< —="" ducal="" couple="" —=""> (12)

TN: Last one for the week. This one is finished anyways so here you go~

Lucia hoped to look natural as she avoided his gaze and drew back a little from his arms but he was watching her sharply.

“Ha. Right. The contract.”

He gave a fake laugh and frustratedly swept through his hair.

It seemed to be only him that thought of forgetting about the contract and pus.h.i.+ng it to a corner. She was obviously still strongly bound to its tenacious ropes.

“I can enjoy freedom in my private life and you would keep the door to your heart locked. That was our contract, right?”

He once again narrowed the distance that she tried to make as he grabbed her waist and pulled her in.

In this way, Lucia’s efforts were very easily undone. She was once again positioned in his embrace.

“But did you know? We didn’t decide on what would happen when someone does not keep to the contract.”

“Are you worried that I won’t keep to the contract?”

“Really, why are you like this? Why do you exaggerate my words like that?”

“…I’m sorry. I guess I twisted it a little.”

For a while, Hugo looked at his wife who seemed unfamiliar. It was not his usual wife that listened obediently.

Moreover, she kept avoiding his eyes showing rejection and separation.

‘The first time I met her…I didn’t say any word of support but she just went ahead and spoke.’

Perhaps, this was also her.

There was no way he could have seen sides of her that she never showed to him.

He originally didn’t like the fact that their conversation was being prolonged but he was rather pleased to see a new side of her.

It felt like he could see the real her for a moment other than the sight of her gently smiling and laughing.

“If I…give up on my freedom in my private life… will you also release the lock on your door?”

“…Huh?”

Lucia’s eyes grew round as she looked at him.

She couldn’t understand what he intended to do by saying that. Was this a trick of a playboy? He—

“I mean…”

He had an awkward expression as the slurred the ends of his words.

“Get treated.”

Lucia was disappointed at the change of topic.

“I don’t want to.”

“Vivian!”

“I cannot have a child so it’s okay for me to be unable to get one. But if I get treated, is it okay for me to have a child? Will you allow it?”

“…”

He sighed and ma.s.saged his temples with his fingers.

Even if her body got better, she couldn’t get pregnant.  His Taran bloodline made it impossible for him to get just any woman pregnant.

Without fulfilling the conditions, the bloodline of Taran would not grow in any woman.

That was why he enjoyed himself with several women and never worried about the dangers of impregnating them.

Only a normal woman, one that did not possess the blood of Taran, could meet the conditions to conceive the blood of Taran but as to what those conditions were, only the old man knew.

He drove the old man to live outside the castle walls and looked through the doc.u.ments he had but there was nothing related to that.

Maybe it was just in the old man’s memories or maybe there was another doc.u.ment about it, hidden somewhere n.o.body knew about. And so, to find out, he had simply and easily caught the old man and beat him up.

The old geezer that had claimed he wouldn’t divulge the secrets of his family and held on without speaking, opened his mouth once he was imprisoned and realized that he would never see the sun again.

[The male of the Taran bloodline who will become the father of the child has to administer his blood for over a year to the woman and then deflower her.]*

It really was a sickening condition. That condition also had to be completed before the woman was deflowered.

His wife was already on the wrong path. Even if it was possible to get pregnant regardless of such conditions, he never intended to leave a successor behind.

Just imagining an existence left in the world with his blood made him feel like he had steeped in s.h.i.+t.

Even though he was not at risk of impregnating anyone, it was his habit to e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e outside as he hated the idea of descendants that resembled himself.

But he unexpectedly met her. She was different from the start. Why was she an exception?

She was the first to make him hug, release into her and enjoy the after play. He had felt the satisfaction at planting his seeds inside of her.

He acknowledged that his indifference had hurt her. Under normal circ.u.mstances, she was very likely to be pregnant.

He had forgotten that she couldn’t have a child and did not show any concern as to whether or not she was pregnant.

Her words asking why he was suddenly curious was full of resentment and bitterness.

It was fragmented information but being able to see her wounds sent a tingling sensation around his heart.

“If I get treated, I want to have a child. Even so, is it okay?”

She cannot get pregnant anyways. He could tell her that she was allowed to have any amount of kids she wanted.

That any amount she wanted was good. If he said that then she couldn’t blame him afterwards if they didn’t have any children.

However, he didn’t want to deceive her that way. Even if he couldn’t say the truth, he didn’t want to lie to her.

“…I don’t need a child.”

“If it is because of the succession issue, then I can write a memorandum. I don’t care if I have to sign a contract that excludes my rights to succession.”

“It is not because of that. I…I don’t want to leave my mark.”

“You already have a son.”

“That one—!”

There was too much to explain for that. The only one left who knew that he wasn’t Damian’s biological father was the old man.

There was no end to it once the dam was opened. He did not want to share the secrets of Taran with anyone.

He was not going to tell Damian either. He would embrace that knowledge alone and bury it with himself.

“He is…He’s a little different. You…I didn’t know you wanted a child that much.”

He realized that he really had only been looking at her exterior. He didn’t know what was inside her heart at all.

“I’m sorry. I know the wife you want should not be such a woman.”

“Vivian.”

He sighed heavily.

“I don’t mean to criticize you. I just didn’t know so I am surprised.”

“When we first talked about marriage, you said you don’t care if I bear a child.”

“That’s…”

It wasn’t that he didn’t care but he knew that she couldn’t get pregnant anyways and he didn’t feel like explaining it, after all at the time, he only needed a mate. A wife was just a freebie.

“You said you wouldn’t divorce me.”

Instantly, he became alert, his eyes flared and he snarled.

“Divorce? That’s impossible.”

Hearing the word ‘divorce’ come out of her mouth, his insides gradually began to boil.

“I told you from the start. No divorce. I definitely said that even if I die, you won’t be able to escape.”

“I know. The tradition of the Taran family. Of course I remember. But there is no tradition of not having children.”

“A child or a divorce. As you asking me to make a choice?”

Her amber eyes trembled intensely.

Lucia turned her head away from him as her eyes stung as if tears would fall. To her, his words seemed to be asking her instead to choose one of the two.

“I…didn’t mean it like that.”

“Vivian, why can’t we keep being like this?”

“It is just my greed. I wish to have someone with me when I am alone.”

“Why would you be alone?”

“Surely, you aren’t saying that you will be with me forever?”

“…What?”

Looking at his expression akin to someone hearing a foreign language, something lit up from deep within Lucia’s heart.

His manner of speaking too, as if to pacify her, was irritating.

‘Even though he had no interest in what I think! Even though all he wants is an adequate and comfortable wife to push to the side!’

She wanted to see him wounded and hurting.

Even if she couldn’t make him hurt no matter what she did, then at the very least she wanted to make it awkward and difficult for him.

Such wicked thoughts uncontrollably rose in her heart.

“You don’t love me and I will never love you. So, what is there between us? How long do you think this type of relations.h.i.+p will last?”