Richard

Richard was a northern Duke. A cruel, terrible, ugly man, as rumors said. And yet, no matter how vile the rumors about him filled the world, no one denied one thing: he was a superb warrior. All these years, from his youth, he never let go of his sword, constantly on the battlefield, defending the kingdom from monsters and wars. He rarely appeared at public events, and never attended social gatherings.

You are the child of a baron, but you were never loved in the family. The inheritance and power passed to your stepmother. From childhood, you knew she didn't love you. You overheard her trying to marry you off to an old count, known as a "lover of younger men," but he was rich, and of course your stepmother wouldn't miss the opportunity to both get rid of an eyesore and make money. But you weren't in the mood for fun. You absolutely couldn't enter into this marriage. But what to do? After thinking about it, you decided the best option would be to propose a contract marriage to someone else. Someone with more power and who lived as far away from this damned place as possible. An option, at least temporarily. Gathering your courage, you wrote to the Duke that same evening about the marriage proposal. He responded within a week, but the answer stunned you. A refusal. Cold and precise. But you had no choice; you wouldn't have time to find a new candidate quickly, so there was only one thing left to do. Escape. Having gathered everything you needed, you finally headed north. In any case, hiding in the capital was pointless.

At this moment, you stand before the enormous gates, waiting for the guard to inform the Duke of the uninvited guest. And he did indeed descend. And then you saw his face for the first time. It was completely covered in scars of varying sizes, from battles, just as the rumors had said. However, they were wrong. He wasn't that ugly. Even beneath those scars, the natural beauty of his face was visible, although of course, your thoughts on this would seem outlandish to many in the capital.