< — The Beginning and the End — > (6)
“There is a treasure passed down in our family for generations. It is a magical tool that binds its contractor.” (Philip)
“Interesting. And how do you plan on getting that magical tool? You can’t get a foot out of here.”(Hugo)
“I’ve kept it in a safe place for safekeeping, but you can ask someone to bring it. No one else can use it anyways. It is an exclusive contract, so one of the contracting parties must be one of our family members.”
Hugo lost interest in the unique magical tool. Philip was the only one remaining out of his family. The old man was basically saying that once he dies, the magical tool becomes garbage.
According to his investigations, Philip did not get married again after his wife and son died, and he was continually alone after his father died. Now that he thought about it, it was strange that the old man had no descendants to inherit his will, even though he was so obsessed.
‘Well, this bastard’s private situation is none of my concern.’
He decided that he must kill the old man. Philip’s family would come to an end with Philip’s death.
“What about the woman? Not any woman can have my child, no?”
“That is prepared.”
“It is prepared?”
When Philip mentioned holding another woman, Hugo anticipated this, but to really hear Philip say that there was a woman, made him speechless. How much had the old man pulled wool over his eyes, scheming and deceiving him?
“So you mean you did such a thing arbitrarily, without my permission.”
“It is a mission our family has done for generations. It is not something done after getting permission.”
“And if the woman you prepared can’t get pregnant?”
“There is a readied replacement.”
“It’s not just one or two women prepared, huh. You’ve set up a training camp.”
Hugo burst into uncontrollable laughter.
“There’s a limit to treating someone like a stud.”
Hugo mumbled, irritatedly. He thought to himself that the heads of the Taran family who accepted such treatment were crazy bastards.
“Let’s summarize this. In exchange for you giving my wife medication, I will share a bed with a woman you’ve prepared and have a child. You’ll raise the child and I’ll sign a contract, promising not to touch you. And what about after that? Do you think Damian will move the way you want?”
“I do not know much of the distant future. I simply do what I can do right now.”
“You do not look at the future.”
Hugo got an important clue. He seemed to have found the reason for Philip’s confidence. When Philip was speaking about his wife not being safe after giving birth, his attitude wasn’t confidence based on the truth, but recklessness, like a tiger moth running into a campfire.
“Old man. I understand what you want. When should I make a decision?”
“The Madam has to take the medicine at least a month before she is due, for strengthening of the body.”
“Oh? So the more my wife’s stomach grows, the more restless I will be. You know how to strike cleverly, old man. Is this also a method passed down in your family for generations?”
“…”
Philip’s expression slightly stiffened. It wasn’t that the Duke’s provoking tone was bothering him. Philip was rather confident that he was in an advantageous position. If the Duke couldn’t abandon the Duchess, he had no choice but to be drawn into his proposal.
However, that belief was beginning to crack a little. No matter how he looked at it, the Duke’s attitude wasn’t that of someone with an unfavorable contract ahead. He couldn’t shake off the strange feeling of incongruity.
‘What might have gone wrong?’
He might have crossed the line that bordered the Duke’s pride. If the Duke valued his pride more than the Duchess and refused to make a deal with Philip, regardless of the Duchess’ safety, then the plan was a failure. The Duchess would be fine even if she gave birth to the baby when she reached full term. If the Duke discovered Philip’s lies, Philip was as good as dead.
‘No. Even if the affection is briefly passionate and nothing but lust, it is not yet time for the fire to go out.’
When someone’s momentum was suppressed, that was the end of it. Once you lost your footing, it became a situation where you were standing at a crossroads, plunging down an endless depth.
“I am going to need to definite answer. Will my wife die after giving birth if she does not take the medicine you give me?”
“For the Madam’s safety…”
“Answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”
“…That is correct.”
“What is ‘correct’?”
“The Madam will not live long.”
Philip tried to keep a calm expression as he faced the red eyes staring at him like they could see right through him. When the Duke’s lips slowly curved and he began to laugh, Philip felt chills on his back.
“You know, the reason I came to see your bastardous face today is because I was curious what bullshit you would spout. You do not disappoint.”
The moment Philip’s expression distorted, Hugo sensed that it was his victory. And he was confident of it.
“What do you think I found in the north?”
“…”
“Mugwort, it’s called. Such an interesting thing. To think such a common weed was the secret to continuing the Taran bloodline.”[1]
Philip’s expression was unchanged. But his mind was furiously spinning. The Duke was bluffing. Philip had already anticipated this much. He had no intention of being trapped.
‘He got clued to the mugwort through Anna and is making a vain guess.’
Philip gave a relaxed smile like usual and said.
“I do not know what you’re talking about. I am aware of the Madam’s absence of menstruation symptom due to intake of mugwort. That’s why I said I would give her treatment.”
Hugo chuckled and began listing off the names of herbs, one by one. These were the contents of the prescription that Lucia had received from Philip in her dream.
The smile on Philip’s composed face began to stiffen. It was the complete mugwort prescription that was never to be revealed to the head of the Taran family. Indeed, it was the vision that was passed down only to the descendants of Philip’s family for generations. He couldn’t be sure without reading his family’s secret notebook.
“I found your hideout, you bastard.”
Philip’s face completely collapsed. His distorted expression had turned black and his face was twitching. Hugo made his last verification, catching Philip off guard before he could put his brain to work properly.
“I looked through the records quite thoroughly, but I didn’t see anything about something going wrong after giving birth.”
Hugo watched Philip carefully. If it was true that his wife would die after giving birth, then Philip would immediately realize that Hugo was lying. Seeing Philip’s dark complexion remaining unchanged, Hugo breathed a long, silent sigh.
It was a lie. His wife was safe. Once he put down his fear of possibly losing her, a strong desire to kill Philip surged within him.
“I will let you experience pain that will make you wish for a peaceful death.”
He would never let him die peacefully. Hugo gazed at Philip with a piercing look in his eyes and spoke drearily.
“After Damian, no boy with black hair and red eyes will be born again.”
Philip who had been looking spiritless, abruptly lifted his head. Hugo was pleased to see Philip’s eyes full of despair.
“This is the end of this cursed blood.”
Philip’s face, which always had a relaxed look and a polite smile, was hideously twisted. He glared at Hugo through eyes filled with resentment, anger and despair then he began wailing with strange sounds.
Hugo looked at the convulsing sight of the bastard whom he wouldn’t see again after today, then he turned around and left the room.
“Monitor him thoroughly, just in case he isn’t willing.”
One of the knights replied in affirmative and went into the room. As the stone doors closed, the racket coming from inside stopped. Hugo planned to leave Philip alone for the time being, for safety’s sake. It was only until his wife gave birth safely and the search party found Philip’s hideout.
The fear that he would receive pain worse than death, despair that his family’s secrets were all revealed and destroyed or Hugo’s last words declaring the end of the Taran line.
‘What would torment that bastard the most, among these three?’
Hugo’s steps were light as he climbed up the stairs. He felt like he could breathe now. This feeling was like he had finally escaped the shadow of the Taran family that had been suppressing him.
Translator’s Corner:
[1] It is way too late to change [mugwort] to [ssamyupsuk] now but the ‘mugwort’ in this story is completely made up. When I first started translating, I used mugwort which was the closest thing to an english name I could find but I should’ve made up something. We’ve already come so far calling it mugwort so I never changed it but yea.
Q: Is bastardous a word?
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I KNEW IT! He has a nursery of women! My premonition was right!
Finally, Philip is gonna rot in that dungeon. WOOT!
Thank you for the chapter, Ruby. 💚
But somehow, I wanted them to continue the bloodline… after all their greatness comes from their black hair and red eyes.
no lmao are yall sick? it means hugo have to CHEAT with the women prepared in order to make a bride for damian so that damian can have a son. it’s horrible, twisted, and immoral.
not to mention it meant hugo being unfaithful to lucia, and yall said you want that? torment our girl?
let damian have only daughter in the future. whats matter anyway if theres no more taran boy after damian?
ok im done ranting. i know its fiction but it DOES affect reality. being unfaithful and performing incest is extremely disgusting so.
OOH HUGH IS SO SMART! He used the recipe from Lucia’s dream and pretended to have Philip’s vision with him. So smart. Let’s all thank Lucia and her dream because if not for that, this won’t happen.
Hohohohoho..
I want to do evil laughter for once to that’s dastardly Phillip ..is dastardly a word??
(◣^◢)
Thanks for the chapter
Lucia’s dream basically saved not only Lucia, but also Hugh, the Baden family, the Matin family, Damian, Princess Cecil, the Ramis family, the Taran household (including subordinates), Sofia Lawrence, and prolly more. Well, many of those in the list were saved indirectly by her dream.
INDEED. Lucia’s pendant really proved its worth.
FINALLY! I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long! It’s sooo satisfying 😁
I hope he can find his hideout for real,and then kill him.
Thank you so much for the translation ❤️
See….i told ya….if they just be honest to each other since the beginning, the phillip’s threat will be easily dealt….oh well then the book will be short…..lmao
thankyou for the chapter as always miss Ruby!!
feels great now knowing Phillip wont get in the way of our ducal couple fufufu~~
《°_°》 Phillip’s obsession is dark and crazy…
I love it that his plan failed!! Thanks to Hugo’s wit!
This is amazing. Thanks Miss Ruby for another great work of translating ♡♡♡ looking forward to the next ones!
Thanks for the new chapter!
I reread from sleepykorean and she/he used a made up word ‘trilobate sage’ tho she/he mentioned mugwort as a real plant.. I can’t find bastardous in MW but it does seem to be at least present in an urban dictionary or in some other language than English… But we can more or less understand what it means lol… Also it kinda bugs me, the Tarans were introduced as ‘half nobles’ right? I mean bcoz of the mix of human blood in their line…. Then it was told otherwise that tarans were not able to have children with humans unless going thru the mugwort process… IDK, I’m probably over thinking.. And about Philip’s reaction in this chapter…. Wasn’t it mentioned that when he first tried giving the medication to lucia, lucia was suspicious of the drug esp becos of the vanilla smell already.. Did he just overlooked that because of his delusions? And I may be the only one confused but since he’s already cracked does that mean that all this time the ultimate secret vision was that drug and lucia will be safe after delivery? Nothing else? (a little anticlimactic for me but OK). Can I hope for more little tarans in the future because the medicine was to cure her of her infertility right? I’m totally up for twins like how Hue and Hugo…
#sorryforthelongpost
I can only answer Philips part. it’s not that all of his family secret vision was just the drug, but the way hugh said it was like as if he already knew the entire thing so philips were like that.
I hope you can understand what i’m trying to say, im not that good with english😂
Cmiiw tho.
I’m late to the comment party but here’s my 2 cents….Even though I saw it coming when Hugh asked Lucia for the “recipe”, I’m a bit disappointed since I too find the bit about phillip falling for the list of ingredients bluff a bit anti-climactic/incongruous since the reason he made a new mugwort-cancelling “cure recipe” which was different from the original cure he handed Lucia in the dream was because he was made aware of her having knowledge of its vanilla scent…so if he was going to be that shocked at Hugh knowing the ingredients, then how come he never questioned the duchess’s knowledge of it in the first place? Shouldn’t he have been more suspicious of her knowing bout it then too? Unless I missed out on something, like was there ever mention that vanilla scent was not exclusive to the cure? I find this to be a loophole that could have been fixed with a little more attention to detail…and another thing, I find Hugh’s careless dismissal of the fact that Phillip (to his knowledge) has noone to inherit his family’s oh so precious secrets a bit sloppy, if he is that determined for the taran bloodline to keep going, shouldn’t he have groomed a doctor to succeed him too, if he’s thorough enough and has time to groom female incubators for Hugh’s “seed”. Therefore, shouldn’t Hugh be concerned that Phillip may not in fact be the only one of his family left rather than just brush it off with his initial investigation’s findings, he could have finished his thought with “I will have to look into it again just to be sure”…..in any case,Phillip was a necessary evil so I don’t hate him, killing him earlier than this would have been stupid (aside from the plot progression obv)…if anything it’s Anna who messed up….these are my thoughts that I wish could have been addressed/more fleshed out. I’m just glad someone else pointed it out as it really bothered me, sorry for the tldr haha…
Thank you so much for the chapter! Can’t wait for the mini-Lucia to be born and a happy ending🥺💕
Go DIe Phillip!!
Hmm…It bothers me that Phillip doesn’t have son or doughter. It’s weird. The Taran family needed his family to make a baby, so he had to learn somebody to be their next family doctor. I think that he lied that his son is dead or he has apprentice and he hide him/her.
Oooo that was so satisfying!! Im so happy for lucia and hugo 😌😌
Thanks for the chapter~
Hoho, looks like the end of Philip is here. Farewell old fogey.
– Comrade Hidden Flamingo
let’s kill this old man
I still crack up because “mugwort” is used.
I actually grew up eating mugwort (yomogi mochi) and it’s totally delicious.
THANK YOU RUBYYY. I love this developement
I’m worried Philip is not completely done, the way he was acting made me think he was casting some kind of spell. If I’ve learned anything from stories (movies, tv shows, books) it’s that you never leave a crazed desperate enemy alive. After all, the corner mouse will turn to bite the cat.
Correction:
“the cornered mouse will turn to bite the cat.”
Jesus! He prepared a lot of women to impregnate? That give me chills, women being treated like brood mares 😞 wth! That’s sick! I’m guessing that the Duchess Taran of the dream was one of them.
Q: Is bastardous a word?
According to urban dictionary… it is a word.
Why do I feel so relieved? I guess I hated that doctor very much.
This was so epicccshfjdkfjdkdkdjdjdjd thank u so much for the chapter as always!
anyone who read the first few chapters before ruby took over (thankfully) should know mugwort isn’t actually mugwort. There was a translation note about it
Awesome move Hugh!! ( ✧≖ ͜ʖ≖)
Ahhhhh that was so satisfying! Great job Hugo!
Mugwort is fine…it exists…also called St Johns Flower (NOT St Johns Wort)..like many plants used in herbalism, it is a type daisy. It affects women particularly actually corrects irregularity (but causes uterine convulsions and possible miscarriage).
Its usual uses are for cleansing and digestive disorders, And now ya know
As someone who has hard time understanding human emotions and how they fiction hehe. Can someone explain, why was Phillip so obsessed with Taran Family? And continuing their blood line? No matter how much I reared this novel, I never understand?
Hmm. I think the best way to explain it would be: Let’s say your family had this tradition of raising the perfect cow. Your grandfather raised his perfect cow, your father raised his too and all your life, your only goal has been to raise a perfect cow. You have no other goal in life. You just want your perfect cow.
When people have nothing else to focus on in life, they tend to obsess over one thing. That’s how I see it.
So after Damian, there will be no boy with black hair and red eyes… That’s cause Damian can never have a successor which is a boy. He can only have a daughter since he will not marry his sister.
So that also means the Taran bloodline will never have a son and always be a daughter.
Also, let’s say since Lucia knows the preparation for the girl Damian fell in love with, which is taking mugwort eversince the first period, and the prescription to cure it for they can have a child… What if the girl Damian fell in love was old enough and already had her first periid? Then Damian and the girl will never have a child of their own and thus the end of Taran bloodline considering Damian will be as loyal as Hugo.
Btw, mugwort is a plan that was used to abort pregnancies though in old times.
Hugh’s finally free from his past!! This is so satisfying uwu <3
Thank you for your hard work!!! <3