People often say that victory belongs to those who win.

I used to believe that too.

But now I know better.

You can win the game and still lose everything that mattered.

You can sit upon the throne and still feel like a stranger.

You can become king and still wonder if your name was ever meant to be carved into the crown.

My name is Ares.

I am the King of Laceril.

At least, that is who I am now.

But this story begins when I was twelve years old.

Back then, I knew nothing about crowns, succession, betrayal, or the weight of a kingdom.

I was simply Ares.

The youngest child in the palace.

The child everyone pitied.

The child everyone loved.

And perhaps the child fate hated the most.

I was born on a stormy night, and my mother died giving birth to me.

I never saw her face.

Never heard her voice.

Never felt her embrace.

The only thing she left behind was my life.

My father, King Adrian, was a man admired throughout the continent.

To the people, he was a great king.

To the nobles, he was a terrifying ruler.

To me, he was a distant shadow sitting upon a throne.

He rarely looked at any of his children.

Not even his favorite.

My elder sister, Lila, was eleven years older than me.

At twenty-three, she already carried herself like royalty itself.

She was cold, proud, and fearless.

The nobles adored her.

The soldiers respected her.

And my father favored her more than anyone else.

When she walked into a room, people noticed.

When I walked into a room, they smiled and pinched my cheeks.

That alone should tell you everything.

Most people assumed all seven of us were King Adrian's children.

They were wrong.

Only Lila and I carried his blood.

The others belonged to the king before him.

King Eric.

My uncle.

Long before I was born, a minister betrayed Laceril and sold secrets to a rival kingdom. A war followed, one so devastating that even now people still sing songs about it.

King Eric died during that war.

My father returned victorious.

And with victory came the throne.

Afterward, Queen Iris and Lady Emma remained in the palace, raising their children under my father's protection.

Queen Iris had three children.

The twins, Loid and Ryuk, who were seventeen years old, and their younger sister, Shashaya, who was fifteen.

Lady Emma had two children.

Zach, who was nineteen, and his younger sister, Resu, who was thirteen.

Although none of them shared my blood, they were the closest thing I had to a family.

Loid and Ryuk constantly argued.

Shashaya treated everyone with kindness.

Resu followed Zach everywhere.

And Zach...

Well, Zach was the kind of older brother who pretended not to care while secretly looking after everyone.

Looking back now, those days seem almost peaceful.

We laughed.

We fought.

We complained about lessons.

We stole sweets from the kitchens.

For a brief moment, we were simply children.

None of us knew that the palace walls were hiding secrets.

None of us knew that the throne already had an owner.

And none of us knew that one day, I would become king of a kingdom that was never supposed to belong to me.

❖ AUTHOR'S NOTE ❖

Welcome to CROWNLESS.

This is the story of a boy who became king, yet never truly owned the throne he sat upon.

A tale of family, betrayal, war, secrets, and the heavy price of a crown.

If you've enjoyed this first chapter and wish to uncover the mysteries hidden within the walls of Laceril, please consider supporting this novel by liking, commenting, and adding it to your library.

Every vote, comment, and piece of feedback motivates me to continue Ares's journey.

And remember...

Not every king wears a crown.

And not every crown belongs to a king.

See you in the next chapter.

♡

Lila and I had an age gap of eleven years.

At the time, I was only twelve, while she already seemed more like an adult than a sister.

One afternoon, all of us were gathered in a forgotten corner of the palace grounds.

Lila and Zach were engaged in a mock sword duel, their wooden blades clashing loudly as neither was willing to surrender. Resu and Shashaya were arguing over some made-up rule of the game, while Loid, Ryuk, and I were hiding among the old stone walls.

We were playing hide-and-seek.

As expected, Shashaya found me first.

That meant it was my turn to search for everyone else.

Unfortunately, I was never very good at following rules.

Or staying focused.

While looking for my siblings, I noticed an old structure standing beyond the palace gardens. It was connected to the royal grounds, yet no one ever went there. The building looked abandoned, almost forgotten by time itself.

Naturally, I wanted to know why.

I had always been a strange child.

Tell me not to touch something, and I would immediately want to touch it.

Tell me a place was dangerous, and I would spend the entire day wondering what secrets it was hiding.

So instead of searching for my siblings, I wandered toward the abandoned castle.

The deeper I went, the colder the air became.

Dust covered the floors.

The walls were stained with dark marks.

Scattered throughout the corridors were animal skulls and bones so old they crumbled at the slightest touch.

There were even human remains.

Looking back now, any normal child would have run away.

I only became more curious.

As I continued exploring, a massive door suddenly creaked open by itself.

I froze.

The sound echoed through the empty halls.

For a moment, I thought I should return to the palace.

Then curiosity won.

It always did.

Beyond the doorway stretched a vast chamber hidden beneath the castle.

At its center lay a gigantic creature.

At first, I thought it was an enormous snake.

Its scales shimmered faintly in the darkness, and its body seemed to go on forever.

But then I noticed the horns.

The claws.

The wings folded against its sides.

A dragon.

A real dragon.

It appeared asleep.

Despite its terrifying size, it looked strangely exhausted, almost pitiful.

I stared for several moments before finding enough courage to pick up a small stone.

Then I threw it.

The stone bounced harmlessly off its scales.

Nothing happened.

I threw another.

Still nothing.

And another.

The dragon remained asleep.

Determined to get a reaction, I searched for the largest stone my twelve-year-old self could lift.

With great effort, I raised it above my head.

Just as I was about to throw it—

The dragon opened its eyes.

My entire body froze.

The stone slipped from my fingers before I could move.

No.

Not slipped.

Something had pulled it down.

As if an invisible force had taken control.

The dragon simply watched me.

Its golden eyes seemed ancient.

Older than kingdoms.

Older than history itself.

I could neither run nor scream.

Then a familiar voice shattered the silence.

"Ares! What are you doing here?"

Lila.

I immediately pointed toward the dragon.

"There!"

But when Lila looked, confusion appeared on her face.

"Ares... there's nothing there."

My heart stopped.

I turned around.

The dragon was gone.

The chamber was empty.

No scales.

No wings.

No golden eyes.

Nothing.

As though it had never existed.

For years, I questioned whether I had imagined the entire encounter.

Life moved on too quickly for me to find an answer.

Zach and Lila became old enough to shoulder the responsibilities of adulthood.

Resu and Shashaya grew into beautiful young women admired throughout the kingdom.

Eventually, Lila married the king of a powerful neighboring nation, strengthening Laceril's influence across the continent.

Meanwhile, I continued my studies.

Politics.

Swordsmanship.

Military strategy.

History.

The endless lessons expected of a prince.

Yet despite everything, I never forgot the dragon.

Not a single day.

Then I turned eighteen.

And war returned.

This time, Laceril was stronger than ever. With the support of my brother-in-law's kingdom, victory seemed certain.

We were wrong.

War does not care about certainty.

It only cares about what it can take from you.

By the time it ended, my father was dead.

Lila's husband was dead.

Ryuk had vanished without a trace.

Loid was publicly hanged.

And the kingdom I once called home lay in ruins.

That was the year I learned a simple truth.

Sometimes the beginning of a tragedy looks exactly like the beginning of a fairy tale.

The war had ended.

But peace never truly came.

It simply arrived wearing a different face.

In the months following our victory, the palace felt emptier than ever before. Every corridor carried memories of those who would never walk through them again.

My father was dead.

Loid was dead.

Ryuk was still missing.

No matter how many scouts I sent, no matter how many reports crossed my desk, there was never any trace of him.

It was as if he had vanished from the world itself.

One evening, Lila called me to her chambers.

For a long time, neither of us spoke.

She stood near the window, watching the sunset paint the sky red.

"Ares," she finally said, "you should become king of both kingdoms."

I stared at her.

"What?"

"The throne of Laceril is already yours. My husband's kingdom needs a ruler as well."

I immediately shook my head.

"No."

The answer came without hesitation.

I was barely holding myself together.

Every day felt heavier than the last.

The kingdom was broken.

The treasury was strained.

Our people were grieving.

And somehow she expected me to shoulder another crown?

"I can't."

"You can."

Her voice was calm.

Almost emotionless.

The same voice she used whenever she had already made a decision.

Later, Queen Iris supported the idea.

Even Lady Emma, despite her worsening health, seemed to agree.

The physicians could not cure her illness.

Month after month, she grew weaker.

I felt trapped.

The kingdom needed stability.

The nobles wanted certainty.

The people wanted a leader.

In the end, I accepted.

Not because I wanted to.

Because I felt I had no choice.

That was the first lesson of kingship.

Sometimes your decisions are not choices at all.

They are responsibilities disguised as choices.

As years passed, I began understanding something else.

Lila had never loved her husband.

Not even a little.

Their marriage had been nothing more than a political treaty.

A contract written by nobles and sealed by crowns.

When he died, she mourned him respectfully.

But never deeply.

The realization shocked me.

For the first time, I understood how different we truly were.

Where I held onto emotions, Lila buried them.

Where I saw people, she saw outcomes.

Perhaps that was why she survived pain better than the rest of us.

Shashaya and Resu suffered the most.

They had lost their brothers.

The wounds left by Loid's execution and Ryuk's disappearance never fully healed.

I understood their grief.

After all, I was carrying the same burden.

We simply learned to smile while carrying it.

By the time I reached twenty-two years of age, the kingdoms had changed completely.

The ruins of war had become cities once more.

Trade routes flourished.

Armies expanded.

New alliances were forged.

Under our rule, both kingdoms grew stronger than ever before.

Lila became my closest advisor.

Many feared her.

Most respected her.

I trusted her more than anyone.

Eventually, I returned her late husband's throne to her authority and declared her the ruling Empress of that kingdom, while I remained the supreme ruler of the growing alliance between our lands.

Years of conquest and diplomacy followed.

Territories joined us.

Some willingly.

Others reluctantly.

When the dust settled, my influence stretched farther than I had ever imagined as a child.

The nobles began calling me a great king.

I never liked the title.

Greatness often hides the graves upon which it stands.

To celebrate the prosperity of the realm, a grand ball was held in the royal palace.

Music echoed through the halls.

Nobles danced.

Wine flowed endlessly.

For one evening, the kingdom forgot its suffering.

A few days later, Queen Iris requested a private audience.

She looked older than I remembered.

Time had not been kind to any of us.

"What has happened cannot be changed," she said softly. "We must allow ourselves to move forward."

I remained silent.

She continued.

"Resu and Shashaya are no longer children. It is time we find suitable husbands for them."

I wasn't opposed to the idea.

Marriage among nobles was common.

Expected, even.

Still, something about the proposal felt rushed.

"Shouldn't we ask them first?" I replied.

A faint shadow crossed Queen Iris's face.

It vanished so quickly I almost thought I imagined it.

"Of course," she said.

But her expression told a different story.

The next day, I visited their chambers.

I intended to discuss the matter gently.

To hear their thoughts.

To give them a choice.

When I explained Queen Iris's proposal, neither woman spoke immediately.

Resu lowered her gaze.

Shashaya's expression became strangely unreadable.

The silence lasted so long that it made me uncomfortable.

Then they finally gave their answer.

And their answer shocked me more than any battlefield ever had.