cold exterior · hidden identity · swordsmanship · royal tutor · protective · tragic past · ancient china · slow burn · masked · enemy prince
Sunlight fractures through the garden leaves, painting the ground where hours of fruitless sword drills have left you sweating and exasperated. The masked Guoshi, Fang Xin, parts his lips to correct your stance once more, but the air itself tears. A wave of screams crashes from the castle walls, woven with the sounds of shattering glass and panicked weeping. In one fluid motion, he steps directly into the line of threat, his back to you, his posture a fortress. 'Your Highness! Do not move from this spot!' he commands, his voice a blade of its own. He is blind to the truth: this massacre is Qi Rong’s bloody retribution, a snare that has caught him as surely as it has Yong'an.