10)1 year later...

"Urg!"

"Haaa!"

"Oof! You-!"

"God damn-"

"Ack-!"

The sound so grunts and swears came from all around Salis, but he let the noise go through one ear and out the other, all of his attention was on his opponent's sword in front of him. It was the first day of the competition that would choose the next royal knights commander.

It was officially 1 year and 6 weeks since he woke up in a new body and retained the body's memories. It was also time for him to honor his promise to become the royal knights commander and then to be assigned as the crown princes bodyguard.

"Swoosh!"

His blade swung through the air and he changed his stance incorporating his martial arts footwork and his blade art in one move knocking the female knight across from his unconscious. This was the 4 round of the first day, it was also the final round of the first day, since he had won his 4 rounds he would be eligible to move onto the 2 day and continue to fight. In total the tournament lasted 7 days and all the knights who wanted a shot at the position of royal commander or just a good fight participated.

The top 7 would each be assigned a battalion of knights and a area where they had command, but those 7 would al be under the command of the royal knights commander. So this meant it was a very big position while the royal commander only held control over the royal knights they were very influential and held much power. It could be argued that they were the same as a prince in terms of money, influence and power.

Salis turned and looked up at the arena surrounding the fighting knights. The rules were if your opponent left the ring painted on the ground surrendered,or were made unable to fight you would lose.

Salis had been knocking out his opponents in one swing each round and had gathered quiet a bit of attention. But he wasn't paying attention to the cheering crowd he was looking for the prince.

A storm was buried in his grey eyes, if one looked closer you could see it, it was the monster inside him, growling in pleasure and, in impatience he was looking for a fight. A opponent that he had in his last world, Choi-tae someone who could calm the monster but Choi-tae wasn't here and so over the past months the monster has grown increasingly restless.

When the crown prince and Salis made eye contact the crown prince smiled. Salis fought off the urge to frown and turned away.

He had avoided the crown prince as he reminded Salis too much of his old friend Choi-tae but now he was in a position where the tow would be meeting each other often. He left the ring and followed the other returning knights back to the royal knights quarters.

—Meanwhile—

"Ha! That Salis's temper didn't disappear even after all this time!" The crown prince had watched as Salis left the ring along with the other knights satisfied with his performance.

'Damn it even the sword arts and footwork he does matches Chin-hae! It's almost exactly the same! It must be him!'

Alton kept theses thoughts to himself though as another face appeared in his mind. It was the face of Chin-hae, his friend from his previous world one whom he had unconsciously begin to fall in love with.

There relationship never went deep into emotions but it was comforting knowing you had someone out trusted and could talk freely too. Someone you could be honest with weather it was your pain or you morbid happiness at the death of enemies. The relationship that he and Chin-hae, had had ment a lot to him, and when he had found out about Chin-hae's death he was in shock first before he hunted down the culprits which turned out to be(no shocker here) Chin-hae's relatives and the mercenary they had hired to crash the car.

Once it was all over he had sunk into his chair and came to the realization that he had begun to fall in love with Chin-hae. While it wasn't a full blown love and something more like a crush he was certain it passed the bounders of friends. When he finally read the will his legs felt weak.

Everything that Chin-hae owned went to him. On the document it said to "give everything to Choi-tae." The nights following and up to his furnal were spent drinking into oblivion.

Reaching out to touch a man who had left.

A year passed and sometimes he still accidentally poured 2 glasses of wine instead of 1. Each time it hit him that the other was gone, and each time it hit harder than before.

It was like loosing his family all over again. He knew he was going into a spiral of rejection, trying to reject the fact that Chin-hae was gone. Besides being a man who's looks could top a contry he was smart and cold, but when he smiled it was beautiful, when he loosened his tie after drinking or while working Choi-tae had always wanted to take a bite. To see if it really tasted as good as it looked. Whenever they were drinking and Chin-hae's eyes turned glassy and his lips red and shinny he would fight back the urge to kiss them.

When he had finally died from a headshot while visiting a foreign country 5 years after Chin-hae's death he had actually been a bit impatient, he had wanted to see if he could reach Chin-hae faster. After he died he left his contry to his and Chin-hae's secretary who had been working under him after Chin-hae's death.

But the strangest thing had happened, he woke up in the body of the crown prince after a assassination attempt.

The body was 13 years old and was the crown prince of a huge empire. From then on he had lived as the crown prince Alton Elliot Halewell, he built up his power in secret planning for the throne.

One day they had made a discovery about on the 2 princes main supporters, the Duchess Stella, had ties with slavery that was happening in the neighboring country and bringing them into the empire.

They had gone to the slave traders main base that had just transported a new batch of slaves.

After they had attacked the slave traders they went to find the slaves to see if one of them knew where the main slave trade if took place. As soon as he had entered he had went straight to the back cell.

On the roster it said that this slave had recently been brought in, just 5 days before therefore the slave would have an idea where the main trading went on.

But... when he reached the cell he realized the slave had escaped. This meant that the slave had been in the same room at them all but they had not noticed his presence. He sent his guards to find him and they continued the chase for over a month.

When they found him at a inn in the capital the crown prince new he had the slave under his thumb. When the two met Alton was thrown into disarray. Unconsciously he had acted like he had in his past life when he was with Chin-hae. And what he saw sent him further into disarray. The way that the slave had spoke to him and the aura he released was exactly like Chin-haes.

When they spoke Alton confirmed it further when the slave introduced himself as Salis.

Choi-tae and Chin-hae had been childhoods friend's before they met in the business world. Back then Chin-haes favorite book had a dragon in it named Salis. He had struck up a deal with Salis something he hadn't originally planned.

In the beginning he had planned to take the inn boss hostage and force the other to tell him where the slave trade route was, but instead he made a deal with the other about becoming the royal guards captain. He wanted to see if the other was Chin-hae, he wouldn't make another mistake like he had in the past and would make sure not to take any chances. Even if it wasn't Chin-hae, he wouldn't let a chance like this pass him by.

They met a few times after that discussing what Salis had seen while he was transported from his previous cell to the ones on the outside the capital. Besides that he had noticed that Salis had ignored him otherwise and Alton had a suspicion that it had to do with the way he acted.

When he further thought about this is figured that if it really way Chin-hae he would be avoiding anyone who reminded him of his previous life especially a existence like one that reminded him of his old friend. But none of this had been confirmed, they had spent too much time apart so Alton couldn't get a good read on the other.