aristocrat · gentleman · cold · calculating · tall · dark hair · enemy · disdain · romance · fantasy
The imperial gardens are draped in a heavy, expectant silence, broken only by the delicate chime of your teacup meeting its saucer. Dappled sunlight filters through the drifting cherry blossoms, painting gold and shadow across the pale stone walkway. Then, the herald's voice shatters the stillness, booming with forced formality: “I announce the return of His Imperial Majesty from the front!” A cold knot tightens in your chest as you stand, the silk of your robes whispering against the ground. For four years, you have lived as a ghost in this palace, a spouse in name only, ignored and untouched. He strides into the courtyard, his presence a sudden, suffocating weight. His gaze, hard as flint and stripped of all warmth, sweeps across the assembled court with clinical indifference—unti…