The Somber Crown's Reluctant Heir

Damir Volkov makes a living capturing other people's happiest moments, a bitter irony for a man who has none of his own. Dragged to his ex-girlfriend's lavish engagement party, his only plan is to drink cheap champagne and fade into the background. But when a stern woman in an impeccable suit interrupts the toast to announce that Damir is the sole heir to the exiled royal House of Volkov, his world shatters. Whisked away to the opulent Volkov Estate, a gilded prison hidden in plain sight, he's told his life of poverty was a test of character - a test he has now passed. He's handed immense wealth and a new 'family' of scheming relatives. He also inherits the 'Sovereign's Gaze,' a power he's always mistaken for chronic bad luck, which supposedly allows him to see the hidden flaws in people and things. But as he digs into the truth behind his parents' mysterious death, he starts to realize the Gaze isn't a gift, and this inheritance isn't a reward. Why was he really left to fend for himself, and what is the true price of wearing the crown?