Chapter 40: Chapter 39

(10)

TN: When life gives you lemons...okay, I dunno where I was going with that. I live for fluff ❤

Lucia tussled with him all night and was barely able to sleep at dawn. By the time she woke up, it was already daylight.

She was against his new way. His tenaciousness was inexplicable and she’d already given up on explaining his endurance.

Lucia continuously thought about getting up from bed, but her body did not listen to her. She had such a hard workout for two consecutive days in a month so her body felt languid.

She fell into shallow sleep and upon woke up, she felt a soft touch on her hair and opened her eyes. She didn’t know when he’d come in but he was sitting on the bed, his finger running through her hair.

She was sleepy-eyed and watched him with an empty gaze. Their eyes met and he lowered his head, lightly kissing her lips.

“I was worried since you haven’t gotten up yet. Are you okay?”

The soft touch on her lips told her this was real. Last night, she hated him a little but seeing him now, the hatred vanished into thin air.

“...at least you have a conscience.”

She bluntly blamed him, closed her eyes again and heard him laugh a little.

Hugo’s fingers ran through her hair, sweeping through it like a comb. It felt good and a little ticklish.

‘Isn’t my hair is completely disheveled?’

As the thought came to her mind, her sleepiness deserted her and she raised the blanket over her head.

“What’s wrong?” (Hugo)

“...my head...”

“Does it hurt? The doctor...”

“No, it’s not that.”

She lowered the blanket a little, her eyes peeking at him.

“Yesterday...I didn’t dry my hair properly. It’s probably a mess.”

It was the heart of a woman who wanted to show only a pretty figure in front of the man she loved. He could not understand her words, and tilting his head to the side, ripped the blanket off her. She let out a short scream and he kissed her lightly on her lips.

“What of it? You look pretty.”

Lucia stared at him, her gaze full of intent.

“...Flirt.”

“...What?”

“Nothing.”

He felt wronged. If she’d said that in the past, he would honestly have nothing to say. But not now.

“Vivian, did I do something wrong?”

“Aren’t you busy?”

“Don’t change the topic. I know your list defines me that way, but why are you saying this now, all of a sudden?”

“What list?”

“I know you have a list of all the things I’ve done wrong in your head.”

“What?”

Lucia was dumbfounded and burst into laughter.

“There’s a list in my head?” (Lucia)

“Weren’t you steadily adding one at a time?”

Lucia started laughing again. He sourly looked on as she began to laugh. He couldn’t see why she was laughing so much about what he said and couldn’t understand her laughter.

“Then, when did I make this list?” (Lucia)

“Why are you asking me that? You know better than I do.”

Lucia shrugged and once again burst into laughter. The thought that he also wonders what other people are thinking was very amusing and interesting.

‘Things I’ve done wrong.’

Through those words, he admitted to her that he’d done a lot of things wrong. She thought he was someone that was very unlikely to admit it even if he made a mistake.

“There is no such list. I can’t put up with something so complicated.”

“Then what was the word that popped up before?”

Lucia shyly pursed her lips.

“Because you said that all of a sudden.”

“What did I say?”

“...look...pretty.”

Lucia felt a bit embarrassed to say it herself and her words weren’t clear. She’d heard herself being called gentle or cute but she didn’t think the word ‘pretty’ matched her appearance.

“Is it wrong to just say what I feel?”

Lucia stared at him blankly. He was flirtatious yes, but he wasn’t the type to whisper sweet nothings into a woman’s ear so his words came off a bit unfriendly.

He was someone who had a lot and as such, was the flirt that women loved to cling to. Lucia reached out and rubbed her head.

As expected, just by touching her hair, she could feel it was untidy. Even without looking at a mirror, it was obvious it was a mess.

“Pretty? This look?”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with it, you look pretty.”

His expression did not change at all. It was as though he was looking at a tree and saying it was a tree. As Lucia kept staring into his eyes doubtfully, his expression grew increasingly awkward.

“Is it that you don’t like that way of expression? Then, your beauty is so bright that it seems blinding...”

“Are you making fun of me?”

Lucia replied sullenly. Hugo sighed and placing one hand on his forehead.

“Tell me what you want me to do.”

“...Pretty? Me?”

“You’re pretty.”

She didn’t know what he was thinking, but she decided not to think more complicatedly about it. It was good even if it was empty words.

She felt pleased, happy, ticklish inside, and when she looked at him, she couldn’t help but chuckle.

His expression became somewhat twisted and he spoke.

“Don’t laugh like that. It makes me want to eat (you).”

Lucia laughed even louder and looking at her, Hugo burst into laughter too. It was hard to pinpoint it but anyhow, it was nice to see her feeling comfortable.

After admitting to herself that she loved him, Lucia’s heart was more at peace and the mood around her grew relaxed.

When Hugo was away from Roam, Lucia was always on his mind. Although they’d reconciled before he left, he’d felt like it was somewhat insufficient and was uncomfortable with it.

It seemed like they weren’t putting out the fire but simply covering it up so they couldn’t see it. He was worried that when he came back to Roam, she would turn away from him as the issue wasn’t fully settled.

Contrary to his worries, she was doing very well. Rather, she became even brighter than before.

The thought that even without him, she would be completely fine, made his heart feel cold.

‘I want her’

He wanted to have all of her body and mind.

But how could he have a woman that had declared that she would never love him. It was the biggest challenge in his life.

He’d never properly fallen in love before. The brother he loved, said he loved him but chose death in the end.

She was going to be his first love. However, it was a tragedy that he’d experienced too much physical love before he knew of emotional love.

At times, love was so simple that an honest word of confession could be the key but he didn’t know that.

“Is it okay for you keep staying here? You aren’t busy?” (Lucia)

Hugo could sense that her voice was much clearer than before.

‘She likes being called pretty.’

Now, he began making a list in his head.

“Busy or not busy, for me, there’s no end to work so I can rest for as long as I don’t do it.”

“So you’re not working?”

“It’s not like that, I mean you don’t have to fret over it. Is it troublesome if I don’t work?”

“...It would be.”

“Why?”

“The husband has to feed his wife. And to do that, you have to make money.”

Hugo couldn’t help but laugh.

(10)

TN: Hehehe

Lucia lifted her head to look at him at the sound of laughter. At times, he would laugh oddly when she said something and Lucia couldn’t tell what part of it he was laughing at.

“It would be very easy to feed you. Even if I make money, seems like you don’t really use it.”

“I do use it. You know how much money it takes to throw a party?”

“I mean for personal spending.”

“I also use it for personal spending. I bought flowers to decorate the garden...”

“Dresses or jewelry. Things like that.”

“I’ve spent on that. Spent a lot of money to repair a dress but the Taran warehouse is overflowing with jewelry. I wouldn’t be able to wear all of them till I die.”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

This was because noble women tended to accumulate lots of precious ornaments. For a family of considerable wealth, there would be precious ornaments passed from generation to generation however, these ornaments would be property of the family.

In the care of a divorce, the precious ornaments obtained by the noble women were completely recognized as their property apart from the alimony.

The conversation somewhat failed to get his point across so Hugo spoke a bit more directly.

“Do you not want to spend my money?”

Lucia thought about the meaning of his words for a moment then laughed.

“It’s not like that. Did you think so?”

Surprisingly, he was quite sensitive. Discovering this unexpected side to him was somehow so cute, Lucia couldn’t stop laughing. To think that the huge man who gives off enormous pressure was cute...perhaps this was a side effect of being with Damian.

Since she’d looked at small Hugo for a long while, looking at big Hugo now, the previous threat level was somehow cut in half. It didn’t occur to her that maybe this was a result of Hugo’s effort.

If Lucia recalled their first encounter at the victory ball, she’d be able to tell just how different he is from back then. Even if out in the world, he was the King of beasts, in front of her, he killed his momentum, becoming more docile.

“Why’re you laughing?” (Hugo)

She couldn’t see the image of the Taran Duke, the black lion of the war that overwhelmed people simply by being there, in the man grumbling in front of her.

And so, the little rabbit, Lucia sat at the feet of the great Lion, laughing and thinking he was cute.

“I was just so surprised. I didn’t expect you to have think like that. Truthfully, I’m not fond of shopping unnecessarily.”

“Hah...right. Our ladyship is used to being thrifty and frugal.”

“It’s a good thing though.”

“Did I say otherwise?”

He’d never heard of a wife being criticized for being frugal. Asking her to use and spend his money somewhat seemed like a joke now.

His wife was fragile, she felt like she’d be crushed if he held her a bit more tightly but she had a rock-solid will, confidence and independence in her thoughts. Even though her appearance was full of contradictions, she didn’t contradict herself.

Hugo needed something to hold onto her. There was already a strong bond of marriage tying them together but it was lacking.

He wanted to find something based on her personal desires so she could never escape from him. It was not money and neither was it power.

As for her social activities, they were limited to the necessary minimum amount that she had to do. There weren’t many people she had frequent exchanges with and she hadn’t built an active rapport with influencers of the northern social circles.

She didn’t show much interest in his work neither did she snoop around in his office.

Money and Power.

‘If one subtracts the two, what else is there for humans to have?’

The people of the bottom class do not have money and power yet they have families and bear children with love.

What do they have?

‘Is it the child?’

At the sudden thought, his frame of mind grew somber. He definitely did not want a child born from his blood to exist. Even if there was no reason, he couldn’t give her a child anyways.

When he thought about it carefully, he found himself doing well. He’d been proven by many woman, and he was confident.

If he could make her toss and turn at night because she was lonely without him then that was truly killing two birds with one stone. It was a little instinctive but in the first place, the more instinctive the desire is, the greedier it is.

The problem was he wasn’t too sure if she liked it too so he decided to garner some confidence.

“Do you like doing it with me?”

“...Huh?”

“Are you satisfied on the bed?”

Lucia’s face, all the way to her neck, gradually turned red. She stared at his brazen face for a moment then turned around, her back facing him.

“I need to sleep a bit more. You should hurry and get back to work.”

Hugo was considerably shocked by her turning away. Was it terrible to the extent that she didn’t even want to answer?

He hastily pulled at her.

“Vivian, what’s the problem? The length? Number of times? Not enough caressing? Or is it the position...”

Lucia quickly sat up and screamed at him.

“That’s enough so please just stop! How can you? You...you...those words...”

Her face was as red as an apple as she rambled causing him to chuckle. The sight of her embarrassed and shaken up made him want to tease her.

“What’s wrong all of a sudden? I’ve said much more racy stuff than that.”

“Th...That...the situation was different.”

“In the bedroom. On the bed. What’s so different?”

“Even if we’re in the same place, time has passed so the situation is different. Now, it’s morning...”

Lucia jerked as he climbed over her knees and onto the bed. Even though there was no place to escape to, she was thinking of escaping. However he was faster.

His arms intercepted her body on the bed, closing up any gaps for escaping.

“It’s not like we’ve never done it in the morning before.”

“You also overslept then...”

“Your criteria’s pretty unique. It’s okay to do it from night to morning but not in the morning?”

He lowered his head and covered her lips with his own. The kiss which started off gently quickly flared up as their tongues tangled with each other.

His tongue rummaged inside her mouth, caressing her gums, stroking the inside of her palate and rolling her tongue like a ball.

Their lips separate for a moment then were glued together again.

When his hands flew to her chest, grabbing her breasts and rubbing with his fingers, Lucia suddenly came to her senses.

“Look here, Beast-ssi.” (1) (Lucia)

His red eyes widened in surprise.

“If you go any further than this, you’ll have to explain to the guests tomorrow why they have to leave as soon as they arrive.”

“Ha-ha. You really...”

He burst out laughing and took Lucia into his arms. Lucia felt her body tingle at the sound of his laughter.

‘Ah...’

Lucia sighed inwardly

‘I’m happy now.’

She was so happy that her heart felt numb and tingling. She felt the edges of her eyes sting and buried her head in his chest.

Translator’s Corner

1) For here but I usually don’t leave Korean terms in my translations but Mr. Beast or Sir. Beast felt so awkward. Think of it like Beast-kun... Well, not exactly but something like that. It’s a honorific.