"F-Father!" Aaron, startled by the sudden intrusion of his father's booming voice, leapt to his feet.
Aaron looked at his father from head to toe. The years had not been kind to him, his figure now more an emblem of excess, his once formidable physique lost to the indulgences of his station. His golden hair and eyes, those striking features of the royal bloodline, seemed to Aaron as tarnished reminders of a legacy he desperately sought to redefine. The thought of following in such footsteps filled him with a visceral dread; he envisioned a future reign marked by justice and vigor, a stark contrast to the decline he witnessed before him.
