1 The Prince in the Background

Prince Rian was born with a weak and sickly body. It was something to do with having too little mana or his body not being able to build and retain mana which left him in a constant state of mana exhaustion. If he had been born in a commoner family, he probably would have died much sooner.

There was no cure for such a sickness which meant he had to have expensive mana potions with every meal. However, as the 1st prince of the Empire, mana potions were simple enough to get and he had several attendants that carried 3-4 of them at all times just in case.

It was a comfortable enough life - mana potions didn't taste too good but I could pinch my nose and have them if that's what it took to stay alive and best of all, he had very little to do with the main characters.

Prince Rian's sickness was well known throughout the kingdom, which meant he had long since been taken out of the running for the throne and his mother, the Imperial Consort, Lillian, had passed away after giving birth to him.

Lillian had been the Emperor's lover since childhood and Rian was a child he cared about a lot - that much I could understand from the novel, but the Emperor wasn't a warm man, and after the Imperial Consort passed away, he only looked at Rian from afar; bestowing on him a manor far away from the main imperial palace.

The beautiful flower garden directly outside the balcony of my bedroom was because I was on the very edge of the royal grounds. For anyone interested in power or politics, this would have been terribly inconvenient. For me, it was perfect.

I had not chosen this life - I had simply woken up as Prince Rian, a character I vaguely remembered from a novel I barely skimmed. I wasn't someone with a superior brain who could remember everything I had ever read, nor was I someone who could scheme and scam. I was simply an office worker. I worked in HR and I had a good relationship with my parents, my coworkers were nice and my friends were warm and supportive.

My first life had not been a remarkable life but it was mine - A full life. In this world too, I would live with my ideas and principles intact. If this was to be my second life, then it would be the same.

Straightforward, unremarkable and mine.