"I'm home~!"
Deep in a desolate forest not far from the Knightly Order's garrison, Mo Wang arrived at a crude wooden hut.
This was where he lived.
It was hard to imagine that the destined heir to the hero of Kanterbury, a knight of the kingdom, would reside in such a place. It was barely better than a beggar's hovel.
But Mo Wang didn't seem to mind. He stepped inside, took off his armor, and collapsed onto what could generously be called a bed, the exhaustion of the day finally washing over him.
"Ah, the Little Princess was so happy today. It's so healing."
In the game, the protagonist knight starts as a mere recruit.
But as the story progresses, it's revealed that he grew up in the palace, playing with the Little Princess when she was just a baby.
Queen Camilla knew all along that he was the heir to the hero of Kanterbury. But to protect the Little Princess and defy the will of the first Queen, she cast him out of the castle, and his memories were sealed away.
Mo Wang's consciousness had awakened in this world at the very moment he was cast out. Helpless, alone, and weakened by the power he had given to the Little Princess, he was even more fragile than an ordinary child.
His was a hell-mode start.
It would have been perfectly understandable if he had awakened to the Path of [Destruction] or [Nihility]. But instead, he awakened to the rarest of Paths among all the Mo Wangs: [The Preservation].
And it was all because of her.
He still remembered that day, snow falling from the sky, a bitter cold gripping the kingdom. He had collapsed on the side of the road, starving and freezing.
So, this is it? I'm so tired.
He had watched the warm lights of the city, knowing that none of them were for him.
Maybe it's for the best. Maybe I'll be reborn into a better world, surrounded by beautiful girls...
And then, he heard the voice of an angel.
"Wake up~! Please, wake up! Are you alright?"
A young, blonde girl was calling to him, tears in her eyes.
"Your Highness! Please, step away from this vagrant! It's too dangerous!" a guard said, trying to pull her away.
"What are you talking about?! As the princess of Kanterbury, how can I stand by and watch someone die before my very eyes?!" she said, her voice filled with a fierce determination.
With a surge of newfound strength, he pushed himself up.
"Um, are you hungry? I have a chicken leg here, do you want it?"
She offered him a chicken leg wrapped in oiled paper. He swore it was the most delicious thing he had ever eaten.
She had taken him back to the palace and cared for him for a week. When he had recovered, he had sought her out.
"Thank you for saving me, Your Highness. Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Hmm, I don't think so," she had said, but then she had an idea. "My sister says that all members of the royal family have their own personal knight. But she says I'm still too young to have one. So... will you be my personal knight?"
And from that day on, the Little Princess of Kanterbury had her own personal knight.
And Mo Wang had a reason to live.
His [Preservation] existed only to protect her.
He would defy the world for her sake.
...
Later, as he soaked in a makeshift bathtub under the stars, he contemplated the daunting task ahead of him. This world was a hell-mode dungeon, not just in the beginning, but all the way to the end.
First, he had no true allies. The game was a dark and twisted story filled with betrayal. Even Queen Camilla, her mind warped by a twisted love for her sister, would eventually turn on him.
Second, he was constantly being watched by higher-dimensional beings, who would reset the world time and time again.
And third, the most frustrating part of it all, was that this was a dungeon that couldn't be cleared by brute force alone. Even the Alternate Knight, a version of himself from a previous timeline who had become invincible and had even killed the god of the invaders, had failed to save the world from destruction.
The only one who could stop the virus that threatened to consume everything was the Little Princess.
"Sigh, I must be the unluckiest and most overworked of all the Mo Wangs. Why can't I have any beautiful girls around me?" he lamented.
Just then, he saw a shooting star.
"Oh, gods above! If you can hear my wish, please grant me a beautiful girl!" he prayed.
"Huh? Why is that shooting star getting bigger?"
"Crap! I asked for a beautiful girl, not a meteor!" he yelled, as the fiery rock came hurtling towards him.
At the last second, he unleashed his power, deflecting the impact and saving his precious bathtub.
"Cough, cough! What the hell was that?!" he sputtered, choking on his own bathwater.
As the steam cleared, he saw her. A young girl in tattered armor, lying unconscious on top of him.
"No way... the gods actually answered my prayer?!" he stared, a strange sense of familiarity washing over him...
"Little Princess?!"