I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 105

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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 105
Edward had severely injured researchers before—had even killed them, in fact—just as the other children had.
The mana forcibly injected into Edward, mixed with monster blood, had triggered his Rampage multiple times.
He felt no remorse when those giggling, snickering humans who’d experimented on the children died.
But if the target was Luciana, that changed everything.
Edward paused briefly, then answered in a teasing tone.
“Anyone looking at this would say it’s a Human Sacrifice Magic Circle.”
In truth, it really did look that way, and Luciana felt a pang of guilt.
“No, that’s not it at all!”
“Then is it really…”
Luciana pounded her chest confidently and declared it aloud.
“Yes! It’s a Magic Circle to create a true Divine Incarnation!”
……
“Lie down here and your imperfect dragon blood becomes real dragon blood!”
Hearing herself say it, she sounded like a quack peddling snake oil, so she felt the pang deepen.
“And?”
“You get proper Purification, your Rampage stops, and…”
“You find your true True Mate?”
At that, Luciana’s eyes went wide.
He’d said he’d fight her fair and square, yet here he was bringing up True Mate when it suited him—how underhanded.
That business about True Mates never let up.
“Yes, of course!”
Of course, that was only when needed, and once she found one, they’d test each other’s strength.
Even after hearing such a perfect answer, Edward just shrugged.
“What if it fails?”
“It won’t, I’m telling you.”
“Then I’d be heartbroken.”
“Didn’t you hear what I said?”
“I’m more fragile than people think, Luciana. I’ve never experienced defeat, so I’m weak to failure.”
“That’s true, but honestly, it’s pretty annoying.”
“Can I help it if it’s the truth?”
Edward blinked his long lashes and leaned his head toward Luciana’s shoulder—
“So the ritual doesn’t matter, finding a True Mate doesn’t matter…”
“Don’t say such pathetic things!”
—when he was shoved roughly away by an enraged Luciana’s palm.
Hah.
Between his concealing hand, a crooked smile faded as quickly as it had come, as though he’d never been pitiful at all.
Then, with brazen composure, he smiled meekly and replied.
“All right, I understand.”
“If you understand, then really…”
“But I’m scared to go in alone.”
There was a reason he said that.
After thinking it through carefully…
‘I’ll have to give Luciana the blade if it comes to it.’
If his mana spiraled into Rampage, he planned to forcefully draw Luciana’s Holy Power into himself.
Holy Power helped purify Corruption and suppress mana, but if torn out by force, things were different.
‘It backflows in defense, attacking whoever tries to extract the Holy Power.’
That was why Gemini had earned the title of genius for creating the Sacred Power Extraction Device.
It was also why Edward had to concede a move in front of Sepina.
It was a power that couldn’t be recklessly drawn out.
But now it would become the ultimate safeguard for Luciana.
Better to die from Luciana’s Holy Power counterattack than to attack her himself.
The moment Luciana opened her mouth to protest, Edward added as though it were obvious.
“I said so. It’s not that I don’t trust you.”
“Then what is it?”
“Wasn’t that information from him? That mad charlatan scientist.”
At those words, Luciana’s protest died in her throat.
“…Well, that’s… I mean…”
Gemini really was a con artist, a psychopath, a disgrace to humanity, a mad scientist—all of that was true.
“If this magic circle is a swindle? If some curse spell activates the moment you lie down…”
“Fine, fine! I understand!”
If there was a curse, I could purify it with my Holy Power.
Thinking this way, the impatient Luciana grabbed Edward’s hand and rushed into the Magic Circle.
“Now, here we—”
But the moment she spoke, she collapsed to the ground.
“Gasp!”
A wave of scorching heat crashed over Luciana’s body like a tide.
“Wait….”
‘Poison…?’
But it didn’t feel like poison.
Her breath came in ragged gasps, her entire body tingled, and a dizzying sensation washed over her….
‘Did it fail?’
Had Gemini really done something to the ritual after all?
Luciana’s eyes flickered involuntarily toward Edward.
If she was burning this intensely, what of Edward—who could go Berserk at any moment?
“Haa.”
As she’d feared.
Edward’s eyes gleamed a deeper red than usual when she glanced across at him.
Something about them seemed slightly unfocused.
His head tilted to the side again.
But it wasn’t the cute, inquisitive tilt of his normal self—it was a languid, predatory slant, like a leopard’s.
“Something’s wrong, Luciana.”
“Your… Your Grace….”
“I don’t feel anything.”
A chill ran through her.
The way he said it while looking at her was oddly, disturbingly clear.
“Ah. Well… not nothing, I suppose.”
“…….”
“My body’s burning.”
Gooseflesh erupted across Luciana’s entire frame.
“Your… Your Grace… please, I….”
She wanted to tell him something was wrong, but her ragged breathing wouldn’t let the words come properly.
Her legs pressed together of their own accord, and heat bloomed in her throat.
‘I have to… get away….’
She had to keep herself from being pulled deeper into the Magic Circle!
“Did I ask you to lie down and you didn’t, is that why this is happening?”
Even as he spoke, Edward drew Luciana close and held her.
His cloak was already spread across the ground beneath them.
Just that contact alone made her dizzy, and Luciana tried desperately to steady herself, but….
‘What is this….’
The moment she lay down on the Magic Circle in his firm embrace, the heat intensified.
Luciana gasped and gripped Edward’s collar tightly.
“Still nothing’s changing.”
“Hnn… aah….”
“After all this preparation… you’ve hurt my feelings, Luciana.”
He was the one who’d prepared so carefully—why was he the one acting wounded?!
She couldn’t even mount a protest.
Her mind was already drowning in excitement.
Edward, for his part, was reeling from his own shock.
Whenever he’d touched Luciana before, it had felt good, but….
‘Like I’m going to catch fire.’
Now, with merely skin against skin, his mind was boiling, sizzling.
That old hunger resurfaced—the urge to consume her entirely.
He kept watching carefully, afraid it might be murderous impulse, but the compulsion twisted his body in a different direction instead.
…All the desire he’d held back until now.
His body, which had always stopped short to avoid hurting or distressing Luciana, throbbed with need.
“They said it would help me find my True Mate.”
Edward’s voice came out almost resentful.
“But I don’t care about that anymore.”
“Ah….”
“If she’s my true mate, she’s already here.”
The emotion wrapped in those words made Luciana’s chest tighten.
“There’s nothing for it.”
Sweet heat emanated from his breath.
“As always, you’re the only one who can purify me.”
* * *
…And so, in the aftermath of that scorching tide disguised as purification.
“Hah… ah….”
Edward exhaled deeply, gazing down at Luciana’s lower belly as she lay sprawled in exhaustion.
Her eyes remained half-lidded and clouded.
He pressed his lips to her forehead, stroking her gently.
Considering what they’d just done….
‘A child.’
Luciana might conceive.
At the thought of his seed taking root in her womb and growing, his already-clouded reason crumbled further.
Those old thoughts returned—the ones he’d had before about Luciana and his child.
By now Luciana seemed strong enough, and if she were with child, she’d be all the more bound to him.
There had even been rumors, before they married, that Luciana was already pregnant—so entering the Capital in that condition seemed entirely manageable now.
After all, he would bear the responsibility….
The moment that thought surfaced, he remembered what Luciana had whispered.
The words that had made him yield to this ritual.
“…I want to take responsibility for you too, Duke.”
As a sharp sensation thrummed through his skull again, Edward buried his face in her chest.
“…You said you wanted to take responsibility for me.”
He whispered against her heart with utmost sincerity.
“I’m already yours.”
…….
“You’re my responsibility.”
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
The moment he spoke, her heart thundered so wildly it was beyond restraint—and he found it endearing.
“When I said I don’t need any other true mate… I meant that too.”
Edward whispered tenderly, again and again.
“You have to take responsibility for me.”
“Hah….”
“…Because I’ve made it so you’re the only one who’ll do.”
As his whispers deepened, the Sacred Stone within the Magic Circle began to glow brilliantly.
Luciana felt joy erupt within her once more and squeezed her eyes shut.
* * *
“Honestly, wherever I go, there are too many vermin.”
…….
“No matter how much I clean them up, they just keep appearing—like cockroaches you can stomp all you want and they still crawl back.”
…….
“Half tempted to just burn the whole lot to ash.”
“Such insults only excite me further, I’m afraid.”
Clang!
A sharp blade flew straight at Gemini in response.
Gemini protested boldly.
“Ah! Watch the head! Watch the head! Losing a genius like me would be a loss to all humanity!”
“What about the people harmed and wronged because of you?”
“Come on, I’ve only experimented on corpses! There was just one time I used a living subject…!”
“Just die already.”
Tepe, who’d been cleaning up the masked figures scattered across the floor, made his disgust plain.
Gorgo, who’d been responding with silent nods, also sent a look of agreement.
Gemini flinched as those looks—far more frightening than any harsh words—fell upon him. Tepe’s eyes narrowed into slits.
“Because of garbage like you, both our Duke and Lady have suffered, and now, after a whole night has passed, we don’t even know where they are….”
“Surely the Duke’s retinue has a way to tell if he’s safe or not? There are magical devices and all.”
…….
“So you all stepped aside thinking you’d get out of the way, and now the Duke was attacked—that’s my fault? Ah, I said watch the head!”
The blade came flying again, and Gemini found himself growing genuinely aggrieved.
“If you lot hadn’t stepped back in the first place, the Lady wouldn’t have been put in danger at all!”
Had the guards simply stayed out of the way of those two who commanded the atmosphere, the masked attackers would never have struck.
Luciana and Edward would never have vanished without a trace.
“You lot have abandoned your posts….”
“With the Duke present, how could there be any danger? Stop spouting such ill omens, you worthless wretch!”
“But how can we be certain of anything? The Duke’s seemed rather frail of late!”
“What? Frail? You dare speak to me, you filth riddled with corruption!”
“There’s no other explanation for it…!”
Luciana would never have asked him about an ancient ritual concerning Divine Incarnations.
Gemini swallowed the words he’d been about to speak.
‘True enough—after all, he’s a Divine Incarnation created through experimentation.’
It was hardly surprising that an artificially created Divine Incarnation should be fragile.
If anything, Edward was surprisingly robust for one.
Usually, Divine Incarnations couldn’t bear the weight of their own Mana, and both body and mind would crumble as a result.
‘The man’s tough, I’ll grant him that.’
Ironically, he and the Duke were the only ones who knew the Duke was an experimental subject, and he’d sworn not to breathe a word to anyone else—so he’d kept silent in front of Tepe and Gorgo, though lately he’d been taking pains to prepare ‘that’ ritual for the Duke’s increasingly frail condition.
Even so, he’d been doing his part to ready the ceremony for the Duke’s recent weakness….
It was then.
A figure came flying through the distance, cutting through his thoughts.
“…Your Grace, my Lady!”
It was Edward, descending with Luciana cradled in his arms.

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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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