Chapter 2 - The Story of a Certain Prince

[ Mommy, mommy! Can you read that story again? ]

[ Sure, dear, the story about that prince, right? ]

[ Yes! ]

It was at night. The child usually listened to a bed-time story before going to sleep. His favorite story was a story about a certain prince.

Most children stories are extremely cliché, such as a hero slaying the demon lord and lived happily ever after, or maybe a prince who eventually married a wonderful princess and lived happily ever after. Children loves these clichés. Most of them even wish to become like the protagonists in the stories they have heard. They are the embodiment of idealistic role models.

However, the protagonists in the stories, as stated before, are ideal. In other words, they are not real. There are no such thing as happily ever after. Most children do not know about that fact. Even if those types of protagonists are real, the stories only show the important part of what the children want to hear. They do not know and do not care what happens outside the stories. They only care about the glory and the happy ending of the protagonists. Of course, they do not realize it.

Children are innocent beings, after all.

However, not all of them are that gullible. In fact, the child that wanted to hear his favorite bed-time story was far from innocent. He understood that many children stories were blatantly fake. He even hated most stories, simply because they always had happy endings.

Having said that, what exactly is his favorite story?

[ Alright, mommy is going to start. ]

This is the story of a certain prince.

Once upon a time, in a certain kingdom, there lived a handsome prince. He was the fifth child of the king. However, he had shown many signs of his wonderful talents. At the age of 3, he was able to immediately understand all of the contents after reading books. At the age of 4, he was able to use magic perfectly. As a result, people around him, the nobilities, praise him. They call him a genius. A genius that only appeared once every ten thousand years.

At first, the prince was really happy. He loved being praised by others. As a result, he kept studying and learning everything, so that he could receive more praises. At the age of 7, he was able to defeat all of the kingdom's soldiers in a spar, including the highest ranking ones. He was truly a genius. Of course, he was praised yet again. However, something had sprouted inside of him. A new emotion he had never felt before.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

He became prideful. Too prideful, in fact.

The king was sure that his fifth child would probably become the next king after he retired. However, after that spar with the soldiers, he started to show his arrogance side of his character. In his perspective, everyone was inferior to him, including his own father. He became so prideful that he hated his own families. He thought that they were massive thorns in his side. They would become his obstacles in the future. Therefore, he decided to usurp the throne.

The king eventually noticed the change of his behavior. However, it was a little bit too late. All of his siblings had been killed. The prince himself had gathered enough forces. The king was powerless. There was nothing he could do.

[ You have gone senile, father. It is time for me to rule this kingdom. ]

[ My... child... p-please... ]

That was his father's last words.

He successfully became the king at the age of 15. He was eventually known as the tyrannical ruler. Obviously, in his perspective, the citizens were way too inferior to him. He thought that all he could do was to use them as tools for him to succeed even more. In other words, they became his slaves. There was no one in the kingdom that could oppose him. After all, he also killed everyone who had the potential to become thorns in his side.

Until that day, the day when he met his demise.

In this particular story, there were evil beings known as monsters. Their instincts were to kill everyone in front of them, especially humans. Despite that, they did not actively go attacking places with large amounts of population.

However, that day was the exception. The monsters suddenly attacked the kingdom. There were approximately one hundred thousand monsters. The kingdom was not capable to defend itself. After all, there was only one 'capable' person.

It is obvious that one person could not win against one hundred thousand enemies.

Even if he was dubbed as a genius that only appeared once every ten thousand years, he could not go against numbers. He was so prideful that he believed no one would be able to oppose him. As a result, the kingdom was destroyed and fallen into ruin. Of course, he himself was killed by the monsters. However, maybe because of karma, he did not die immediately. He felt pain for the first time. It was so painful that he could not cry anymore. He did not have the energy to do so.

[ It... h-hu... hurts... s-so... much... ]

Even when he was about to die, he did not blame himself. He blamed everyone because of their inferiority.

[ D-damn... inferior be-... ings... ]

After muttering his last words, he drew his last breath.

This is the end of the prince's story.

However, what if the prince has chances to restart his life?

Will the same thing happen over and over again?

Will he be in an endless cycle?

Or will he walk in a new thread of life?

Aren't you curious?

What would you do in a situation like that?

Would you realize that you had walked the same path of life again?

Would you be able to stop the endless journey?

Would you finally be... free?

Free from this endless cycle of one's life?

Free from this boundless shackle of madness?

Free from this never-ending nightmare?

The child immediately fell asleep after hearing the ending of his favorite story. His mother kissed his forehead before leaving his room.

[ I don't understand why he really like this story... ]

Hence, the mother went to her own room, wondering about why her only child's favorite story was something like that.

Why did he like the story?

What did he like about the prince?

Was he aspiring to become someone similar to the prince?

Who did he want to become?

These types of questions were the ones popping inside her mind. After all, the preconception was that all children loved the main characters in their favorite stories. However, his mother thought that this was something minor, as every children would eventually know that those stories were fake. She decided that it was no use thinking too much about this. She immediately fell asleep as she was really exhausted.

[ Good night... ]