I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 10
Sizzle-pop.
A whole wild boar turning over the fire sent up a delicious aroma.
Yet only one person was tearing into the meat.
Munch, munch…
‘I’m going to get indigestion at this rate.’
Even so, Lucia didn’t stop eating; she was watching the others out of the corner of her eye.
The two guards and Edward had been exchanging glances with each other this whole time.
‘Please let them just be having a normal conversation. Anything but one where they decide to dispose of me.’
“Ahhh!”
Moments earlier.
What came flying at Lucia was not Edward’s sword blade.
“My lord! Step away from that woman!”
The guards had hefted their prey like a sack of potatoes, leaping forward and pressing their blades threateningly.
The sight of them looked less like knights and more like bandits on a rampage.
Of course, the swords never touched Lucia—Edward’s dismissive wave snapped both blades clean in two.
“She could be a Temple spy!”
“It’s dangerous!”
Still, the two of them looked deadly serious.
With good reason.
The most critical secret of the Duke’s Estate—a secret only Edward’s innermost circle knew.
That Edward was an Incomplete Incarnation, and Lucia had just blurted it out.
“Woman! Get away from the Duke this instant—”
“No, never mind.”
Just as Lucia was wondering how on earth this would end.
Edward, the one who seemed most likely to lose his temper, instead calmed the two of them down.
Though his face had grown far colder.
“We can interrogate her starting now if need be.”
‘It’s funny and sad that I found that expression comforting…’
At least it felt more genuine than hiding everything behind a mask and smiling falsely.
It was almost as if she were seeing the real him for the first time.
After that, Edward had ordered a fire lit, and now here they were, roasting meat.
‘But why am I the only one eating?’
It was embarrassing, somehow.
Still, Lucia ate with determination.
She was hungry, she needed to maintain her strength, and food was too precious to waste.
Besides, the meat was absolutely delicious.
‘I need to be careful not to upset my stomach from overeating.’
It was while Lucia was diligently chewing away that someone spoke.
“How did you know?”
It was the slightly slimmer, more wiry of the two guards.
His name was Tephe.
“When the Duke was carr—being—”
“Being an Incomplete Incarnation?”
The moment she said it, his eyes gleamed with such intensity that she wondered what she was supposed to make of it.
‘What is he, Voldemort or something?’
Still, Lucia answered straightforwardly.
“Don’t worry. The Temple doesn’t know. Only I do.”
……
“When the Duke and Sephina had their time of Purification, I just… felt something.”
“…What did you feel?”
“…Things like that exist.”
Lucia gave a vague answer and rolled her eyes.
While Tephe’s brow furrowed sharply, a strange smile returned to Edward’s face.
“So you can sense that I’m incomplete without even touching me?”
……
“Your body never even made contact with mine.”
“That’s…”
“If we touched directly, I’d be able to see straight into my own heart, then.”
At those words, Lucia jerked her body upright.
“That can’t be it! I’m just… a bit sensitive to Mana and Divine Power, that’s all.”
“Sensitive?”
“Yes. When I’m around Sephina, I’ve sometimes noticed the Duke’s energy feels slightly… off.”
“So that’s how you knew? That the Duke is Incomplete?”
Tephe’s eyes narrowed with open suspicion.
“Of course, of course.”
Lucia swallowed her meat, affecting an air of casual certainty.
‘I just read about it in the original work.’
This was information from a side story narrated by someone close to Edward.
The fact that Edward was actually an Incomplete Incarnation.
That because of this, he secretly believed himself weak, harboring an anxiety that he might lose his mind at any moment.
Which was why he wanted a True Mate to make him complete—and when the Temple presented Sephina as his True Mate, he suspected but went along with it anyway.
‘It was a side story that seemed to defend the male lead for rolling around with a fake True Mate.’
Many people had still been angry, arguing that cheating was cheating regardless; but Lucia hadn’t been that harsh.
She’d even understood it, somewhat.
‘Because I was the same way.’
Because she had been incomplete and weak.
That’s why she thought her sisters had left her alone at the Shelter.
‘I believed it was all my fault.’
So she’d thought that if she grew strong, if she became powerful, she could leave the Shelter and reunite with her family.
…It hadn’t taken long for that hope to crumble.
‘But I was desperate then.’
She’d run desperately through the narrow Shelter, building her strength despite going hungry, memorizing monster information, practicing ways to face them.
To become just a little stronger. To become a perfect person.
‘Edward must have endured Sephina for the same reason.’
With that same understanding, Lucia could sympathize with Edward’s longing, at least to some degree.
Of course, the fact that she was using that understanding for her own purposes was another matter entirely.
“In any case, I have no intention of telling anyone.”
…….
“But if you make a contract with me—”
This was the crucial part.
Lucia deliberately straightened her shoulders.
“I believe I can resolve that problem for you.”
…….
“If you become a Complete Incarnation, you’ll be able to find a true True Mate. Oh, and I’ll help with that too, of course.”
A moment of silence fell.
Tephe and Gorgo regarded Lucia with the skeptical gaze one might reserve for a charlatan outside a subway station.
‘I understand their doubt.’
Edward’s problem stemmed from the fact that he was born congenitally incomplete.
The idea that a Temple’s lab specimen could solve it was absurd.
‘It does sound like a scam.’
Their disbelief was understandable, but she wasn’t speaking without basis.
‘The side story had a few hints about it.’
About the method to transform an Incomplete Incarnation into a Complete one.
She’d reread that section so many times in the Shelter that she remembered those parts quite well.
‘You just have to perform the Ancient Ritual to Awaken Dragon Power.’
Gathering the materials wouldn’t be easy, but with the Duke’s Estate’s wealth and influence, it seemed possible.
“Don’t worry. I won’t cling to the Duke, pretending to solve his problems.”
…….
“I’m confident I can stay out of sight, and except for once a week when I hold his hand for Purification, I’ll stay back.”
…….
“Besides, I need time to research so I can actually resolve the Duke’s issue.”
She knew the basics—gather materials and create a magical circle for the ritual—but the sequence of how to conduct the ritual itself was vague.
‘I’ll just have to research how the Ancient Ritual was performed.’
That was when Lucia was organizing her thoughts.
“Ha, I see.”
Tephe’s face twisted.
“Research, she says. It’s clear you don’t have a definite answer yourself yet.”
“…Think carefully about this, sir.”
Gorgo too added his words quietly, barely loud enough for Lucia to hear.
“Didn’t you say you’d use me and discard me?”
Edward didn’t answer the two of them.
“So you’re saying I need to sign a contract?”
He simply turned the question back to Lucia.
“Your Grace?”
Tephe and Gorgo whipped their heads around, seized by an ominous feeling.
“Yes! As I mentioned, a verbal agreement is rather….”
“Must I sign one?”
“Of course!”
Lucia caught the glimmer of possibility in Edward’s tone and nodded vigorously.
“And if I dislike the contract’s terms?”
“We can adjust them!”
“You’d be willing to adjust?”
“Why certainly! Hehe! You’re the principal party, Your Grace!”
Lucia laughed, furiously scratching out the sections that named herself the superior party and Edward the subordinate.
She made no attempt to hide her joy—it radiated from her bright smile.
Edward, watching that smile, curved his lips into a crooked grin.
“Heh.”
Tephe and Gorgo’s eyes went wide as saucers.
They knew that sound well—it was Edward’s habit when he was about to indulge a whim.
What was he about to say!
“Your Grace, one moment.”
“Perhaps we should confer among ourselves for a moment—”
But even as the two of them rose from their seats, anxiety creeping through their bones—
“Very well. Let’s adjust it then.”
“Oh, wonderful!”
Lucia’s eyes crinkled as she laughed with delight.
It was the smile of someone genuinely happy to be entangled with him in any way at all.
‘So she’s fallen that hard.’
Well then.
She was a woman with Purification ability, after all—no one else like her.
Even if he discarded her later, there was no harm in treating her more generously for now.
Edward studied that smile quietly and asked, “Can we change the document’s title as well?”
Lucia nodded.
“Oh, yes! But what would you like to change it to?”
As long as the essential nature of it remained a contract, she was willing to make any adjustment.
“The title would be….”
Edward tilted his head.
Neighhhh!
The carriage horses suddenly erupted in alarm.
The Coachman, who had been sleeping in the distance, bolted awake and rushed toward them.
“Your Grace!”
In the moment they all turned their heads at once—
It appeared before them.
The thunder of hoofbeats.
Soldiers carrying the Temple Banner high aloft, riding hard toward them on horseback.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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