Chapter Text
Kim Dokja has always been living true to his name, being a devoted ‘reader’ of not just his all-time favorite web novel Three Ways to Survive in an Apocalypse but also various other types, and proudly considers himself quite knowledgeable of all kinds of cliches and tropes. Thus, he’s of course also familiar with the ‘MC dying and isekai-ing into another world’ kinds, and quickly recognizes that he’s currently in such a situation.
“Prince-nim? Are you alright?” The very tall and muscular retainer with a weirdly soft face asks him in a nervous voice, prompting Dokja to break out of his trance and nod.
“Yes, I’m alright. My apologies, I was still a little tired. Thank you for waking me up, Sir…”
“Hyunsung, my name is Hyunsung. It is my duty as your retainer, Prince-nim.” The man bows deeply. “After you are cleaned up, we will take you to the dining room for breakfast. Gilat, Sarabos, if you’d please.” He turns to the pair of little twin boys behind him, who nod as they make their way toward Dokja.
“Oh, no, thank you but it’s okay. I can clean up by myself.” Dokja quickly adds in when Hyunsung looks about to protest. “It’s the way I’ve been living back in the Charon Kingdom.”
At the mention of the Charon Kingdom, Hyunsung’s face somehow dims considerably, but the man thankfully bows and exits along with the twins, allowing Dokja some alone time as he continues making sense of this weird situation.
No matter how he looks at it, this is obviously a transmigration scenario; although a slightly less usual one considering it didn’t start with a ‘truck-kun’ but rather with Dokja killing himself by overworking, and unlike most transmigration novels where the MC would be in a novel they already knew, Dokja… doesn’t know this story.
To be more precise, he does know what novel this is: ‘There Is Me And There Is You,’ abbreviated TMTY, currently the top trending novel on Munpia, Naver, and what-have-you. It’s about a doctor being reincarnated into a fantasy medieval world after working herself to death and becoming engaged to the prince of the Kaizenix Empire, a rather typical cold-hearted asshole male lead with a handsome face and the iconic wavy bang-parted hairstyle.
However, the female lead - Lee Seolhwa a.k.a Lady Seolhwa de Sarnez - is ‘not your typical female MC,’ which is to say that she’s a lot more mature, subdued, and less dense than most cases, with her only quirk being her love for romance novel. As such, TMTY is lauded as ‘the piece that rewrote the isekai romance genre history’ due to Lee Seolhwa’s mature approaches to Prince Joonghyuk’s jerkass personality feeling refreshing to the readers, and their eventual develop to romance being written well while never feeling like it took too long.
Another thing that this TMTY is praised for is its second male lead, Prince Dokja of Charon and Joonghyuk’s love rival. Apparently, unlike most other second leads who are one-dimensional dicks to the protagonist for no reason, Prince Dokja is actually quite well-developed with his own rich backstory and a more interesting, if no less heated, dynamic with his rival; which helps draw in a… different audience.
Having said all of that, Dokja has never actually read this novel himself. TMTY came out at a time where his all-time favorite TWSA was in its most intense arc so he never got to check it out. TMTY’s existence was only reminded to him in the form of an extremely rude comment under TWSA, unfavorably comparing Yoo Jaehyun to Prince Joonghyuk and saying that Joonghyuk was better written.
After a very long and intense flame war with that stupid commenter, Dokja had sworn to never read TMTY, scorning it as an overrated little shit that didn’t deserve to be compared with the masterpiece that was TWSA. Still, he sometimes couldn’t help but read vague reviews and comments about TMTY, if only to scoff to himself that such a cliche little thing didn’t measure up to TWSA even on its worst days.
Well, who could’ve known that he would one day end up in that very same novel he hated? Is this karma for all the bad things he’d thought about TMTY?
Dokja shakes his head with a sigh. No use crying over spilt milk for now - it’s better to just focus on what he can do from now on, which is to discreetly gather information from the people around here.
“Excuse me, Sir Hyunsung, will someone be joining me? This is quite a lot of food.” He asks in a wary tone at the sight of the table being filled with enough food to feed at least five people.
“Eh? No, Prince-nim, this is all for you.” Hyunsung blinks his eyes in confusion, as if genuinely expecting Dokja to finish all of that by himself.
“... No, I apologize but this is too much for me. Sir Hyunsung, and… you three, if you would please join me as well.” Dokja adds in when all of them protest. “This is an order from a prince.”
Only then do they sit down with reluctance while glancing at him in worry, but he ignores it and starts pushing some of the delicious-looking grilled meat plates to the twins and a slightly older, unfamiliar boy that wasn’t there with him initially.
“What is your name?” Dokja asks that boy with the gentlest tone he could use.
“M-My name is Gilyoung of the Titana Viscount Family, Prince-nim.” The boy stutters with flushed cheeks, trying to push back the plate to his side, which Dokja firmly shakes his head at.
“Gilyoung, I see. And don’t do that, I want you to eat. I obviously can’t finish all of this by myself so it would be a waste of food, and it’d be better if all of you can enjoy these with me.”
With those words, despite some lingering hesitance, the three boys finally start eating while looking at Dokja as if he’s their hero, which makes him chuckle inside. Being a prince and having his words carry so much weight feels kind of… cool.
“Prince-nim, in that case, I will tell the kitchen to prepare less food next time. It is improper of us to eat at the same table as such a distinguished individual.” Hyunsung sighs in exasperation, but this time, Dokja doesn’t correct him. This is the way all of these medieval people think, and he would rather not draw their suspicion by bringing in his modern world logic.
“Please also send my compliments to the chef. It’s all delicious, especially these meat buns.” Dokja nods in satisfaction after chewing some of the more familiar food to him. This world’s setting is really quite wacky, what with Korean first names attached to generic European last names and meat buns or fried noodles being found in the meal of a European-inspired empire.
Throughout the meal, Dokja continues to feed the little kids and wipe their mouths, both because it’s his instinct to do that and because he wants to test Hyunsung’s reaction. The man looks horrified and flustered just like the kids, but never ends up correcting him on anything, so maybe all of this is not too unlike what the original Prince Dokja would’ve done… or maybe they just don’t dare to call out a prince.
Once breakfast is finished, Dokja asks. “Sir Hyunsung, what will be my plans for the day?”
“... There is no plan, Prince-nim. Her Majesty the Emperor has ordered us to let you rest due to the long journey from the Charon Kingdom.”
“I see. What about plans for tomorrow?”
“... Also none, Prince-nim.”
“And the rest of the week?”
“...”
“I understand. In that case, may I go outside to the garden for a walk? The magnolias there seem quite pretty.”
“... I shall deliver your request to my supervisors so arrangements can be made, Prince-nim. However, it may take a while, so it might not be possible today. My deepest apologies.” Hyunsung now looks practically like he would cry from guilt or something.
“Thank you, Sir Hyunsung. Then, would it be possible for me to visit the library today?” Dokja finally decides to take mercy on him with a more simple request.
As expected, Hyunsung’s face brightens up right away. “Yes, of course. Please follow me, Prince-nim.”
= = =
Once Dokja is left alone in the library, he immediately starts searching and quickly finds the information source needed. On any other day, he might’ve mocked TMTY’s author for including unsuitable ‘steampunk’ elements such as a medieval kingdom having weekly magazines, but now, he can only feel thankful for it.
Reading the magazines and asking all those questions earlier have confirmed Dokja’s suspicions - he’s a diplomatic hostage of this Empire, who can’t even take a walk without asking permission.
Apparently, Crown Princess Hayoung of the Charon Kingdom had trespassed the Empire’s border a week before; and because the two countries were once enemies that are now only in a thin truce, this action escalated the tension between them so much that the Kingdom had to hastily sell Prince Dokja away to maintain peace.
Dokja would’ve felt bad for the original owner of this body if not because, from what he can see in these magazines, Prince Dokja seemed to have been quite a… scoundrel. Blessed with good looks and unique features (blond hair and purple eyes, two colors that this world regards as the blessings of God), this bastard apparently used this to his advantage so he could go fooling around with noble ladies in his own Kingdom, partying day and night. Dokja shudders at such a lifestyle, feeling grateful for how now that his movements in the Empire are so restricted, there’s no way for such rumors to continue.
Digging deeper into the older magazines, he then finds out that this world has magic - as it usually is for the isekai genre. Those blessed with the ability to use magic have what’s called ‘ether,’ a power source allowing them to cast spells and just do whatever magical things they want to do. In a more advanced environment such as the Royal Guard, there will also be ‘Holy Knights,’ professionally trained warriors with partners called ‘priest’ who will supply them with ether if they run out.
The original Prince Dokja was apparently someone who’s a perfect ‘priest,’ with an extremely full and desirable ether pool. But, in exchange, he had a weak body, barely able to walk just after a short run. Dokja can sadly confirm that - despite just eating breakfast, he’s already feeling fatigued and tired even while doing something as effortless as reading books.
Just when Dokja thinks that his situation can’t be any worse, the sounds of swords clanking against each other outside the windows draw his attention. Looking at the source, he finds an extremely handsome man who looks a bit younger than him, clad in an elegant all-black outfit, matching black boots, and complementing gold decorations. The outfit doesn’t look too showy but is obviously made of high-quality fabric, which makes it rather obvious who Dokja is looking at.
Prince Joonghyuk von Kaizenix, Emperor Kaizenix’s only child, and also the only Crown Prince candidate.
Dokja winces a little at how a particularly sharp swing from Prince Joonghyuk causes his opponent’s sword to break into two halves. Another part of him can’t help but feel admiration and jealousy at the same time. If the main male lead is both so handsome and strong in addition to an unshakeable position, what’s even the point of such a loser second male lead like him?
… Ah, to make that guy look even better, of course. Not for the first time, Dokja curses the author of TMTY in his head with the vilest profanities he can think of.
Suddenly, Prince Joonghyuk raises his head and meets Dokja’s stare directly. Flinching at the unexpected eye contact, Dokja’s body begins to nod as if in autopilot. “Hello, Prince Joonghyuk.”
He doesn’t expect his perfectly normal greeting to be returned with a scowl and a death glare as if Dokja has killed the guy’s family in a past life. Prince Joonghyuk then turns away to continue sparring, not sparing Dokja another glance.
Huh.
A bulb lights in Dokja’s head as things start to make sense. Prince Dokja might be completely inferior to Prince Joonghyuk, but perhaps the guy has heard rumors about what a scoundrel the other prince is, and dislikes Dokja before they even have a proper conversation. And later on, when Prince Dokja starts inserting his unwelcome presence into the budding relationship between Lady Seolhwa and Prince Joonghyuk, the male lead will have even more incentives to hate him.
And all of that will one day end up in Prince Joonghyuk killing his rival. To be fair, Dokja doesn’t know why exactly the male lead would kill him because he’s only seen the death being passed around as a spoiler rather than its exact details, but he can imagine that it must’ve been Prince Dokja’s fault - maybe that scoundrel gravely offended Seolhwa or something.
So, all the odds are against him.
Dokja squeezes his (now purple instead of black) eyes shut as he thinks about his previous life. It was miserable, uneventful with barely any happy moments, and his pathetic death from overworking for a company that couldn’t care less was just the perfect ending for such a sorry excuse of a life.
However, he now has a chance to live again. Sure, it’s from stealing someone else’s life and he’ll one day be killed anyway, but Dokja is now still alive, breathing, and able to feel the wind blowing against his face.
In hindsight, it’s a good thing he doesn’t know the plot of this novel. Having already accepted his eventual demise, Dokja doesn’t have the need to try to alter the plot so a ‘good ending’ for himself can come.
He will live this second life to the fullest, and if the damned male lead doesn’t like that, that guy can keep being mad about it.
I will have fun watching you miserably trying to court Lee Seolhwa, you asshole, Dokja sticks his tongue out internally at the stupidly broad back of that stupid prince.