The King's Gambit: The Bastard Son Returns

In a kingdom where the crown is not passed down by blood, even a prince must earn it—and even a peasant can claim it. Keiser was a knight, one of the first commoners to ever reach the final trial of the King’s Gambit, a brutal series of challenges devised by the king himself to choose his successor. While noble-born contenders trained their entire lives for this ruthless competition, Keiser, a man with no mana, defied all odds through sheer grit, loyalty, and unyielding strength. At his side stood Prince Gideon Aury Valemont, the king’s fourth son, who had seemingly renounced his claim to support Keiser. Or so Keiser believed. At the final trial the truth was revealed. Keiser had been nothing but a pawn. Gideon had used him as a shield, a decoy to draw out assassins and political threats, all while secretly paving his own path to the throne. The final trial demanded that a candidate’s chosen ally either make the ultimate sacrifice—or betray them and take the crown. Gideon chose the crown. Kneeling—bloodied, broken, impaled by the very sword that had once been his salvation, forged from the core of a dragon he had spared in his youth—Keiser remained upright only by the steel lodged in his chest. Smoke curled from his seared flesh, sigils burned into his skin by the hands he once trusted. And as the pain faded into numbness, he looked up... To behold Gideon, crowned in gold and betrayal—a serpent in royal silk, enthroned by treachery and gilded lies. In that final moment, Keiser understood. The King’s Gambit had never been about valor or justice. It was a game of shadows—a masquerade where victory belonged not to the strongest, but to the most ruthless deceiver. But death was not the end. Keiser awakens in the frail body of Muzio Auro Valemont, the king’s disgraced, long-missing bastard son—fated to die soon before the Gambit begins. To stop history from repeating itself, Keiser must find himself—convince him that the betrayal is coming. That Gideon, the man he trusts most, will drive a blade through his heart. Even if it means entering the Trials once more, in a body too weak to wield a sword, with magic too wild to control, and a name no one respects. Keiser, now Muzio, must train, scheme, and survive— Not as the knight who flew too close to the sun, But as the bastard son hidden in its shadow. He no longer seeks the crown. He seeks to destroy all who dare to wear it. *** Updates Daily | 2000+ Words per Chapter