Ranier trained daily, and even spent hours of his time in the library, to catch up with his knowledge of this world. 

The original Ranier was hopeless and knew nothing but sex and drinking. 

He knew the way to the city brothel like the back of his hand, but he didn't even know the geography of the Kingdom his father ruled over. 

But to his disappointment, unlike any of the isekai stories he has read, nor games he had played, he didn't level up at all!

He checked his stats before he went to bed daily, but he made no improvement at all. 

He thought it would be like a game, since he could read other people's stats.

But this vision was limited as he only knew their name, level and skills, as well as their life bar and mana bar, but not their detailed stats.

This made him realize that the Chief of Security Nathan was a Level 34 Knight with pretty good skills in Light, Medium and Heavy Swords, Dual Wielding, Cleave, Parry and several other swordfighting skills. To his surprise, Nathan was also skilled in cooking! This was a skill he has never showed in the palace, but Ranier knew it only because he could see his stats. 

Monica was a Level 12 maid with skills in cooking and cleaning. Anita was a Level 8 maid with skills also in cooking and cleaning, but she could sew too. As for Annebelle, she was a Level 6 maid with skills in cleaning and gardening. 

"Hmm I have those skills too. Did I learn it from them? Then why can't I get any skills in sword fighting?" Ranier thought to himself. 

Over the many weeks, he was at least no longer clumsy. However, he was still hardly any good at it and all his moves were badly telegraphed and easily read. 

Nevertheless, he slowly regained his strength and at least had put on some muscle.

The King and Queen sat daily, having tea on the palace balcony overlooking the garden area where Ranier trained daily with Nathan. 

"I'm afraid he isn't very good, is he?" King Romulus said

"Don't discourage him dear. He's trying very hard" Queen Isabella said

"I know. Just... I wish he picked up some of your skills" he said

"Or your strength" she replied

It was quite a famous story that when King Romulus was in his 20s, he vanished for a few years and became an adventurer in secret. 

His disappearance caused chaos among the royal family, as he was the only heir to the throne. 

However, King Richard sternly controlled the nobles to prevent a fight for succession, insisting the then Prince Romulus was alive and well. 

But a dispute over the next in line to the throne started brewing as the King suddenly became ill and died. 

At the same time, the neighboring country of Argabad started invading their borders, taking advantage of the disharmony among the royals. 

Suddenly the invasion was quelled by the infamous mercenary group the Wolfpack, led by the then famous leader Wolf, a fighter known for his incredible strength and fighting ability with his great axe

Wolf and his Wolfpack was already famous over those few years as having not only quelled the invasion, they had also been destroying bandits and all kinds of creatures like goblins and orcs with power and precision. 

Wolf turned up at the palace and was revealed to be Romulus, and his lieutenant, the "Dancing Sword" Bella was revealed to be his wife, now Queen Isabella, who he met and eloped with in his adventures. 

He quelled the nobles and found the murderer, who was his uncle, the Duke of Londonborough Prince Rasper, who was King Richard's younger brother. 

After taking over the throne, they got officially married and bore their first son Roland, who was the perfect prince.

He was tall, handsome, good in his swordsmanship as well as magic! Five years after that, Ranier was born. 

While Roland seemed to have taken both his parent's genes when it came to sword fighting, Ranier apparently had none. 

Just as they continued having tea while watching Ranier train, a messenger suddenly rushed towards them, bowing on his knee as he passed on a sealed message to the king. 

He opened it, wondering what could be so urgent that it had to be delivered to him immediately. 

"What! It... it cannot be!" King Romulus suddenly said

"What is it honey?" Queen Isabella asked

"It says.. it says that Roland has been killed in a duel!" King Romulus said

"Impossible! Who can match him in battle?" Queen Isabella asked

"He.. the report says he was killed by one of the bastard princes of Argabad! Roland didn't even have a chance to attack! He was killed with a blazing stick!" King Romulus said and dropped to his chair. 

"Do you mean a magic wand?" Queen Isabella asked

"No...if it was a wand, they wouldn't call it a blazing stick. It created a loud noise and suddenly, Roland was bleeding heavily. The healers couldn't heal him in time" King Romulus answered, looking completely shocked. 

"What's going on Father?" Ranier asked, realizing that something was wrong. His mother was already in tears. 

"Your brother... has been killed!" King Romulus said

"What? How? Wasn't he visiting the nation of Fartherland?" Ranier asked

"Yes... but someone challenged him to a duel and killed him!" King Romulus said

He passed the message to Ranier as he could not go on talking

Ranier read the message and wondered. A blazing stick? 

A fully suited knight rushed towards them. 

King Romulus frowned. He wasn't in the best of moods, but the Sir Dancalot was one of his top knights. 

"Your Majesty! We're under attack!" he suddenly said upon getting to his knees

"What! Who?" King Romulus said

"It's the border of Argabad! This is a full scale invasion!" he replied

"Those bastards again! Roland... this attack.. this is no coincidence! They planned this! We go to war!" King Romulus gritted his teeth. 

Ranier watched as his father rushed off with Sir Dancalot. 

He sat there quietly comforting his mother.