The Crown Beneath the Whispering Void
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTER 1 Whispered Madness ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❄ The training chamber was freezing.
Not the ordinary kind of cold.
The kind that crept beneath skin.
The kind that settled inside bones.
The kind that reminded people they were alone.
Soren stood in the center of the chamber.
Dark hair framed his pale face while silver-rimmed glasses rested neatly upon his nose.
To anyone watching, he looked calm.
Like the future heir of the Empire should be.
And Soren was far from calm.
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✦ ─── 「 OMNISCIENT MAGIC 」 ─── ✦
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Purple light flickered beneath his closed eyelids.
Thousands of futures exploded through his mind.
A field covered in corpses.
Soren's breathing hitched
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"No..."
His fingers curled tightly.
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"Not again."
Pain shot through Soren's skull
Cracks appeared beneath his feet.
evil spirit
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟢ He will leave you. ⟣
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His entire body stiffened.
evil spirit
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟢ He will abandon you. ⟣
⟢ Just like everyone else. ⟣
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Soren|Mc|Celestial
"Stop."
evil spirit
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟢ Then stop him first. ⟣
⟢ Break him. ⟣
⟢ Keep him forever. ⟣
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Tears formed in Soren's eyes.
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"I don't want that."
A low laugh echoed inside his head.
evil spirit
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟢ Liar. ⟣
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The chamber shook violently.
Rune-lights flickered.
Stone cracked.
Magic surged.
Soren collapsed to one knee.
His hands shook.
His breathing became uneven
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"Please..."
evil spirit
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟢ If he cannot leave... ⟣
⟢ Then he cannot hurt you. ⟣
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Soren|Mc|Celestial
"STOP!"
A pulse of violet energy exploded outward.
The walls rattled.
The runes flashed.
The chamber nearly lost control.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Terrible silence.
Then—
Creak.
The doors opened.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
☀ 「 KAEL 」
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Warm light spilled inside.
And with it—
Came Kael.
Orange hair.
Golden eyes.
A familiar smile.
A living flame inside a frozen room.
The whispers immediately fell silent.
Soren looked up.
Kael blinked.
Then frowned.
Kael|Ml|solar
"...You look terrible."
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"I'm fine."
Kael|Ml|solar
"That's a lie."
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"It's not."
Kael|Ml|solar
"it absolutely is"
Kael|Ml|solar
"How long have you been in here?"
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"I don't know."
Kael|Ml|solar
"That's not reassuring."
Kael studied him carefully.
Kael|Ml|solar
"You're shaking."
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"im fine"
Kael crouched beside him.
Kael|Ml|solar
"you're not"
Then Soren asked quietly:
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"...Do you ever think about leaving?"
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"Leaving."
Kael|Ml|solar
"Leaving what?"
His voice became almost inaudible.
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"...Me."
Silence.
Long.
Heavy.
Dangerous.
Then Kael sighed.
The answer came instantly.
Without hesitation.
Without doubt.
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"That was quick."
Kael|Ml|solar
"Because it's simple."
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"Nothing about me is simple."
Kael|Ml|solar
"But my answer is."
Soren stared at him.
Why?
Why was he always like this?
Why was he always so certain?
evil spirit
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟢ He's lying. ⟣
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The voice returned.
Soren flinched.
evil spirit
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
⟢ Everyone leaves. ⟣
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kael suddenly grabbed his hand.
Warm.
Real.
Solid.
The whispers vanished.
Gone.
Completely gone.
Soren froze.
His eyes widened.
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"........"
Kael|Ml|solar
".....soren"
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"...... it's quite"
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"The voice."
Soren immediately regretted saying it.
But Kael didn't laugh.
Didn't judge.
Didn't pull away.
Instead—
He tightened his grip.
Kael|Ml|solar
"Then let's keep it quiet."
For a second—
The world felt peaceful.
For a second—
The future disappeared.
For a second—
There was only Kael.
And silence.
But far beneath the palace...
Far beneath the Empire...
Something ancient opened its eyes.
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🌑 「 UNKNOWN 」 🌑
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Darkness stretched endlessly.
An empty void.
A place beyond reality.
Beyond time.
Beyond death.
A lone figure sat upon a ruined throne.
Waiting.
Watching.
Smiling.
Purple eyes slowly opened.
Eyes identical to Soren's.
evil spirit
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❝ At last... ❞
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The figure stood.
The void trembled.
Countless whispers screamed.
And the ancient crown upon its head cracked.
evil spirit
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❝ You finally heard me. ❞
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Back inside the training chamber—
Soren's eyes snapped open.
Violet light exploded through the room.
CRACK—
The walls split.
The runes shattered.
Kael stumbled backward
Kael|Ml|solar
" .....soren"
Then—
For the first time—
Soren spoke.
But the voice wasn't his.
evil spirit
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❝ At last. ❞
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❝ The Thing Inside the Crown ❞
Author ~
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
❝ please like 🥂🦋❞
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━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CHAPTER 2 The Husband of the Crown Prince ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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☀ 「 FIVE DAYS LATER 」
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Five days had passed since the incident within the training chamber.
Five days since the mysterious voice had spoken through Soren
Five days since Kael had refused to leave his side.
Morning sunlight streamed through the enormous crystal windows of—
The private residence of the Crown Prince and his spouse.
Soren sat beside the window with a book resting on his lap.
His gaze remained fixed outside.
A cup suddenly appeared in front of his face.
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"......"
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"........"
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☀ 「 KAEL 」 ☀
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His orange hair glowed beneath the sunlight.
Golden eyes filled with warmth.
A smile that somehow always managed to reach Soren.
The complete opposite of darkness.
The complete opposite of the Void.
Kael|Ml|solar
"You've been staring out that window for thirty minutes."
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"I have not."
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"I haven't."
Kael|Ml|solar
"You absolutely have."
Kael sighed dramatically.
Kael|Ml|solar
"You know what?"
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"What?"
Kael|Ml|solar
"You are impossible."
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"Yet you married me."
Kael|Ml|solar
"That was rude."
For the first time that morning—
Kael|Ml|solar
You laughed."
Kael|Ml|solar
"You actually laughed."
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"Don't make it weird."
A royal messenger arrived.
royal messenger
"The preparations are complete, Your Highness."
Kael immediately looked suspicious.
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"What preparations?"
royal messenger
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✦ 『 CELESTIAL ASCENSION FESTIVAL 』 ✦
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The largest celebration in the Empire.
A sacred annual event attended by nobles, foreign dignitaries, military leaders, and commoners alike.
The Empire would finally meet the person chosen by their Crown Prince.
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☀ Kael ☀
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Kael|Ml|solar
"You're telling me half the continent is about to look at me?"
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"correct"
Kael|Ml|solar
"i dislike this"
Soren|Mc|Celestial
"correct"
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Later that evening...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The capital glittered beneath countless lanterns.
Music echoed through the streets.
Millions gathered below the Imperial Palace.
Excitement spread through the crowd.
The massive golden doors opened.
Royal drums echoed throughout the Empire.
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👑 「 SOREN 」 👑
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A collective gasp swept through the crowd.
Tonight, the Crown Prince wore ceremonial royal attire unlike anything seen by ordinary citizens.
A long black cloak draped elegantly from his shoulders.
Dark crimson lining shimmered beneath the folds whenever he moved.
Silver chains decorated his chest.
Ancient imperial emblems rested against pristine white fabric.
His sleeves were wide and luxurious.
His glasses reflected the palace lights.
Like a ruler born beneath the stars.
Someone appeared beside him.
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☀ 「 KAEL 」 ☀
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Kael wore an immaculate black ceremonial military uniform.
Silver tassels rested upon his shoulders.
Chains and medals gleamed beneath the palace lights.
A dark cape flowed behind him, lined with crimson silk.
Tall black boots completed the outfit.
A perfect match for the Crown Prince.
The crowd erupted.
"That's him?!"
"The Crown Prince's husband?!"
"He's beautiful..."
"A hybrid?"
"I've never seen someone like him..."
Everything seemed perfect.
The noble pointed directly toward Kael.
Noble
"He cannot possibly be the Crown Prince's true spouse!"
Noble
"The Imperial Family clearly paid him to act!"
Noble
"He's nothing more than a beautiful actor pretending to be the Crown Prince's husband!"
The plaza exploded with whispers.
The noble immediately felt fear crawl down his spine.
Soren took one step forward.
The crowd held its breath.
Soren grabbed the back of Kael's collar.
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❀
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The entire Empire stopped functioning.
Even the musicians forgot to play.
The kiss was brief but unmistakable.
A declaration before the entire Empire.
A statement no one could misunderstand.
Soren's glowing eyes never left the noble.
He slid a hand into Soren's dark hair.
Refusing to be embarrassed
The crowd collectively lost their minds.
"THEY'RE ACTUALLY MARRIED!"
"OH MY GOD!"
"DID THE CROWN PRINCE JUST—"
"IN FRONT OF EVERYONE?!"
"I'M GOING TO FAINT!"
By the time they separated—
Half the nobles looked traumatized.
The other half looked jealous.
And the noble who had spoken earlier looked ready to disappear.
Soren calmly adjusted his glasses.
Soren|Mc|Celestial
❝ Does anyone else have questions regarding my husband? ❞
👑🌑 ❝ A Kiss Before the Empire ❞
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