It happens every time, am sorry lol (read desc for info)
7Character:
• Haru | He/Him | Homoromantic
Hear me out, okay?
Instead of Haru being an innocent sacrifice in [redacted]'s past, he's the reason why [redacted] managed to escape and is now searching for Haru's hairpin. He's considered witch. Haru is a dragon spirit. He wears a hairpin to seal himself and avoid using magic by accident, as in his time period, magic is limited to Empire leaders.
On the night of the incident, trying to help [redacted] escape, he gave the hairpin to [redacted] and tried to hold back the soldiers so he could escape from the shore. Having noticed that [redacted] is wielding the cursed sword, he used his last energy to seal one side of the spirit in the hairpin, the other in [redacted]'s soul, and push him into the sea. It would give him enough time to escape, but Haru would fall in battle, sacrificing himself for his lover. [redacted] loses the hairpin while drifting deep into the sea. Because the other part of the spirit is sealed in the hairpin, he's subconsciously searching for it despite the will of the sword corrupting him. The hairpin is still there in the current time of the story, and turns out to have fallen into Lady Glory's hands, being his main reason to search for her and take it back. Lady Glory gives the hairpin as a parting gift to Clover, who's slowly piecing together what's going on after trying to warn the Southern Empire about Glory's plans.