The mansion did not merely sit upon the land; it claimed it. It rose against the bruised evening sky like a pinnacle of gray stone and sharp angles—a monument to absolute, unyielding control. As I was led toward the looming entrance, every polished window pane seemed to reflect more than the dying amber light; they reflected the suffocating weight of expectation and the cold, surgical precision of a life lived by the rule.
When the black iron gates slammed shut behind me, the sound wasn't just metal meeting metal. It struck like a hammer against bone—hollow, jagged, and final. I felt the atmosphere shift the moment I stepped over the threshold. In the Southern Kingdom, I had fought with steel and sweat, but here, the air itself was a weapon. The silence was a cord pulled taut around my th
