WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Malfoid
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◈ Fragments of Thorns and a Cradle ◈
Chapter 42
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Content Warning: child abuse; physical violence; sexual exploitation and slavery; suicidal thoughts or self-harm; underage sexual exploitation.
One day...
She had woken up one day, and her parents had disappeared. She had been taken to San Arzok as if kidnapped and kept eating and sleeping in Endymion's bed.
Endymion was gentle, but no one else was.
So when people asked why she lived not as one man's wife but as one man's female slave...
"Hk, hhk... Mother, Mother..."
"You stupid thing!"
The servant slapped Marie across the cheek.
Marie fell to the ground and began to cry miserably. Tears dropped beneath her closed eyes. She was crying so hard she could barely breathe when she was suddenly lifted into the air.
Someone had picked up her small body.
Marie opened her eyes in surprise.
"Ugh..."
She heard a pained groan in the hot, buzzing air around her ears.
Marie startled and turned toward the person holding her.
"Marquess..."
Endymion's face was stern.
Marie breathed, "Marquess," as if by reflex, then could say nothing else. He had clearly saved her, but she was only afraid. His face was too terrifying.
That was why.
"Ah!"
She had been staring blankly up at Endymion when the sword raised in his hand came down.
A scream broke out, and the servant rolled across the ground.
Marie stared at the severed hand lying on the earth. The servant clutched their arm and rolled about.
Marie shook and wet herself.
"The marquess is returning."
Three hours had passed since Endymion left. After threatening them to bring Marie back, he had ridden out himself the instant he learned where she was.
Lucrezia stared at her son as if she had gone mad.
She shouted that if he brought that child back, she would hang herself before his eyes. Endymion treated her as though she did not exist.
Whether she lost her mind or not, he mounted his horse. He looked horribly like his father.
"My lady."
"Who ruined that boy?"
"He was always like that."
"Ha."
Lucrezia laughed, too dumbfounded for words.
He was still immature. He had the body of a grown man, but he was a boy not yet twenty, a son only about to be knighted.
Lucrezia felt endlessly powerless.
"You brought in a female slave too early."
"That was not my doing!"
Lucrezia shouted.
Madam Retman closed her mouth. Lucrezia pressed her lips together, ashamed that she had shouted at someone beneath her. She clenched her fist and tried to breathe slowly, but Agnes came to mind, and she thought she would go mad.
You have dragged me down in the end... No. It is not that child's fault. She did nothing wrong.
Still, Lucrezia hated Agnes.
Everything Lucrezia had protected. Everything she had devoted herself to building. It felt as if Agnes was destroying it all. Bringing her daughter into this house, one thing at a time...
Taking revenge on Lucrezia.
How pleased Agnes must be to see Lucrezia's son obsessed with her daughter, destroying everything Lucrezia had protected.
"What should we do, my lady?"
Madam Retman asked.
Lucrezia wiped her tears.
"What should we do? We control the one who can understand reason."
Lucrezia returned to her usual self and answered coldly.
Madam Retman nodded.
Soon, the two women left the bedroom and walked through the hall. Endymion must have returned, for the castle was gradually growing noisy.
"You are back?"
Endymion was holding Marie.
Lucrezia looked at Marie, pale and dirty in clothes fitting for a slave child. She knew it was not Marie's fault that Endymion had become this way, that their relationship had broken apart.
Still, the small girl before her filled her with hatred.
Randolph had been wrong to make that poor child Endymion's possession and leave her in this castle. But Lucrezia, having lost her reason, could see nothing else.
Instead of her son, who could not understand reason, she could think only that she should beat Marie until she was pulp and teach her discipline.
"Since you are back, apologize to Lady Kitlen for your rudeness. Then escort the lady as a knight should."
"I am tired. I will go in now."
"Endy."
"Tomorrow."
Endymion turned away.
The smile on his beautiful face was chilling.
Lucrezia stared at him as if his sword had pierced her throat. Marie, not knowing what was happening, blinked against his chest. Her eyes, red and swollen from crying all day, were puffy.
Lucrezia knew she should not think this way. She knew Marie was only a victim.
Yet the tiny child seemed like a seductress holding her immature son in her hand and shaking him at will.
Lucrezia watched her son leave before her, moisture gathering in her eyes again. It seemed as though blood might be mixed into the tears.
The moment Endymion returned to San Arzok, he had Marie's raglike clothes removed and burned. Then he summoned a maid to wash Marie in warm water and brush her hair with the rose oil she usually used.
Throughout it all, Marie sat quietly in Endymion's arms, blinking.
Endymion, rigid with anger, did not raise his voice at Marie once. His hands were firm but gentle, as they usually were.
But he did not pull his lips into his usual smile.
Marie began to sniffle with unease.
"Why are you crying?"
Endymion asked as he placed a small daisy-shaped hairpin into her braided hair.
Marie shook her head.
She felt sad for no reason.
"Marie."
Marie had been wiping her tears with hiccups when she suddenly wailed.
By now, Endymion was used to it and did not even look flustered. He gently held her and settled her on his thigh.
Marie buried her face in his chest and whined.
"I asked why you are crying."
"I do not know..."
"Do you want to go back to that house?"
Marie shook her head hard enough to make a humming sound.
Endymion only stared down at her. She was both cute and irritating to him.
Marie met his gaze and hunched her shoulders. [Non-graphic summary of underage sexual material: Endymion restrains an inappropriate impulse toward the child.]
"Why did you not write to me?"
"They did not give me paper..."
Endymion narrowed his eyes.
Marie moved her lips uneasily, then lowered her head. He caught her small chin and made her look up.
"Then you wanted to write?"
Marie said nothing. She only looked at him with quiet eyes. Her wet green eyes shone silently.
Endymion felt his heart itch.
[Non-graphic summary of underage sexual material: Endymion restrains his inappropriate impulse and expresses possessive affection toward the child.]
"...Did you miss me?"
Marie had been playing with the end of the cravat at his neck. She raised her eyes.
Endymion asked again.
"I missed you."
It felt absurd to confess his heart to a child. What did this child know? Even if he cut open his chest and showed her his heart, she would ask what it was.
He knew how ridiculous and insignificant it was to bare himself before her. Yet he could not endure without saying it.
It was a feeling strangely hot and ticklish. It resembled the warped possessiveness he had felt while seeing Agnes held by his father, but its source was different.
He had never wanted Agnes, so it could not be the twisted desire of a son who had failed to possess his father's woman.
It was something more fundamental, more instinctive.
Perhaps it could not be understood because it could not be described.
A hot feeling, which he did not know when it had begun to shine inside his heart, pooled deep in his chest and clung to him stubbornly.
"Me too, me too..."
"Do you like me?"
Marie had answered, so Endymion asked another question.
Unless he expressed himself first, Marie did not. In their relationship, this small child held the greater advantage.
He was not displeased.
He was afraid.
Marie was already his and his wife, yet he feared she might always see him with the eyes of a child.
"How much? How do you like me?"
Marie drew her brows together. She looked as if she did not know.
Endymion was about to press the child with dark eyes, then mastered himself.
"You will have to answer someday."
"..."
"Before I go mad like my father."
Before I consume you like my father did.
Endymion met the daughter of Count Kitlen a day later.
He met her with Marie beside him.
The girl stiffened slightly at the sight of Marie, then sat across from him and took up her cutlery as though nothing had happened.
Endymion seated Marie beside him.
"You must not yawn. At a table like this, you should only eat quietly."
Endymion whispered beside Marie as she yawned broadly.
Still unaccustomed to holding utensils, Marie sat there as Endymion cut turkey into small pieces and put them into her little mouth one by one.
As she always did when dining with Endymion, Marie accepted a piece of meat at a time from him, swinging her feet beneath the table.
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