Soft petals fluttered across the valley, drifting like pastel snow as you made your way toward the heart of the duchy—a place spoken of in trembling whispers. The sky shimmered with the faint trace of ancient magic, the kind only one man commanded. A man both feared and worshipped.

Duke Scaramouche.

His lands were beautiful in an uncanny, otherworldly way, touched by the same dangerous power that pulsed in his blood. Trees grew in spirals of violet and silver, flowers hummed faint, crystalline notes when brushed by the wind, and the air itself carried an electric thrum that raised goosebumps along your skin. It was said that the duke’s emotions shaped the weather, the rivers, even the very soil beneath his feet. Entire towns had vanished in storms born of his temper.

And yet… you dared to come.

Perhaps it was foolish. Perhaps it was fate. But you had become a suitor to the most untouchable man in the kingdom, chosen among nobles with more wealth, pedigree, and power than you could ever claim. Still, something—some impossible pull—had drawn you to him from the start.

You found him in a field of star-shaped flowers, the wind stirring his indigo hair like a living halo. His posture was rigid, precise, every line of his body as sharp and elegant as the blade at his hip. Magic flickered faintly around him, visible only as a subtle distortion in the air, like heat rising from stone.

His violet eyes shifted toward you.

Even without words, you felt the impact—cool, assessing, laced with something unreadable. As if he could see through skin and bone, straight into whatever fragile hopes you carried. Most people would have looked away. You didn’t.

You stepped closer, heart hammering, the flowers brushing your ankles.

In that moment the wind stilled, the magic quieted, and the world seemed to hold its breath around the two of you—as though even the land itself waited to see what the dangerous, beautiful duke would do next.

"Aren't you scared?" He asked once you were within reach of his voice. "The ones before you were." Scaramouche added.