I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 100

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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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Chapter 100
Luciana could forgive Tephe and Gorgo for insisting on traveling with her, but when even Rozendale bowed respectfully and withdrew, she felt a flutter of embarrassment.
‘He could have stayed to see me off if he wanted to.’
His manner suggested he was protecting those final moments for Edward and her alone.
It was relief, truly, that Rozendale’s demeanor had grown more courteous—
Yet Luciana found herself rubbing her flushed cheeks and stealing a glance at Edward with a sigh.
Edward had already lifted her palm and pressed his lips to it.
“Stop—why are you kissing me?”
“So it doesn’t leave a mark.”
“How does kissing have anything to do with—”
“Everyone knows saliva heals wounds. Were you never taught that?”
With those words, Edward slowly drew out his tongue and traced it across her palm and between her fingers.
Luciana’s fingertips trembled, but she didn’t push him away.
‘The further we go, the more shameless he becomes.’
Charming people and growing prettier by the day.
When they first met, all he did was make terrifying remarks that left her frightened—
“Shall we depart soon?”
“What? Yes. Of course.”
The moment Luciana finished her reverie, Edward pulled her toward the carriage with deliberate force.
He lifted her by the waist to help her board swiftly, setting her inside.
‘That’s odd.’
His manner seemed curiously hurried.
Luciana grew slightly tense, wondering if something urgent had arisen.
The carriage door closed with a click.
Edward’s lips jutted out in a pout the instant it latched.
Then he narrowed his eyes and began to grumble.
“I told you not to get so close to that one.”
“…Gemini?”
“Don’t even say his name.”
Edward’s terse reply was accompanied by a click of his tongue.
“If that pervert tries anything, just have the choker detonate. The incantation is—”
“Wait, you can’t speak it here or it’ll actually explode!”
The choker detonated if the incantation was spoken within close range.
Since Gemini was still nearby, Luciana’s eyes went wide as she hurried to calm Edward.
Even so, she found his reaction endearing.
That slightly protruding lip especially suited him poorly—and all the better for it.
‘He’s jealous.’
“Goodness, really.”
They say once someone looks cute to you, you’re already lost.
‘And I’m lost.’
Luciana accepted the truth and simply sat down on Edward’s lap.
She then turned to face him and cradled his cheeks in both hands.
She’d learned that this posture was the most effective way to soothe him.
Besides, looking at a face that handsome made her own heart sing—fair was fair.
Sure enough, the moment she settled onto his lap and nestled into his embrace, Edward’s expression softened immediately.
Then, like a petulant child, he pressed his face against hers.
He clearly knew how well his face worked on her.
Luciana felt her lips rise unbidden, and she suppressed the smile.
‘This cunning, rakish man.’
Using his beauty as a tool like that—she ought to punish him by stroking his face thoroughly.
Luciana deliberately caressed Edward’s face with enough vigor to produce crackling sounds.
“Mm…”
Whenever she swept his bangs back and touched his jaw and cheeks, Edward purred with satisfaction like a contented cat.
Yet even as he accepted her caresses, he continued to grouse like a sated beast.
“I don’t like it.”
“What don’t you like?”
“That lunatic scientist.”
“Mm. I don’t care for him either. But he does help.”
“Though truthfully, I don’t much like the other men hanging about you either.”
“Who else are you talking about? Surely not Tephe and Gorgo? They’re your own people. And they’re only here to guard me—”
“So you just put up with it, don’t you?”
Luciana’s chest swelled again at words heavy with jealousy.
‘I always thought I was being such a nuisance to everyone around me.’
She used to curse at possessive male leads in novels for being pathetic whenever they acted like this.
But now that she was actually the object of such attention, her heart kept trembling with an odd, ticklish feeling.
‘Come on, get a grip.’
Luciana muttered to herself, deliberately pouting her lips slightly.
“…They say jealous men are ugly….”
Edward’s lips curved upward as he whispered back.
“Do I look ugly to you?”
“No? Absolutely not?”
Without thinking, Luciana contradicted herself in her haste to protest.
Edward smiled with eyes half-closed before she could even realize what she’d done.
“How fortunate that I still look beautiful even when jealous.”
……
“And how fortunate that it’s a face you happen to like.”
Edward rested his hand on Luciana’s shoulder and stroked it gently.
“In any case, I disliked that man from the very beginning.”
It was the same spot where Gemini had linked arms with him on the day they first met.
“The way he acts so friendly without any shame.”
“Mm.”
“And how he keeps spouting that nonsense about me being like a daughter to him.”
“I agree that’s nonsense. What makes him my father? He doesn’t even look that much older than me at most.”
“And on top of that, he creates such danger and then has the audacity to roam about without any reflection.”
“Er, ahem….”
That remark stung a little.
‘That’s actually my fault.’
Thinking of what Gemini had planned to do, he should be bound, not roaming about like this.
Even if they’d agreed to go to the Capital together, she could have simply tied him up and brought him along.
But it was Luciana who had decided to let him loose.
She thought it better to disguise him the same way she’d disguised Clara as her personal maid when they traveled.
So she’d persuaded a reluctant Edward, removed Gemini from the luggage cart, untied his restraints, and then fitted him with a hood to conceal his face and identity.
Except for close associates like Tephe and Gorgo, the other servants didn’t know he was the madman who had attempted that dreadful ceremony.
Every time the servants, who believed him to be merely a somewhat peculiar guest of the Duke and Duchess, showed him kindness, Luciana was tormented by a guilty conscience.
‘If only I hadn’t suggested letting him loose….’
As Luciana’s eyes rolled about again, pricked by guilt, Edward chuckled softly.
“He’s truly the most aggravating fellow.”
“I… suppose so.”
It was the truth, but….
“However.”
There was still something she wanted to ask.
Or rather, it had just occurred to her.
“…Then shouldn’t you pinch his chest instead, Your Grace?”
……
“Why are you pinching mine?”
Luciana’s narrowed eyes glanced downward.
His hand had slipped from her shoulder and was now resting above her breast, kneading the soft flesh there.
‘Why does this feel so natural?’
It lay there as if it belonged there, so matter-of-factly that she’d almost let it pass without a second thought.
But even after being called out, Edward didn’t withdraw his hand.
Instead, he seemed to express his displeasure by kneading her breast more insistently.
“I thought you liked it.”
“Well, I do like it, but….”
“In fact, since you were leaning into me more, I thought you wanted me to touch you more.”
Edward blinked his eyelashes shamelessly.
Like a playful game, his fingers began to tease around the hardening peak, brushing lightly here and there.
“Ah…!”
He avoided the most sensitive spot, merely toying with the flesh around it, and Luciana couldn’t help but let a soft moan escape her lips.
At that, Edward’s touch grew more languid as he caressed her breast.
He even slipped his hand inside her clothes.
“Hah… oh….”
When firm fingers twisted at the curve of her breast, her toes curled involuntarily and her mouth flooded with saliva.
She barely managed to lift her hand and gently grasp Edward’s kneading fingers, but….
If anything, it only seemed to encourage him further—the pressure against her chest grew slightly stronger.
“Mmph…!”
It was the moment Luciana bit down on her lower lip, unable to contain the mounting pleasure.
“That needs to go to the other side. There’s no more room in that compartment.”
“Understood. Then this one….”
The voices of servants passing outside brushed right past the carriage window.
‘Oh!’
Luciana quickly clamped her hand over her own mouth.

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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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