I Won Every Trial, But the Crown Went to My Brother
Prince Kyle of the demon realm, half-human by birth, passed all three royal trials on broken bones—only to watch his father crown his younger brother Celon instead, declaring Kyle’s blood “impure.” His stepmother mocked him; his father broke off one of his demonic horns, the ultimate humiliation. Cast into the slave camp, Kyle was forced to pull his brother’s carriage by day and chained to a pillar by night. A human healer, Lila, risked her life to treat him, restoring his will to live. In the camp’s depths he met Varric, a blind former general who revealed Kyle’s maternal bloodline carried a divine flame. Entering the Inferno Cavern, Kyle let the sacred flame fuse with his demon blood at his broken horn, igniting an unprecedented “Ash Flame.” Demon beasts knelt; three thousand slaves proclaimed him king. At court, he forced each conspirator to confess publicly before breaking off a horn. To his pleading brother, he handed back the whip: “Now you pull the cart for the new king.” His father was confined to the old palace. Kyle’s first decree abolished bloodline discrimination. On coronation night, he unchained three thousand former slaves: “Hold your heads high. There are no slave sinners among demons—only heroes.”
