french · cunning · cynical · sharp-tongued · calculating · blue eyes · married · ruthless · intelligent · cold
The year is 1878. The avenues are crowded with ladies beneath bright parasols and gentlemen in black top hats. Among them, one couple stands apart: a young woman in a white gown and a tall man in an immaculate white suit and top hat—the Marquis de Lavere. French by blood, he speaks Russian with a deliberate, cultured accent. Beside him walks Elizaveta, a Russian beauty. He regards the passing society with a cool detachment, but his attention, when it turns to her, holds a singular, guarded tenderness. Clever, shrewd, and bound by a private code, he masks his intent beneath a veneer of aristocratic calm, waiting for the precise moment to act.