I opened my eyes. How strange.
There was no plain white ceiling that I usually saw when I woke up, nor was there the comic book I had been reading last night.
In front of me was a hall spanning 20 square meters, with a white marble floor.
The floor was already worn out, yet somehow it gave me a contrasting feeling of grandeur and being outdated at the same time.
A long red carpet stretched straight from the three-meter-tall door to the throne where I was sitting.
How strange. Why was I sitting here? Was I still dreaming? Why did everything feel so real?
And that red carpet kept distracting me. It was only a worn-out piece of cloth, yet it seemed to separate two different worlds.
On the right, ten people stood upright, each with a fierce aura. They were all wearing iron armor, with swords hanging from their waists. They looked at me respectfully, their eyes as sharp as an eagle's.
That posture, that focused gaze... I had only ever seen something like that in the eyes of the military instructor who visited my school back in high school.
On the left, things looked completely different. Five people stood wearing neat and elegant clothes. They appeared to be middle-aged, and some of them even wore glasses, indicating that their eyesight had deteriorated.
Without exception, all of them radiated a calm aura around themselves.
Their clothes looked like those of the ancient Greek scholars I had seen in paintings at a museum.
"Your Majesty, the goblin horde is almost at the eastern gate. The situation is dangerous. Please come with us and evacuate to Blackstone City first!"
"Yes, the capital is no longer safe! When the goblins arrive, our forces won't be able to defend it!"
Two people from the left spoke anxiously. Drud and Anna—the names of those two strangers suddenly came to mind.
Then, a series of foreign memories came rushing into my head, like raindrops falling on a rainy night, their coldness piercing all the way to my spine.
Vali Alvector? Born to a mother named Vania Arthanea? Huh? The Ember Continent, Year 1850 of the Jamea Calendar?
At the age of five, I began learning to read under my mother's guidance and became proficient after two years of hard work.
At the age of ten, I began learning magic under the direct guidance of the royal mage, but it turned out that my talent was only average?
Fire Element: Fire Feather.
Water Element: Water Spear.
At the age of fifteen, because I could only learn two C-rank spells, I also began sword training under the guidance of the Silver Knight.
Basic Swing, Straight Slash, Crescent Slash, Forward Thrust, Parry.
Swordsmanship was very exhausting, and I preferred being alone in the library, so I only had a few friends to play with?
Hmm? Because of my poor talent in magic and combat, my siblings nicknamed me "Golden Slime"? Why is this plot so cliché? And why do I like reading? Honestly, I've had enough of reading back in school!
"Ugh..."
"So that's how it is. I reincarnated into this world, but I only recovered my memories now."
"The third prince of the Alvector Empire, weak and untalented, disliked by his relatives and even his own father."
"And now I'm twenty years old. According to imperial tradition, the princes will be sent to various vassal states to become kings there."
"Such a familiar plot. Isn't the king going to die next, and then the princes will wage war against each other to become King?"
After digesting the memories of my twenty years of life in this world, I inhaled the cold air and became slightly panicked.
Even though I'm not a history buff, isn't the competition between princes for the throne something everyone knows about?
Ancient Rome, the Three Kingdoms War in China, and many others. Didn't those happen because princes were sent to various regions to become kings?
"Your Majesty!?"
"Let's leave first. Don't think about this city."
The anxious shouts broke my train of thought. I lowered my head and looked helplessly at the knight who had accompanied me for several years in this place.
I knew why they were so anxious. The place I was currently in was called [Fortress Aldora], a territory located in the northern part of the Alvector Kingdom.
Most importantly, this country also bordered the Sien Forest, the largest and most dangerous monster forest on the Ember Continent.
Every winter, goblins, hairless monsters, would migrate from the Sien Forest in search of warmer territories.
Goblins were humanoid monsters, so the greed naturally embedded in the souls of humanoid creatures was also present in them.
During their migration, goblins would raid the settlements they encountered, like mindless bandits who knew nothing but how to plunder without leaving anything behind.
Because of this, the territory I currently ruled had become the most backward, filthy, and poorly maintained territory among all the territories allocated to the princes.
At a glance, I knew why the King had given me this territory. After all, my mother was not the queen, but merely his third wife, who was not even recorded in the royal records.
Based on my experience reading history books, this surely had something to do with the queen, the mother of the first prince.
According to the memories I had just awakened, I knew that the first prince had now been placed in the country of Seakath, a country only 300 kilometers away from the Alvector Kingdom.
A territory that could still be seen by the central government, with a strong economy because it was located along the golden trade route of five states.
It's obvious, isn't it? How could I end up in a place this terrible?
But I didn't continue dwelling on those thoughts. What mattered most now was my life.
"Alright, let's go!"
I stood up from the throne, stepped down, and walked toward the hall's door.
The most important thing right now was my own life. After all, there might be less than three days left before thousands of goblins arrived at the fortress.
From the memories of myself in this world, I knew that the army I possessed numbered fewer than 1,000 people, and there were only five B-rank mages and twenty C-rank mages ready for battle.
It sounds like a lot for just fighting goblins who are only a few percent stronger than a normal human.
But the current situation was quite terrifying. This year, the goblins had experienced a population explosion, reaching ten times the number of previous years.
That was why the knights urged me to evacuate to another city. The goblin disaster that could normally still be controlled had now become a threat that was almost impossible for the forces I currently possessed to fight.
Last year, the number of migrating goblins was estimated at 1,000. Ten times that number... even a formation of five B-rank mages would be making a futile sacrifice!
....
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
The knights assigned to protect me responded in unison before forming a triangular formation around Vali, as if they wanted to protect the young man from all dangers.
One of those knights was Anna, the only female knight assigned to protect Vali.
She felt relieved when Vali finally allowed himself to be persuaded.
What else could she do? Previously, Vali had always stubbornly insisted on staying and defending the capital.
"Your Majesty, please wait a moment!"
"We cannot just leave like this. The people of Fortress Aldora still need us!"
At this moment, a man from the right side began speaking in panic.
His face was filled with earnestness, his anxious expression pleading for help for the common people.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Just execute the emergency protocol. Why bother telling me about such a trivial matter?"
[I don't understand English, so I wrote in my own language and then translated it. So, if the language seems strange, please comment.]