The Marquis' Lost Mistress

heya! I picked up this novel because well – I’d been reading it for a while and found it’d been also dropped for a while. That + people kept sending this novel when I asked for novels I could pick up and I couldn’t be more honored given the opportunity to translate it. I hope I’ll do it justice and you’ll enjoy it. the previous chapters of this novel can be found…somewhere online. Have fun!

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Episode 27 

One day, a man began visiting Theon and his mother’s house. 

Each time, Theon had to hold his breath in the attic and pretend he wasn’t there. 

The more times he came, the longer Theon stayed in the attic. 

The day he saw his mother jumping around with a gorgeous ring on her left-finger that he had never seen before, they finally went out. 

And now, Theon was walking towards an orphanage run by the temple led by his mother, hand in hand. 

“Well, I could have chosen not to give birth.” 

His mother said, looking back at Theon who’d stopped in his tracks. 

“There’s a medicine that prevents you from having children. I wouldn’t have given birth to you if I ate it.” 

She frowned slightly and looked troubled. 

“But if you eat it consistently for a long time, you may not end up not being able to have a child at all. That’s why I didn’t eat it.” 

Then she put her finger on her cheeks. 

Having worked as a theater actress for many years, she often made exaggerated movements in her daily life. 

“How long will I live as a prostitute? I can marry a nobleman now as I am right now. But, you know, I’ve never regretted giving birth to you.” 

She squatted down and made eye contact with Theon. 

“I’d like to take you with me if I could, but he doesn’t want that. So I can’t help it.” 

Theon didn’t understand what his mother was saying. No, he didn’t want to understand what she was saying. 

What was certain was that, no matter what he said here, his mother would abandon him. 

Words like, “Please don’t throw me away,” “take some pity on me,” “I’ll even hide in the attic again if you want me to, so…” were meaningless. 

He clasped the hem of his mother’s dress in his little hand at the last moment. 

“Your mother will live her life, and you can live your own. There’s nothing difficult about it.” 

She said, looking at the child’s hand clutching her dress. Then she smiled as she made eye-contact with Theon. 

It was a unique and pure smile. 

“It’ll be fine. Your mom donated all the child-support she received from your dad, so they’ll probably be very nice to you. Don’t worry.” 

She rose from her position. 

The boy’s hand, which was still clasped upon her dress, came off helplessly. 

His mother held no love, sorrow or even anger towards her unwanted child. 

Theon really was nothing to her. 

It was the words his mother had left him when she parted with him that convinced him of it again. 

“If you grow up well and become rich, make sure to visit your mom! I’ll be happy, take care! Bye!” 

Seeing Theon holding the hand of the person who’d stepped out from the orphanage, his mother waved to him cheerfully. 

Not even tears came out. It was just very cold. 

Theon entered the orphanage without any lingering feelings, and had been here since that day. 

Maybe it was because of his mother’s donation, or the fact that it was an orphanage run by the temple, but Theon managed to get along well here. 

There was no abuse, of course, and there was no hunger either. 

He learned writing, exercised moderately, and developed social skills through exchanges with friends. 

He also learned social rules, customs, and manners, and received proper attention from his teachers. 

Funny how all this was something he’d never experienced when he was with the mother he loved so much. 

The boy, who’d grown cut off from the world in a house with a strange mother, began to grow up little by little. 

However, no matter how much time passed, the cold he felt at that time did not disappear. 

Even if he tried to warm his body with several layers of clothing, it was still so cold. 

Then when Theon turned 13, he came. 

“I brought him here.” 

Theon arrived in the room, led by a temple man he had never seen before. 

There were two men sitting inside the large, neat, luxurious yet modest room. 

“Are you sure this is the one you’re looking for?” 

A man with a white beard glanced at Theon and asked the man sitting opposite him. 

The man who’d been asked the question slowly turned his head towards Theon, taking his lips off the teacup. 

“……!” 

It was only then Theon realized that his mother’s words had not been a joke. 

‘If you happen to see him, you’ll recognize him at once. Like, “Oh, that’s my father.” ‘ 

She was right. He couldn’t not recognize him. 

A man with the same black hair and red eyes as Theon. A man who looked just like him. 

It was his father. 

“Ah.” 

Just as Theon had recognized him, he seemed to have recognized Theon, too. 

“I think that’s right.” 

He smiled vaguely at Theon, who’s eyes were widened like that of a rabbit. 

“Then, I’ll start the adoption process immediately…” 

Said the white bearded man as he rose to his feet. 

“No, it seems right, but there’s something I have to confirm just in case.” 

“……Oh, confirmation. Of course, it’s about finding your bloodline. You definitely should check it properly.” 

At the words of the man believed to be Theon’s father, the white bearded man sat down again. 

In fact, everyone except for the man and the boy with black hair could not hide their wonder.  

He looked like he was printed on a board, even the hair and eye color were the same. They wondered what else was needed to be checked. 

“He’s my blood. That is correct.” 

The black-haired man stood up and approached the stiff Theon, standing face to face with him. Then he looked down at him. 

“But I still don’t know if he’s worth taking with me.”  

He laid his hand over Theon’s head. 

“……!” 

And before long, the terrible cold that had plagued Theon slowly began to recede. 

“……warm.” 

Tears of gratitude came out as his body was warmed by the heat and the bitter cold he felt disappeared. 

Theon raised his hands and held the hand of the man on his head. 

Even though the flame flaring out of the man’s head spread through his hair. 

No, it wasn’t spreading. 

As if responding to the flame from the man’s hand, each hair strand on Theon’s head had turned into a flame. 

“I’ll take you.” 

The man took his hand off Theon’s head. He fell on one knee and made eye contact with Theon, who was crying. 

“From today, you are my son.” 

Since then, Theon’s life changed again. 

The original that was given to Theon was Hans. It was the name his mother had given him. 

His father, Marquis Karsha, gave Theon a new life with the new name Theotron. 

Life surrounded by all sorts of rare, expensive, luxurious things. Opportunities for higher education. The power to stand on top of others and look down on them. 

He gave it all. 

“Did you think I’d recognize you as a son?” 

He ignored what the Marchioness of Karsha, who had failed in birthing a proper successor, talked about. 

“How dare you, illegitimate child!” 

The words of the two Karsha young masters who had failed to express their abilities and were shunned by the marquis did not bother him. 

“Your mother is dead.” 

Even his mother’s end, that his father told him about, did not have any effect on Theon. 

“I knew she wasn’t a wise woman, but I didn’t think she was so stupid.” 

It is said that the man his mother had married was one with a bad reputation in aristocratic society. 

Theon’s mother was his third wife. 

The first wife died of illness, and the second wife died in an accident. 

The process was suspicious, but he wasn’t punished since there was no evidence and he married his mother successfully. 

It seemed his mother was consistently beaten after marrying the nobleman. 

“Still, she sent me something like this, so perhaps she wasn’t completely foolish.” 

Theon accepted what his father offered him. It was a letter stained with blood everywhere. 

It’s contents contained what she had suffered at the hands of her husband and pleads of help. 

The Marquis’ move upon response to this letter wasn’t out of sympathy or lingering affection. 

It was because he thought that since he was an honorable aristocrat, he should naturally prevent the misdeeds of other aristocrats. 

 She was once his mistress and had even given birth to his child, so she was well aware of the marquis’ nature. 

 That was probably why she had this letter to the marquis and not anyone else. 

“When I arrived at his estate with the royal knights, she was already dead.” 

“…….” 

“The only thing I could for her was reveal the sins he had hidden and get him the maximum punishment.” 

Theon bowed his head as he listened to his father. He was staring at his mother’s disastrous last letter. 

Theon with his head down was smiling. Just like his mother did when she abandoned him. 

The love he had longed so much for could never be obtained. 

Then, what could satisfy him – who had become empty due to the lack of love he’s received? 

At the orphanage, he constantly agonized over this. Then he came to the Marquis and realized,  

The fact that a person could be satisfied with the abundance of material things, not something as vain as love. 

Wasn’t it better to fill the hole in his heart with gold instead of living with emptiness? 

There was no scarcity anymore. It was a life where he could whatever he wanted. He finally felt satisfaction through these things. 

If this was happiness, he never wanted to lose it again – and in that sense, his mother was only an obstacle. 

“If you grow up well and become rich, make sure to visit your mom. I’ll be happy, take care! Bye!” 

How worried he was! He felt anxious that she might suddenly come one day and grab him by the ankle. 

But she died on her own. She had gone to a place where she wouldn’t be able to disturb him all his life. 

How could he not be pleased with his fact? 

“Thank you. Thank you very much, Father.” 

Theon said something he didn’t mean. 

“Come here.” 

Unaware of Theon’s smile, the marquis of Karsha stretched his arms towards Theon. He embraced his illegitimate son without hesitation. 

“If there’s anything your mother did best in her life, it was that she didn’t take you to that hell.” 

“……but my mother must have had a hard time in that hell.” 

“She has gone to heaven. She gave birth to a child with the power to succeed the marquis of Karsha, so I’m sure she’ll live a luxurious life in heaven.” 

“I hope so.” 

Theon agreed with some of his father’s words, but not all. 

What his mother did best was to take the power of the Marquis of Karsha and embrace it in her stomach. 

Theon made a vow in his father’s arms. 

May this warmth never be taken away. 

And a few years later, his perverse desire began to be directed at a woman.