Reincarnated as the Prince's Rival!

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Emil was very sick. He has been since he was young. It was manageable at first. Just a few hospital visits here and there. But then it became unmanageable, and he was forced to spend his remaining day in the hospital and under the constant watch of doctors. At first, it was something he detested. He desperately missed going out with his coworkers or spending his weekends binge watching his favorite shows. But now? He had to stay cooped up in his bleak hospital room and stare outside the small square window that was next to him.

There were many times where he cried, begged and prayed to any god that would listen to help him get better so he could leave the hospital.

But that never happened.

As Emil many months passed, he finally accepted the fact that he was never going to get better. He did sometimes find himself lamenting the fact that all he could really do is pace around his room and read whatever books he got his hands on.

Emil was an avid reader. Even during his youth, he found himself buried in all sorts of literature. From newspapers, to textbooks, to fantasy novels; Emil read any and everything.

After all, there wasn't much else to do.

Emil's parents often brought him books to read. This included fantasy books. And, while they themselves weren't too partial to fantasy, they had given it to him regardless.

Emil never liked fantasy books, though. He found them to be too far-fetched and nonsensical for his liking. He considered himself to be a rational man, and thus, enjoyed things that "challenged his morals" and "made him really think" like philosophy books and biographies. But he couldn't afford to be picky.

And whilst he didn't really enjoy fantasy as a genre, he had to admit that there were plenty of excellently written books. Ones with intricate world building or ones that spoke of grand adventures and the truly valuable lessons the characters learnt on their way. Stories that even made him feel inspired to write something.

His favorite ones were the stories about the characters breaking free from predetermined roles they were forced into and becoming what they wanted to become. At times, whilst reading those types of stories, he found himself wishing he could be like them. Wishing that he, too, could do what he wanted to do rather than sit around doing nothing.

But, of course, there were also some books that he read that he didn't enjoy. At all.

One book that Emil found himself absolutely despising was a book called The Kingdom of Thorns.

"It's ridiculous." When asked about the novel he said that sentence every time without fail.

The novel was everything he despised about fantasy novels— no, about fictional stories in general. The book was, like he had said, utterly ridiculous in every way, shape, and form. From the world building being completely horrible and unfinished, to the flat characters with little to no character motivation; Emil hated everything about it.

The novel tells the tale of Ivan Wise and Elaine Astaseul. Two characters are who were never ever meant to be in the first place. Ivan is crown prince of some kingdom (that Emil had forgotten the name of) and desperately wants to marry Elaine. Despite there being multiple other characters that Ivan and Elaine face off against, ones that even regarded as "important" in the story, Ivan and Elaine are the only two characters who get even a semblance of character development.

From what Emil recalls, Elaine and Ivan never get together because, after jumping through hoops and hurdles to get to this point, Elaine finally tells Ivan that she doesn't have feelings for him. And they remain friends.

"A completely unsatisfying ending for the dumpster-fire that was that novel." —Emil's very eloquently worded opinion of the ending of the novel.

In Emil's humble opinion, The Kingdom of Thorns was "the absolute worst piece of literature he has ever read." Even though the novel was, apparently, very popular (at least, that's what he heard from one of the nurses), he thought it was far too nonsensical and bland for anyone to enjoy.

"Why even tell the reader these characters are important if they're there for 3 seconds and we know next to nothing about them?" Emil would shake his head and sigh. "How is this novel even popular...? What garbage, truly."

Emil groaned. Thinking about that absolutely abhorrent novel for even a second was enough to give him a headache.

Emil's eyes fluttered shut. While he didn't do anything exhausting recently, he was feeling very tired and found he could barely keep his eyes open. He had an appointment with the doctor during the evening, but since it was only midday... he figured he could nap for a bit.

His body relaxed as he let out a sigh. He was just going to nap for maybe an hour or two and wake up before the doctor comes so he doesn't have to get chastised by his mother again. It was just going to be a short nap.

That's all it was supposed to be. A short nap.

But the universe had other plans.

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hi hi it's me da author 👍🏾 im going to be rewriting this entire book bc i hate the way i wrote it b4 💀 if u notice any chapters being deleted DON'T WORRY they're most likely going 2 b combined with another chapter. i just don't like how short and just unnecessary???? some of the chapters are like... they could easily be combined with another chapter and make telling the story much smoother and more coherent. i think i just separated them the way i did bc i was lazy 😭😭