It is a truth universally acknowledged among readers that a man in possession of a villain must be in want of survival.
And it is a well-established fact that a third-rate villain, a mid-boss or even the end-game boss are always destined to die, as the plot demands.
Therefore, they must struggle with everything they have just to live.
Now imagine such a person, fully aware of these tropes, wakes up in the body of a crown prince doomed to fall.
This prince, spoiled by debauchery, will soon lose his heir status and die a grim death.
To survive, he must cling to his heir apparent status at all costs.
Summer break has just started.
He needs to convince the aristocracy in his weak faction not to abandon him before break ends.
His camps are filled mostly with ambiguous weak earls.
His one high aristocrat ally is Lady Margarett, the acting Duchess of Carpathia as well as his mistress.
She's in his camp for now, wanting a minting rights to counter her cadets' family, who have been interfering with the usage of the duchy's reserve funds.
But helping her with the minting rights is also another death Flag.
His siblings have it easy with powerful backers:
- Cardinal Darcy-the Lord Chancellor, for his youngest brother.
- The majority of high aristocracy for his eldest brother.
- Bankers and merchants for his sister.
Worse still, the only other powerful aristocrats in his camp is the rich fiancée.
Her family is richer than everyone, including the dukes, because of their gold mines and rare mineral mines.
The problem is that the original prince politically betrayed her before.
They are to end their engagement the moment his status is revoked.
To hold his faction together, the prince must:
- Deny Lady Margarett's minting rights without losing her loyalty.
- Keep Lady Margarett's cadet famillies in check.
- Win back his fiancée's trust before she leave.
- Rally his weak earls without triggering civil war.
Beside this there are many more things that he must deal with.
Can this guy with superiority complex achieve it all?
Note: The story is written in a pace extremely slow, I recommend not reading it if you can't wait.
The protagonist may be manipulative, hypocritical, narcissistic potentially racist with the elves and other species.