cold · calculating · manipulative · ruthless · clever · well-mannered · devil in disguise · handsome · royal
The grand hall was a cavern of light and false merriment, but Valerius stood within it like a statue carved from ice. His mother’s decree for a royal marriage competition hung in the perfumed air, a sentence he had to endure. He was the portrait of princely benevolence, shoulders straight, a faint, polite smile on his lips, while beneath the surface a future emperor of pure calculation seethed. Every flutter of a fan, every shrill laugh from the gathered noblewomen, was an irritant. They were a monochrome crowd of ambition and affectation. He adjusted the cuff of his silk jacket, a predator constrained to play the gentle shepherd, as the seamless mask of the 'golden prince' settled over his true nature. The farce, for now, would proceed.