I Became the First Prince

quickly.”

“Yes, because you don’t have a spontaneous personality, right?”

“I don’t, really.”

For a few moments, the duke and prince aimlessly conversed.

“So why do you need a knife that you can’t even hold properly?” Vincent asked again, squinting his eyes.

“I can hold a small knife,” the prince growled.

“Are you trying to learn using daggers?”

“No.”

“Why then?”

“I want to make something.”

Vincent frowned at such an unexpected answer.

“What?”

“I don’t know so far.
Please just give me the knife.”

“I want to know what purpose the knife will serve, understand?”

“I’m going to carve some wood.”

Yet another unexpected answer made Vincent narrow his eyes as he looked at the prince.

“So, will you help me, or not?” the Crown Prince roughly asked.

“You need some lumber?”

**

“What is this?” The prince laughed when he saw the timber piled up on one side of the dojo.
“When I asked for some wood, I didn’t ask you to clear a whole forest.”

Rather than wood for carving, the enormous amount of lumber would be enough to build a house, and even then, logs would remain.
Moreover, it wasn’t just wood that Vincent had sent.

“Why are you here again?”

The ranger standing in front of the timber pile laughed.
“Your Highness wants to make something out of wood?”

“That’s right.”

“The most important thing in carving wood is dexterity! And when it comes to dexterity, it’s Jordan who’s the master! I am the best carpenter in Balahard!”

The prince laughed as he heard the lengthy answer.

“Balahard’s best drinker, Balahard’s best ranger, Balahard’s best curser.
And this time, Balahard’s best carpenter?”

“Excluding the swearing, and adding the word handsome in its place: that’s me,” Jordan deftly replied, even in the face of the prince’s challenge.
Then he started talking for some time about his versatility.

“Do you know how useful I am now?”

“I don’t know that.
I know that you are skipping work, though.”

Jordan, who had constantly spoken, shut his mouth for the first time.
However, being chatty by nature, he quickly opened his mouth again.

“So what are you trying to make? Jewelry? Statues? Furniture? A weapon?”

“What I want to make-”

“Name anything.
The best carpenter in Balahard will make your Highness a great woodworker in no time through my experience and know-how.”

“So I-”

“If you have a woman in mind, why don’t you try making ornaments for her? When it comes to wooden jewelry, there are some people who think of cheap things that are usually sold at market stalls, and that’s the prejudice of those who know only of the lesser arts! How graceful wood can be- Once you see it done right, you’ll never think of the cheap stuff again!”

The Crown Prince opened and closed his mouth several times, then stumbled.
The ranger’s intense chatter was making his head dizzy.

‘Shh!’

Adelia, who had silently stepped forward to support the prince’s body, frowned.
Jordan, after yelling, bit his lip.

“So what are you going to make?” he asked carefully after a while, attentively looking at Adelia.

It was then, with a dazed face, that the Crown Prince answered the ranger.

“A statue.”

“There are many kinds of carvings.
Wood varies widely depending on what size, what shape, and what grain is used-”

“Adelia.”

Just when Jordan was about to unleash his torrent of words again, the Crown Prince softly spoke up.

“Cut it apart.”

“How should I cut it?”

“From that size into eight pieces.”

The ranger’s expression paled to white, for it sounded as if the Crown Prince was thinking about cutting him into pieces.

“Well- Wait a minute-”

Before Jordan finished speaking, Adelia’s sword aura flashed.

“Ugh!” The ranger screamed, hastily groping his body.

‘Hwak!’

Then he looked right behind him.
Of the wood that had been piled up, one log with an appropriately pleasing color was rolling over the floor, cut into eight sections.

‘Strit!’ Adelia Bavaria glanced at the ranger as she passed him by.

‘Chuck’

Then she picked up a log and gave it to the prince.

“It’s just right.”

A satisfied smile came to the prince’s face as he studied the wooden segment.

“Come with me.
Give me that knife over there.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

After this short exchange, the prince turned around and headed toward his palace.

“I feel relieved to see that my body is still intact, but not so much that his personality is still the same.”

The ranger, once he was alone, gave a sigh of relief as he stared in the direction they had left in.
But his relief proved short-lived.

“Ah! My chance is ruined! Now I must either go on a long-distance patrol or run away!” the ranger screamed, becoming filled with angst as he considered he might be put back to work.

**

From that day on, the Crown Prince spent all day carving wood.

Even when his guests came, he did not take his carving knife from his hand.
His entire time, except for when he slept, he devoted to carving.
However, he realized that it wasn’t easy to sculpt with his broken hands, and the results of his labors were not yet significant.

“It seemed easy when Anne was doing it.
It’s harder than I thought,” he grumbled as he looked down at the state of his carving.

at the Crown Prince.

“What?”

“Sometimes… I’m curious about who this Anne person is whom your Highness talks about.”

“There is such a person,” the prince replied as he grabbed the chunk of wood he had laid down for a while.
He again began forcing his stunted hands to mold the wood.

“She’s rough of mouth and warm of heart.
She isn’t large, but her swordplay is amazing.”

Adelia could not see the Crown Prince’s face, bowed over his work as he was.

“She told me to live instead of sacrificing my life for others.
She told me to live as the human Adrian Leonberger, not as a knight.”

Yet, it wasn’t difficult for Adelia to guess what expression the prince held on his face.

“She told me to live more confidently than anyone else.”

Adelia didn’t know, but the prince was probably smiling.

“She is such a wonderful woman.”

His voice was also very warm.