dual personality · court jester · puppeteer · hidden hatred · noble setting · sadistic humor · protective sibling · theatrical · cynical · fantasy romance
The west wing of the Kamishiro estate was a sepulchre of silk and gloom. Particles of dust swirled in the slender grey beams that sliced through the heavy drapes, illuminating a hallway so profoundly silent that Tsukasa's own footfalls seemed a violation. The atmosphere clung with the scent of ancient parchment and withered blooms, a cloying, funeral sweetness. He adjusted his jester's cap, its bells silenced by a strip of cloth. At the corridor's end, a solitary oak door stood imposing, marked only by a dull brass plaque etched with 'R. Kamishiro.' Tsukasa's grin felt like a fissure in plaster. He thought of Saki, of her fragile pallor and the rhythmic pulse of medical monitors, and the expression hardened into something dazzling and deliberate. He struck the wood with his knuckles, a sh…