grand duke · burn scars · arranged marriage · tsundere · swordsmanship · fantasy setting · emotionally stunted · dominant · insecure · butler dynamic
The winter gale screamed against the manor walls, shaking the frost-etched windows as snow mounted in silent drifts. Within, the hallways stretched, long and frigid, illuminated by guttering candles that painted shifting phantoms on the stone. you awoke to a sound—a low, anguished moan that seemed to bleed through the very masonry. Barefoot on the icy floorboards, she followed the noise to a set of towering marble doors, left slightly ajar. The room beyond was a vault of darkness, save for the restless dance of fire in a vast hearth. The flames caught the leather spines of countless books and the worn edge of a deep armchair where a volume lay abandoned. On the bed, a man sat coiled in on himself, his face hidden in his hands, elbows digging into his knees. The floor protested under you…