"A mystery begins not with a question, but with the sudden feeling that something is wrong."
Prince woke to silence.
Not the familiar, faint hum of his ceiling fan.Not the distant horns of early-morning traffic outside his window.Not even the soft vibration of his phone beside his pillow.
Only silence.
The kind that pressed against his eardrums,thick, heavy, unnatural.
It was the first sign—though he didn't know it yet—that he had woken in a world wrapped beneath the Veil.
Prince slowly opened his eyes.
The ceiling above him was wrong.
Not cracked cream paint…but smooth wooden beams.
The smell was wrong too.
Not dust, electronics, the familiar scent of home…but the faint aroma of old books and burning incense.
His heartbeat stilled.
"What…?"
He pushed himself up from the bed—and froze.
There was someone else in the room.
Someone standing by the window,hidden in the dim moonlight,silhouette tilted toward him.
A boy.
A boy who—
Prince's breath caught in his throat.
The boy had his face.
His height.
His build.
His expression.
As if a mirror had stepped out of its frameand become a living person.
But the hair…
The hair was different.
The boy had a flowing, stylish cut—messy yet controlled,as if sculpted by wind,vaguely otherworldly.
Prince reached up, touched his own hair—still short, still simple.
His scalp tingled.
"…What is this…?"
The other boy blinked.
His eyes were calm, unreadable,void of alarm or confusion.
As if he was the one who belonged here.As if Prince was the intruder.
Prince swallowed hard.
"Where am I?"
The boy spoke for the first time.
His voice was flat, cold,a ripple spreading through the silent room.
"You're awake."
The way he said it—not in surprise,not with relief,but with quiet certainty—sent a chill through Prince's spine.
"Who… are you?"
The boy stepped closer.
Moonlight spilled onto his face,revealing features identical to Prince'syet somehow more refined,as if shaped by a different life.
"My name," the boy said softly,"is Nasir."
Prince's stomach twisted.
Nasir.A name he had never heard—yet felt strangely familiar,as if whispered in a dream he couldn't recall.
"Why do you look like me?" Prince asked, voice tight.
Nasir tilted his head slightly,expression still blank,but eyes shining with a depth Prince couldn't read.
"Why?" Nasir echoed."Because only one of us belongs to this world."
Prince's blood ran cold.
"This… this is some kind of dream, right?"
The silence answered for him.
Suddenly the incense smoke curled unnaturally,forming threads of dim, shimmering light—like fragments of a veil being lifted.
The walls flickered for a moment—a distortion, as if the room itself had inhaled.
Prince felt something watching.
Not Nasir.
Not anything human.
Something hidden behind the air,something ancient,a touch cold enough to numb the soul.
For a heartbeat,Prince saw an image behind his eyelids—
a throne of shadowsin a realm without direction.A voice whispered,without sound:
"Awaken."
He gasped, gripping the bed frame.
The vision vanished.
The room became normal again—as normal as a stranger wearing your face could be.
Nasir watched him quietly.
"You felt it," Nasir said."Didn't you?"
Prince didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Nasir's unreadable gaze softened—not with kindness,not with warmth,but with the awareness of someone who knew more.
Much more.
"This world isn't your world," Nasir murmured."And you shouldn't have arrived."
Prince's chest tightened.
"Then how did I—"
The incense flame flickered violently.
A pulse cut through the air.
Reality trembled.
And Prince felt it—
A pull.
A call.
A whisper from a place without shape:
"You were written into existence."
Prince grabbed his head,
knees buckling.
Nasir stepped back in alarm—the first crack in his calm expression.
"You—! That pressure— it shouldn't affect someone normal—"
Prince didn't hear the rest.
His vision shattered.
For one moment,one impossible moment,he saw it:
A vast, empty field of white.A number carved into nothingness.A shape that was not a shape.
0
And the echo of a throne,waiting.
Then the number faded,the room returned,and Prince collapsed onto the floor, gasping.
Nasir stared at him, stunned.
"What… are you?"
Prince didn't answer.
He couldn't.
Because for the first time in his life,he felt it:
Something inside him was awakening—something older than this world,older than reality.
Something that made even the silence tremble.
Nasir whispered again,voice trembling ever so slightly:
"You… shouldn't exist."
Prince slowly lifted his head.
His eyes, still dazed,reflected something new.
A flicker.
A shadow.
A hint of a throne hidden behind the Veil.
"No…" Prince whispered."I think I'm starting to understand."
He rose to his feet.
"I think I'm not supposed to be here…"
His breath steadied.
"…but something brought me anyway."
Nasir stepped back.
Prince's shadow stretched behind him—longer than it should,darker than it should,as if reaching for a throne hidden beyond comprehension.
The world exhaled.
A new mystery began.
End of Chapter 1