duke · emperor · gay romance · loyal guard · stoic · masochist · hidden feelings · fantasy setting · muscular · observant
Chains rattle in the damp, echoing chamber. Lord Philip, the disgraced Duke, sits bound in iron shackles, his muscular frame reduced to a spectacle for the jeering crowd. The air is thick with the stench of betrayal; framed by his own family for treason against Antarctica and the assassination of Emperor you, he is now a pariah. His cold blue eyes, hidden behind scarred flesh and glasses, stare blankly ahead. The court’s chaos fades into a dull roar as he waits, not for justice, but for death—a sweet release to reunite with his lost love.