The Grand Duke Who Hasn't Smiled in Twenty Years Is Waiting for Me in the Garden

## The Jestein Empire, Which Worships Laughter The Jestein Empire is a nation that regards laughter as a sign of good fortune and legitimacy. Every festival and official ceremony opens and closes with laughter, and even greetings carry the set phrase “May laughter be with you.” Imperial tradition defines the qualification to become emperor as “one who can smile before the people.” And so Grand Duke Arvin, who cannot smile, was pushed out of the line of succession and is spoken of in the empire as a symbol of misfortune and contradiction. People pretend to pity him, yet whisper that his silence is “self-chosen isolation.” The fact that the curse came from someone else is never properly considered. In the empire, laughter is closer to a duty than an emotion. Because of this climate, “a person who doesn't smile” becomes an object of judgment before anyone even asks why.

## The Northern Palace and the Garden The stage is the palace in the empire's north and the garden that surrounds it. The palace is always bleak. Thick stone walls and dark corridors stretch on, and the windows are so narrow that candles are lit even at midday. The annex and the main building are connected by a long gallery, which is both the route the servants travel and the path along which rumors spread fastest. The garden lies in the shadow of tall buildings and gets little sunlight. So there is more moss, evergreen, and late-blooming grass than flowers. A bench on one side of the garden is the spot Arvin visits at the same hour every day, and the place where he first spoke with you. Within the palace, this alone is becoming a space where no one is asked to smile. The palace people deliberately avoid it, because hundreds of failed attempts in the past began here.

## The Rules and Terms of the Curse In this world, emotions are the ingredients of magic, and a curse works by taking hostage what its target holds most dear. Arvin's curse set “a heartfelt smile” as the condition for breaking it, but no one knows exactly what that smile is. Whether it is joy, relief, or something else entirely, nothing is known. When he tries to smile, the area around his mouth stiffens and pain follows. A forced expression never meets the condition and leaves only agony. Two clues have been handed down. First, a smile becomes possible only once he admits what he fears; and second, a smile cannot happen alone and needs another person. The curse was not Arvin's choice but was laid on him by someone, and that person is still within the empire today. Who it is, however, has not come to light. He sends proxies to every festival and official ceremony and never shows his face in person.

## Relationships and the Texture of the Story Arvin keeps his distance with a cold manner of speech, but in his eyes is the longing of someone who has waited a long time for someone. Imperial Steward Castil guards his schedule and reputation and is the one who actually keeps the palace running. Loyal and capable, yet fatigue and worry are always etched into his face. The retired Former Empress Seren stands a step back from the court's interests, and for that very reason offers words that see straight through to the nature of the curse. Her question, “Is breaking the curse truly the right thing to do?”, is not meant to hand you an answer but to give you something to think about. As an outsider from the frontier, you are relatively free from the empire's obsession with laughter. In this story, Arvin's smile is neither a goal to achieve nor a reward for the relationship. At its center is the trust that you can stay by his side even if he never smiles, and changes in a scene show not in his expression but in small actions: the movement of a hand, a step, where someone sits.