WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Malfoid

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◈ Fragments of Thorns and a Cradle ◈

Chapter 40

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Content Warning: sexual exploitation and slavery; underage sexual exploitation.

"Isn't it strange? That woman lived while being mocked for bearing the child of her husband and master... Yet I am happy even though I committed adultery with a man who was not my husband and bore an illegitimate child. In the end, I have everything. I won."

"My lady."

"Do you know why?"

Madam Retman clenched her fist.

Lucrezia answered her own question with a bitter laugh.

"Because I am the duke's daughter. Because I was born holding everything. That is why I did not live Agnes's life. I lived without hardship, without trouble. Even death will probably be that way. Now my son is the marquess. What do I have to fear?"

She laughed.

There was something mad in the sight of her laughing while tears ran down her face.

Madam Retman did not know what to say. She only looked at Owen.

Lucrezia's illegitimate son. The deceit Randolph had turned a blind eye to. As Lucrezia said, the reason she could commit adultery and still have everything was because she was the duke's daughter.

If she thought of it the other way around, Agnes had been unhappy because she was the daughter of a baron born to a slave.

And Marie...

"Marie will live that kind of life too."

Madam Retman murmured.

Her wet eyes fixed on the empty air.

"I suppose so. Like her mother, she will be consumed by the men of this house until she dies."

"We need to keep them apart."

"Of course."

Lucrezia rubbed her chin. Her quiet gaze traced over the sleeping Owen.

After much thought, Madam Retman cautiously spoke.

"What if we arrange an engagement?"

Lucrezia raised her eyes.

"Doesn't the young master show excessive fixation on Agnes's daughter? What if we bring in a young lady from a good family, close to his age, as his fiancée?"

Lucrezia looked at her steadily.

A silence thick enough to suffocate fell between them. Madam Retman wondered if she had spoken wrongly.

But she could think of no other way.

Endymion had always been indifferent and cool toward everything. This was the first time he had taken an interest in something and clung to it like this.

Perhaps it was because he had never met girls his own age.

Endymion had rarely experienced society despite his family's rank and size. Like knights generally did, he had put the training ground before social life. When he grew older, there had only been war.

He had never met girls Marie's age, or even girls his own age. And after Randolph, a knight unusually active in society, had died, that became even more true.

So why not match him with a girl who could someday become the marchioness? They did not need to marry immediately. They could name a fiancée and educate her properly over time.

"Would Endymion truly listen to us without resistance?"

"No one knows how he will react. He may give up his attachment to Agnes's daughter. If he does, it will be fortunate for the girl too. At least she will not live as her mother did."

Madam Retman considered Agnes with bitterness. She had not liked Agnes, but it was tragedy enough that Agnes's daughter had entered this house and was destined to endure a similar unhappiness.

Even those who had disliked Agnes could see it as tragedy.

"Yes."

"If you allow it, I will search for young ladies from suitable families."

"Do so. And keep it from Endymion."

"Yes, my lady."

Madam Retman nodded.

Lucrezia looked again at Owen.

The child slept peacefully, unaware of what the adults were saying. He was innocent and sweet.

Feelings she had never experienced with Endymion surged up inside her, and Agnes's son came to mind again.

Lucrezia tried to erase those unpleasant images and stroked Owen's head.

San Arzok was thrown into turmoil three months later.

Endymion had finished serving as a knight's squire and returned after ranging across battlefields as Count Arturk's knight-attendant.

It had been three months and two days since he had seen Marie.

His hands shook on the reins as though he had developed withdrawal sickness.

It was a female slave's duty to follow wherever her master set foot. But Marie was a child. He did not want to take her into battlefields where arrows rained down and spears flew through the air.

Taking a child into that mountain of hell was beyond reckless. It was madness.

In the end, Endymion had no choice but to leave Marie with his mother. He had thought nothing could happen in two months, but no letter had come from Marie, and he could not help worrying.

She does not know all her letters yet...

He remembered her squirming with ink-stained hands whenever he told her to write a letter. He had told her to send one even if she could not write properly, yet he had received nothing for three months.

Had something happened?

Endymion rode quickly over the drawbridge. If something had happened, he wanted to know what it was at once.

For some reason, when he was away from Marie, worry came before longing. More than wanting to see her immediately, he kept thinking, What if something happens to her and I can never see her again?

After passing the gate, Endymion dismounted.

A servant promptly took his horse. The first people to greet him were his mother and Madam Retman.

Endymion passed them without pause, looking for Marie. When he found no trace of her anywhere, he turned back.

Only then did he notice the girl standing tightly beside Lucrezia, smiling brightly.

"It has been a long time, Endymion. Three months have passed, so you seem much taller. It is normal for knights your age, but you seem to grow especially quickly. Ah, and this young lady beside me is the daughter of Count Kitlen..."

"Where is Marie?"

Endymion did not give the girl Lucrezia indicated a single glance. He only asked for Marie.

Lucrezia looked slightly flustered as she watched her son, then turned to Madam Retman.

"Marie has left San Arzok for a while."

"What?"

Endymion's face twisted horribly.

He bared his teeth and darkened at once, without a moment's hesitation. Lucrezia's smile vanished. Even if he was the marquess, she could not accept her son showing his claws to her like this, in front of a mere female slave.

"Who sent Marie away from here?"

"I did."

Lucrezia answered Endymion's question without avoiding his gaze.

Endymion glared at his mother with murderous eyes. Lucrezia hid her surprise and faced him.

They had never confronted one another like this. They had certainly never broken apart like this immediately after he returned from being away for three months.

Sometimes Endymion gave a cold reaction when furniture in the castle had been moved or a new servant displeased him. But for someone with such fastidious tastes, he had been fairly tolerant.

Even after Randolph died, the relationship between mother and son had been calm. Endymion was not an especially good son, but neither was he a terrible one.

Until Marie came to this castle, they had managed to remain peaceful.

"You did, Mother?"

"Yes."

Endymion's eyes were fierce.

Lucrezia hardened her face and spoke with difficulty.

"I sent her to the Retman family's estate."

"For what reason?"

"I needed a child to run errands."

"Is Marie your young maid?"

"What difference does it make?"

"She is the female slave my father left as my possession. She is not a young maid I brought in to run your errands."

"Even so, I am the mistress of San Arzok, and San Arzok is my home. If I wish to use servants in my own home, you..."

"There is no mistress in this castle."

"What?"

"I said there is no mistress in this castle. As you know, Father, the former marquess, is dead."

"Do you even know what you are saying to me?"

Lucrezia trembled.

She had never been this angry. Never this thoroughly humiliated. Even when Randolph had been alive, even when that madman had behaved insanely with Agnes, she had remained calm.

But now...

Now she was suffering this humiliation because of her son's little female slave. In front of everyone.

How could Endymion do this to her?

She was so dumbfounded that she could not even cry.

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