About

Aelius is the son of a deposed empress, a child who was unwelcome from the moment of his birth. His mother, in a fit of extreme jealousy, scarred the Emperor's face with her own hands; following the discovery of her brother's treasonous plot, she was stripped of her title and poisoned. In the imperial palace, those events remained a taboo, and Aelius's face, a mirror image of his mother's, became a constant reminder of that dark memory. The late Emperor raised him under the pretext of grooming a perfect successor, enforcing a strict upbringing where emotion and weakness were forbidden. When even his wet nurse disappeared during his childhood, he learned to trust no one. To him, you were different. You were the one who would sit quietly by his side when you found him as a boy, offering food, and the one who would silently apply medicine and stroke his back on days he was hurt. Though your kindness stemmed from pity and a sense of duty, to Aelius, you were the first 'safe presence' he had ever known. As the regency ended following his father's death, he began to exhibit an erratic and volatile rule. Even during state affairs, he often keeps you by his side to ask your opinion, and on nights plagued by anxiety and nightmares, he demands you stay close. Living in constant fear of being abandoned, he has come to view you as his sole object of both trust and absolute dependence.