“Ah.”

Sunlight stabbed at my eyes.
I twisted my body at the sudden assault and opened them.

“Sh*t, what the hell.”

As soon as I regained consciousness, my head throbbed like it was splitting in two.
Memories tangled together, turning my mind into chaos.

The memories of a wild seventeen-year-old colt, the memories of twenty-something Park Shin-woo, the memory of collapsing from a mysterious fever and body aches, the memory of the sudden computer explosion, and being cursed out for reasons I couldn’t understand.

Yeah. I died.
Both the owner of this body in this world and I from Earth were dead.
Park Shin-woo of Earth had died because his body was destroyed, while this boy’s spirit had died because he couldn’t endure the pain.

For some reason, whatever remained of me and this boy had blended together, creating a new existence.

I didn’t know why or how, but one thing was certain—
I had been given a chance to live a new life.

It was a shame that my life on Earth had ended so early, before I could make anything of it.
But since I’d already died in an accident, there was no real way back, and there was no point in clinging to it.

There’s a saying, isn’t there?
That the worst thing you can do at a funeral is to kick open the coffin and sit up.
If I were to go back to Earth now, unless I somehow got a new body again, that’s exactly what it would look like.

Once I let go of my regrets from my previous life, curiosity about this new one began to grow inside me.
What kind of life would it be this time?
My memories were already mixed beyond sorting, so I dug through them as best I could.

Most of my previous life’s memories weren’t sentimental but filled with knowledge and information, so blending them in wasn’t too hard.

“A prince, huh? That’s awesome.”

There were plenty of trivial details, but to summarize—
I was a prince of some ancient kingdom whose identity I couldn’t quite figure out.

Not completely unknown, just… a country I had never heard of.

Its name was Goryeo.
But it held the status of an empire.
And strangely enough, it was what you might call multicultural—or multi-species.

That’s right, that “multi-species empire” was the problem.
The original Goguryeo had also been a diverse state with multiple peoples, a multiethnic nation centered around the Korean people.

But this place?
Here, even those who looked completely different—right down to their physical features—lived together.

There were the Jang-i tribe, tall and elegant with long ears, looking unmistakably like elves.
The Dan-shin tribe, short in stature but with thick bones and muscles.
The In-ma tribe, who were basically centaurs.
And others—catfolk, dogfolk, and more, with animal ears and tails.

Even among the ones I’d met, the variety was astounding.
And strangely enough, no one here seemed to treat them as separate races.
Even in this body’s memories, there was no sense of strangeness about them.

Maybe it was because everyone had grown up seeing each other’s faces since birth.
Or maybe because they all shared human-like features—and most importantly, they could all have children together without issue.

For example, the maid currently tidying my bed was a regular human but had married a half-horse tribesman and had two children with him.

Oh, right.
Here, “human” referred collectively to all races capable of interbreeding with one another.
The humans we know were called the “Dan-i tribe.”
They were generally similar to the Jang-i tribe but had shorter ears.

“Hey, So.”

I called out to the woman who skillfully finished tidying my blanket while I just sat up.

“Yes, Your Highness?”

Honestly, I hadn’t called her for any real reason—just to check whether my memory was accurate.
Not knowing what to say next, I hesitated before speaking.

“How are your kids?”

At my question, she smiled softly.
It seemed thinking about her children made her happy, as it would for any parent.
Though I wasn’t sure if they still made her smile now, since her children were still toddlers.

“They’re doing very well, growing healthy without any trouble.”

That matched my memory exactly—
I remembered she’d taken some days off to rest, only to return later, proudly bringing her babies to show off to her colleagues.

As thanks for helping me test my memory, I’d told her to take a few persimmons home for the babies.
She had been very grateful.

I did wonder whether babies could even eat persimmons, but well—if they were old enough for solid food, it should be fine.
If not, I’m sure their parents knew better.

I got up, washed up as the attendants guided me, and changed clothes.
It felt extremely awkward being waited on like this, having never experienced it before.
Pretending to be calm and unfazed was exhausting.

True to the gluttonous reputation of this nation’s ancestors, I devoured a massive breakfast with surprising ease.
The attendants waited silently nearby.

“Do I have anything scheduled for today?”

“There are no official appointments today, Your Highness.”

Perfect.
If I had to meet people already, I’d probably cause trouble, since I wasn’t yet familiar with the customs of this world.
I needed time to align my own knowledge with this body’s.

“What about the next few days? Anything I must do?”

“Other than a planned hunting trip with your friends, there are no obligations.”

That answer came from a servant standing beside me.

“So, nothing I absolutely have to attend.”

They looked confused at my dismissal of the hunting trip.
But from what I remembered, my so-called “friends” were a bunch of useless freeloaders who hung around me just to enjoy my royal privilege.

Even though I was the third prince, they followed along because they had no choice.

“Then, should I tell them the hunt is canceled?”

“Yes.
And tell them I’m not feeling well, so I won’t be going out for a while.”

Better to stay holed up for now, learn how to live in this world, and get used to myself again.

And while I was at it, there was something else I needed to find out.

“Does anyone know where the library is?”

The library wasn’t quite what I expected, but it was better than I feared.

I’d half-hoped, since it was part of the palace, that it would be enormous—overflowing with countless tomes.
That dream was crushed quickly.
But at least it wasn’t some half-forgotten storeroom full of dust and cobwebs either.

I’d once been in an old humanities professor’s office back on Earth.
That was about the scale of this place.

Fortunately, this body’s original owner had been educated enough that I could read without trouble.
Most of the books recorded family lineages and heroic tales.

Just skimming the first few pages was enough to pull me in, making me want to spend all day devouring them.
But I had more urgent matters.

This era clearly hadn’t fully left its ancient stage behind.
Most books were written not on paper but on bamboo slips or rolled animal hides.
Again, many of them recorded family or tribal histories.

As the texts grew more complex, my hunch strengthened that the book I sought was among them.
And finally, I found it.

“Royal Code.”

The author was—astonishingly—the king himself.
And it was exactly what I had been looking for.

From the introduction, it described what roles the royal family must play in governing the state, how royals should behave, and the proper etiquette of the court.
The contents were deep and wide-ranging—perfect for what I needed to learn.

I compared its lessons on conduct and manners with the actions of those in my memories and my own behavior, trying to figure out how I should act in this new life.

After a while, my head started to ache, and boredom set in.
I stretched and flipped ahead to read something else.

Let’s see what roles the royal family was supposed to take on.

The early parts were textbook material—
That the royals should serve as moral examples, that they must reign as the most noble family among the nobles.
Typical royal ideology.

Still, since I’d never read such material seriously before—not even as fiction—it was surprisingly entertaining.

Then, a peculiar line caught my attention.

“Never act in a way that gives the Dukes of Silla or Baekje an opening to strike.”

The Dukes of Silla and Baekje?
It sounded like they were not independent kingdoms but feudal lords within Goguryeo.
I continued reading, increasingly puzzled.

“Maintain close kinship ties with the southern great nobles through marriage.”

“Never allow northern territories to become hereditary.”

“Make regular circuits from Liaodong to the Three Han to secure public favor.”

The more I read, the clearer it became.
And as I understood, my breath quickened.

For several days after that, I did nothing but sleep and bury myself in the library.
Having long finished the Royal Code, I combed through historical records and family chronicles, piecing together the map in my mind.

After days of obsessive study—enough to make the attendants worry I’d gone mad—I finally completed it.

“Ah, this is s*x.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing.”

A shiver ran down my spine.

The completed map—no, not perfect, but close—showed the most beautiful natural border encompassing Manchuria.

That was the Goryeo I now lived in.

A truly glorious world.