Conflict [1—2]

The garden was filled with the fragrant scent of flowers. Lucia walked into the garden and stood still with her eyes closed, seemingly intoxicated with the scent.

These days, her biggest job was gardening but she did not personally do any labor. The gardeners took care of everything. Lucia simply made the choice on what flowers would be planted, checked if they were doing well and wandered around the garden. But even though the workers did all the work, they would flatter her with compliments. It was a bit funny at times.

She looked up at the sky, noticing that the sun had already gone down and shadows were forming on the ground. Then she turned her gaze towards his office.

'Ah…he isn't there.'

He was definitely standing there a while ago. His intense gaze on her back was embarrassing but when it disappeared, she felt disappointed.

It was a complicated feeling.

He often took a break from work to rest at the balcony and Lucia went into the garden frequently because she wanted to see him.

'Examining the flowers' was a pretty good excuse. The majority of the time that she could see him was limited to the evenings. It was only around this time that she could see him for an extra moment. Although they lived in the same house, he was usually far from her reach because he was a really busy person. Jerome had told her that he was buried in piles of paperwork.

He was very diligent lord that held half-a-day meetings with his vassals every three to four days and did not forget to inspect his territory.

Count Matin only knew how to show his face at various parties in the capital and wasn't concerned about the situation of his territory. Lucia had only found out about this later but Count Matin's territory was one of the worst territories. Because of its excessive taxes, people either escaped or were caught trying to escape and were killed. Perhaps the miserable ending of Count Matin was also his karma.

Almost every night, Hugo and Lucia had dinner together, talked, and then Hugo would find her in her bedroom. She knew that she should not be greedy for more but sometimes, she couldn't bear the loneliness.

Sometimes, Lucia felt like she was standing dangerously on the thin ice of a deep lake and would rather have the ice break so she could sink to the bottom.

"Milady, I've been asked to escort you inside."

"…By who?"

The only person that could ask someone to bring her inside was her husband, the Duke of Taran but she still asked the maid.

"His Grace asked me to escort you inside."

'Why at this time…?"

Lucia followed the maid inside with an uneasy heart. There wasn't just one person waiting for her in the receiving room on the second floor.

In addition to Jerome, there was the family doctor, Anna. The moment she saw Anna, Lucia had an inkling of what was happening.

Afterall, not too long ago, she had been acting like she didn't know what Jerome was talking about. She knew that Jerome would tell Hugo about her condition one day. But she didn't think that Hugo would go to the extent of summoning the doctor and coming along with her.

Although, truthfully, it would have been a bit disappointing if he hadn't shown any interest.

Looking at Lucia who stood at the door like an uninvited guest, Hugo's expression hardened and he took long strides, approaching her. When his tall, large frame suddenly appeared in front of her, Lucia was momentarily shocked.

"Why…"

He started to speak with restrained expression but stopped and grabbed her hand. He dragged her to the sofa then he sat beside her.

Anna turned her head slightly to peek at the ducal couple. It was her first time seeing the couple together up close, side by side. She had had her doubts about whether the rumored terrifying, knight-born Duke and the quiet, fragile-natured Duchess would look good together but after seeing them this way, they did look good.

'To be attacked by someone that big, Milady must have it hard.'

From her standpoint as Lucia's doctor, Anna inwardly criticized the Duke who was ignorant of his own strength.

"Milady, I heard that you have not had your monthly guest the entire time you've been here."

"…That is correct."

Lucia was uncomfortable with this situation.

She had personally made the choice to be infertile and never bothered to look for treatment because she knew that she could treat it at any time however, this situation made it seem like she was a patient with a deadly disease.

"You never had your first menstruation?" (Anna)

"…I had my first menstruation." (Lucia)

"Then when did you stop menstruating? Were you hurt or ill before it stopped? Do you feel anything wrong inside your body?"

"…"

"Wife, explain it to the doctor properly."

Lucia was surprised to hear his voice. It sounded firmer than usual. She turned to look at him and saw his cold, red eyes watching her. For some reason, he didn't give off a good feeling.

"…I took the wrong medication when I had my first period." (Lucia)

"What medicine did you take? Did you feel poisoned?" (Anna)

"I don't really know what medicine I took and I don't know about being poisoned. It did not hurt and so far, I have not seen anything strange with my body."

When Lucia was looking for doctors in her dream, those doctors couldn't even figure out her symptoms properly. Even if she were to explain everything to Anna, Anna was not likely to figure it out but still, Lucia hid her symptoms as much as possible.

This illness of hers was a delicate one. If the patient did not explain it properly, the doctor could not find an answer. Even more so if it was a disease that the doctor had never heard about before.

Anna fervently dug through her memories but she had never heard of symptoms where someone's menstruation stopped after they took medicine.

"Milady, can you retrace your memories a little more? What did the medicine taste like? Why did you take it? How much of it did you take? And what was the color and shape of this medicine?"

"…I do not know. It happened when I was young and had no knowledge of medicine, so I do not remember anything."

Hugo who had been quietly listening to the conversation suddenly turned to look at Lucia.

"Talk with me for a bit."

Then he gestured to the people standing around.

"Everyone get out."