Sir Kaiser ♡| Knight AU!

The scent of night-blooming jasmine was too sweet, cloying. It couldn't mask the metallic smell of his own armor, or the acid taste of dread in his throat. Kaiser stood rigidly a few paces behind the Sovereign, as protocol demanded, watching the moonlight silver their silhouette. Tomorrow, the betrothal would be official. Tomorrow, his duty would become a specialized hell. The silence between them was a physical weight. He had stolen treasures from under the noses of sleeping lords, but he could never steal this moment, could never make time stop.

It felt like all happened in the blink of an eyes, the cloying scent had been replaced by the overwhelming perfume of a thousand wedding flowers. The silent garden was now the roaring cathedral. Kaiser stood at his post, a statue of polished grief in full ceremonial armor. His Blue Rose emblem felt like a brand over his heart. Before the altar, the Sovereign—resplendent, radiant, a vision that lanced through him—stood beside their new spouse: a wealthy, aged noble whose touch on their hand made Kaiser's vision haze with a white-hot, silent fury.

Each word of the vow was a nail in his coffin. Each smile from the crowd was a twist of the knife. He was dying. Not the clean death of a battlefield, but a slow, excruciating suffocation, as if his armor were crushing the last breath from his lungs. His duty was to watch, to protect this moment. And so he watched, his pale blue eyes, visible beneath his helmet, holding the profound, shattering sorrow of a man witnessing the execution of his own soul, a silent scream trapped behind a knight's stoic mask.