I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 112

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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 112
To be precise, it was a tapestry embroidered with the scene of people gathered around a well, gazing up at a dragon.
Luciana studied the Sacred Marks visible across the bodies of those assembled.
‘Sacred Marks,’ she thought.
As if an entire village were populated solely by true mates, every person bore a Sacred Mark.
On the nape of an elderly man leaning on a staff by the roadside, on the calf of a child at play.
And on the back of the hand of a woman drawing water from the well.
The Sacred Power flowing from their bodies reached skyward in embroidered threads toward a single dragon suspended in the heavens, their hands outstretched with desperate longing.
As if in worship.
Or as if pleading the dragon—and no other—to take their own hand.
It was an oddly evocative tapestry, one that called to mind the heroine who had been abducted while drawing water from a well.
‘There’s something strange about this.’
While Luciana turned the peculiar feeling over in her mind, Edward skimmed through the archaic script portion of the tapestry before answering.
“There’s nothing I can interpret with any real clarity. The language of dragons is almost forgotten.”
“I see.”
“Though there is one thing I can make out.”
“What is it?”
“‘Choose.'”
Choose what, exactly?
Luciana shrugged at the cryptic word.
“In any case, there seem to be an awful lot of true mates here.”
“It’s possible there were just as many Divine Incarnations as there were true mates.”
Yet the tapestry showed no other dragons—no other Divine Incarnations—which made that theory difficult to sustain.
‘What could it mean?’
Seized by an inexplicable unease, Luciana found herself staring intently at the woman at the well in the tapestry.
Edward took in the sight of her absorbed gaze.
A wave of regret washed over him once more.
‘She studies even trifling things with such care.’
How much more intently would she have observed something truly worthy?
‘I wish I could show her so much more of the Capital.’
Edward’s heart remained restless.
If she carried any dark impressions or bitter memories of the Capital, he wanted to bury them all beneath memories of himself.
He wanted her to experience the same sense of liberation he had felt when he became a Divine Incarnation, when he stepped out of that dim nursery and wandered through the Duchy Manor.
In truth, he was merely using that as a pretext—all he really wanted was to keep spending time with her.
There was only one desire in his heart now.
‘If you would only keep smiling for me.’
That was all he wanted.
To see her happy, to witness her joy.
To forget all about tiresome trials and spend time with her instead.
Feeling the ache bloom in his chest at these unfamiliar sensations, Edward slowly drew near to Luciana.
……
When he gently caught hold of her finger, Luciana interlaced hers with his of her own accord.
She turned to look at Edward, her round eyes rolling with what might have been amusement.
“Why do you have such a look on your face?”
“What’s wrong with my expression?”
Like a hermit crab withdrawing into its shell, you looked like you might gaze at me with glistening eyes….
Instead of saying that, Luciana gave him a simple answer.
“You look like something’s bothering you.”
“…Because I wanted to take you somewhere better?”
At his honest admission, something warm unfurled in Luciana’s chest.
Every time he spoke to her like this, she found herself trembling anew with the same thrill.
She still regretted missing the law office, and the thought of trials and Holy Stones still drifted somewhere in the back of her mind, but….
“No, I don’t think this is bad at all.”
She meant it sincerely.
“Surely you jest.”
“I’m serious. It’s so old-fashioned and tranquil, and there’s a warm, library-like fragrance lingering in the air itself….”
“You’re wrapping up ‘dull, antiquated, and decrepit’ in quite the flattering package….”
“And besides, it’s just the two of us here.”
Luciana said this with a gentle smile spreading across her face.
……
“That would be enough for me.”
While Edward’s gaze remained fixed on her face, she deliberately turned away from the tapestry that had unsettled her.
“Wow.”
What caught her eye next was an enormous Golden Scale contained within a glass chamber.
‘It’s incredibly large.’
Though the sheer size was impressive, what truly held Luciana’s attention was its color—gold.
The exact shade of Edward’s hair.
‘Beautiful.’
What had seemed like merely a colossal fragment of gold became beautiful the moment she thought of it as resembling Edward.
Above the glass chamber hung another tapestry.
On the left, an embroidered dragon transforming into human form; on the right, a human becoming a dragon.
Luciana thought of Edward’s illusory wings, then recalled how they had transformed into an actual dragon’s body, and asked:
“Can you do something like that too?”
“I’ve never tried, so I couldn’t say.”
“True. If just one scale is this large, the transformation itself would be quite the ordeal.”
“Exactly. I can’t exactly blanket an entire city and compress it.”
“Besides, you don’t need to transform to defeat monsters anyway, and if you did change like that, your clothes would tear in the process, and when you returned you’d be—”
“Pervert.”
He savored slowly the very words she had once flung at him, and Luciana laughed playfully.
Even that smile felt sweet to Edward.
Luciana tapped gently against the glass chamber and whispered:
“I wonder why Teseron doesn’t have something like this.”
“Because Divine Incarnations weren’t unique to Teseron from the beginning.”
“That’s true, I suppose.”
“The noble houses that produce Dragon Avatars all fought over who would build a museum in their own territories—it even came to war between domains—so they eventually agreed to make one grand exhibition here in the Capital instead.”
……
“Much of the dragon-related materials were lost in that process.”
It was already a tale from centuries past.
Luciana gazed at the Divine Incarnation left standing alone.
A person bearing the weight of the world upon their shoulders.
‘He spoke of it as though it didn’t matter, but…’
Edward must be troubled by it in his heart.
As for Luciana, her thoughts had shifted somewhat from before.
Once, she had thought it would be nice to save the world incidentally while rescuing the male lead.
But now, if forced to choose between the world perishing in exchange for Edward’s safety, or the world surviving at the cost of Edward’s sacrifice, she suspected she might choose the former.
The desire to strip the Temple bare and perform a ceremony to strengthen Edward—it wasn’t so much that she wanted to save the world…
‘It was this person.’
She wanted Edward to be safe.
She wished for him to become an invincible Divine Incarnation, untouchable and unharmed by any threat.
‘Then I’m disqualified as a heroine.’
It would be nice to save both the world and the male lead, but she was neither complete nor perfect enough for that.
‘…And perfection isn’t my responsibility either.’
Looking into Edward’s eyes, which shouldered that burden, she could be certain that he thought the same way.
That if forced to weigh the world against himself, he would choose himself.
……
Her chest swelled once more.
Dust motes drifting, crimson eyes glinting.
The exhibition hall, staid yet serene, dull yet archaic, drank in light of every color.
A soft, harmless breeze seemed to gently push at Luciana’s back.
“If you want it that badly, you could just steal one scale…”
Luciana listened to Edward’s words and lowered her gaze slightly.
“I like you.”
Thud.
At the words Luciana had suddenly spoken, Edward went rigid.
He was just opening his mouth to ask “What?” when—
“I love you.”
She spoke again.
Like a dagger coated thick with sugar—sweet and rapturous yet piercing sharply through his chest.
‘I’ve done it.’
The one who had spoken remained perfectly composed.
I thought a confession like this would happen somewhere breathtakingly beautiful and romantic, kneeling down like a proposal.
But when I came to my senses, the words had simply tumbled out as naturally as breathing.
‘Well, there’s no taking back what’s already said.’
It wasn’t a lie anyway—it was the truth.
With that thought, the words kept flowing, spreading like wildfire catching hold in different places.
“I love you so very much.”
Even after I’d said it for the third time, Edward remained silent.
“Edward?”
……
“Don’t tell me you were so shocked by my confession that you fainted standing up—or worse, that you’re actually dead?”
I wanted to lift my head and see his reaction, but embarrassment suddenly washed over me.
In the end, I pouted and gave his hand a shake, swinging our joined arms like a petulant child.
“Why won’t you say anything? Surely you saw this coming? It’s too late now for returns or refunds, is it?”
A sharp inhale.
My eyes flew wide as my breath caught suddenly in my throat.
Edward had closed the distance, cradling both my cheeks in his hands as he pressed his lips to mine.

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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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