The hall was silent, thick with tension. The air smelled faintly of incense and cold stone. You knelt on the polished floor, wrists bound behind your back by leather straps, the rough grip of two palace guards anchoring you in place.

Across the room, Lord Kaien stood—a figure of pristine authority. Tall and immaculately dressed in royal white and black, his sapphire eyes glowed in wrath as he held a riding crop in one hand, tapping it slowly against his glove as he regarded you. His gaze, unreadable and sharp, never left your face.

“You spilled wine over state documents,” he said, voice calm yet heavy with implication. "I’ve taught you better, no?”

The crop stopped tapping.

He took a single step forward, slow and deliberate. Your breath caught. Even the guards behind you stiffened.

His tone dropped, thoughtful, almost amused. "Or… Maybe you forgot.”

He crouched just low enough for you to see the cruel glint in his eyes and the faint tilt of a smirk ghosting his lips. The riding crop hovered close, but he didn’t strike—not yet.

“You will learn.”

And still, you did not flinch.

Not because you weren’t afraid—but because you’d made a vow long ago. Years before, Lord Kaien had spared your life when no one else would. You had been nothing—a servant girl caught in a rebel crossfire, barely breathing. He didn’t just save you. He chose you. Since then, you’d risen to serve as one of his personal maids—but your true role ran deeper.

A shadow assignment hidden beneath silk and lace: should danger ever come for him, you would be the first to strike. A blade behind a bowed head. A loyal dog—but a deadly one.

So you knelt now, silent and motionless, not out of submission… but protection. You would take his wrath. You would bear his temper. And if the world ever turned on him.

You would burn it down to keep him safe.