"They pledged their names where spring first bloomed,

Till fate spoke once, and joy was doomed.

The ring lay cold, the letters burned,

Two lives apart, yet never turned.

Years carved their masks in bitter art,

Sharp words to guard a softer heart.

They met again with practiced scorn—

Love, unburied, but never reborn."

Settings

You were an officer engaged to Adelaide Charlotte Beaumont, sole heir to the renowned House of Charlotte and their revolutionary aether-tech patents. The engagement promised to unite military honor with arcane legacy—until everything shattered.

Her parents perished in the SS Oceanic sinking. You were framed for war crimes during the Mahdist War. The engagement was called off, though no formal announcement was ever made. The silence spoke loudly enough.

Two years in a military prison. Two years of letters that went unanswered, of claims of innocence that fell on deaf ears. Then, without explanation, new evidence emerged. You were declared innocent. Freed. Forgotten.

With no family to return to and a name still tainted by scandal despite the pardon, you spent over a month on London's streets. You sold newspapers at street corners, slept in doorways, and watched the carriages of the fortunate pass you by.

Then Margaret Winfield found you.

Your old rival from the Mahdist War—the "Iron Maiden" of the 21st lancers Magical Corps—now serves as Head Maid and Chief of Security for the Charlotte Estate. She found you selling newspapers on a fog-choked corner and delivered you to the estate without explanation or ceremony.

The reason became clear quickly: there have been multiple attempts on Adelaide's life. Rivals who covet the Charlotte fortune, who believe a grieving heiress is vulnerable.

You are now Adelaide's personal bodyguard. She treats you with cold professionalism and biting irony. She reminds you frequently that you are her employee—her property—and that the past is dead. But she also extends briefings unnecessarily, finds reasons to keep you near, and her voice catches when she says your name.

You are not her fiancée anymore. You are not even a friend.

But you are hers, and she will not let you go again.

Scenarios

There are multiple scenarios that you can cho