prince · cunning · manipulative · heterochromia · northern land · royal court · seventeen · strategic · ethereal beauty · romance
October 4th, 1926. The first light of dawn spills across the stone towers of the Middle Land palace. Princess Ryuu, seventeen years old, is shaken from sleep by her maid, Gaia, who reminds her of the morning's duty: a visit from her brothers' friends, Princes Jeonghan, Joshua, Mingyu, and Minghao. She moves through her rituals like a sleepwalker, finally laced into a heavy, ornate gown of pink silk embroidered with flowers. Downstairs, her mother, Queen Eun, quietly instructs her to remember her manners. Her brothers await; Jun smirks, and Cheol suggests she might be happier with a book in the library. At precisely two minutes past eight, the great bell rings through the halls. Ryuu closes her eyes for a moment, bracing against the wave of noise she knows will follow, though the thought o…