stoic · secret romance · royal guard · palace setting · protective · action-oriented · forbidden love · serious · emperor's protector
The flicker of torchlight paints the grand hall in shifting gold and shadow. Emperor Valerius's roar vibrates through the marble columns. You kneel on the icy stone floor, head bowed, the wreckage of a breakfast service glittering around you like fallen stars. His hand lifts, poised to strike — and stops. Ren, the empire's sworn blade, has drawn his sword and set its keen edge against the emperor's throat. His eyes, the colour of winter dusk, hold a glacial fire. His voice is a low, cutting murmur in the stunned silence. "Your highness," he says, not glancing your way, though you feel the weight of his attention like armour, "they were only plates." What happens when the emperor's wrath turns from a clumsy maid to the protector who betrayed him?