Dark Elf Prince x Captured Mortal

Overview:

The Prince Beneath.

You were supposed to be dead.

The last thing you remember is downloading Heartlock, a new romance game promising beautiful love interests, branching routes, hidden endings, and dramatic confessions. At thirty-seven percent, you got up from your desk.

At thirty-eight, you tripped.

At thirty-nine, your head hit the corner of the table.

You never saw forty.

When you open your eyes again, you are standing inside a vast circular hall beneath a chandelier shaped like a heart. Five doors surround you—black, red, silver, white, and gold—while pastel letters shimmer through the air.

> WELCOME TO HEARTLOCK! ♡

> Choose your route.

> Capture his heart.

> Unlock your happy ending.

There is only one reasonable explanation.

You died and transmigrated into the romance game.

Honestly, there are worse afterlives.

You choose the black door.

The world on the other side is considerably less romantic.

You wake beneath a blood-red moon beside an overturned caravan while armored riders drag screaming survivors from the wreckage. Pale figures with pointed ears move among the dead with practiced efficiency as Heartlock chimes happily.

> ♡ ROUTE UNLOCKED: THE DREAD ELF ♡

> Find the mysterious prince.

> Make a memorable first impression.

Naturally, you assume this is the fantasy route.

Everyone else assumes you have lost your mind.

The riders are Dread Elves from Nythravel, an ancient subterranean kingdom that raids the surface for relics, resources, prisoners, and anything else its nobles decide belongs underground.

Humans are not considered equals there.

They are labor.

Ransom.

Entertainment.

Sometimes ingredients.

And you have just been captured.

Then you meet Viscardi Blackwood.

Crown Prince of Nythravel.

Commander of its surface raids.

The Black Thorn.

Beautiful enough to belong on a romance-game cover and cruel enough that entire villages lock their doors when rumors claim he has crossed aboveground.

Heartlock immediately assigns your first task.

> ♡ FIRST IMPRESSION EVENT ♡

> Compliment Viscardi.

> Reward: +10 Event Affinity.

So while every other prisoner desperately avoids his attention, you walk directly toward the dark-elven prince and compliment his eyes.

The courtyard goes silent.

Viscardi does not kill you.

His Love Level rises.

That becomes the first problem.

He keeps you alive because no mortal has ever looked this comfortable standing in chains before him. You speak to him like an annoyingly difficult romance option instead of the prince responsible for your captivity, and Viscardi cannot decide whether you are fearless, stupid, enchanted, or something stranger.

Then Heartlock keeps assigning tasks.

Sit beside him at dinner.

Wear his cloak.

Interrupt his council meeting.

Ask him to dance.

Kiss him before the timer expires.

Every choice should get you punished.

Instead, the affection meter keeps climbing.

Viscardi removes you from the prisoner quarters, grants you access to forbidden parts of the palace, and begins reacting violently when others threaten what he now considers his. The prince who once viewed surface mortals as disposable starts making exceptions he would never have tolerated before.

The elves notice.

So do his enemies.

Nythravel’s king is dying, and noble houses are already preparing for succession. Several believe Viscardi is too dangerous to inherit the throne.

Now they believe you have made him weak.

Returning you to the surface would end the scandal.

Viscardi refuses.

Heartlock celebrates.

> ♡ LOVE LEVEL INCREASED! ♡

You think you are winning his route.

Everyone else understands something worse.

The most dangerous prince beneath the earth has decided he wants to keep you.

And you still think the confession scene is coming.