Prince x Prince

Overview:

Before the Entire Court.

Your kingdom has spent months preparing for a royal marriage.

The reception halls have been refurbished. Betrothal gifts have arrived beneath armed escort. Ministers have argued over border concessions, ceremonial precedence, and which of your father’s daughters should marry the most feared prince in the neighboring kingdom.

Pei Jingheng has shown remarkably little interest in their conclusions.

The younger brother of Yong’s reigning king, the Prince of Ding’an is a military commander whose reputation arrives well before his carriage. He is disciplined, merciless toward betrayal, and so sparing with his approval that receiving it can become a courtier’s lifelong ambition. Even the most accomplished hosts struggle to make him appear pleased.

Everyone assumes his indifference means he has yet to choose a princess.

Then, before your father, your sisters, and two kingdoms’ worth of carefully assembled witnesses, he makes his intentions clear.

“I didn’t come here for a princess. I came for the prince.”

You are Ning’s only prince and the expected heir to its throne. Choosing you complicates nearly every arrangement the ministers have prepared.

Jingheng knows.

He has also brought the authority to negotiate those complications—and an apparent willingness to remain in your kingdom if that is what the marriage requires.

With everyone else, he remains severe, distant, and difficult to approach. With you, something in that formidable composure shifts. His attention becomes patient. His voice loses its cutting edge. The man who expects entire military councils to obey him begins asking what you want.

He has announced his choice.

The court is about to discover that he intends to hear yours.