I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 12

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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 12
I’ll do anything for you… anything… anything for you….
The moment Lucy’s words echoed through the forest like a refrain.
Edward’s smile deepened in a peculiar way.
A chill ran down their spines.
Tephe and Gorgo instinctively exchanged a glance.
‘The Duke really does intend to teach her a proper lesson.’
Of all people, these two knew exactly how Edward treated those he’d marked.
No matter what a con artist the woman was, she seemed far too small and fragile to endure such treatment.
‘She picked the wrong target.’
The anger and resentment they’d harbored toward Lucy shifted in an instant—replaced by a hint of pity, the way one might regard a doomed creature.
But Lucy had no time to notice any of this.
Clop, clop, clop.
The hoofbeats of the Temple soldiers were growing closer by the second.
‘There’s no time for this!’
Whether Edward knew of her urgency or not, he remained smiling.
“Anything for me?”
“Just a kiss? For a Duke—no, for my master, I could do so much more! Absolutely!”
…….
“So please, just sign the contract right now—or even later works—just get the carriage moving….”
Edward, who had been smiling, suddenly changed his expression.
“For my master alone, you’ll do anything.”
“Is there… a problem?”
“And if your master changes?”
Lucy, who’d been thinking ‘this is sweet as honey,’ quickly suppressed the smile creeping across her face.
Edward’s expression had taken on something frightening.
“Then you’d do anything for someone else too.”
I’m not even the heroine—why would that matter?
Of course, she couldn’t say that aloud.
Lucy sighed internally.
‘Though, I suppose he’d be bothered by that.’
It was too late to question Edward’s temperament now.
Just a moment ago, he hadn’t tried to kill someone by strangling—he’d used the creative method of blocking both nose and mouth instead.
‘This bastard’s got a creative approach to having a rotten personality.’
A man like this could easily regard sharing a Purifier with anyone else as unclean.
Wasn’t that exactly how the male leads in all those dark novels behaved?
Thinking intimate acts themselves were unclean, rejecting physical contact with anyone else, and then only being fine with the heroine.
Lucy, recalling the nineteen-rated dark novels she’d read obsessively before her possession—volumes beyond just “The Last Dragon’s Bride”—gave a light shake of her head.
‘As a Purifier, it’s impossible not to be touched.’
Fortunately, judging by the fact that he’d resorted to choking rather than outright murder, he seemed to have accepted physical contact.
But it was clear he absolutely refused to have a Purifier who mixed bodies with other men.
“But who have you ever purified that you’re so confident about it?”
…The way he was talking made it seem like something substantial.
‘I couldn’t even get a boyfriend in my past life or this one.’
So who purifies whom?
Lucy wrinkled her brow despite her indignation, tensing the muscles above her eyes.
Edward, too, was growing rather irritated.
‘And she’s taken a liking to me, no less.’
Just what man had she purified that gave her the confidence to speak so assuredly of being a useful Purifier?
And she’d even boasted about it in front of the man who’d fallen for her.
‘Does she lack common sense, or is she oblivious?’
She’d been acting rather adorably, so he’d been content to watch for now.
But the thought of some other man—some other possibility—made his mood darken.
‘How dare any man touch my little mouse….’
Edward’s eyes had begun to narrow.
Clop.
The sound of hoofbeats came from directly behind them.
With no time to deliberate, Lucy cried out by pure instinct.
“Oh! Well, who else would it be! You, my lord!”
“…Me?”
“You know I’m a test subject for Sepina! All that heat you’ve felt from me so far, Your Grace—it’s all my Purification Power!”
My Purification Power… my Purification Power… my Purification Power….
The echo spread through the space again.
Lucy flinched slightly.
She’d been the one shouting, but hearing it reverberate like this felt strange somehow.
It was as though she’d declared that through Sepina, she and Edward had mingled their bodies together.
As if the three of them had done something like that.
‘What is this, some sort of trashy adult plot?’
Of course, there had been other children with Purification Power before, but that wasn’t what mattered now.
Edward looked utterly dumbfounded, as if his wits had left him entirely.
Before he could collect himself, Lucy squeezed his hand firmly and whispered.
“I’ve only ever known you, Your Grace, and I shall know only you as a Purifier.”
“…….”
“So as promised….”
“Duke Edward de Tesseron!”
Then, from beyond the undergrowth, a ringing voice called out.
“I have something to tell you!”
It was the Holy Knight from the Temple shouting.
“…Tell him to leave, you infuriating master!”
Flustered, Lucy reached for Edward’s collar—then stopped short in confusion.
There was no collar to grab; he wore armor.
Still, the thought remained clear: she had to hold onto the Duke.
Snap!
In the end, what Lucy chose was to wrap both arms around Edward’s neck.
‘He won’t just throw me away, will he?’
But as always, once something’s begun, it’s stranger to pull back than to see it through.
Rather than step back, Lucy clung to Edward’s chest.
“…All right.”
Moments later, with a soft whisper….
“Huh?”
Whoosh.
Lucy’s feet dangled in midair.
Edward had scooped her up like a princess without warning.
“Bothersome. I’ll leave first.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“We’ll handle the rest.”
Tephe and Gorgo drew their blades, seemingly unsurprised by Edward’s move.
‘Surely they’re not planning to fight the Temple’s Holy Knights?’
Even if Edward was a Dragon Incarnate, that would only make things worse, wouldn’t it?
Lucy’s eyes widened in confusion, trying to make sense of it all.
Rustle.
Golden dust gathered at Edward’s back, shimmering like a mirage.
It was a vision of massive golden wings taking shape across his shoulders.
Solid bone structure, membranes resembling bat wings.
That was….
‘A dragon?’
Before she could even marvel at the sight.
“Grrr, graaaaaaah!”
Screech!
Edward, cradling Lucy, shot upward with the velocity of a launched rocket.
Startled, Lucy let out a cry as they soared into the sky.
Then she blacked out for just a moment.
* * *
Whiiiing.
A strange pressure brushed across her entire body between closed eyelids.
Air rushing swiftly past, the sensation of defying gravity.
It felt exactly like riding a roller coaster at an amusement park.
Ah.
In the haziness of her mind, a memory from a life long past surfaced without warning.
‘…I really wanted to ride one.’
“Next time, let’s ride the roller coaster too, unnie!”
“Of course. Our youngest, try on the headband! Let me take a photo.”
“After we ride this, we can get churros over there next, and—”
“Wait. What’s that?”
“Look out!”
Before the possession.
The first Gate incident had erupted on Lucy’s twentieth birthday.
She’d been standing in line for the famous roller coaster at the Amusement Park with her sisters when the Ferris wheel flipped over, a Gate opened, and monsters poured out.
Naturally, they’d fled in panic without riding anything.
The Amusement Park closed after that.
But her bright, outgoing sisters brushed it off without hesitation.
“Let’s definitely go back to the Amusement Park once everything’s over.”
“Next time we’ll go first thing in the morning and stay until we see the evening parade!”
…That promise was never kept.
Her sisters never came back from the Vigilante Corps either.
Why was that?
Why did they leave me behind alone?
Because I was too weak?
Because I was a burden? Because I annoyed them?
Don’t say that. I studied hard too. They should have taken me with them.
Or if they were worried I’d be a liability, then why not just stay with me instead….
Look at this. In the end, I’m riding the roller coaster all alone.
I hate this….
“Come back to yourself.”
Her wandering mind snapped back to reality at the calm voice, yanked like a fish on a line.
“Huh?”
Lucy opened her eyes, disoriented.
Everything around her was blazingly blue.
There was blue there, blue here, and white over there.
‘What is that? It looks exactly like clouds….’
“Aaaaaahhh!”
The moment Lucy realized those really were clouds and that she was cradled in Edward’s arms, suspended naked in the sky, she let out a scream.
“Don’t drop me!”
And she threw her arms around Edward’s head, clinging desperately.

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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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