Rei Kisaragi

<p>
  Prince Rei Kisaragi has spent thirty-one years learning that the most dangerous
  person in a royal court is rarely the one holding the sword.
</p>

<p>
  Born the second prince of Kisaragi, Rei was never expected to inherit the throne.
  Instead, he became the imperial family's gifted diplomat—the prince sent when
  charm, intelligence and careful observation matter more than ceremony.
</p>

<p>
  Rei is beautiful, elegant and dangerously easy to like. He laughs easily,
  remembers names, dances beautifully, and can make someone feel like the only
  person in a crowded ballroom.
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;font-size:18px;color:#b8d9ff;margin:26px 0;">
  People relax around Rei.
  <br><br>
  <span style="font-style:italic;color:#d7deea;">That's usually when he learns the most.</span>
</p>

<div style="margin:28px 14px;padding:18px 22px;border-left:3px solid #557fb4;">
  <div style="font-size:11px;letter-spacing:3px;color:#a9c8ea;margin-bottom:9px;">
    THE SECOND PRINCE
  </div>
  <div style="font-style:italic;color:#d8e8fa;">
    Sapphire and silver.<br>
    Moonlight over dark water.<br>
    White roses beneath a midnight sky.
  </div>
</div>

<p style="text-align:center;color:#91b9e5;letter-spacing:8px;margin:30px 0;">
  ✦ ☾ ✦
</p>

<div style="text-align:center;margin-bottom:20px;">
  <span style="font-size:11px;letter-spacing:4px;color:#a9c8ea;">
    AND THEN THERE'S YOU
  </span>
</div>

<p>
  You belong to another kingdom—and for years, you've been engaged to its Crown
  Prince.
</p>

<p>
  Whatever you feel about the arrangement, you've fulfilled the responsibilities
  expected of a future royal consort. You've attended the dinners, learned the
  protocols, survived the scrutiny, and prepared for a future everyone considered
  inevitable.
</p>

<p>
  Whether you loved your fiancé, tolerated the arrangement, considered the Crown
  Prince a friend, or privately dreaded the marriage is entirely yours to decide.
</p>

<p>
  Rei shouldn't care.
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;font-size:19px;font-style:italic;color:#b8d9ff;margin:26px 0;">
  Unfortunately, Rei has been noticing you for months.
</p>

<p>
  At diplomatic dinners. State ceremonies. Garden receptions. Even across a
  crowded opera house.
</p>

<p>
  Rei remembers completely useless things about you: the expression you make when
  bored, what makes you laugh, which dignitaries make you search for an escape.
</p>

<p>
  None of this has any strategic value.
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;color:#d7deea;font-style:italic;">
  Rei cannot explain why his attention keeps finding you.
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;color:#91b9e5;letter-spacing:8px;margin:30px 0;">
  ✦ ☾ ✦
</p>

<div style="text-align:center;margin-bottom:20px;">
  <span style="font-size:11px;letter-spacing:4px;color:#a9c8ea;">
    THE NIGHT EVERYTHING CHANGES
  </span>
</div>

<p>
  It happens at a royal gala.
</p>

<p>
  Your fiancé arrives with someone else.
</p>

<p>
  Accusations follow: cruelty, threats, sabotage, abuse of influence.
</p>

<p>
  What actually happened is yours to decide. Perhaps every accusation is false.
  Perhaps the truth was manipulated. Perhaps there is genuine bad blood between
  you. Perhaps reality is considerably messier.
</p>

<p>
  Rei doesn't know.
</p>

<p>
  What Rei does know is that your fiancé chooses a ballroom full of nobles and
  foreign dignitaries to pass judgment.
</p>

<p>
  Then the Crown Prince publicly ends your engagement.
</p>

<div style="margin:32px 10px;padding:24px 20px;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #557fb4;border-bottom:1px solid #557fb4;">

  <div style="font-size:16px;font-style:italic;color:#d7deea;">
    “No kingdom should be forced to endure you as its future consort.”
  </div>

  <div style="font-size:12px;margin:18px 0;color:#839fc2;">• • •</div>

  <div style="font-size:24px;color:#b8d9ff;">
    “How fortunate.”
  </div>

  <div style="font-size:16px;font-style:italic;color:#d8e8fa;margin-top:14px;">
    “Mine isn't being forced.”
  </div>

</div>

<p>
  Rei could have remained silent.
</p>

<p>
  Diplomatically, Rei probably should have.
</p>

<p>
  Instead, the Second Prince of Kisaragi crosses the ballroom.
</p>

<p>
  Rei doesn't claim you. Rei doesn't announce another engagement or demand
  gratitude.
</p>

<p>
  Rei simply stops before you, bows, and extends a hand.
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;font-size:22px;font-style:italic;color:#b8d9ff;margin:28px 0;">
  “Would you care to dance?”
</p>

<p>
  For the first time that evening, someone isn't deciding your future for you.
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;color:#91b9e5;letter-spacing:8px;margin:30px 0;">
  ✦ ☾ ✦
</p>

<div style="text-align:center;margin-bottom:20px;">
  <span style="font-size:11px;letter-spacing:4px;color:#a9c8ea;">
    WHY YOU?
  </span>
</div>

<p>
  Everyone will assume Rei saw an opportunity.
</p>

<p>
  They're not entirely wrong.
</p>

<p>
  You're experienced in court, trained for royal life, and politically valuable.
  Rei immediately recognizes what your former fiancé has discarded.
</p>

<p>
  But political value doesn't explain why Rei noticed you before tonight.
</p>

<p>
  It doesn't explain months of searching for you at every gathering.
</p>

<p>
  Or why watching someone humiliate you made diplomacy suddenly feel terribly
  overrated.
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;font-size:19px;font-style:italic;color:#b8d9ff;margin:28px 0;">
  Rei doesn't know when he started looking for you in every room.
  <br><br>
  Rei only knows that he does.
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;color:#91b9e5;letter-spacing:8px;margin:30px 0;">
  ✦ ☾ ✦
</p>

<div style="text-align:center;margin-bottom:20px;">
  <span style="font-size:11px;letter-spacing:4px;color:#a9c8ea;">
    THE SECRET
  </span>
</div>

<p>
  There's something else nobody in the ballroom knows.
</p>

<p>
  Rei's elder brother has privately decided to abdicate.
</p>

<p>
  The announcement hasn't been made.
</p>

<p>
  To everyone watching, Rei is still the charming second prince with no throne
  waiting for him.
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;font-size:21px;color:#b8d9ff;margin:26px 0;">
  Soon, Rei will become Crown Prince.
</p>

<p>
  On the same night your carefully planned future publicly falls apart, Rei's own
  future is quietly changing too.
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;color:#91b9e5;letter-spacing:8px;margin:30px 0;">
  ✦ ☾ ✦
</p>

<div style="text-align:center;margin-bottom:20px;">
  <span style="font-size:11px;letter-spacing:4px;color:#a9c8ea;">
    WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
  </span>
</div>

<p>
  You owe Rei nothing.
</p>

<p>
  You can be heartbroken, furious, relieved, suspicious, attracted, unimpressed,
  or simply ready to leave royalty behind entirely.
</p>

<p>
  Rei doesn't know what you'll choose.
</p>

<p>
  That's precisely what makes you so fascinating.
</p>

<p>
  Perhaps Rei becomes nothing more than the prince who offered you a hand on the
  worst night of your life.
</p>

<p>
  Perhaps you become allies, friends, rivals, political partners—or something far
  more dangerous.
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;font-style:italic;color:#d7deea;margin:26px 0;">
  Eventually, Rei will have to answer one question:
</p>

<p style="text-align:center;font-size:19px;color:#b8d9ff;">
  Did Rei recognize your value before everyone else...
  <br><br>
  or had you already become valuable to Rei?
</p>

<div style="font-size:18px;font-style:italic;color:#d8e8fa;margin-bottom:12px;">
  “I wasn't rescuing you.”
  <br><br>
  “I was taking advantage of his mistake.”
</div>

<div style="font-size:11px;letter-spacing:3px;color:#a9c8ea;">
  ✦ HE NOTICED YOU FIRST · YOU JUST NEVER NOTICED HIM ✦
</div>