My father's severed arm hit the ground before I could scream.
"Run, Prince!" my mother shouted, shoving me backward.
But I couldn't move. I just stood there, watching the "pirates" butcher my parents in front of me.
This was my fourth life.
Let me explain how I got here...Just Don't get bored from my story...there a lot of adventures.
***
My name is Prince. Well, not really. That's what I call myself in my head. My real name doesn't matter anymore.
I'm an engineering student.
I love anime and manga. Is that so wrong? Is it so bad to like stories about adventure and heroes and people who overcome impossible odds?
Today, a new volume of my favorite manga was coming out. That pirate manga where a monkey tries to become the pirate king. I've been reading it for years now, and I've been waiting for this volume for months.
I was so excited. I woke up early, got dressed, and headed out to the bookstore.
Then my neighbor stopped me on the street. Same stupid grin. Same mocking laugh.
"You're this old and yet you still read picture books? Hahaha!"
I tried to ignore him.
I just wanted to go home. Lock myself in my room. Forget about the world.
I was running so fast that I didn't see it coming.
The truck.
(Yes its always a Truck)
I heard the horn. Loud and blaring. I looked up.
Time slowed down.
I saw the truck. I saw the driver's face, his eyes wide with panic. I saw my own reflection in the windshield.
Then everything sped up again.
CRASH.
Pain. So much pain. My body was flying through the air. Then I hit the ground.
I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. Everything hurt.
I could taste blood in my mouth. I could hear people screaming. Someone was calling for an ambulance.
But I knew it was too late.
I was dying.
I felt it. Life leaving my body. Everything getting colder.
And you know what I thought about?
Not my family. Not my friends. Not my life.
I thought about those isekai stories I read. Where the truck-Kun gives people a second chance. Where people die and get reincarnated in another world with cheat powers and become heroes.
I smiled. Or tried to. I don't know if my face actually moved.
"Maybe," I thought, "maybe I'll get a second chance too. Maybe I'll be a main character in some story. My story."
Then everything went black.
.
.
.
I don't know how long I fell through that darkness.
It felt like seconds. It felt like years. Time didn't exist in that place.
I couldn't see anything. I couldn't feel anything. I couldn't even think properly.
All I knew was that I was falling. Falling endlessly through nothing.
Was this death? Was this what happens after you die?
Or was I waiting? Waiting to be reincarnated?
I wanted to scream, but I had no mouth.
I wanted to cry, but I had no eyes.
I just kept falling.
.
.
.
Then suddenly, light.
Bright, blinding light.
And sounds. Voices speaking a language I didn't understand.
Everything was so cold.
I tried to open my eyes, but they wouldn't work. I tried to move my arms, but they felt heavy.
Someone was holding me. Lifting me up.
I managed to open my eyes just a little bit.
A giant face was looking down at me. A woman's face. She was smiling.
She said something in that strange language. Then she held me closer.
Wait.
Why was everything so big? Why couldn't I move properly? Why couldn't I speak?
Oh.
Oh no.
I was a baby.
I reincarnated. It actually happened. I actually got a second chance.
A woman's voice said something that sounded excited. Another voice, deeper, responded.
Were these my new parents?
Over the next few weeks, I started to understand what happened. I was reborn in a new world. A world with magic.
I could see people doing impossible things. Lighting fires with their fingers. Making water appear from thin air. Flying on brooms.
Magic. Real magic.
I was so excited. This was it. This was my isekai adventure. I was going to have magic powers and become a hero.
Months passed. Then a year. Then two years.
I waited for my magic to appear. Everyone else my age was already showing signs. Little sparks of fire. Small puddles of water (maybe they just wet their beds)
But me? Nothing.
By the time I was five, the truth was clear.
I had no magic. Not even a drop.
My parents took me to healers. To magic testers. To everyone who might know why.
The answer was always the same.
"He has no magical core. He'll never be able to use magic."
I watched my parents' faces change. Disappointment. Shame. Anger.
I wasn't special. I wasn't the chosen one. I was broken.
By the time I was seven, they gave up on me.
"We can't keep him," my mother said one night. She thought I was asleep, but I heard everything.
"He is....," my father said. "He is....Our son."
"He's magicless. He's worthless. The kingdom will never accept him."
They argued for hours. But in the end, my mother won.
They took me to an orphanage and left me there.
Well... my own parents abandoned me because I couldn't use magic.
Not that i cared....who am i? the great reincarnated MC who will rule this world....i have my knowledge from earth after all.
The orphanage wasn't much better. The other kids avoided me. The caretakers barely fed me.
When I turned ten, they kicked me out.
"We can't waste resources on a magicless child," they said.
So I wandered the streets. Eating garbage. Sleeping in alleys. Trying to survive.
Then one day, a man found me. A kind man, or so I thought.
He gave me food.
"Come with me to the capital," he said. "I'll take care of you."
I was so stupid in my fantasy of MC Plot Armor that I didn't see the truth.
When we reached the capital, everything changed.
He locked me in a room. Three days. He gave me food, but it was disgusting. Later I found out it was dog food. Even the dogs didn't want to eat it.
On the fourth day, he dragged me to a building. A big, fancy building full of rich people.
An auction house.
I was standing on a stage. In front of hundreds of people. And they were all staring at me.
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" the kind man shouted. He wasn't kind anymore. His voice was cruel. "I present to you something incredibly rare! One in a million! Or should I say, only one in the entire world!"
"What is it?" someone shouted.
"Just tell us already!"
The man smiled. "This boy has no magic. Not a single drop. In a world where everyone has magic, he has none!"
The crowd went crazy.
"1000 gold coins!"
"1200 gold coins!"
I just stood there. Frozen. This couldn't be real.
"1200 coins once! 1200 coins twice! 1200 coins three times! SOLD to the young gentleman in the front!"
A rich boy bought me. He looked about my age, maybe a bit older. He had a cruel smile.
I became his pet. His slave.
For years, I did everything he told me to do. Clean his room. Wash his clothes. Feed him.
Even wipe his ass when he took a shit.
I lived in hell. Every single day was torture.
But then I heard something interesting.
There was Someone who could use ALL types of magic. Someone who invented new things. Someone who was called the "chosen one."
He also invented some things...like a game with 52 cards, a drink called "Tea", and a new way of measuring things called "Mathematics"
Is it...The truck driver?
The man who hit me with his truck. He reincarnated too.
And he became the main character.
While I became a slave.
I wasn't the protagonist. I was just a background character in someone else's isekai story.
That night, I cried myself to sleep.
"Fu*k you, god," I whispered into the darkness. "Fu*k you for sending me to the wrong story."
---