Drayce.

A crown prince walked through the corridor of his father's—no, his majesty's—the king's palace, happily, cheerfully, and respectfully receiving the greetings of the servants that maintained his, to be, palace with bright smiles on their faces. Of course, he too greeted them back with a slight smile and a nod.

He, the crown prince, had bright red hair and reddish-yellow dragon eyes, gazing upon the people with all kinds of etiquettes, responsibilities, money, elegance, grace, talent, skills, and hard work to back up everything they had. While people with all the above mentioned were called nobles, people with responsibilities, talent, skills, and hard work were called commoners, yet not all of the nobles felt inferior to the commoners, which would make them do some immoral things that could potentially ruin a so-called nobility, and why was that so? Because the king of the Evoyuterra Empire, Cadmus, was that kind of person.

With one person being totally different from the crown prince and the king, even though he too was from the same, strongest bloodline of a majestic fire dragon, that was none other than the crown prince, Drayce's brother, Daghr.

One could say that he, Daghr, was a pure evil villain, an antagonist, while his brother, the crown prince, Drayce, was the protagonist. Daghr did all kinds of unimaginable things and brought ruin upon the Evoguterra Empire, which his father built upon blood, sweat, tears, and hard work that required him to put in work both day and night for years, and finally Daghr broke the taboo of the dragons, made a contract with a devil, and accepted demonic energy into himself. Before the divine laws noticed that, Daghr had already brought ruin upon the entire continent as he brought together those who would accept demonic energy just like himself.

And then thereafter, it was just literal hell for the world ruled by dragons, and the worst of them all was that Daghr kept his family alive as he forced them to watch the destruction, he brought upon the world that they held precious while committing all the atrocities possible.

Being unable to bear all the atrocious things Drayce's brother did, just like few protagonists, Drayce fell on the dark side, breaking the taboo; he too accepted black magic and became a black magician; even though he didn't stoop as low as accepting demonic energy, he still broke the taboo, but he was soon caught by Daghr's subordinates, who soon informed Daghr about it.

And soon after, Drayce and Daghr got into a deadly battle whose consequences were the destruction of the dragon-ruled world, but in this story, the protagonist, Drayce, lost, at which Daghr laughed and, without killing him off, he casted a curse on Drayce that snatched away his ability to forget, and the curse acted just as it should, and Drayce began to die inwardly on a daily basis as all the things he was forced to see by Daghr were constantly appearing in his mind, forcing him to blame himself for everything that happened.

After confining the wounded Drayce in that world, Daghr escaped from there with the demons, in fear of the divine laws and was never seen again, while the divine laws took notice of the taboo being broken and sealed Drayce off in the Unknown World, where only forbidden and to be forgotten existences are sent. Not a single existence that's been sent there could ever return.

And since then, Drayce had died inwardly as the memories of his people dying flooded his mind. In those memories of his few remained as fresh as ever, some of which were when few of Daghr's subordinates had their way before they killed off the people of their Empire, while those who still possessed some resistances were played along until that "will" was completely broken; everything Daghr did was still fresh in his mind, making it a lot harder for him to hold on to his will to live. But even amid these, Drayce, who learned the consequences of breaking a taboo, began to resist the black magic that had already started to merge with his mana.

*

All those memories that Drayce possessed were abruptly pinned on Ivan, who had eaten at Drayce's heart without any knowledge of such things.

After Ivan's heart completely stopped, a few black, ominous chains materialised out of nowhere that seemingly bound Drayce—his dragon bone structure, to be precise.

CRA-CRACK

SHATTER!

With a few cracks appearing on the black, ominous smoke oozing chains, they cracked before shattering completely and lifting off the curse on Drayce. Instead, the same black, ominous, smoke-oozing chains appeared around Ivan's heart and bound him, taking away his ability to forget.

BA-THUMP!

With a loud thump, Ivan's heart began to beat again. Now, his own memories, together with Drayce's, began to haunt him. With a violent flinch,

"Aaaaaaaaaa!!!!" Ivan was jolted awake with a loud scream, and soon a mind-splitting headache assaulted him, forcing him to writhe while wailing loudly, which halted as his voice stopped coming out of his throat in agony.

*

A few hours later.

With a gasp, Ivan jolted awake again, for the eleventh time, but this time he didn't pass out and tried to endure the headache that had been forcing him to fall unconscious. Due to his habit, he hadn't stopped channelling mana in his body, which soon helped him to heal, lowering the headache as minutes that felt like hours passed.

Ivan barfed out everything in his stomach as he began to remember absolutely everything from his birth: the taste of his mother's milk, his first sweet taste, his first taste of a lemon's sour droplet, the scent, touch, sight, and sound. He remembered everything he felt, saw, heard, tasted, and smelled—EVERY GODDAMN THING!

The affection his family had showered on him since birth, their hard work, their pain—every minute thing he hadn't previously noticed reappeared in his mind. The warmth of his twin baby brothers, which he felt when he poked at their cheeks as they slept in their cradles, brought every small sensation back to him, striking it where it hurt.

'I miss them.' Ivan muttered in his mind for the first time; he had always thought, since he came into the Unknown World, that if he uttered those words in his mind or through his mouth, he wouldn't be able to bear them, but now that he had uttered them, he learned that he was right. His heart felt heavy, throbbing as tears streamed out of his eyes. A certain emotion, whose name he didn't know, welled up in his heart, making it feel extremely heavy, as if something heavy had been placed on his chest, making it nearly impossible to breathe.

Since from the memories he received, he knew what was happening, he couldn't really blame anyone, except himself. He was so burdened by the unknown emotions in his heart that he didn't find the need to check on his body; anybody would have done the same in his situation, so one cannot even fully blame him.

"Arrrrggggh!!"

BAM

With his burdened heart and without knowing what to do, he began to punch at the ground with every emotion that burdened him.

*

After a few days—eight days, to be exact—

Ivan had calmed down to a certain extent and began to understand his gains, so he adjusted his body's muscle structure, bone structure, and nerve system structure to its maximum level of performance, up to his bodily limits from Drayce's memories.

He now had the dragon heart's vessel, which he had no idea how to complete; he was able to use black magic and dragon tongue, and even though he had the knowledge on how to use all the other attributed magic skills, he didn't have the affinity for them, so he had to stick to black magic and undead magic.

[Job: Black Magician] A selfish sorcerer, whose main focus is destruction and self-protection. [Synergy effect: Boosts Necromancy job and skills by 2x]

[Synergy Skill: Scent of Death] The sweet scent of death instils fear in the hostile entities in the surrounding area. [Special effect: attracts those who don't have much will to live.] [Passive]

[Job-exclusive Skills:]

[Black Mirror] Reflects the damage received. [Damage reflected according to the mastery]

[Mental Domination]

[Mental Barrier]

[Debuff Nullification]

[Drain]

[Restrain]

[Marionette]

[Dark Hand]

Ivan didn't know for what reason he had absorbed the abilities, just like when Drayce used those abilities in now-Ivan's memories. The abilities he gained were just as effective and proficient as when Drayce used them, and even though he was confused by the situation, Ivan didn't mind it.

And even among the abilities he had gained, he didn't mind them all that much because he was more fascinated by the memories he had absorbed.

'.... I can only absorb one ability, so what if I absorbed Drayce's memories as an ability? Which would explain why I gained all the abilities Drayce had instead of a single ability....' Ivan concluded because he now had all the knowledge Drayce possessed and with which he became aware of the existence of different worlds in which different races ruled. And the most fascinating part of it was that Drayce, the crown prince, possessed all knowledge about almost everything, except space magic, since he was the successor of the king.

The Evoyuterra Empire had "gates" through which different worlds were connected, but no one except the dragon king himself knew about them, since if they were misused, all the relations built over the past few centuries would be lost because of one incompetent fool.

Drayce had an abundant amount of knowledge, among which Ivan found useful were Dwarf's crafting and productive abilities, war tactics, and the knowledge about "magic circles."

'...If I merge my abilities with the magic circles, then I won't have to worry too much about my magic power getting drained if I use only two powerful abilities....' Ivan planned ahead, but even though he concluded not to worry too much about his never expanding core, he was continuously absorbing energy from the surroundings while pondering another serious question in the back of his head, and that was: why he was still sane and the same Ivan even though he had memories of two different persons.