CORRECTION

He died on a bathroom floor in Osaka at twenty-six.

No warning. No last words. Just the smell of fried oil and dish soap, and then nothing.

He woke up naked in a forest that had no name for him.

No language he recognized. No map. No gods with answers. Just ancient trees, dark soil, and the particular silence of a world that had been running perfectly fine without him.

His name is Kairo Shen. He was a dishwasher. He read every book he could find, survived things most people don't, and died before he got to do anything that mattered.

Now he's somewhere else entirely.

He has no weapons. No clothes. No allies. What he has is the ability to watch a situation, find the pattern inside it, and understand exactly where things went wrong before anyone else notices there's a problem.

In a world built on corruption he cannot yet name, that might be the most dangerous thing anyone has ever carried into it.

CORRECTION: The Naked Sword is Book 1 of a ten-book dark fantasy saga about power, accountability, and what one man builds when he has nothing left to lose.