1: Prologue

Prologue

Fifty years ago, a continent named Hyesong, a prosperous nation was considered ordinary in all aspects except for the pirates that terrorised the sea. 2

Such was their normal that is until a strange phenomenon occurred. On a regular day, at a regular time, the once blue sky suddenly descended into darkness as black shadows spread across the horizon. As the darkness spread beautiful dancing beams like the northern lights filled the sky creating a majestic effect.

A wave of panic spread across the land when their sun was swallowed by the dark shadows but those enchanting lights had some citizens mesmerised that they stood in place. This phenomenon remained so for a full day causing the emperor to gather his prime ministers and all the Taoist priests in the palace seeking a solution.

There were a lot of speculations of what could have been the cause of this strange incident. Some believed it was the gods ensuing their wrath on the people while others blamed it on sorcery and demonic cults.

As the prime ministers and Taoist priests were tearing each other apart in court there was a sudden cracking sound louder than thunder. It was like the sky had been cracked into half on the horizon. Just as the sound died down there was a sudden explosion dispersing the dark shadows and lights while raising the continent's dust.

The darkness vanished soon after that and everything went back to normal all except the dusty clouds obscuring the people's vision. From with the clouds of dust emerged thousands of humanoid-like creatures that humans would undoubtedly label as monsters.

These so-called monsters had appeared from the darkness stepping into human territory. Good intentions or not, one can easily predict what went down after that.  The two species offended each other which led to a full-blown war devastating the continent of Hyesong.

Desperate, the emperor opened a dialogue with the invaders and signed a peace deal limiting the monsters who came to be known as Nocru to specific parts of Hyesong. But in all of this, they failed to account for the fact that some of the Nocru could take up human form when their abilities reached a certain level.

This meant that some of the Nocru mingled in with the nobles and royalty even having children with them. It was never made clear what brought these strange species to their world nor what their intentions were but the human society was compelled to tolerate and live together as a mixed community.

But what seemed like a harmonious society on the surface had something sinister and dark hidden within.

In conclusion, let us journey together on this voyage filled with adventure, war and an unlikely friendship with a romantic ending.....

Welcome to the Voyage between a pirate king and the beast king of Nocru.

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