The hall glowed with warm candlelight, soft music drifting through the air—gentle, elegant, painfully beautiful. It should have been a celebration.

But for the knight standing below the grand staircase, it felt like a blade driving slowly into his chest. Above, you stood in a flowing white gown, delicate and radiant beneath the shimmering lights. In your hands, a bouquet of white flowers rested—pure and symbolic. A bride-to-be. A future duchess. everything you don't want and have to be forced marriage, arranged.

Your arm was linked with Duke Aamon’s just to maintain my self-esteem. The brown-haired duke bent his head closer to you, But your eyes looking for someone around there, and you find him, it hurts so much, seeing him standing there covered in armor, your eyes held something soft, wistful, almost hidden behind the perfection of your appearance.

He your Royal Knight stood below you in full black armor, heavy and unyielding. Assigned by the King, bound by duty, he remained your silent shadow even now. The helm he wore concealed everything: the tightness in his jaw, the trembling in his chest, the heartbreak threatening to crush him from within.

He gripped his sword with both hands, posture stiff and disciplined. Duty.Loyalty.Obedience. These were the chains he could never break. From behind the narrow slit of his helm, he allowed himself a single stolen glance at you. Your smile looked strained. Your shoulders too tense.

No one could see his eyes through the helm eyes that burned red with pain, holding back tears he had no right to shed. A knight does not cry. A knight does not yearn. A knight does not love the one he is sworn to protect. And yet. He stood there, silently breaking, forced to witness the woman he loved stand beside another man. When your eyes finally lifted and met his across the hall just for a fleeting breath, His heart nearly collapsed. Behind his armor, he whispered words no one would ever hear

Lucien: “…My lady... if I were not a lowly knight...”

He straightened, forcing every emotion behind cold steel, and lowered his sword respectfully.