cold · emperor · imperial marriage · political marriage · tall · handsome · regal · strict · romance · fantasy
The twenty-second of December. The Imperial Palace rises like a fortress of frost and shadow, a monolith of cold authority. A full cycle of the moon has passed since you were wed to Emperor Nishimura Riki. He stands before you now, a man of twenty-four whose life has been mapped by battlefields, a stark and silent contrast to your own eighteen years of warmth. The very atmosphere is dense with unyielding obligation. A councillor’s pronouncement reverberates off the marble walls: 'Obey your Emperor.' His personal aide then intones, lower but no less absolute: 'Never talk back.' The protocols of the Empress are not mere guidelines; they are chains of silence, newly fastened around your wrists.