Who would’ve imagined that he would die and wake up in the body of a prince?

Mud certainly hadn’t.

The word ‘prince’ belonged to a world completely different from his life as Mud.

Every day had been spent searching for scraps that barely kept the hunger away, sneaking through the streets and guarding what little he had.

Born with no home and no one to rely on, he had learned to survive alone.

Stealing.

Running.

Enduring.

That had been Mud’s life.

Why was he in this body?

The question bothered him more than before.  

While Mud was still shaken from the truth, the doors of the royal hall opened.

“Lady Elara and the seventh prince.”

As they entered, a herald announced their arrival.

The room was enormous.

Rows of nobles stood along both sides of the hall, their colorful robes bright beneath the sunlight pouring through the tall windows.

Every eye turned toward them.

Even without his experience as Mud, anyone could tell it wasn’t a friendly look. 

Spite. Disdain. Cold.

Mud knew that look. He had seen it many times in his past life.

So even princes weren’t liked by everyone.

They continued down the hall, and at the far end a man sat upon a throne of carved dark wood.

Golden hair framed a stern face, and a pair of purple eyes regarded the hall with quiet authority. For a moment, Mud felt a strange sense of familiarity before realizing why.

The same eyes had stared back at him from the mirror.

That was him.

The king. His father.

And kneeling before him—

an old man in a black robe.

Mud couldn’t see his face until he slowly turned his head, his gaze settling on the young prince.

Their eyes met, and he saw fear.

A deep, dreadful fear.

Why? 

The old man turned back to face the king. 

All eyes turned to the king.

They waited for him to speak.

“Now tell me, grand mage. I have called for the lady and the seventh prince as you requested. What is the new prophecy you have seen?” 

The king never looked at Elara or the prince.

He focused solely on the grand mage. 

So this was the father who supposedly loved him?

The hand holding his tightened. 

Not strongly, but enough for Mud to notice. He looked up at the woman, and her expression was cold and worried. 

“Forgive me, my king, for the visions I bear are not kind. I would rather bring glad tidings, but the fates have shown me otherwise.”

The court whispered. Uneasy murmurs spread through the hall.

The king raised his arm and silenced them.

The mage took a deep breath and spoke with a trembling voice.

“My king… I have looked beyond the veil, and there I found the end of our realm. I saw a city drowned in blood and consumed by flame. The walls lay broken, the streets choked with the dead, and above them hung a black sky, empty of stars and mercy.”

A heavy silence settled over the hall.

No one dared to speak. As the old man continued, a ringing pain spread through Mud’s head.

“And standing atop the blood and the dead was a man.”

Even through the ringing, the mage’s voice reached him.

Mud clutched his head. He felt sick.

When he looked up, he was seeing double. The mage was still there, but there was another version of him. They were overlapping, but not exactly the same.

The two figures turned, one just a heartbeat after the other.

They both pointed at him.

It was the seventh prince!

“It was the seventh prince!”

The voices became one.

“He is the bringer of death and ruin to this kingdom!”

The hall erupted into chaos. Nobles yelled and pleaded with the king. 

Mud couldn't even look up.

His head felt like it was splitting into two. 

Memories poured into him.

It was nothing like how he remembered his past lives as Mud. This was indescribably painful—as though something was being shoved into his mind.

“Yuan, are you okay?!”

The last thing he heard was his mother’s voice beside him.

Yuan was a quiet child. 

Rumors followed him from the moment he was born.

Monster child.

He’s cursed.

The palace staff feared him because he was different from most children.

An emotionless child who was never seen smiling or crying.

Even when he fell over and scraped his knee, not a single sound came out of his mouth. He simply stood up, brushed the dirt from his clothes, and walked away.

The servants who witnessed it only added fuel to the rumors.

Before long, the seventh prince was forever branded with the title of "Monster."

Yuan knew of the rumors, but he didn’t mind. He knew he was different.

The west palace was given to his mother and him after he was born. It was far away from the main palace where the king, queen and the other princes lived. 

The queen had them placed there to keep them away from getting any real power in the palace. 

To Yuan, however, it was the place of his childhood—the home of his happiest memories with his mother. No one bothered them, and he liked it that way.

Then everything changed.

The prophecy.

The palace mage had announced in front of the king and all the nobles of the court that he would one day bring ruin to the kingdom. 

Yuan didn’t believe it. Everyone else did.

They had already decided he was a monster.

When the nobles pleaded for his death and the king ordered the knights to take him away, Yuan showed no expression.

This only terrified the people more.

The first time Yuan showed any emotion was when his mother fell to her knees and begged for his life.

He’s just a child.

Please just spare his life.

Perhaps the words moved the king. He withdrew the order and sent Yuan back to the west palace with his mother.

They were to be guarded by knights at all times, and were no longer allowed to step out of the palace without permission. 

They were prisoners in the palace.

If only he had stopped the prophecy.

That was Yuan’s first regret in life.

The boy opened his eyes slowly. The ceiling was a familiar sight.

He had seen it when he first woke up in this body. 

Next to him was the woman. She was sleeping on a chair next to his bed. Her eyes were red and swollen.

He sat up.

‘I got another chance at life, and I still couldn't stop it.’

He looked down at his hands and thought about the memories that came back to him.

This body.

This prince…

It was his first life.

His life before Mud, and also the reason why Mud existed.

The reason why he had to die over and over again.