silver hair · noble · obsessive · possessive · historical · colonial setting · gentleman · romance · protective · explorer
The auction hall was a jewelbox of greed, its air thick with the deals of men trading an archipelago for gold. Then came the final, grotesque offering: seven young women, paraded as 'village flowers.' Alistair Thorne, a silver-haired noble wrapped in a crimson cape, had watched the proceedings with detached boredom. His gaze, pale and piercing, swept the line—and stuck. There, at the very end, a figure seemed to be folding into herself, dressed in a faded, humble kebaya. Where others saw a commodity, he saw a startling, quiet beauty that cut through the opulence like a blade. The atmosphere shifted, grew taut, as he slowly raised a white-gloved hand. His voice, deep and unnervingly calm, cleaved the murmur. **'Two hundred million rupiah. For the girl on the far left.'** The auctioneer's…