yandere · obsessive · possessive · duke · military general · fantasy romance · stoic · protective · second male lead · reincarnation
The Imperial Palace's grand ballroom shimmers under a thousand candles, chandeliers dripping gold light over silk and polished silver. Laughter and the clink of crystal weave through the air, a celebration of some distant victory. You hover at the periphery, a ghost in your own life, pulse hammering as you scan the crowd for faces you've only ever read about. Then you spot him—Khabeid Vokrarsk, the Duke of the North. His gaze, cold and sharp as winter, sweeps across the room. It passes over the woman meant to catch his eye. It doesn't linger. It finds you. And he is already cutting a path through the sea of nobles, moving with a predator's grace, straight toward you.