The Story of the Reclaimed King and the Dragon Wizard Prince

Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

The sun shone faintly through the trees at the bottom of the deep forest. Everyone except the man was afraid to set foot in this place filled with dark rumors. The man was a member of the royal family of a small country. He was on the run with his subordinates and a small group of men when his country was taken by the family of the Prime Minister.

Even though he is a member of the royal family, the man was born to a low status mother and has been serving the king as a knight without any connection to the succession to the throne. He survived because he happened to be away from the capital when the Prime Minister's family took the king's head.

The man's immediate goal is to seek shelter to a large country ruled by a relative of the king, and his next goal is to raise an army and retake his country.  But for now, he is being chased and wandering in the forest where demons are feared to appear. There was no other way.

The man hoped that his pursuers would not follow him into the forest, but his adversaries would not give up, knowing that if they left even a single member of the royal family behind, disaster would follow. Eventually, the man's stomach was wounded by the pursuer's bow, and the fleeing party finally lost their way.

It is said that a terrible demon dwells in this forest that stands between the great nations of the exile. The only road used by traders is at the edge of the forest. But the man was not afraid of the demons. Growing up as a knight, he had never been involved in any kind of magic, and to him, demons were just like wild beasts. Of course, he should be wary of beasts, but for now, humans with malicious intent were more troublesome.

The man was more upset with himself than with anything else. He was annoyed that he had not been able to stop the pursuers from the kingdom, and that he had not been able to take care of his subordinates.

In the meantime, his pursuers appeared again. The fight was hard as he defended his wounded subordinate, and just when he thought it was over, a knife flew from somewhere and killed the enemy.

A young man emerged from the trees, holding a knife.  He was barely a young man and had the appearance of a merchant. He didn't seem to mind that the man was being chased and offered to treat the injured man. He was on his way to the township at the end of the forest, but due to a time-consuming transaction, he had fallen behind the line of soldiers.

The old soldier who followed the man suspected that the merchant was suspicious.

"There may be assassins. It is said that the demons of this forest can turn into people, but it looks like that they are on our side," the man told the soldier.

"It's getting late. There is nothing else we can do. I will not allow you to abandon the wounded."

That night, the man enlisted the help of a merchant to tend to his injured men.
His skill was as good as a healer's, and as the pain of his men eased, the soldiers' caution was somewhat relaxed.

The merchant said that the town to which he was heading would be reached in a few days from here, and the men decided to follow his advice to take a rest there before heading for the big country. The old soldier was still worried about the demons that lived in the forest, but the merchant seemed to know his way around, and despite his young age, he looked confident as he walked through the forest.

The group of men spent the next few days going through the forest. Instead, day and night, they would hear a mysterious roar that could not be described as either animal or human, and each time it frightened the soldiers. The man also felt scared, but since the merchant, who was younger than him, looked unconcerned, he tried not to show it. He was also proud to be a member of the royal family. His men were following him because they believed in him as the only survivor. There was no way he could show them his weakness.

The merchant who was leading the group seemed to be aware of their situation, but did not ask for details. He also had a feeling that the situation was somewhat unexplained. This young man uses a knife like a soldier, and heals people like a healer.

The night he said he would be in the township by noon tomorrow, the man suddenly woke up with a strange feeling. All his men, even the ones who stands by all night, were sound asleep, and a fire was blazing like a small flame. Yet the merchant was nowhere to be found.

The man stood up cautiously. Relying on a little moonlight shining through the treetops, he climbed over the roots of a tree and walked through the forest. As he passed through the bushes, a small, round space suddenly opened up. The light from the sky shone through the gap in the canopy, creating a mysterious cylindrical space.

The merchant was standing in front of a strange looking shadow, holding out his hand.

The man's face, lit by the moonlight, looked a little different from what he was used to seeing in the past few days.
His hair, which should have been bright, was jet black, and the hand he held out in front of him touched the shadows. Just then, the shadow opened its scary red mouth. The merchant's hand moved to follow the shadows. The man blinked his eyes in surprise. The merchant's jet-black hair suddenly glowed silver, and a shadow clung to it.

The man could not move as if he was bind by a golden rope. Even though he felt horrible about the strange shadow, his throat was stiff and he could not scream. Suddenly, the moon went down and the area became completely dark. When the moon reappeared, there was nothing there. The man's legs had started to move again. When he returned to the camp, the merchant was sleeping quietly in his usual sleeping place, a little away from the others.

Was what he saw an illusion created by the moonlight? The man fell asleep again, troubled.

The next day, the group arrived at the "township" guided by the merchant, it was not just a village, but a small kingdom miraculously spread out in the middle of the forest. As soon as they passed through the forest, they saw a road winding through the lush farmland, a row of houses, and a small castle.

The man's group went on their way with great joy, but suddenly realized that the merchant who had led them here was nowhere to be seen. His subordinate said uncomfortably, "He probably thought his role was done and went off on his own," but the man remembered what had happened last night and could not calm down.

As they passed through the streets, the people we passed were kind to them and didn't seem to think that they would do them any harm. Feeling as if they were lost in a fairy tale, they finally arrived at the entrance of the castle. There was a man standing there welcoming them, saying, "Welcome to the castle. When I asked him why, he replied, "Because you have been forewarned," in a tone that showed he knew the man's identity.

They were ushered into the castle where they were greeted by the king, queen, princes and princesses who ruled this small kingdom. When he told them that he wanted to rent a temporary lodging on his way to exile to a bigger country, they said that they understood and that he was welcome to stay. The man's suspicion only grew. When he asked the prince how he knew, another prince appeared.

The prince's face was clearly that of the merchant we had met in the forest. However, his appearance was quite different. His hair was jet-black instead of bright, and when he was dressed in the same attire as the others, he looked much more beautiful and noble than he was in the forest.

"This is the first prince," the king said. Then he introduced another prince as the heir.

He was the eldest child, but he was not the heir? The man was dubious, but royalty has its own set of circumstances. The first prince looked nothing like his father, the queen, or any of the other princes and princesses. The man himself had been excluded from the succession to the throne because of his mother's origins, so he decided not to inquire further.

The man's men bowed to the young man, who was now identified as the prince, but the prince made no sign of concern and quickly disappeared from the scene.