The palace was shifting.
Servants moved quicker.
The guards stood stiffer.
And whispers flowed like ink through marble halls.
The twin princes from the cursed North had arrived.
Rowan wasn't particularly interested—not at first.
He'd heard the stories, of course.
Two monsters in the shape of boys.
Silver hair. Red eyes.
The sons of a dead woman and a king who barely acknowledged them.
They were dangerous, yes. Beautiful, yes. But to Rowan, they were simply royal problems far from his concern.
That changed when the rumors reached him.
⸻
"Your Grace," Reilan said, appearing at his side without sound. "The twin princes arrived this morning. With someone."
Rowan didn't look up from the letter in his hand. "A royal escort?"
"No. A knight."
Rowan's hand paused. "And?"
"He's... strange."
Reilan's tone caught his attention.
"Strange how?"
⸻
Reilan folded his arms. "Masked. Silent. Pretends to be mute. The staff call him Finn. Some believe he's their bodyguard. Others say a glorified nanny. But what's notable is..."
He paused.
"They haven't tried to kill him."
Rowan finally looked up.
"That is unusual."
⸻
The twins were infamous.
They devoured every servant given to them—figuratively, sometimes literally.
Poisoned a tutor with perfume.
Made a swordsman cry in three minutes.
One knight retired mid-meal after being glared at for too long.
No one lasted.
No one stayed.
Until now.
⸻
"And this Finn?" Rowan asked.
"He cooks for them. Dresses them. They cling to him. The younger one reportedly sleeps curled against his side. The elder stares down anyone who comes near him."
Rowan leaned back in his chair, thoughtful.
Rowan's brows lifted slightly.
"Now that's interesting."
⸻
He looked toward the corridor where the twins had vanished earlier.
"I want to see the kind of man who can tame monsters."
⸻
He wasn't suspicious.
Not yet.
But he was curious.
Very curious.
Because in a palace of power-hungry nobles and trembling servants...
One nameless knight had walked in beside devils.
And they let him live.
The royal family had heard the rumors before the twins even stepped through the gates.
That the monsters were tamed.
That they arrived with a man. Masked. Silent. Untouched.
The court didn't believe it, of course.
They laughed behind their hands.
"No one survives those two."
"Servants die in less than a day."
"They made a priest cry once by just breathing."
But then the carriage arrived.
And the devils stepped out...
Calm.
Silent.
With soft eyes, not for the palace—
But for the man walking between them.
A masked knight, faceless and voiceless.
The man they called Finn.
⸻
The throne room murmured with disbelief.
Even the king blinked once. Slowly.
"Still alive," he muttered under his breath. "Interesting."
That was the closest thing to care the king ever offered his youngest sons.
But it was the Crown Prince, Aurelian, who felt it most.
The weight. The guilt.
⸻
He had tried, once.
When they were just children.
When they were still learning to walk and already learning to kill.
He had tried to greet them with a smile.
To visit them in their cold rooms.
But the Queen—his mother—intervened.
⸻
"She birthed monsters," the Queen had said, cold fingers curled around her teacup. "And monsters do not bow to kings. One day, they'll want your crown, Aurelian."
He had been twelve.
Too young to understand. Old enough to listen.
The assassins came later.
Silent visits. Accidents. Slips in the dark.
And every time, the twins survived.
No—they played.
One assassin was returned alive, sobbing, with his teeth rearranged.
⸻
Aurelian begged his father.
"They're children," he said.
But the king only raised a brow. "They're alive, aren't they? Then it's fine."
He never tried again.
Not directly.
But from that day on—
He watched.
He kept the Queen's agents busy with other tasks. Redirected resources. Reassigned staff.
A quiet rebellion.
Because even if they didn't need him—
Even if they could defend themselves—
They deserved someone to care.
⸻
And now... this.
The twins walked into the palace like any other nobles.
Dressed cleanly. Speaking softly. Smiling.
Because of him.
The masked knight.
The one they clung to like gravity.
Aurelian watched from the upper balcony, eyes narrowed.
"...How?" he murmured.
Who was this man?
Who had walked beside monsters and taught them gentleness?
Who had become their center?
⸻
Aurelian turned to his steward.
"I want a name."
"We only have one, Your Highness," the steward said, bowing. "They call him Finn. No records. No house.He is mute"
He looked down once more.
At the two brothers he couldn't protect.
And the one person—
The only person—they seemed to trust.