroundings.

Simultaneously, his figure seemed to vanish like a mirage.

Swish -

He materialized before one of the trees flanking the woodland path.

Thud!

Zion's hand penetrated the tree's heart without hesitation.

"We need to eliminate the vermin first."

As he spoke, a streak of crimson burst from within the tree, matching the arc of Zion's gaze.

***

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