Dawn's Past

Not only was Dawn completely dumbfounded, even the bystanders watching the commotion were utterly bewildered.

What was going on? Was he still asleep, or had the world gone completely mad?

His comrade was actually the prince of the North Sea? They had just been joking a moment ago, and the next second the joke became reality?

Hina and Sola beside him were the first to react. The two little girls, not yet grown into mature women, couldn't help but let their eyes sparkle.

"Dawn, I never expected you to really be His Highness the prince. Congratulations on finding your family."

Seeing that Dawn could find his own family, Sola and Hina beside him couldn't help but cheer, their faces brimming with smiles that looked even happier than Dawn's, the one directly involved.

"Dawn, congratulations to you too," Shuen, Berigood, and Shalinkul beside him also said with delighted expressions.

After all, wasn't it something worth celebrating when a good friend found his family?

Of course, Dawn, as the one directly involved, still hadn't snapped out of it.

"Wait, even if it's a nameplate, that doesn't really prove anything, right? There are so many miraculous things in the world; maybe it's just a coincidence."

Even though Dawn was convinced, he still couldn't accept it for a moment.

After all, wasn't this supposed to be a "desert island Marine survival" story?

How come, the moment he set sail, he just happened to run into a slave captured by a pirate crew who turned out to be a relative coming to claim him?

(Д)ノ!!!

Wasn't this way too coincidental? A convergence of worldlines? A choice from the Steins;Gate?

Wouldn't this kind of plot twist get criticized by readers as too clichéd in a novel, and decisively flop to death?

After all, if this were a novel, quite a few chapters would have passed since his transmigration, right? And now it suddenly jumps out to update the setting!?

Didn't it know it might get beaten to death for that?

"Your Highness, to be honest, all of this is so coincidental that even I feel like I'm in a dream. Earlier, I thought I would be sold as a slave or die somewhere in the world due to an accident with the pirate crew."

"But the next moment, I met you! This nameplate is the proof! It cannot lie! Your nameplate has the unique mark of the Abraham Clan! That already explains everything!"

Adolf couldn't help but shed tears of old age at this point, looking choked up at Dawn, whose mind was starting to race with confusion.

"Your Highness, if you don't believe it, once we reach the Ishtar Kingdom, you can verify it again on the Ancestral Tablet passed down through generations of the Abraham family."

Well, Dawn had to admit he was convinced, but this encounter was just too coincidental, making him think of a line he'd read in his past life:

"Reality is always stranger than fiction!"

Having finally accepted his identity as a prince, Dawn was now listening to Adolf talk about matters concerning the Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Country.

The Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Country was another name for the Ishtar Kingdom, as their nation was characterized by its developed agriculture and animal husbandry.

First, the ruler of the country, Abraham Gaius, was Dawn's cheap father...

Then there was Abraham Rovena, the queen of the Ishtar Kingdom—the mother of Dawn's current body.

According to Adolf, the Ancestral Tablet that Dawn would need to verify later wasn't actually a monument to the Abraham Clan's ancestors, but a stone tablet made by the nation's scientists using the bloodline of the Abraham family.

It just had the Abraham family tree engraved on it, so it was called the Ancestral Tablet. It was made by Dawn's father's grandfather, initially created simply because of the material's durability.

Adolf said that during the generation of Dawn's great-grandfather, the Abraham family's position wasn't stable. So, for the sake of prestige, Dawn's great-grandfather made the Ancestral Tablet.

He added a function to the Ancestral Tablet that allowed blood verification—only when a member of the Abraham family dripped blood on it would the tablet change color, thus ensuring the stable status of the Abraham Clan.

There were many explanations given to outsiders, but overall, Dawn felt it was to solidify their position and prevent outsiders from usurping the throne, while also showcasing their technological prowess.

However, Dawn only half-believed this. Maybe one day the guy found out he'd been cuckolded and wanted a legitimate way to test if the kid was his own, who knows?

After that came the question of how Dawn ended up lost. After his great-grandfather consolidated their position, his father's generation finally weakened the families that wanted to usurp the throne to the brink of extinction.

Then came the classic "cornered beast" scenario. Unfortunately, the original body, this unlucky kid, was captured just like that, disappearing without a trace from then on.

Originally, that family wanted to take Dawn hostage to bargain for their survival. Fearing he might be rescued, they sent people to sail a ship and take him to another island.

And then there was no "and then"...

The captured Dawn vanished on the island, and the traitorous family was annihilated, leaving not even a trace behind.

As for how Dawn ended up in the Grand Line afterward and became a homeless orphan?

Sorry, Dawn had no idea either ╮(￣▽￣)╭

No help for it—who asked him to be a fake?

Although his memories were very unclear, Dawn could roughly guess what happened.

Probably, when he was being taken out, they encountered a storm or pirates or something.

Then that ship headed for the Grand Line, and finally, on the Grand Line, they met with another accident, or the captain entrusted him to someone else to raise, and for various reasons, he ended up a homeless orphan.

Then came the part where Dawn was a homeless orphan. The memories after that were very clear, but Dawn never imagined the guy's identity was a prince.

"What is this? A gift from heaven? Or a 'farming development' story?" Dawn couldn't quite make sense of this wild plot twist for a moment.

Of course, Dawn was dumbfounded, but Adolf was not. So he immediately asked Sola and the others to take him to find the naval commander, Aokiji, to explain the situation.

After learning that Aokiji and another officer, Yukimura, who hadn't boarded the ship, had specifically rescued the stranded Dawn from Stomach Baron, Adolf's attitude became even warmer.

It wasn't until Aokiji arrived that Dawn snapped back to reality. Looking at the sleepy-eyed Aokiji, Dawn felt a bit at a loss for a moment.

"Ara ara, never expected a brat like you to have such a background—the prince of the North Sea, no less, the very one Yukimura always had his eye on." Aokiji yawned lazily as he spoke, his expression utterly unconcerned.

"Mr. Aokiji, aren't you bothered by this?" Dawn was a bit baffled by Aokiji's attitude.

After all, suddenly becoming the heir to a kingdom—didn't that conflict with being a Marine?

Given the potential he'd shown, Dawn figured he had some self-awareness; the fact that the training camp instructors occasionally cut him slack said enough.

"Relax. The Ishtar Kingdom is a major grain producer. It supplies food not just to its neighboring countries. Who do you think their biggest partner is?" Aokiji waved a hand, still completely unbothered.

"Uh..." Hearing Aokiji put it that way, Dawn would have to be an idiot not to get it.

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