[Translator - Kiteretsu]

    [Proofreader - Kyros]

    Chapter 2

    “It doesn’t seem to be a dream after all.”

    Ernstine barely managed to lift his massive body.

    Cold sweat dripped down his entire frame.

    The sensation was far too vivid to be a mere dream.

    He now had to act under the assumption that this was reality.

    “I need to assess the situation.”

    Calming his breathing, he tried to recall the name of this body.

    As he continued to dig through his fragmented memories, they began piecing together bit by bit.

    [Kaylen Starn.]

    [19 years old.]

    [Second-year student in the Royal Academy’s Magic Class.]

    [Second Circle.]

    “A mage, is it?”

    A typical bookworm.

    No wonder this body was in such poor shape.

    Another memory surfaced.

    [Breakfast is always so insufficient. I suppose it’s because this dormitory is mostly for commoners.]

    [The noble kids all commute from their estates in the capital.]

    [Ah, I’m jealous. They must get proper meals in the morning.]

    [If only I hadn’t been born into this family. Why did my ancestor have to belong to the demon family ‘Meier’?]

    “...What?”

    At first, Ernstine dismissed it, thinking, ‘More food-related nonsense,’ but the last memory jolted him awake.

    “Meier is a demon family?”

    Meier—the house of the hero who had slain the Demon King—was a family of demons?

    It seemed like a mistake, but the memories continued.

    [That cursed family. They used to be the imperial household, didn’t they?]

    [Why did they make a pact with the Demon Realm? Idiots. They could’ve just lived comfortably as emperors.]

    [The first emperor was a Grand Swordmaster, but then he suddenly disappeared...]

    For a moment, he wondered if this was about another family with the same name.

    However, as he delved deeper into this body’s memories, it became clear that it wasn’t.

    “The first emperor, the Grandmaster... That’s me he’s talking about. Disappeared, though?”

    More information was needed.

    As Ernstine scanned the room, his gaze fell on something.

    The cluttered desk, covered with books and crumbs, had a crumpled piece of paper atop it.

    He picked it up and smoothed it out, quickly skimming its contents.

    What he read left him speechless.

    [If you fail to reach the Third Circle, you will not be allowed to advance.]

    [Sacred Year 2787, August 14.]

    [Bormian Royal Academy, Department of Magical Administration.]

    “...2787?”

    The year he abdicated the throne to his son had been 1787.

    1,000 years had passed since then.

    “And Bormian? Royal?”

    The name was deeply familiar to him.

    During the wars, Ernstine had personally discovered a knight from a commoner background bearing that name.

    His talents were extraordinary, eventually leading him to become a Spear Master and one of the Seven Knights of the Meier Empire, renowned across the lands.

    "I Need to Confirm This."

    Among Kaylen''s memories was a list of academy dining halls.

    One stood out: the library cafeteria. He vividly remembered the way there.

    Something about, "Thursdays mean library cafeteria~."

    ‘That place should also have history books,’ Ernstine thought.

    He resolved to confirm the truth of the past with his own eyes.

    A day later.

    Kaylen, lying on the bed, abruptly sat up.

    He blinked several times, scanning his surroundings.

    “...It really isn’t a dream.”

    How he wished it were.

    What had caused this body to deteriorate into such a wretched state?

    “...I think I have an idea.”

    Kaylen’s unusual appetite had been troubling Ernstine ever since he realized the boy was his descendant.

    “Let’s examine the stomach.”

    While the rest of the body lacked mana, the stomach showed a faint concentration of it. It was, in fact, the second most mana-dense area after the heart.

    Focusing his analysis on the stomach, Kaylen carefully examined the mana concentrated within its walls.

    As dawn broke, the light of the rising sun began to filter through the room.

    “As expected.”

    After prolonged concentration, Kaylen finally identified it.

    The unique mana inherited exclusively by the Meier lineage—golden, star-shaped mana crystals.

    Infinity.

    “Kaylen, you are undoubtedly my descendant.”

    The Meier family had always referred to themselves as the descendants of dragons.

    This wasn’t merely a claim to establish legitimacy after ascending to royalty.

    “Every member of the Meier bloodline carries Infinity within them.”

    Infinity—a special crystalline form of mana, passed down to select members of the Meier lineage.

    Its defining characteristic was simple: limitlessness.

    There were no boundaries.

    The mana within Infinity could be drawn upon infinitely. This trait closely resembled the legendary core mana organ of dragons—the Dragon Heart—which led the Meier family to declare themselves the descendants of dragons.

    “Of course, it doesn’t come without its flaws.”

    Infinity consumed the mana of the body itself.

    For a knight, it meant that any mana accumulated through training would be devoured.

    If one infused their body with 100 units of mana, most of it would be consumed by Infinity, leaving less than 20 usable.

    For knights, who depended on accumulating and preserving mana within their bodies, this was a crippling disadvantage.

    Thus, the Meier family had earned a reputation for being “persistent but never genius.” They could sustain a certain level of mana usage thanks to Infinity, but accumulation remained an impossibility.

    Of course, this reputation preceded Ernstine’s birth.

    Having mastered the art of wielding Infinity, Ernstine had risen to become the strongest on the continent.

    “...But to utilize it, I need to extract it from the stomach.”

    The defining trait of Infinity—its limitlessness—seemed to have extended to the stomach.

    This constant hunger was enough to drive Kaylen to madness.

    As long as Infinity remained lodged in his stomach, it would render him helpless.

    “I think I understand why it’s here now.”

    The Infinity within him was far too small.

    At this size, it couldn’t develop by merely absorbing ambient mana.

    A more primal method was required.

    “Eating.”

    By consuming food, it could extract nutrients and absorb the mana contained within.

    For an Infinity so tiny—barely larger than a speck of dust—this was the only viable approach.

    But what was optimal for Infinity was disastrous for Kaylen.

    “To absorb the minuscule mana left in food... it’s killing its host.”

    How much mana could food even contain?

    To extract that negligible amount, Infinity had driven Kaylen’s body into a perpetual state of hunger.

    Krrrrrrrk—

    Even now, his stomach growled loudly, crying out for sustenance.

    If Kaylen were an ordinary person, he would have succumbed to the body''s pleas and eaten by now.

    To survive, he needed to transfer Infinity from his stomach to his mana core and cultivate it into its proper size.

    “Hmm...”

    However, Infinity stubbornly refused to budge.

    No, it wasn’t just Infinity—it felt as though the mana within his body was entirely blocked, unable to flow.

    “Is it because this body is that of a mage?”

    Unlike knights, who were adept at manipulating the mana within their bodies, mages were more accustomed to controlling external mana.

    It wasn’t surprising that Kaylen, as a mage, had not trained in techniques to handle internal mana flow. For someone like him, this process was bound to be slow at the start.

    But who was he?

    He was Ernstine, the first Grand Swordmaster in human history.

    Even if this body belonged to a mage, manipulating mana was still trivial for someone of his caliber. After all, he had achieved mastery over mana in countless forms.

    “I’ve personally nurtured dozens of Master-Class knights.”

    Even his eldest son, who used to belittle his lack of talent, had reached the pinnacle of Sword Expert by his thirties under Ernstine’s guidance.

    Kaylen’s confidence in his abilities was unshakable.

    Yes, that’s what he had believed—up until that day.

    [Translator - Kiteretsu]

    [Proofreader - Kyros]