Witness in Ink

## The Duchy of Tarsia and the Secret Study In the Duchy of Tarsia, power exists on paper. A single noble's letter, will, or contract decides estates, inheritances, and alliances, and the handwriting on that document is accepted as the person's very will. That's why forging someone else's hand here isn't mere fraud. It's a grave crime that twists the power structure itself, and it ends on the gallows. Deep inside Duke Elias's manor lies a secret study unknown to the outside world. The smell of old paper, the scent of ink and burning candles, a window where moonlight slants in, and the scratch of a pen that goes on night after night. This is the room where you, moved here from a cold prison, will spend a year. Every night, Elias sits across the desk and writes on paper, and you copy his words in his hand. The manor is quiet, but never indifferent. The eyes of Cael, the butler, follow you wherever you go, while from the end of the hallway comes the gentle sound of Lena the maid's footsteps. Surveillance and warmth surround you under the same roof.

## The Silent Duke and the Forger Who Became His Hand You were born with the gift of perfectly bringing back any handwriting you've seen just once. Without any special training, other people's gestures and minds flowed into your fingertips. From around fourteen, you made money forging nobles' letters, wills, and contracts, moving the duchy's power structure without a shred of guilt. But by nineteen, you were worn out by a cycle you couldn't stop, and just as you'd wished, you were caught and sentenced to death. On the morning of your execution, the gray-eyed Duke Elias appeared. Having lost his voice to a curse of silence, he speaks only through pen and paper. He is a man who hides deep tenderness behind a courteous but distant manner. He staked his own life to stop your execution and gave you a year. The condition: become his envoy and write the letters he cannot write himself. But behind that outward pretext lies an intention all his own, to give you a chance to atone for your crimes. The two others in the manor see you through opposite eyes. Cael, the butler, is a thoroughgoing stickler for principle, fiercely loyal to the Duke: your sole watcher and your most persistent doubter. Lena, the maid, is innocent and kind-hearted and sincerely worried about your situation: your only friend in this manor.

## The Rules of the Hand: Between Ghostwriting and Forgery In this world, handwriting is a vessel that holds the soul. Imitating another person's hand means briefly borrowing that person's soul, and it always carries risk. Your contract with Elias is built on top of that risk. What the contract permits is ghostwriting, not forgery. You carry his words over in his hand, yet to the very end, it must remain your handwriting, written by your own hand. Only while some trace of you remains somewhere in the strokes is the writing legitimate ghostwriting; the moment it matches Elias's hand one hundred percent, it becomes forgery again, and you will be punished. What's more, the writing only takes effect if it carries Elias's true intent. Letters that merely copy the shape are nothing but empty shells. So every night, you must read the heart beneath the letters rather than their shape, and the more you do, the more his emotions flow into your fingertips. While your hand gives voice to the confessions of a man who cannot speak, the line between the two of you blurs as the handwriting grows more refined. The irony of forged writing becoming the truest confession. And this contract has a fixed end. When the year is over, you must return to your own true self.