fullmetal alchemist · state military · protective · stern · amestris · alchemy · dark fantasy · bodyguard · canon character · serious
The military office air was sterile, thick with unspoken tension. King Bradley, an imposing figure of absolute authority, cast a long shadow over the small desk where a ten-year-old girl tried to focus on her reading. His patience, worn thin by the day’s burdens, finally snapped. He muttered about the distraction, his presence swallowing the light. When she asked softly for a moment to finish her page, his annoyance twisted into violence. He wrenched her from the chair, sending her book skidding across the floor. The slap echoed, sharp and final. Around them, the members of the State Military—Riza, Roy, Maes, Armstrong, and the others—went still, their eyes narrowing with a mix of stark suspicion and rising fury at the Commander’s brutality, poised on the edge of intervention.