"You already have a successor. Did Sir Philip say that he was dissatisfied because Damian is unqualified to succeed the family? But even that doesn't match up. I cannot have a son. There's no way Sir. Philip doesn't know that."
Hugo could not conceal his bafflement. Lucia realized that she had thrown out a sharp question. He usually gave her an honest answer to whatever she asked. But this time, no matter how long she waited, he did not open his mouth.
She did not want to ask him questions that made it difficult for him. If it was something he couldn't tell her, she didn't intend to interrogate further.
Lucia might have retreated if this was before she was with a child. However, the strong feelings she got from the baby's movement had not yet subsided. She felt wonder towards the life growing up within her and blossoming maternal love began to grow in her heart.
She couldn't let issues related to her baby just pass by. Even though she felt that the core of the secret he wanted to hide was related to this issue, she had no choice but to be stubborn.
"You promised me, Hugh. You said you would think again about telling me your secret if I implored you."
Her steady amber eyes were lit with stubbornness as she looked straight at him. Hugo let out a troubled sigh.
"If you just can't tell me even after thinking about it again, I will follow your will. I just want to know if the reason you can't tell me is because you're worried about revealing your secret."
"…it's not something good to hear. For you. And for the child too."
"I am fine. Our baby will be fine too. You boasted that there was no way your child was weak, didn't you?"
Hugo gave a brief chuckle, mixed with a sigh.
"I can't win against you."
Hugo revealed all of the secrets that he knew to her. He told her everything, his family's secret, the truth regarding the incestuous marriages, even Philip's lies.
The only thing he excluded was the fact that his identity was the abandoned 'Hue'. That fact was still a dragon's reverse scale that he didn't dare to touch.
"So Sir. Philip cannot escape from his nonsensical delusion."
Lucia simply stated how she felt. Unlike what he was concerned about, she accepted his surprising story calmly.
"Hugh. Damian is my son. And he will be an older brother to our newborn child. I want to raise my two children as close brother and sister. I do not want to pass the Taran family's secret to the children."
"I am of the same thought."
"Does this thing still worry you? Is that why you couldn't tell me?"
"I didn't tell you because…it was so disgusting."
Seeing her husband go quiet again, Lucia sighed.
"…did you think I might look at you differently…?"
"…"
His lack of response was like an answer. Lucia wondered what she should do with this timid black lion. She felt like crying because she felt sorry and he seemed so loveable. She raised herself, wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, and buried her face in his chest.
Lucia wished love could be seen with the naked eyes. She wanted to open her heart and show him how much she loved him. How could she explain to him that even if he was hiding a dreadful secret, her love for him would not change?
"Actually, Hugh, I have a secret I have not been able to tell you too. Would you like to hear my story?"
Lucia opened the doors to the secret that she had been trying to bury her entire life. She began the story from the morning she woke up when she was 12 years old.
"…And like that, that terrible marriage life finally came to an end."
Lucia stopped talking for a moment and glanced at him to check his expression.
"Why did you stop? Continue."
"…you look very scary."
His expression was dripping with murderous intent. His red eyes were so brightly sharp that for the first time, Lucia felt he was a little scary.
"Do you…think it's too ridiculous so you're unhappy?"
"It's not that!"
Hugo breathed raggedly and swept up his hair in a rough manner.
Count Matin. He shouldn't have killed that bastard so easily. It was beyond vexing. He gnashed his teeth, filled with indignation. To hear that she had lived as the wife of such trash and went through all sorts of hardship was so gut-wrenching.
Furthermore, when he thought about the King's shameless mug, he was suddenly very irritated. The King was the chief instigator. Kwiz sold off his sister.
No. The biggest problem was the innocent woman before him.
"My wife, why are you like this, really? Why can't you be filled with spite?"
"…Huh?"
"You had to go through all that. But. You only ask me to take measures so that that bastard can't marry the princess?"
If he had known this, he would have given the bastard all the pain possible in the world and killed him most miserably! The fact that the bastard was already dead infuriated him.
"…Hugh. Thank you for listening to me seriously. This isn't something that happened in reality so…"
"If you remember it then it is no different from experiencing it. It is not just a simple dream to you, is it? It is an experience you lived through."
"…Yes. Yes but…"
"If I knew then that bastard—!"
"He is already dead. What can one do to the dead?"
She thought that Count Matin had died in an accident and the fact that he couldn't truthfully tell her that he had taken action and gotten rid of him, frustrated him even more.
"If you're getting so worked up, I'll stop the story here."
Hugo breathed in a few times to calm himself down. He had to hear more. Although her story was unrealistic, he did not think it was absurd.
It strangely made things make sense. Whether it was her composure which was unsuitable for her age, or her shrewd ability to cope which was unlike a princess who had been locked up in the palace since childhood. Sometimes he had questions regarding her but just buried them, however, all those questions were being answered.
Besides, Hugo knew quite a lot about magical tools, thanks to his family's secret room. As his wife said, the pendant was very likely a magical tool, and such a bizarre ability was very possible for a magical tool.
The reason why most currently widely known magical tools were seen as nothing more than a toy, was because the humans in the present age could not recognize magical tools with more functions than a toy.
"Continue, I will just listen."
Lucia swallowed her laughter as she gazed at her husband who looked like he would explode if someone touched him. She was thankful for him for listening to her seriously and not assuming she was speaking nonsense. Rather, she was more concerned because he seemed too seriously immersed in her story.
* * *
Lucia began her story again. When she reached the part of the story where she started getting acquainted with a knight as she was running her workshop, his expression looked considerably sour.
As she talked about how she was swindled and lost all her money, Lucia secretly glanced at his expression and found that it was surprisingly okay. She was relieved that he understood that her story wasn't something that happened in reality.
However, inwardly, Hugo was thinking about something different.
'So there's a guy left for me to vent on.'
There was a bastard who could take Count Matin's share of the crushing. Hugo thought to himself that he had to coax her into telling him who the man was.
When she finished her lengthy story, Lucia sucked in a deep breath and closed her eyes for a while. She used to think of her dream as something that she could never tell anyone. For the first time, she spoke of something that had only been lodged in her mind, and as she did so, she was yet again able to look back on it as another lifetime.
Lucia smiled bashfully at her husband, who was staring at her.
"You aren't thinking, 'this woman is crazy', right?"
Hugo felt stunned, but he couldn't explain why, so he silently hugged her. He didn't speak words of comfort about the exhausting life she experienced. Rather, he was the one being comforted.
He was saved by her, unlike himself in her dream. His other self who was unable to find her would have spent his life with a dried-out heart.
"Hugh, I have lived a life where I was thrown around left and right. I am not a princess who grew up prettily in the palace. Do I seem different to you now?"
"You know that's impossible."
"It's the same for me too. No matter what secret you have. You are you."
Hugo gave a shallow laugh, still hugging her. What in the world was he afraid of? The darkness that had restricted him for so many years, dispersed with a light wave from her hand.
The slender woman in his arms had a heart so steady that it surprised him. He hadn't understood it when people said that a woman's will was sometimes stronger than a man's. But now he did.
"The problem is, Damian."
"Damian?"
"When that child grows up and finds a woman he loves, he won't be able to have a child in a normal way. But since I know the method, it should turn out fine somehow. Hugh, I told you that my illness was cured because I met a wandering doctor, right? That doctor was actually Sir. Philip."
"…What?"
Lucia gave a description of the Philip she had met in her dream.
"I haven't met Philip personally in reality, but is the doctor I met indeed Sir. Philip?"
"…I think it is."
"You know, I've thought about it and I think the mugwort herb is the key to the continuation of the Taran family lineage."
"…You are…right."
Hugo muttered vacantly. The prescription she received in her dreams must have been the vision that was passed down in Philip's family, from generation to generation. That vision was the only solution. He had to obtain it.
'Where in the world did they hide it?'
A record that has been around for such a long time would be quite large. To hide it, they would need to put it in a place that was inconspicuous but with a considerable amount of space.
Hugo remembered an old memory. In the days when he was acting like a doll, following the instructions of the late former Duke, he met his brother once a month in order to confirm his brother's safety.
He rode all day in a carriage without windows, arrived at a vast plain with nothing around, and then the carriage carrying his brother arrived. When he asked his brother where he was staying, his brother replied:
[I don't know either. It is a very small village, but I can't move around freely because someone is watching me. I am always given drugs to sleep before I get on the carriage to see you. Going off by how often I woke up in the middle to eat, the carriage must have been moving for a few days.]
The small village that his brother talked about was in a very remote location, and he thought that it was something like a safe house. Maybe the hideout of Philip's family was there, and the records might be there as well.
When he became the Duke, he spent quite some time trying to find the hideout, but he failed. The search range of 'a few days' was too wide.
'She said the old man went to a secret location and brought the cure back in a week.'
Anna's testimony was an important clue. Philip must have gone to the hideout to make the cure. With how cautious Philip was, he would not have taken a carriage. He would have walked with care not to be followed, and if the time he took to make the drug was removed, it took the old man approximately three days to walk there. With this knowledge, the range had narrowed down significantly and it wasn't too vast to comb through to find that village.
The measurement of a 'a few days' taken from the carriage's traveling time had been deceptive.
'It must be an enclosed village. The entrance to the village will be hidden.'
He had to send an order to the north, giving specific search directions immediately. But despite having narrowed down the range, he couldn't guarantee when it could be found.
A thought suddenly flashed through his head. It was like a fog that was before him suddenly got cleared.
Hugo abruptly got up, startling his wife whose eyes got round, and seeing that sight, Hugo thought she couldn't look more pretty. He grabbed her face and planted kisses all over.
"My wife. You said you remember the cure, right? Tell it to me."
"Yea, sure."
Lucia replied, looking puzzled.
"Thank you. That is enough."
Hugo left his dazed wife behind and went out of the bedroom quickly.
Lucia couldn't understand his last words or strange actions, but she could tell that for some reason, he was very excited and it made her giggle. Lucia laid down on the bed and placed both hands on her stomach. She wanted to feel the baby's movement that she felt earlier, again.
"Baby. Move. It's your mom."
Lucia continued to speak slowly. After a good while, she felt a vibration like her water was moving, as if the baby was answering her. Lucia burst into joyful laughter.