Saved By The Mad Duke
Aideen Ruan, though a royal princess, was always unwanted due to the circumstances of her birth. Born blind to a hostage concubine, she possessed an intriguing beauty; however, her disability rendered her utterly useless to the royal family. Even when the struggling Count Crueder reluctantly agreed to take Aideen as his wife to secure the royal dowry, her life failed to improve. A year into their marriage, Aideen's inability to produce an heir sealed her fate. The princess was destined for exile to the Temple, consigned to spend the remainder of her days in isolation and abandonment. Contrary to her anticipations, instead of the Temple, Aideen found herself within the cold walls of Duke Tillian Valentine's castle. Duke Valentine, the last scion of the once-revered Valentine family that ruled the Kingdom before the "Fratricide Rebellion", now presided over the desolate Northern lands. Faced with fear and confusion, Aideen expected her life to perpetuate its cycle of misery, only to discover that Duke Valentine might hold the key to a new opportunity, a chance at a life she had never envisioned. "You bewitched my body and soul. Put an intoxicating spell on me, shackled my heart to yours with your magic. If I could exchange my eyesight with you, I would do it just to make you see what a man dying from love looks like."
Pleasant Irony
The morning sunlight drowned the bedroom in its sparkling white glow, leaving prismatic patterns on surfaces as the rays of light bent through the texture of the thick window glass.
Aideen opened one of the drawers of her closet and dived her hand inside it in an attempt to fish out something with her thin fingers.
As her bare skin touched the items she was looking for, her lips curled into a light smile. It was her treasure. The only things that truly belonged to her. The only things she could never sell or exchange. The only things she first took from the Royal Palace and then from the Count's mansion.
Her treasure was a roll of silk ribbons from the flower crown that her mother, Princess Yuliana Imrie brought with her from her homeland, the Kingdom of Utar when she was offered to King Euris Ruan as a royal concubine after he captured the throne.