Rain continued to fall outside Liam's hotel window.
The city lights of Beijing blurred behind the glass, turning the world beyond into a sea of gold and silver.
Inside the room, silence reigned.
Voice was gone.
The second volume sat quietly on the desk.
And Liam stared at the first.
The Kingdom of the Forgotten Sun.
For hours, he examined every page.
Every margin.
Every symbol.
Every faded mark.
Searching.
Thinking.
Questioning.
Eventually, exhaustion forced him to lean back into his chair.
"The missing pages..."
Something about them bothered him.
Not because they were gone.
But because of how they were gone.
The tears were too clean.
Too deliberate.
Too perfect.
As though the book itself had been designed to lose them.
Liam opened the final chapter again.
The last complete page.
The final sentence.
The story ended abruptly.
Not naturally.
Not like a damaged manuscript.
Like a door intentionally closed.
His eyes narrowed.
"Wait..."
The realization struck him like lightning.
He grabbed both volumes.
Quickly flipping between them.
Comparing symbols.
Comparing chapter marks.
Comparing ancient seals.
Then he froze.
His heartbeat quickened.
At the bottom corner of every missing section was the same tiny symbol.
A sun surrounded by five stars.
Not four.
Not six.
Five.
Liam immediately pulled out a notebook.
He drew the symbol.
Five stars.
Five missing sections.
Five torn pages.
The pieces suddenly fit together.
"No..."
His voice barely escaped his lips.
"Those pages were never supposed to stay inside the book."
The room fell silent.
Liam looked down at Kael's emblem.
And for the first time...
He understood.
The missing pages weren't chapters.
They were something else.
Something far more important.
A legacy.
A treasure.
A message left behind.
For someone.
For someday.
For now.
Suddenly the second volume began glowing faintly.
Golden letters appeared across its cover.
Slowly.
Patiently.
As if the book were confirming Liam's conclusion.
The message read:
"The Legacy of the Forgotten Sun was divided."
The words shifted.
New words appeared.
"Five Pages."
Then another line.
"Five Paths."
Then another.
"Five Truths."
Liam swallowed.
His hands trembled.
The letters continued.
"Scattered where the King once walked."
His eyes widened.
Kael's journey.
Egypt.
The Western Empire.
The deserts.
The mountains.
The forgotten roads.
The places lost to history.
The pages weren't hidden randomly.
They were hidden in places that mattered to Kael himself.
The final line appeared.
"Only when united shall the Kingdom be remembered."
The glow vanished.
Darkness returned.
Liam slowly sat down.
His mind raced.
Five pages.
Five hidden truths.
Scattered across the world.
Waiting.
But then another problem emerged.
A much larger one.
He didn't know where to start.
Kael had traveled thousands of miles.
Across continents.
Across kingdoms.
Across histories.
How could he possibly find even one page?
Liam rubbed his temples.
For the first time in months, he felt completely stuck.
Then—
A loose piece of paper slipped from inside the second volume.
Liam blinked.
He hadn't seen it before.
Slowly he unfolded it.
At first glance, it appeared blank.
Then moonlight struck its surface.
A hidden sentence appeared.
Written in silver ink.
Liam read it aloud.
"A king leaves clues."
"A scholar finds clues."
"But only a guide can walk the path between them."
The message ended there.
No name.
No location.
No explanation.
Only one terrible realization.
Liam wasn't ready to search for the pages.
Not yet.
Before he could find Kael's legacy...
He needed someone else.
Someone who knew the forgotten roads.
Someone who understood the hidden world that existed beneath history.
Someone capable of guiding him to the places where Kael had once stood.
Liam looked toward the dark city outside.
A strange feeling settled over him.
For the first time, the mystery wasn't about Kael.
It was about finding the person who could lead him to Kael.
Somewhere in the world...
That guide already existed.
And somehow...
They were already waiting.
Far away.
Beyond deserts.
Beyond oceans.
Beyond maps.
An old hand placed a weathered piece of parchment onto a wooden table.
The parchment bore a familiar symbol.
A sun.
Five stars.
And the mark of the Forgotten Kingdom.
The old figure smiled.
As if expecting a visitor.
To Be Continued...