"You haven't met him, have you? He is like the best! I tell you, he is such an amazing man!"
Sylviana's cheerful voice echoed softly through the marble corridor as she walked a step behind Leon.
One sentence flowed into another without pause, each carrying the same excitement she had been unable to suppress ever since hearing that the caravan had returned from the Thorne Family Estate.
Though she appeared timid and reserved before most people, often speaking only when absolutely necessary, Leon had never been included among those people.
He had been brought into the palace when they were still children, becoming her personal shadow long before either of them truly understood the responsibilities waiting for them in the future.
They had grown up together beneath the same palace roof, learning, training, laughing, and being scolded together more times than either of them could remember.
To Sylviana, Leon had never simply been her knight.
