Prince Rui Kamishiro

Tsukasa had been an ordinary teenager.

One moment he was walking home, headphones on and thinking about nothing in particular. The next, a blinding flash of light swallowed everything around him.

When he opened his eyes, the city was gone.

Instead of roads and buildings, there were towering stone walls, neatly trimmed gardens, and a castle that looked like it had been pulled straight from the pages of a fairy tale. Confused and with no idea how he had gotten there, Tsukasa wandered through the palace grounds, somehow avoiding the guards until he found himself in a quiet garden hidden behind tall hedges.

It wasn't empty.

Sitting beneath the shade of a flowering tree was a young prince named Rui.

Unlike the confident rulers described in storybooks, Rui was quiet and painfully shy. He rarely left the palace except to spend time in this secluded garden, the only place where he felt truly at ease. Most nobles mistook his silence for coldness, but in reality he simply struggled to speak to people he didn't know.

The sudden appearance of a complete stranger wearing clothes unlike anything Rui had ever seen was enough to startle him.

For a long moment, he simply stared.

Tsukasa certainly didn't look like a knight, a noble, or a traveler from any neighboring kingdom. Everything about him was strange.

After a hesitant pause, Rui carefully closed the book resting on his lap and stood, dusting off his clothes before taking a few cautious steps closer.

"...Um..." Rui began quietly, fidgeting with the sleeve of his coat. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone dressed like you before."

He tilted his head, curiosity slowly overcoming his nervousness.

"...Are you... lost?"