Chapter Text
The second world takes place in an alternate universe that took elements from historical Chinese palaces. The protagonist is the third prince of the Hong Empire, called Hong Rui. Rui had completely no interest in fighting for the throne, instead enjoying the freedom outside the palace. One day, when he had sneaked out of the palace dressed as a scholar, he saved a beautiful young woman from a bunch of hooligans. The woman introduced herself as Su Mi, the Grand Chancellor’s adopted daughter. Rui had initially been enthralled by Su Mi’s beauty. Over time, he became mesmerised by how learned and intelligent she was, quickly falling in love with the young woman. Their relationship then became ambiguous, more than friends but not quite lovers, because Rui did not know how to admit that he was the third prince.
But before he could ever properly confess to Su Mi, she enters the palace as the emperor’s concubine. Rui’s father, the Emperor, was a man who loved young and beautiful women, having over a thousand women in his harem. Every year, he would always add new women to his harem. And that year, he had visited Grand Chancellor Su and saw Su Mi. Immediately, he was enticed by her looks, ordering for her to enter the palace as his concubine. Rui had been devastated, especially when he saw how unwilling Su Mi was. Despite being a carefree and relatively innocent prince, Rui decided to poison his father with a drug that made him unable to get erect. He couldn’t kill his father, but he also couldn’t let the woman he loves lie under his father either. From then on, Rui made plans to inherit the throne, deciding that it was the only way he could protect and keep the woman he loves.
The first prince was originally supposed to be the crown prince. However, he had lost his legs during a war years ago. From then on, the other princes have been fighting to be the crown prince. In order to better his chances, Rui decided to marry the General’s daughter Liang Wen, quickly impregnating her so as to secure General Liang’s support. To Rui, he wasn’t doing anything wrong nor betraying Su Mi. After all, any man in the empire can have many concubines.
And whilst trying his best to catch up with his other brothers, Rui begins to hear a rumour spreading around. It turns out, that after the Emperor became erectile dysfunctional, many concubines fell out of favour. As a result, their treatment in the palace became rather poor. Angry and frustrated, many of these concubines took out their frustrations by beating up the twelfth prince. The twelfth prince had been given birth to by a palace maid. Not having any background or protection, the palace maid had been poisoned by other jealous concubines during her pregnancy. As a result, the twelfth prince was born with a weak body and strange eyes. Because the child had no use or appeal to the Emperor and because his mother died after giving birth, the twelfth prince was not even given a name. He became a punching bag for everyone in the palace, having no support or protection from anybody. This was especially so because of his strange eyes that made many believe he was a demon or possessed.
When Rui heard of this, he did not believe that Su Mi also participated in the bullying of the twelfth prince, remembering the beautiful young woman as a kind and sweet-hearted woman. However, he quickly got his face slapped figuratively. It had just been a normal day when he saw Su Mi pushing his pregnant wife who falls on her stomach, instantly having a miscarriage. The ground was a mess of blood. Not just from Wen’s miscarriage, but also from the unconscious body of the twelfth prince. Rui later learnt that Wen had walked in on Su Mi beating the twelfth prince. Wen had tried to stop Su Mi, only for Su Mi to push both Su Mi and the twelfth prince. The twelfth prince had hit his head. This, in addition to his other wounds from previous beatings, causes him to pass away.
Su Mi was thrown into the Cold Palace as the Emperor investigated. After all, she was the Grand Chancellor’s daughter, adopted or not, so proper investigations had to be done before she can be accused of a crime. Su Mi demanded to see the Emperor, saying that she had something important to say. Hence, when Rui sneaked into the Cold Palace in hopes of confronting Su Mi, he saw what happened between Su Mi and the Emperor.
There, he saw as kind and beautiful Su Mi took out a dagger and stabbed the Emperor, shouting that she had done everything she could to enter the palace in hopes of being able to kill him. At first, she thought it would be easy, especially when he chooses to sleep with her. However, the Emperor became erectile dysfunctional, leaving her with no means to get close enough to kill him. And now, she finally had the perfect chance. It turned out that she was the child of the previous dynasty. The Emperor had overthrown her dynasty, so she had returned to take back the throne.
Watching this, Rui had been devastated. Su Mi never loved him, and he was merely a chess piece for her to take back the throne. Enraged, Rui had rushed forward, wanting an explanation. However, the hidden guards that supported the previous dynasty jumped out, killing Rui on the spot.
Rui dies but then is reborn. When Rui awakes after dying, he finds himself back in the past, when Su Mi first enters the palace and he has already poisoned his father, the Emperor, with the erection-killing drug. Filled with anger and vengeance, Rui decided to take revenge. Again, he joined the fight for the throne, marrying Liang Wen again. This time, Rui promised to treat Wen right, believing that Wen truly loved him. After all, there were many princes who wanted to marry Wen, but Wen only agreed to his proposal.
Because Su Mi was still the Emperor’s concubine, Rui could not directly kill her. Instead, he decided to use the fourth prince’s hand. The fourth prince was his biggest competitor, having saved the Emperor’s life once when there were assassins in the palace. Hence, Rui drugs both Su Mi and the fourth prince with aphrodisiacs. The two are caught in bed by the Emperor who becomes enraged. Su Mi is immediately sentenced to death by poison while the fourth prince is sent to the front line where he is killed in battle. With his greatest competitor gone and Wen safely giving birth to a son, Rui secures the position of the crown prince. From then on, Rui and Wen lived happily ever after, Wen being the only woman in Rui’s harem even after Rui becomes Emperor.
Pfft. Bakugou thinks. How can Rui possibly say that he loves Su Mi? If he can stay dedicated to only Wen, why couldn’t he stay dedicated to only Su Mi? There were many other means to secure the throne. Bakugou rolls his eyes as he is sent to the next world. Just then, Bakugou realises a huge problem. He did not see either Todoroki nor his own name, so which character were they going to play? After all, there were many cannon fodders in the story, either named or unnamed. Bakugou honestly hopes to be a random unnamed cannon fodder, as that would give him a lot more freedom. It would not be too much to expect, right? After all, if the protagonist is rebirthed, then the difficulty level will definitely sky-rocket. And since they succeeded in the last world, there’s no reason for the difficulty to increase by so much.
However, Bakugou should have known better than to have such expectations.