The Exiled Alchemist Unknowingly Becomes a Legend – Living Happily in the Frontier with My Yandere Little Sister (the Kingdom’s Guardian Dragon) - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Strongest Alchemist in History Gets Banished Without Anyone Understanding Him

“Myce Windsor. I hereby banish you from the kingdom on charges of high treason against the state!”

“Wha…!? P-please wait, Your Majesty! There must be some kind of misunderstanding!”

I—Myce Windsor, an eighteen-year-old alchemist—had been summoned to the audience chamber and suddenly hit with a banishment order from the king himself.

I’d been happily holed up in my alchemy workshop since morning, enjoying some blissful time, and now this… high treason? Seriously?

“Hyahaha! Your excuses are just pathetic, big bro! With this, the next head of the glorious Windsor ducal family is officially me!”

My younger brother by one year, Alfred, stood beside the king and let out a triumphant cheer.

“We already know all about how you’ve been sneaking off to see the Guardian Dragon Valitra, breaking every taboo! Are you seriously trying to destroy this country? Huh!?”

That single line made the whole situation click into place for me.

Alfred had been scheming to push me out and take the position of next head of the Windsor ducal family for himself.

For the past five years I’d kept my visits to that girl completely hidden… but it looked like he’d finally sniffed it out.

“You probably tried to cozy up to Lady Valitra, but too bad! You defective piece of trash!”

“Myce. Our kingdom has become a great power thanks to the revived Guardian Dragon Valitra, and we now rule over all the neighboring countries.”

The king’s voice carried a quiet, seething anger.

“Don’t you understand that if we upset Lady Valitra, our entire nation is finished!?”

The important nobles gathered in the chamber—including my father—nodded in agreement. They were all staring at me with eyes full of pure contempt. It made sense; the kingdom had grown completely dependent on Valitra’s power.

“Legend says the caretaker of Lady Valitra must be a carefully chosen beautiful young woman! And yet you… you…!”

Four years ago, a giant dragon had suddenly appeared near the royal capital.

That dragon had subdued every monster in the country and ordered them never to harm the citizens. It had also effortlessly crushed the invading army from an enemy nation.

People made a huge fuss because its majestic form looked exactly like the legendary Guardian Dragon Valitra, and that’s how things had ended up here.

Well… that girl isn’t actually the dragon from the legend or anything, but…

“Your Majesty, right here and now, I ask for your permission to disown Myce and appoint Alfred as the next head of the ducal family!”

“Granted! For the sake of my grand ambition—world conquest—we have no need for such a fool!”

At my father’s suggestion, the king shouted his approval.

World conquest. The moment those words left his mouth, the assembled high nobles stirred with excitement.

Riding high on the power of the invincible Guardian Dragon Valitra, the king had become completely obsessed with the dream of conquering the world.

“Since Myce has not been attending to Lady Valitra… naturally, his engagement to my daughter, the First Princess Lucy, is also canceled! Her new fiancé will be Alfred!”

“Kuhaha! Yes! Lady Lucy is finally gonna be mineee!?”

Alfred was over the moon with joy.

“P-please wait! You can’t just decide that without asking Princess Lucy’s opinion…!”

I couldn’t help speaking up.

Lucy and I had grown up together as childhood friends and had been engaged.

“Silence, Myce. This is my decision!”

“Y-yes…!”

Things were spiraling in the worst possible direction.

This was bad… The king and the others were terrified that I might anger Valitra, but the truth was the complete opposite.

If they actually banished me, that girl—Valitra—would get furiously angry, one hundred percent. And if that happened, the country would be done for.

“I truly cannot understand why you would do something like this! You said it was a misunderstanding, correct? If you have any last defense, speak now.”

“Y-yes… with all due respect, I shall explain.”

If only Lucy were here, she would have defended me, but…

Right now I had to protect the kingdom with my own words alone. I steeled myself and opened my mouth.

“Just as I have told you before, the Guardian Dragon Valitra that Your Majesty worships… is actually an artificial magical beast that I created with alchemy.”

“Huh…?”

Everyone froze in utter shock.

“Hyahahahaha! Big bro, I never thought you’d tell such a massive lie right here in public! You were born with a dud skill—you defective failure who can’t even make a proper recovery potion!”

Alfred clutched his stomach and burst out laughing.

“Exactly! To think you would tell such a blatant lie in His Majesty’s presence… Have you no shame! You disgrace to the ducal family!”

My father’s face turned bright red as he hurled insults at me.

Just as I thought—they didn’t believe me at all…

“The defective bearer of a dud skill.” That was how everyone saw me.

In this world, a very small number of people are granted a special ability called a skill by the gods at birth.

My skill was [Genesis Alchemy], an alchemy-type skill.

Its effect was the outrageous ability to “successfully perform SSS-rank synthesis.”

Items in this world are ranked from SSS to F based on quality. The highest rank you can normally find on the market is S. SSS-rank is a mythical, legendary tier that’s basically considered a fairy tale.

When my father first learned about it, he was overjoyed.

However…

Every single time I tried to use alchemy, it failed completely. For some reason, the materials I used always exploded.

Before long I was branded as useless, and no one paid any attention to me anymore.

“It’s true! The real identity of Valitra is actually my twin little sister Tinny, who caught the Black Death four years ago! I tried to cure her illness with body-modification alchemy, and for some reason she turned into a dragon!”

One of the goals of alchemy is to refine and evolve the human body and soul into a higher-dimensional being. The ultimate goal is to achieve immortality, transcending age, sickness, and injury.

But alchemy that changes the human body carries the risk of creating terrifying monsters if it fails.

“I’ve been researching nonstop for a way to turn Tinny back into a human… and that’s why I’ve been visiting Valitra!”

I pleaded desperately.

“If you banish me, Valitra will definitely get angry! If that happens, the monsters under her command will go on a rampage and attack the kingdom, rebellions will break out in the conquered territories, and the whole country will collapse!”

“E-enough… What nonsense are you spouting now? And you call yourself a descendant of the great alchemist Paracelsus!?”

The king’s anger finally exploded.

The high nobles looked completely fed up.

“No, I swear to the gods that everything I’m saying is—”

“Hyahahahaha! Your Majesty, I just had a brilliant idea. Let’s send big bro to the remote border region of Beograd, where the terrible Black Death is spreading. If he’s such a great alchemist that he could create Lady Valitra, then curing a little epidemic should be easy, right!”

Alfred shot me a nasty, malicious look.

“That’s an excellent suggestion! Your Majesty, it would look terrible for the honor of the Windsor ducal family—if a descendant of Paracelsus were simply exiled abroad. And if I recall correctly, the lord of that land recently died of illness and they’re in quite a bind, aren’t they?”

My father quickly jumped on board too.

“Hmm, that does make sense… Very well, Myce. You shall become the lord of Beograd and go quell that epidemic!”

Beograd?

It was a remote border territory far, far away from the royal capital. I was pretty sure it was a land covered in endless, sprawling forests.

“Hyahahahaha! Look at him shaking in his boots, the lying bastard! Yeah, that’s gonna be your grave!”

Alfred’s face lit up with pure delight when he saw me at a loss for words.

Wait, I’ve actually researched the Black Death quite a lot since it nearly took my little sister’s life, so honestly it’s not a problem at all—in fact, it’s kind of what I wanted…

“Now then, knights! Throw this fool out!”

“Yes sir!”

At the king’s command, the knights grabbed both my arms and forcibly dragged me away.

Mocking laughter from Alfred and the other high nobles rained down on me.

“Your Majesty, please listen to me! If you do this, the country will—!”

“Silence! If you keep babbling on, I’ll have you executed!”

The great doors of the audience chamber slammed shut without mercy.

My voice never reached them in the end. At that moment, the fate of the kingdom was sealed.