'My everything hurts...' Were Ron's first thoughts upon waking up. His body felt heavy and cold, and he absolutely hated it. With a high-pitched groan, he begrudgingly got up, rubbing his eyes and letting out a mighty yawn.

Then, he froze up. Something felt wrong. Very wrong. He wasn't in his old room, but instead, he was stuffed in a small, wooden room that bumped up and down every now and then. 

Furthermore, as his eyes wandered downwards, horror filled his mind. His old body, one that, while admittedly quite a bit past it's prime, he'd always taken good care of, was gone. Instead, pale skin and thin arms greeted him.

In an almost wonder-filled state, he raised those fragile-looking arms and held them in front of him, shock blocking him from doing something he'd regret.

He wanted to scream in fear and confusion, however, he blocked himself. Instead, he scrambled to get up, tearing the strangely luxurious yet antique-looking clothes off his body and examining himself.

As he was doing so, his head began to pound harshly. Biting back a yelp of pain, Ron fell back on his bed, grasping his hurting skull as he wiggled around on the bed, information filtering into his mind.

A couple minutes later, his head finally stopped attempting to kill him. With heavy breaths, Ron crawled back to a standing position, only to fall back on the bed with a yelp when the room shook again.

"Everything alright, princess?" A voice came from outside. Panicking, Ron yelled back, "Y-yes! D-don't come in!"

Until the day he died, he would forever refuse to admit that his voice was shrill and crybaby-like at that moment.

No further questioning came from whoever was driving the carriage, allowing Ron to heave a sigh of relief as he filtered through his newly acquired information.

Princess Alice Rosenstar, daughter of the renowned duke of the Rosen Dukedom. Her father, an accomplished warrior, had carved out the realm through blood and tears, meaning he was no weak and ineffective man.

Despite that, he only ever had one offspring: Alice, who he doted on like crazy. Since young, despite the sneers of the other nobles who looked down on his daughter due to her gender, he spent most of his time training her and showing her the ropes of how to be a duchess, obviously hoping for her to inherit his lands.

However, naught but a year ago, fortune struck in the form of a wounded beggar. Alice had taken a look at the man who'd been bleeding to death on the street and begged her father to help the man.

The duke had reluctantly agreed, carrying the dying man back into his castle and letting the maids attend to him as he recovered. Unexpectedly, when the man did recover, he turned out to be someone extremely powerful and mysterious: a legendary magus.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Thankful for the rescue, he'd bestowed Alice with a strange necklace and gave her some words of wisdom before vanishing. 

"Young girl, if you wish to seek the truth, then come to the Great Hollowed Plains. There, using this, you may get a chance to become someone relevant in the world."

The girl's father, awed by the strange man, had immediately sent Alice out despite her protests and reluctance. He spent huge amounts of money securing a timely trip for her, one that would last over 8 months.

Not expecting to ever see his daughter again, the duke had cried as he held his daughter in his arms before forcing her on the carriage, and sending her on her merry way.

'Thus, we return to the present. Me.' Ron smiled bitterly, having absolutely no clue just how in the world he ended up in this situation. 

He was in the body of a girl of only 9 years of age, who was currently being sent to god-knows-where, to people who had a reputation for being mysterious and extremely dangerous. Ron felt as though he might actually cry.

Carefully opening the rough curtains that covered the small window on the carriage, Ron looked out at the dark sky. Evidently, it was still night, no matter if this was a completely different world or not.

Although Ron harbored a secret hope that this was all one big, bad dream, he wasn't delusional enough to fool himself with nonsense.

Besides... The idea of magic made Ron's little mouth salivate at the thought of it. However, it was soon damped from the realization that he still had no idea if that was truly what he was being sent to do, even if all the clues pointed to such.

Still, feeling his eyelids grow heavier and heavier on him, Ron promptly decided that everything else could go fuck itself, he was tired, and he wanted to sleep.

Thus, he threw himself on the bed, crawled under the uncomfortable sheets, and fell asleep faster than one could shout "Penis!"

The next morning, Ron was woken to a soft knocking sound. Feeling much calmer and more refreshed than the previous night, he carefully left the bed and went to open the door. When he did, he was met with a middle-aged man with a harsh frown facing her. 

"Y-yes, Mr. Unger?" Ron nervously asked, looking at the much larger man in front of him. He unconsciously adapted the poise Alice always held whenever she interacted with others, adhering to her father's etiquette training.

Meanwhile, he secretly thanked the gods that his father had a keen eye for personality and had assigned someone who was completely reliable, even while being alone for weeks on end with a defenseless young girl. 

The man's brows smoothed out and he let out a long-suffering sigh. "Princess, you promised you'd be up at dawn today in order to train in your father's technique. It's already far later than that. Excuses?" He glared, and Ron sheepishly looked down.

He couldn't exactly explain that he'd just stolen someone else's body, and he was much too lost to remember about such a minor detail.

"Sorry..." He mumbled, ashamed. The man just stared before harshly biting out with venomous words. "Princess, you must never neglect your training. If you don't even adhere to such a simple schedule, what will you do when you go to those Lords? Will you be late then? They may kill you for such a transgression." The man glared, and Ron trembled under the harsh gaze, regardless of the fact he was already a grown and experienced man.

"500 repetitions today, 1000 squats, and 800 push-ups by the end of the day. You better not fail." He gave out his death sentence, causing Ron to go pale.

'I'm so going to die...' Ron despaired, but still obediently nodded and ate his breakfast, before starting his hellish training.