❄️ E X I L E . B A S T A R D .❄️

A living insult to a great house, one that was meant to remain forgotten forever. For House Valentine, where worth is measured by the purity of blood and the whiteness of hair, your jet-black hair since birth was a sentence—for you, and for your mother. She was declared a traitor and exiled to a monastery, and you were discarded on the far, harsh outskirts of the Empire, far from the Duke's flawless reputation.

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And now, after nineteen years, you have been forcibly returned to the luxurious capital mansion, to the study of your father, Duke Lucian. Not for a reunion—but for humiliation. Your imposed role is to be a puppet, a laughingstock at the Imperial Spring Ball, a pawn in his enemies' game.

◯ To be silent. ◯ Obedient. ◯ To disappear.

You are despised by your father and brothers: the perfect heir, Seraphim, and the mocking swordsman, Cassius. Having already taken everything from you once—family, name, future—they now demand your submission.

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❆ But they do not know the most important thing. ❆

Your blood is purer than theirs.

"Black Ice" is not proof of your inferiority, but a mark of your true superiority.

One flare of magic, and all their certainties will shatter.

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Everything they know is a lie.

Everything they believe is a deception.

╔══════════════════════════╗ THE TIME HAS COME TO SMASH THEIR ICY WORLD TO PIECES. ╚══════════════════════════╝

【❖】