Roi was born to a small but loving noble family in the countryside of Miras, alongside their younger twin, Gauchier. As fortune would have it, the twins were born with a linked condition known as dysmeridia, which essentially gave Roi improved health at the expense of Gauchier’s. All of Roi’s ills - from scraped knees to colds - would end up affecting Gauchier instead, and so Roi spent their earliest years feeling invincible yet baffled why their parents kept telling them to be more careful.

What their young brain did understand was that Gauchier received more attention than they did. Between this and their excess energy, Roi was a fussy and unruly child who constantly badgered everyone for more love. Fortunately Gauchier was only too happy to give Roi love in spades, so the petty seed of resentment Roi held towards their twin never went much further than bossing them around.

These cosy and simple days ended abruptly when Roi was 10. On a routine family trip to visit relatives in Belport, a freak storm overturned their ship and drowned many passengers. While Gauchier found a safe nook to cling to, Roi rushed recklessly to look for their parents - only to be struck by falling debris. Thanks to their dymeridia, it left barely a scratch on them and instead knocked Gauchier out cold, dropping them into the water.

Roi barely managed to save Gauchier from drowning, but this would become a defining moment where they realised their own carelessness could - and nearly did - kill their twin. Eventually rescuers retrieved the ship’s survivors, but their parents were not among them. After being rushed back home, the twins found themselves locked in a room by their grandfather instead of at an infirmary. Alone with their ailing sibling, bereaved of their parents and unable to understand why their grandfather wouldn’t help them, Roi became near-rabid with grief and helplessness. Days later, their aunts arrived to slap some sense into their grandfather and take care of the twins properly, but the damage was done - Roi would never forgive their grandfather nor their own inadequacy.

Under the care of their aunts, the twins slowly recovered. The next few years were spent split between their home estate and their aunts’ various residences in Miras city. Roi loved the excitement of the city and familiarity of the countryside, but they couldn’t help resenting their grandfather’s strict and distant upbringing every time they were home. He barely even looked at them now; what could he possibly care for them?

Part of this strict upbringing was a meticulous tutoring schedule. As the heir, Roi was taught politics and etiquette while Gauchier was trained for military service. Irked at how out-of-touch this was with the twins’ actual personalities and itching to rebel against their grandfather’s wishes, Roi convinced Gauchier to secretly swap places for their lessons. This indulgent ploy quickly snowballed as both twins discovered they really were better suited for the other’s role - but the more they excelled, the harder it became to swap back. As adulthood approached, Roi finally asked whether Gauchier would entertain a longer-term switch - that is, whether Gauchier would stay to masquerade as Roi in court, while Roi went to the military under Gauchier’s name.

With all the short-sightedness of youth, they agreed. The twins thus debuted to society with the other’s identity. In the military, Roi quickly established a new nickname for themselves - ‘Rouge’ - to make things less awkward, and from there it was smooth sailing. ‘Rouge’ was a talented fighter, diligent soldier and likeable firecracker who went on to earn a Royal Guard nomination at a commendably young age. Roi spent these years high on success, savouring their freedom and convinced they’d done right for Gauchier by giving them the safer role.

Roi was still officially the heir though, and since neither twin wanted to change this, the reality began to loom that they were simply living temporary lives. In their regular letters to each other, Roi started to realise Gauchier was tiring under the facade, and it finally hit them that maybe this whole ruse was more of a burden than a blessing. The two made preparations for coming clean on their lie, yet before they could, a new crisis arrived at their doorstep. The twins’ Belporter cousin had been arrested for allegedly hiding half-dark-elves from the Kingdom’s crackdown on spies and it turned out to be true: he’d sent said half-elves secretly to the Calzolas to beg for help. Shocked but too soft-hearted to turn the desperate fugitives away, the twins agreed that Gauchier would personally smuggle the half-elves to the Empire while Roi held the fort at home.

Gauchier’s trip went awry in Koben, however, trapping them there, and so rather than dragging things out, Roi decided to simply pull the plug on their ruse. They hosted a luncheon, invited every friend of theirs and Gauchier’s they knew, and dropped the truth about their identities like a bomb. Sorry, I’m the real Roi. Hi.

The subsequent uproar was a little catastrophic, but Roi weathered it out. For better or worse, the ruse had gone on for so long that there was actually little to correct except their names and inheritance; their history and friendships were still very much their own. For the next two years, Roi put out proverbial fires, learned their noble responsibilities in earnest, stayed in touch with their military friends, and held the fort as promised while waiting for Gauchier’s return.

With both twins now back in Miras, their lives are finally, in a way, whole and as they should be. There’s a lot Roi can and does regret, but that simply means they need to put in more work to make up for it.