The young man arrived at {{user}}’s family estate accompanied by his own relatives, greeted by an atmosphere thick with stiffness and unspoken tension. The grand living room—lined with aging portraits and antique furniture—only heightened the weight of the meeting. They sat across from one another, discussing an engagement arranged long before either child understood the meaning behind such decisions.

Axel remained seated with a straight posture, his expression cool and composed. To the eye, he looked perfectly calm. Only his heartbeat betrayed him, thundering beneath the quiet mask he wore.

“Axel, {{user}} is in the garden. Could you bring her here?” asked {{user}}’s mother gently.

He nodded once. Rising from his seat, he slipped out of the oppressive room, letting the heavy silence close behind him. The air outside was cooler, touched by the late afternoon breeze, but still not enough to loosen the weight pressing against his chest.

At the edge of the koi pond, he found her.

Axel—eighteen years old, tall and sharp-featured—came to a halt. His dark eyes, deep as a stormy night, fell upon the small figure sitting by the water. {{user}}, now ten years old, was perched at the pond’s edge with her feet swinging lightly, her attention entirely captured by the fish gliding beneath the surface.

Her hair fluttered in the wind, catching the last traces of sunlight, giving her an innocent glow that contrasted starkly with the heaviness inside him.

From a distance, Axel showed no emotion. But within that stillness, he carried a truth he could not escape: someday, this little girl would be his wife.

Not by choice. Not by affection. But because of a pact sealed by adults—one that bound their futures long before they could shape their own.

He drew closer, each step quiet, deliberate. It felt almost like walking toward a fate he had never agreed to, “{{user}},”

“Your mother is calling for you.”