Lucia

(3)

As soon as Jerome heard the meeting was dismissed, he went into the conference room. Hugo sat at the head of the table, looking through documents.

To those new to this, it was a tense atmosphere but to those who busying around their day, it was as always. They all knew that the Duke had the habit of looking through the content of the meetings for around 30 minutes after it was over.

“Your Grace.” (Jerome)

“Mm.”

Hugo responded with a lift of the hand, signaling that he didn’t want tea.

“Fabian is here.”

“Tell him to come here.”

A while later, Fabian came in and turned in his report. Hugo glanced at Fabian and acknowledged him with a nod then took the report. As he was looking through it, he frowned. Why was the Countess of Falcon suddenly approaching his wife’s acquaintance, the novelist?

“…What the hell is this?”

Fabian tensed up at the Duke’s fierce reaction.

“It hasn’t been just once or twice since you’ve come in, yet you only bring this now?”

Fabian swallowed hard. If he didn’t bring it now, he’d really be in big trouble.

“I apologize. It was a lapse in judgement.”

Knowing the nature of his lord, Fabian readily admitted his fault. Several times, he’d witnessed the scene of other people making numerous excuses and having something fly at their head.

Hugo continued reading the report and his expression grew more and more vicious. The additional report included that the Countess of Falcon had done a background check on Princess Vivian.

Due to lack of time, it was still under investigation as to how the Countess of Falcon tracked down the relationship between the female novelist and Princess Vivian.

“A background check?”

Hearing the Duke’s tone laced with threat, Fabian broke out in cold sweat.

“Who is in charge of investments? Send him in.”

A while later, Ashin came in. Ashin wasn’t the person in charge to be exact but he was in a position to understand the flow of investments and bookkeeping so he came in on behalf of the person who was absent today.

“Have we invested in any high market or business owned by Count Falcon?”

Hugo remembered asking the person in charge to review a business plan passed to him by the Countess of Falcon. If the plan was judged to be profitable, the person in charge was responsible for deciding whether to invest. Normally, Hugo left matters concerning investments to the manager and unless there was a loss reported, he didn’t get involved.

Ashin quickly combed through the documents he brought in and found the related document.

“Withdraw all investments. Immediately.” (Hugo)

“Do you mean…right away? At least a month’s notice in advance…” (Ashin)

“Right. Now.”

Hugo cracked his knuckles in emphasis and Ashin straightened up.

“Yes, sir. I’ll deal with it right away.”

After Ashin left the room with careful steps, Hugo commanded the nervous Fabian.

“Send down this warning. If such nonsense is ever repeated, it’ll be one’s head next time.”

Withdrawing investments and even sending a threat. For the first time, Fabian found the Countess of Falcon slightly pitiful. The Taran Family invested on quite the huge scale so to suddenly lose such a large amount of money, Count Falcon’s businesses would be shaken.

Still, to a woman he once shared intimacy with, it was truly ruthless. The Duke of Taran wasn’t one to pursue an investment turnover unless a loss had been suffered so it was Fabian’s first time seeing the Duke withdraw an investment for emotional reasons.

‘Should I ingratiate myself to the Duchess a little?’

Fabian revised his thoughts that the Duke was just having fun and fascinated with being a newlywed. This wasn’t just fascination, it was more like his lord had fallen for his wife.

***

After dinner, Lucia asked Hugo to give her some of his time. They went to the receiving room and sat facing each other.

“When you were absent, I was told the Duke’s doctor wanted to meet me.” (Lucia)

Hugo’s expression instantly froze over. He had definitely ordered that she was not to learn of the old man’s very existence. This was the first time Jerome hadn’t fulfilled his orders.

Feeling his master’s gaze on him, Jerome lowered his head with a stiff expression.

“Don’t be angry with him. My doctor is the one who disobeyed your orders. It seems my doctor met your doctor while looking for a cure all over and asked him for advice. I hear you called my doctor once a week to ask about the treatment so I think the pressure on her should have been considerable.”

Lucia hadn’t known he’d been calling Anna to ask about the treatment. She thought he had already forgotten about it and the fact that he’d been constantly asking about it made her feel thankful. But she could also understand how much of a mental burden it could have placed on Anna.

“Anna, my doctor, will be resigning. I hope you don’t punish her additionally.”

Lucia thought highly of Anna’s efforts. The woman went beyond her role as a primary doctor and did her best to treat Lucia. She did all the work Lucia had done in the dream. She found Philip whom Lucia had miraculously met in the dream.

She met the Duke’s doctor and after constantly interacting with him, she grasped his personality and medical skills before asking for advice, and then when she received the medicine, she personally tried it on herself. Hence, the cure was found as a result of Anna’s efforts.

However, Anna was rash. It was fortunate that Lucia knew what medicine it was or else she would have taken a drug with unknown ingredients. It didn’t matter whether the drug was the real cure or not.

Anna seemed unaware of how much of a mistake she’d made. If Jerome knew about this, he would definitely tell her husband and once her husband knew, Anna’s life was forfeit.

Anna’s arbitrary decision happened because of her heartfelt care so Lucia didn’t want the woman to be charged of a crime to that extent and decided to keep the matter between herself and Anna alone.

“Alright.” (Hugo)

“My doctor seemed confident that your doctor knows the cure.” (Lucia)

“…I see.”

Hugo acknowledged that the old man had remarkable medical skill. If it was the old man, it wasn’t strange that he knew the cure.

“Could that fellow have used your doctor to try and meet you?” (Hugo)

Putting Philip’s medical skill aside, Hugo couldn’t believe the man himself.

“No. My doctor said she actively arranged for it. I was told your doctor didn’t want to reveal himself until the end.”

Anna put on the blame on herself as much as possible and covered for Philip. She didn’t want to implicate Philip who was already under surveillance and to Anna, Philip was a teacher close to her heart and a genuinely true person.

“Jerome.”

Hugo made an eye gesture, signaling for Jerome to leave and Jerome bowed his head in response and exited the room.

“There is a reason I took action to prevent you from meeting my doctor.”

The old man couldn’t do anything to her nor was there any reason for him to harm her. What the old man obsessively desired from Hugo was a daughter, that is, a bride for Damian and she couldn’t have a child of Taran blood.

Hugo was simply worried about what kind of nonsense the old man might say to her so he kept her away.

“Ah, yes. You wouldn’t do it for no reason.” (Lucia)

“If you want to meet him, it’s okay if you do so while I’m there.”

If the three of them met him together, the old man wouldn’t be able to say stupid things. Hugo didn’t want to see the old man again but if the man knew the cure, it couldn’t be helped.

Translator’s Corner:

*Just in case: I didn’t mistranslate Countess of Falcon to Count of Falcon. The business is indeed owned by the late(?) Count Falcon or I guess you could say it’s under his name.

*Lol at Fabian.