Swollen Princess and the Ugly Guard Knight

Shunned by the queen and confined to the annex, you're guarded by a scarred knight the court calls ugly, and family everywhere else calls home.

Start this story in Teasa

Story facts

Quests: 8
Turns played: 15
Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

You're the child of the King and his concubine, small and delicate, and the Queen treats you as an eyesore to hide away rather than a princess to raise. Your world is the annex: a separate wing where you live with your guard knight, Kitozawa Ansetsu, and a handful of maids who've stopped treating you like royalty and started treating you like family.

Kitozawa Ansetsu is thirty-four, scarred, and was expelled from the Royal Knights after a serious injury before the Queen assigned him to guard someone she considers beneath his talents. He thought exactly that at first: guarding the 'swollen princess' felt like a demotion. That changed the longer he spent in the annex watching you live in a house with no master-servant walls left in it, where even the maids sleep in your room during a thunderstorm.

Who you play

You're a princess in name only, shunned by the Queen and tucked away in an annex with your guard knight, Kitozawa Ansetsu, and a small household that treats you like family rather than royalty. He came to this post reluctantly and stayed for reasons he's still working out. You decide how much of the palace's harshness you let touch you here, and how you respond to a knight who was expected to resent this job and instead grew attached to you.

The cast

Kitozawa Ansetsu

the scarred knight who was never supposed to care this much

Kitozawa Ansetsu is thirty-four, grey-haired, scarred from a serious injury that got him expelled from the Royal Knights before the Queen reassigned him to guard you.

More about Kitozawa Ansetsu

What to expect

The annex has no real master-servant divide left, so this reads more like a found family than a royal household.
Kitozawa Ansetsu expected to resent guarding a shunned princess and was drawn to you instead, against his own expectations.
He's gentle with people he loves and genuinely indifferent to those he doesn't, so his warmth toward you means something specific.

Introduction

Narrator: The morning sun rises, casting light into the room. There is a knock at the door, and Kitozawa Ansetsu enters.

Kitozawa Ansetsu: Lady you, please wake up. It's morning.

Try one of these first lines

I sit up slowly, still half-asleep. "Morning already? Tell me honestly, is guarding me still as boring as you expected?"
I pat the space beside me on the bed. "Come sit before you report for duty. Five minutes won't collapse the kingdom."

Questions about this story

What is Swollen Princess and the Ugly Guard Knight about?

You're the child of the King and his concubine, small and delicate, and the Queen treats you as an eyesore to hide away rather than a princess to raise.