Volume 1 — Chapter 1: The Beginning of Mystery

The world was shrouded in mystery.

There were things ordinary people could see.

There were things they could never see.

And there were things that existed somewhere between those two worlds.

Ancient rituals.

Strange symbols.

Forbidden knowledge.

Supernatural powers.

And people who had stepped beyond the limits of ordinary humanity.

Yet Yuna Tsukishiro had never expected to become involved with any of them.

At least, not like this.

“Wake up…”

A faint whisper reached her ears.
Yuna frowned.

The voice was distant.

Almost as if someone were speaking from the other side of a vast wall.

“Wake up…”

Her fingers moved slightly.

Then her eyes opened.

For several seconds, Yuna simply stared at the ceiling.

She didn't recognize it.

The ceiling was made of old wooden boards. A small crack ran across one of them, and the pale light coming through the window revealed tiny particles of dust floating in the air.

Yuna blinked.

She tried to sit up.

Her body felt strangely weak.

“Where am I?”

Her voice sounded different.

Younger.

Much younger.

Yuna froze.

She looked down.

Small hands rested on the blanket.

Her fingers were thin.

Her arms were those of a child.

Her breathing became faster.

“What…?”

She touched her face.

It was the face of a young girl.

Not hers.

At least, not the face she remembered.

Before she could understand what had happened, a sharp pain suddenly struck her head.

“Agh!”

Yuna grabbed her forehead.

Memories flooded into her mind.

A small house.

A warm kitchen.

A man's gentle voice.

A woman's smile.

A little girl running through the garden.

Her parents.

Then—

Screaming.

Blood.

Dark figures.

A terrifying presence.

And death.

Yuna's breathing stopped for a moment.

The memories continued.
The little girl had been twelve years old.

She had once lived happily with her parents.

She had never known anything about the hidden world.

Her parents had kept their secrets from her.

But secrets could not remain hidden forever.

Something had happened.

Something connected to the mysterious world of Beyonders.

Her parents had become involved with people who possessed supernatural powers.

Then they died.

The girl had been left alone.

She had been taken to an orphanage.

At first, she had cried every night.

She had waited for her parents to return.

They never did.

But the other children had stayed beside her.

They had comforted her when she cried.

They had shared food with her.

They had protected her from loneliness.

Slowly, those children had become her family.

Yuna's expression became complicated.

She could feel those memories.

She could feel the sadness.

The loneliness.

The warmth.

The love.

They were not her memories.

Yet they were inside her.

She closed her eyes.

“I'm… inside her body.”

The realization was terrifying.

Yuna remembered her own life.

She remembered another world.

A completely different world.

And then she remembered the ritual.

The ritual she had performed in search of eternal life.

She had been obsessed with the idea that death was not the end.

She had searched for ancient records.

She had studied strange symbols.

She had prepared candles and ritual materials.

She had followed every instruction she could find.

Then she had performed the ritual.

She remembered the final moment.

The room had become silent.

The candle flames had disappeared.

Everything had turned black.

And now—

She had awakened here.

Inside the body of a twelve-year-old girl.

Yuna slowly lowered her hands.

“So it really happened…”

She swallowed.

“I crossed into another world.”

The thought sounded absurd.

Yet everything around her proved otherwise.

She looked toward the window.

A city stretched beyond it.

The buildings were old.

The streets were made of stone.

Carriages moved through the roads.

People walked beneath tall buildings wearing clothing that reminded Yuna of another era.

It looked like a medieval world.

But the memories inside her told her something even stranger.

This world was not simply an old-fashioned version of her own.

It had something else.

Something hidden.

Beyonders.

Humans who possessed supernatural abilities.

They could obtain extraordinary powers through mysterious potions.

Their advancement was divided into different stages.

The first stage began at Sequence 9.

From there, they could continue climbing through a total of twenty-four pathways.

Each step brought greater power.

But the higher someone climbed, the more dangerous the path became.

The strongest could approach the realm of divinity.

Yet becoming a Beyonder was never something ordinary people should treat lightly.

Power could corrupt.

Knowledge could destroy.

And some mysteries were dangerous 

simply to understand.

Yuna slowly opened her eyes.

“So my parents…”

She didn't finish the sentence.

She already knew.

They had died because they had encountered the supernatural world.

But the memories of the twelve-year-old girl were incomplete.

She did not know everything.

She only knew that strange people had appeared.

There had been a confrontation.

Her parents had died.

And afterward, she had been sent to the orphanage.

Yuna sat silently on the bed.

For a long time, she did nothing.

Then she took a deep breath.

“I need to understand where I am.”

She couldn't remain inside this room forever.

If she wanted to find a way home, she needed information.

She stood up.

Her legs were still slightly weak, but she could walk.

Before leaving, Yuna looked at herself in a small mirror.

A young girl looked back at her.

Twelve years old.

Dark hair.

A pale face.

Eyes that seemed far too serious for her age.

Yuna stared at the reflection.

“I'll have to pretend.”

She couldn't tell anyone that she was not the original girl.

Nobody would believe her.

And even if someone did—

That might be dangerous.

She left the room.

The orphanage was quieter than she expected.

A few children were sitting in a corridor.

Others were doing chores.

When they noticed Yuna, their expressions immediately changed.

“Yuna!”

A small boy ran toward her.

“You're awake!”

Yuna instinctively stepped back.

The boy stopped.

“Are you okay?”

She looked at him.

The memories told her his name.

He was one of the children who had stayed beside the original Yuna after her parents died.

“Yes.”

She forced a small smile.

“I'm okay.”

The boy smiled.

“Good.”

Another girl approached.

“You scared everyone yesterday.”

“Sorry.”

“You don't have to apologize.”

The girl smiled warmly.

“We're just happy you're better.”

Yuna didn't know what to say.

These children were treating her with genuine affection.

They didn't know she was different.

They didn't know that another soul now occupied the body of their friend.

Yuna lowered her gaze.

“Thank you.”

The words came naturally.

She left the orphanage shortly afterward.

The city immediately overwhelmed her.

It was beautiful.

Tall stone buildings stood beside narrow streets.

Merchants shouted from their stalls.

Carriages rolled over the roads.

People carried baskets filled with food.

Children ran between adults.

The smell of bread came from a nearby shop.

For a moment, Yuna simply stood there.

This world was beautiful.

But it wasn't home.

She walked through the streets.

Every few minutes, something unfamiliar caught her attention.

A shop selling strange herbs.

A bookstore filled with old books.

A small church.

A man selling charms.

A group of people arguing over the price 

of vegetables.

Everything felt ordinary.

And yet Yuna knew that somewhere beneath this ordinary life was another world.

The world of Beyonders.

She couldn't see it.

But it was there.

Then she noticed something else.

Several poor people were sitting near the side of a street.

Some were holding bowls.

Others were simply extending their hands toward passing people.

“Please…”

“Anything will help…”

Yuna slowed down.

She stared at them.

The sight made her uncomfortable.

This world was beautiful.

But beauty didn't mean happiness.

There was poverty here.

There was suffering.

There were people who had almost nothing.

Yuna continued walking.

She eventually reached a wider street where several children were playing.

One of them threw a small object toward another.

Yuna stopped.

Her eyes widened.

“That game…”

She knew it.

It was a game from her previous world.

Not just something similar.

It was almost exactly the same.

Yuna stared at the children.

“How?”

The memories of the original girl immediately supplied an answer.

The game had been introduced years ago.

King Augustus had supposedly brought it to the kingdom.

Yuna became silent.

“King Augustus…”

She looked toward the distant palace.

“Another transmigrator.”

Someone from her world had arrived here before her.

Not only that.

That person had become a king.

Yuna's heart began beating faster.

If another person from her world had successfully survived here—

Perhaps there was hope.

Perhaps she could find a way back.

She looked toward the sky.

“I want to go home.”

The words escaped before she could stop them.

She missed her old world.

Her old life.

Everything familiar.

Even the things she had once disliked now seemed precious.

This place was not her home.

Not yet.

Yuna eventually returned to the orphanage.

She did her best to behave normally.

She spoke with the children.

She listened to their stories.

She ate dinner with them.

She even laughed a few times.

Nobody seemed to notice anything strange.

That was good.

The day passed peacefully.

But Yuna's mind remained restless.

She kept thinking about the ritual.

The ritual that had supposedly brought her here.

If she had really crossed worlds because 

of it—

Then perhaps the ritual had not failed.

Perhaps it had done exactly what it was supposed to do.

She needed to know.

Night came.

One by one, the children went to sleep.

The orphanage became silent.

Yuna remained awake in her room.

Moonlight passed through the window.

She sat beside the table.

Four candles stood before her.

She had taken them from the table earlier.

Yuna looked at them.

She remembered the ritual from her previous life.

The ritual for eternal life.

She had performed it once.

Now she intended to perform it again.

She stood.

One candle was placed in the first corner.

Another in the second.

A third in the third.

And the final candle in the fourth.

Yuna lit them.

The small flames illuminated the room.

She stood in the center.

Her heart was beating faster.

She knew this was dangerous.

But she needed answers.

She closed her eyes.

Then she began the prayer.

The words were old.

She had found them in an ancient record in her previous world.

She spoke slowly.

Carefully.

She asked for the attention of an entity beyond ordinary human understanding.

An entity powerful enough to grant eternal life.

The final word left her lips.

Silence.

Nothing happened.

Yuna waited.

One second.

Two.

Ten.

Nothing.

She opened her eyes.

The candles continued burning.

Yuna sighed.

“Nothing…”

Maybe the ritual really had failed.

Maybe the ritual from her previous life had been meaningless.

Maybe she had simply died and somehow awakened in another world.

She lowered her head.

Then—

One candle flame suddenly bent sideways.

Yuna froze.

There was no wind.

The window was closed.

The second flame moved.

Then the third.

The fourth.

All four flames began flickering violently.

“What?”

A cold wind passed through the room.

Yuna stepped backward.

The candles went out.

Darkness swallowed everything.

Then the air itself seemed to twist.

A massive surge of darkness erupted around her.

Yuna couldn't move.

She couldn't scream.

The world disappeared.

For a brief moment, she felt as though she were falling through an endless void.

Then—

Silence.

Absolute silence.

Yuna slowly opened her eyes.

She was no longer in the orphanage.

She was standing somewhere impossible.

There was no floor.

No ceiling.

No walls.

Only an endless grey mist.

Tiny points of light floated inside it.
Stars.

Countless stars.

They surrounded her in every direction.
Yuna stared.

“What is this place?”

Her voice echoed.

The sound traveled through the mist before disappearing.

She turned around.

Nothing.

She looked beneath her.

Nothing.

Yet she was somehow standing.

Yuna took a cautious step.

The grey mist moved beneath her feet.

“This can't be real…”

Then she noticed something.

Two blue lights appeared in the distance.

They were small at first.

Then they grew brighter.

They slowly approached her.

Yuna instinctively stepped backward.

The two blue lights touched the surrounding mist.

Something appeared.

Two figures.

Two young women.

They were completely different from each other.

One wore elegant clothing.

Her appearance suggested that she belonged to a wealthy social class.

The other wore much simpler clothing.

She looked like someone who had grown up with far fewer privileges.

Both women looked confused.

The first one immediately looked around.

“Where are we?”

The second woman stared at Yuna.

“Who are you?”

Yuna remained silent.

She had no idea how they had appeared.

She hadn't intentionally summoned them.

At least, she didn't think she had.

“I…”

She stopped.

What could she possibly say?

“I don't know.”

The two women looked at each other.

Their confusion only grew.

Then something happened behind Yuna.

A strange sound echoed through the mist.

She turned.

A throne was appearing behind her.

Slowly.

As though it had always existed somewhere within the darkness and had merely been waiting to reveal itself.

The throne was enormous.

Its design was strange and ancient.

Yuna stared at it.

Then a large table appeared.

Chairs followed.

The entire arrangement resembled a mysterious shrine.

Yuna's heart began pounding.

“What is happening?”

She didn't know.

But then an idea appeared in her mind.

Stories.

She remembered stories from her previous world.

Stories about people who traveled to other worlds.

Sometimes the protagonist had no idea what was happening.

Sometimes they survived by pretending to be stronger than they really were.

Sometimes they created mysterious identities.

Yuna looked at the throne.

Then at the two women.

She had no idea whether she possessed any real power here.

She had no idea whether the strange place would obey her.

But revealing her fear would not help.

She took a slow breath.

Then she walked toward the throne.

The grey mist moved around her.

The two women watched her carefully.

Yuna sat down.

The throne was cold.

For a moment, she felt as though she were sitting at the center of an ancient mystery.

She needed a name.

Something that would hide her true identity.

Something that sounded mysterious.

Something that belonged to this place.

Yuna thought for several seconds.

Then she looked at the two women.

Her expression became calm.

“You may call me…”

She paused.

The silence stretched across the grey mist.

Then she spoke.

“Shadow.”

Her voice echoed through the mysterious space.

Shadow.

The name seemed to remain in the air.

Neither woman spoke.

Yuna herself remained silent.

Inside, however, her heart was racing.

She had no idea what she had just started.

She didn't know why the ritual had brought her here.

She didn't know why these two women had appeared.

She didn't know what the throne meant.

She didn't know what power existed within this strange realm.

And she certainly didn't know whether she could ever return home.

But she understood one thing.

Her ordinary life was over.
She had entered a hidden world.

A world of Beyonders.

A world of rituals, supernatural powers, ancient secrets, and mysteries that ordinary people could never understand.

And now—

She had given herself a new name.

Shadow.

The girl who had awakened in another world had taken her first step into the unknown.

Her story had begun.

End of Chapter 1.