Darkness. That was all he knew.
The cold embrace of death should have been eternal, yet something pulled him back. His consciousness drifted in a void endless, silent, and waiting. Then came the voices.
"You were not meant to die this way."
"A new fate awaits you, Prince Kol."
Pain surged through him like fire in his veins, and suddenly, he felt something he shouldn't his body. A gasp tore from his throat as his senses returned all at once. The scent of damp stone, the weight of heavy iron shackles on his wrists, the taste of blood on his tongue.
His vision was blurry, but dim torchlight flickered in the shadows. A dungeon. He was in a dungeon.
"Where the hell am I?" The thought was automatic, but the voice in his mind wasn't his. It was younger, unfamiliar.
Then the memories hit him like a tidal wave.
His name was Kol Vandros, the third prince of the Vandros Empire. The weakest of all the emperor's sons. A failure in swordsmanship, useless in magic, and unworthy of his royal title. He had been cast aside, humiliated, and executed?
No. That wasn't right.
Before this… before Kol… he had been someone else.
A man of power. A strategist feared in the world of business. He had crushed rivals, built empires, and controlled the fate of countless people with a single decision.
And yet, in the end… he was betrayed. A deal gone wrong, a knife in the dark.
"I died."
But now he was here. Reborn. A prince on the verge of execution, cast into a dungeon like a discarded pawn.
Footsteps echoed beyond the cell door.
"No time to think."
A deep voice barked orders. "Bring him out."
The door creaked open, and rough hands dragged him forward. Outside, a dozen guards waited, their armor gleaming under torchlight. Leading them was a man Kol recognized instantly Duke Aleron, a ruthless noble and a loyal dog to the first prince.
Aleron sneered. "Still alive, are we, little prince?"
Memories pieced together in Kol's mind. He had been falsely accused of treason. Beaten. Sentenced to die.
And yet, fate had different plans.
A strange sensation pulsed in his chest. Something… awakened within him.
A voice echoed in his mind.
[System Activation: The Monarch's Will]
Kol's lips curled into a smirk.
"If this world wants me dead… then I'll just have to rewrite the rules."
End of Prologue