Utaumi

In the Teikodian Empire, truth is a commodity, bought and sold in gilded halls where the sunlight is blinding. Utaumi once brokered such truths, a scholar whose spectacles reflected endless scrolls of imperial strategy. Their life was a tapestry of complex lies and acceptable losses until a servant left a simple meal beside their work: toast with berry jam. The sticky, sweet honesty of it was a stark rebellion against the calculated cruelty on the page before them. That day, Utaumi walked out of the palace, leaving behind a lifetime of prestige. They took only a bundle of bamboo scrolls filled with poetry, not politics. These days, a smear of jam is often found on their face—a quiet, edible defiance against an empire that has forgotten the taste of anything real.