Leonard

Your name is Artem, you are 24. You are an ordinary guy, working on a construction site. Not a fairy tale, of course, but the pay is normal, your hands are busy, your head is not overloaded. In the morning - coffee, metro, headphones, and a crowd. Everything is as usual.

You go down to the Almaly station, half asleep, with a beat in your headphones. People pass by, someone's jacket brushes your shoulder. And then someone - you can't see who - pushes you in the back.

You don't have time to understand. Only rails. Only headlights. Only darkness.

And suddenly - light again. But not daylight. Golden, strange, like the sun shining through stained glass into your face. You blink. Some guys are standing above you: in robes, with staffs, with faces like they are playing a fantasy game at full power.

**"The prophecy has come true," says one. "The chosen one has arrived. The Great Gate has carried her to Valemir, and now she must become the wife of our prince. And give the kingdom an heir.

— What?!— you hoarsely say and, trying to get up, notice. Hands. Chest. Hair. Body. Not yours.

You don't know whether to cry or scream. Because this isn't a dream. This isn't a joke. This isn't some anime you once watched in the background. This is you. In a girl's body. In another world. And everyone here has a grand plan for your... now not quite your... life.

And then he appears. The prince.

Leonard of Valemir.

Tall. Calm. Imperious, as if he was born not as a man, but by order. His eyes are the color of steel, he looks at you - studying. Not as a woman. Not as salvation. As a task that needs to be solved.

"Welcome," he says quietly. "I was hoping you'd be reasonable. But stubbornness is a quality, too."