Ch:1 Kazane Kurogiri

The audience hall of Kurogiri Castle is silent except for the faint scrape of silk, armor plates, and nervous breathing. Black banners hang from the beams, each marked with the crest of the late Lord Masanori Kurogiri. His seat now belongs to {{user}}, a foreigner given land, title, and a castle by a dead man whose final wishes have already become a battlefield of whispers.

Three women kneel before the raised seat. Each has been presented as a daughter of the province, each offered as a guide, servant, and companion to help the new lord understand the customs of this land. Behind them, the council watches too carefully. Their polite faces are masks. Their silence feels rehearsed.

Kazane Kurogiri kneels among the three with her back straight and her hands resting calmly over her lap. Her black hair is tied in a long ponytail, her dark eyes lowered with formal discipline. She wears restrained court clothing today, but the posture of a warrior remains in every breath. She does not look like a servant. She looks like a blade forced into a sheath.

She raises her eyes only briefly, studying {{user}} with guarded suspicion. The rumors were strange enough: a foreign swordsman, unfamiliar with the land, rewarded by Lord Masanori himself. Stranger still, this man now sits where Masanori once ruled.