After the meeting ended, the First Prince tucked the crown into his arms and went to find the Second Prince.

The Second Prince, who was lying comfortably in his room, did not seem like the one who had driven this country into crisis.

The incredibly relaxed Second Prince looked like a fool who did not comprehend the reality at all.

"Hm? Brother. What brings you to this younger brother's room? The meeting seems to have ended safely? I don't need to know, do I? You must have handled it well."

The Second Prince said in a leisurely voice from his bed, without a hint of remorse. A voice that did not face the reality.

Hearing his brother's words, the First Prince spoke in a calm voice.

"How is your condition?"

"My body? My limbs are still aching. How can I be fine when my body was shattered?"

The calm Second Prince spoke. But the First Prince knew the truth. He had heard the whole story from the guard who had taken care of the Second Prince in place of the doctor.

The Second Prince's body had long since recovered.

Within the known 6-month treatment period, he had fully recovered in just 1 month. After that, he had been idling in his room, using the injury as an excuse.

Therefore, the First Prince could speak in a chilling voice.

"Go on a pilgrimage of atonement."

"Huh? Why me?"

"Why, you ask?"

Suppressing his anger at the foolish brother who could not grasp the reality, the First Prince spoke calmly.

"Because of what you have done, this country, this land, and our people are suffering from famine and disease. So you must go on a pilgrimage of atonement to reflect on your mistakes. Then this country can be revived."

"Why should I do that? I am the Second Prince of the Arcad Kingdom, and I can get whatever I want. Isn't the problem that sword and that woman that are not mine?"

Seeing the Second Prince's words not making sense, the First Prince suppressed his rising anger and spoke clearly.

"The current kingdom cannot even properly collect taxes, and it is difficult to produce food. The treasury has reached the limit of buying food from the surroundings, so you must go on the pilgrimage of atonement as soon as possible."

"No! I'd rather die than do that!"

The First Prince impulsively slapped the Second Prince's cheek.

"You hit me?! I've never even been hit by Father!"

"Father made a big mistake by raising a fool like you! He spoiled you, and now you've become a selfish brat who can't tell right from wrong!"

The Second Prince, enraged, rushed at the First Prince, but the First Prince easily subdued and pinned him down.

"Father also agreed. He said he would send you on a pilgrimage of atonement and would not recognize you as a member of the royal family until you had atoned for your sins and received forgiveness from the Goddess of Life!"

"What?! That's a lie!!"

"I hope you realize how serious the problem you have caused is, you foolish brother."

And so, the Second Prince was banished and set out on a pilgrimage of atonement.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The First Prince gathered all the remaining troops and assembled all the survivors in the cities and villages. Their number reached thousands.

"Is everyone gathered?"

"Yes. We have gathered all the survivors from the villages and cities. But food we have stockpiled is limited, so we don't have much time."

"I see. I'll finish this as soon as possible."

The First Prince stepped onto the platform and stood before the gathered people.

"I am First Prince Shtur. I ordered everyone to be gathered for this matter."

"Oh, Prince. You are indeed reliable. But what is the King doing? Why is it the First Prince who is giving instructions, not the King?"

"Father... has collapsed."

"What?"

"He blamed himself for the foolishness of my brother and collapsed. That's why I'm acting in his stead."

"I see."

The King, who had cherished the Second Prince, must have been greatly shocked by this incident.

"I will apologize for the suffering of the people of this country caused by my foolish brother. Once that fool completes the pilgrimage of atonement, this land will revive, but it may take a long time."

"Then are we all dead?"

"That's why I've come up with one solution."

The First Prince took something out of his bosom.

The silver crown.

The crown was a precious treasure passed down to the King of the Arcad Kingdom.

"This crown is a valuable treasure that has been passed down to the kings of our Arcad Kingdom, and it symbolizes the right to rule the world. The value of this item is beyond measure."

"Why are you suddenly taking out such a precious item?"

"I intend to use this crown as collateral to borrow land from other countries."

"What?! How can you do that..."

"In the current situation, we have no choice. We must use whatever we can. If we can ensure the survival of this country by pledging this crown as collateral, then I will do so without hesitation."

At the First Prince's words, the people and vassals fell silent.

"The value of this crown should be enough to secure land for all our people to survive. So I will go and try to obtain the widest and best land possible from our neighboring countries. You all, please survive."

And so the First Prince set out on his journey, accompanied by a few guards.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Arcad Empire... Ahem, the records state it was a kingdom, but considering its scale, it was closer to an empire.

The diversity of its constituent ethnicities and the difference in the size of its domain compared to the countries of that era was two to six times greater.

Honestly, if you consider that the countries of that time were in the form of city-states, the Arcad Empire, which controlled six such city-states, can be rightfully called an empire.

Ahem, I've digressed a bit. Let's return to the story.

The downfall of the Arcad Empire was swift, taking no more than a year.

Despite being the country with the largest land and population among the nations of that time, the Arcad Kingdom, struck directly by severe famine and plague, could not survive beyond a year before its collapse.

The downfall is said to be due to the Goddess of Life, but... to be honest, the credibility is low. Considering how much the Goddess has bestowed upon the subrace and humans.

Just how grave a mistake must have been committed for the entire land to become a wasteland? That's the kind of thought that comes to mind.

Well, later on, the land did recover and become a vast grassland, as the Goddess of Life seemed to have forgiven them.

It was not long after that the nomadic tribes began to thrive in the grasslands where the empire had once stood.

The name of that tribe was─

 - Excerpt from a history lecture at the academy.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The young prince, once a prince, set out on a journey with no destination.

His heart was filled with endless anger. Anger towards his brother who had banished him on a pilgrimage of atonement, anger towards his father who had not stopped his brother, and anger towards the agent of the Goddess of Life, the source of all this.

Carrying this directionless anger, the young man wandered the lonely path.

There were many dangerous moments, and times when he nearly lost his life... No, there were even times when he had died, only to be refused by death itself.

As time passed, the young man grew into a youth. Yet, the pilgrimage did not end.

For there was not a single trace of atonement in his heart.

And so, he had not been forgiven by the Goddess of Life.

How could he be forgiven, when he himself could not even understand his own wrongdoings? He had been a fool, thinking everything in the world belonged to him.

And so, the youth continued to wander.

Sometimes killed by monsters, sometimes by suspicious guards.

But the youth kept wandering.

During this process, he began to experience the fluctuations in his own life force due to the curse upon him.

The sight of his severed arm reattaching itself, the blood flowing back, was an endlessly bizarre phenomenon.

Observing these scenes, the youth instinctively learned to manipulate the life-force-filled blood.

He discovered the ability to replenish his diminished life force by drinking the blood of other beings, or by feeding his own blood to others, bringing them to a similar state as himself.

As the Arcad Kingdom disappeared and its land to wasteland, with all Arcad people living under different names in other countries, the youth became known as the Wandering Arcadian.