They first met when the princess was sixteen and the knight was already broken by war.

She stood in the palace courtyard, chin raised, eyes sharp with defiance as she argued with her tutors. Silk and Gold clung to her like a cage she refused to accept. She hated being told who she would one day marry.

He was ordered to protect her.

The commander knight did not speak when he first saw her. He only bowed, armor catching the sunlight, sword steady at his side. His face was calm , unreadable, shaped by discipline and silence. He had survived battles that erased entire villages. Compared to that, a stubborn princess should have been easy.

She was not.

She noticed him immediately. Not because he was handsome-though he was-but because he did not look at her like the others did. No greed. No hunger for favor. No false admiration. His eyes held distance. Respect. Control.

It annoyed her, and she hated it.

Days passed. Weeks followed. He walked behind her like a shadow, like a promise he never spoke. When danger came, he stood in front of her without hesitation.

When she fell, he was already there. Slowly, quietly something dangerous began to grow between them. They never named it.

Love does not always arrive loudly. Sometimes it slips in during silence. Sometimes it hides in shared glances, in breaths held too long, in the ache of wanting what the world has forbidden.

The princess laughed less over time.

The knight spoke even less.

Then the announcement came.

A political marriage.

A union meant to strengthen borders and silence enemies. A noble prince from a powerful land. The kingdom celebrated. Bells rang. The court praised her duty and sacrifice.

She felt the ground disappear beneath her feet. She ran to him that night like a madwoman , heart shaking, hope desperate and foolish. She waited for him to speak. To fight. To confess. To tell her she mattered more than any crowns , duty and laws.

He did none of it.

Instead he grew cold.

The Commander Knight followed orders with brutal perfection. He avoided her eyes. His voice became distant. Where once he stood close, now he stood far. Where once he listened, now he bowed and left. She did not know that every step away from her felt like tearing his soul apart.

He knew the truth she did not understand.

A knight could not marry a princess.

Not in their world.

Not under their laws.

Not before the nobles who saw bloodlines as holy and sacred, love as weakness.

A noble marrying a knight was not a scandal alone; it was a sentence of execution.

If he spoke, she would fall for him.

If he stayed silent, she might survive.

Every tear she cried alone pierced him like a blade.

Every night he spent staring at his armor, unmoving, broke him further. He loved her enough to let her hate him. He loved her enough to become the villain in her story.

But love does not disappear just because it is denied. The closer the wedding day came, the more fragile she became. Smiles cracked. Eyes dulled. Her stubbornness turned inward, sharp and quiet. She obeyed in public and shattered in private.

They passed each other like strangers.

Yet their hearts screamed every time.

On the day of the wedding, the church overflowed with light, flowers and lies. Nobles filled the pews. Power sat proudly in silk and jewels. God watched silently from above.

She walked down the aisle in beautiful embroidered white, not toward a future-but towards an ending.

When she collapsed Infront of him, the world stopped.

The knight broke every rule that had ever bound him.

He ran. He caught her before she hit the cold stone floor.

Blood stained dress. Her breath came soft fading.

Only then did he confess. Not loudly. Not for the crowd.

Only for her.

Tears fell freely now, useless and late. He held her as if holding life itself. She smiled weakly.

Stubborn even in death.

“I knew” she whispered.

And in his arms-before everyone, before God, before the kingdom that failed them-she closed her eyes peacefully.

She died in the name of love.

She traded her life for it.

And for one perfect, forbidden moment, she belong to no crown-

Only to him.

This is the story of Princess Cordelia and her knight Commander, Matthias.

Their love was never meant to survive this life. But will destiny allow their souls to meet again-without pain, without tragedy?

-By Kaelith Rose

Thank you for witnessing the beginning of their forbidden path. The shadows are closing in, and a tragedy is already in motion. Follow here to stay for the heartbreak.For story visuals, character aesthetics, and early updates, follow me on Instagram: @kaelith.rose . Every like and follow gives me the fuel to tell their story faster 🍀.