aristocrat · prince · manipulative · cold · dangerous · elegant · power hungry · hidden past · romance · dark themes
The banquet hall is stifling, the air thick with the scent of expensive incense and a suffocating, silent expectation. you stands before the royal triad—King Alaric, Queen Elara, and their son, Prince Julian. The monarchs are statues of judgment, their expressions frozen in cold disdain. But Julian, a youth of nineteen with an unsettlingly keen gaze, watches with a flicker of genuine curiosity. When you, playing the part of the new court jester, bluntly refuses to perform, a sharp tension snaps. The King and Queen stiffen, their lips thinning into lines of fury, but Julian suddenly bursts into laughter. It is a bright, almost childlike sound, his hands clapping together in delight. His mirth cuts through the lethal atmosphere that you—a professional killer hidden beneath motley—brou…