I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 125

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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 125
Luciana’s face, when Edward looked at it again, held a distinctly pallid quality.
Only then did he recall the small whimper he’d heard moments before.
…A strange sense of foreboding washed over him.
“Luciana.”
Driven by sudden urgency, he called out to her, but she kept her hands pressed firmly against his cheeks, holding fast.
As though trying to block his view of everything else.
“Edward. I told you, look only at me—wait!”
Unable to bear it any longer, Edward seized her hands and wrenched them away, forcing his head down.
And there before his eyes lay a sight he could not comprehend.
As though raked by a monster’s claws, her side wept blood from deep gouges.
Thump.
His heart seemed to drop into an abyss, and Edward’s lips began to tremble.
“…Luciana.”
A fury beyond words surged up through his chest, striking like a fist against his sternum.
‘How dare they.’
Who had done this?
How dare anyone harm you….
The next moment.
Plink.
That small, grating sound of falling drops—the one he’d noticed before—returned to his ears.
When he slowly shifted his gaze….
He saw his own hand, drops of blood falling from his fingertips.
As Edward’s eyes darted frantically between Luciana’s wounded side and his own hand, she bit her lip in growing distress.
“Edward.”
Then a terrible realization struck the back of his mind like a blow.
‘It was me.’
I hurt her.
Not someone else. Me.
The instant he grasped the awful truth.
“…Edward!”
…….
“I told you to stay conscious, not to faint! Physician! We need a physician here!”
Edward lost consciousness entirely.
* * *
Some time later.
The Capital, which ought to have been alight with joy and festivity for the New Year Celebration, had fallen under a heavy pall.
Taverns and noble salons throughout the Capital filled and refilled with crowds dozens of times a day, their voices rising in clamor.
“Did you see it? The Duke of Teseron in a frenzy!”
“Was that truly a dragon? It looked like a monster to me….”
Edward’s Rampage at the banquet had been so violent, so immense, that it could not be contained—it had become an event of staggering proportions.
The terrace where they had been standing happened to occupy a vantage point visible from outside, and during the New Year Celebration, portions of the Imperial Palace were opened to commoners.
As a result, even those common folk who had come to watch had seen it with their own eyes.
The whispers of the crowd spread from mouth to mouth faster than a racing carriage.
“A Rampage? Surely that’s dangerous? And there are already so many monsters!”
“What is the world coming to!”
Of course, there were those who spoke in Edward’s defense.
“Bah, young folk these days have never seen a real dragon—they can’t tell the difference between a dragon and a monster.”
“I hear the Duchess was nearly abducted from the middle of the banquet hall?”
“It’s fortunate she returned quickly. Of course a man grows frenzied when his True Mate is in danger.”
Mostly they were the elderly, those who had lived through long years, and those who had once received Edward’s aid.
Even a few of those who had directly witnessed Edward’s Rampage came forward to defend him.
“All you need to do is Purify the Corruption! They say Divine Incarnations naturally undergo Rampage anyway!”
“He has his True Mate—he’ll be fine!”
But the opinion of noble society was quite different.
“This is absolutely unforgivable!”
“How dare a Duke rampage during the Goddess’s New Year Celebration and injure people before His Imperial Majesty himself!”
In truth, only two had been injured: a knight who had tried to subdue Edward and been sent flying, his ribs shattered, and Luciana, whose side bore the marks of his claws.
Yet that detail mattered little to them.
“If we had not stopped him, we would all certainly be dead!”
“Is it only us? Does His Majesty the Emperor not…?”
The Emperor himself had made no overt complaint, yet by allowing the nobles to continue their clamoring, he laid bare his displeasure for all to see.
“We must open the postponed trial without delay. Let us impose a fitting punishment upon the Duke!”
“This is no ordinary trial! We ought to hold a Holy Trial instead!”
At last such words were spoken, and the Capital burned with fervor.
All eyes turned toward the Town House of House of Teseron in the Capital.
Toward the ducal residence, which had remained silent ever since the Rampage incident, offering no statement, withdrawn from public view.
…Meanwhile, within that very residence.
“My lord, must you truly go?”
“Given the circumstances….”
Tepe and Gorgo exhaled deeply, their faces lined with discomfort.
“If you absent yourself, they will only redouble their attacks against you.”
“They may even meddle in House affairs. They might attempt to strip you of your lands.”
Since many coveted the Teseron domain—a jewel among territories—Tepe and Gorgo’s counsel carried weight.
Yet Edward packed his belongings with unwavering resolve.
“You and Rosendal can manage that well enough.”
…….
“I cannot remain here.”
“My lord….”
“Duke, what of your wife?”
The moment Tepe broached the subject of Luciana, Edward’s face twisted with anguish.
“…Send her abroad. Anywhere but the Empire. They may try to harm her.”
“My lord.”
Tepe’s brow furrowed sharply.
“If you mean to send your wife overseas, there is truly no need for you to depart at all, is there?”
…….
“I had thought you were leaving precisely to separate from her.”
And that was the truth.
Shortly after he had collapsed and awakened in the ducal Town House,
Edward had attempted to harm himself.
“My lord!”
“You mustn’t!”
Mercifully, it was Luciana’s cry that stopped him—she who had remained at his side through the entire night, waiting for him to wake.
“You said I was your only weakness! Your only flaw!”
……!
“Will you dare scar yourself and create another blemish? You’ve grown tired of me, is that it?!”
Her words brought him to a halt, sparing Edward from injury, yet….
“…Tepe, Gorgo.”
“Yes, my lord. Now that you’ve come to your senses….”
“Take her away.”
“What? Wait—!”
In that moment of clarity, Edward had immediately isolated Luciana from himself.
And from that day until now, he had been packing his things, resolved to put an entire world between them.
Of course, it brought him no joy.
From the instant he had decided to part from her, the smallest, most fragile voice within him had cried out in protest, saying no.
Why must I do this?
Why must I be separated from her?
Yet the answer he gave himself was merciless.
Because it must be.
…Because I can never harm her again.
The image of Luciana bleeding remained seared into Edward’s mind.
Nngh.
Merely recalling that sight sent a dull throb through his skull.
The flesh inside his mouth had been gnawed so raw that even clenching his teeth caused blood to bloom, flooding his tongue with a bitter, metallic taste.
Edward barely managed to endure the creeping vertigo, steeling himself with silent vows.
‘Never again.’
There must never come a second time when he laid a hand upon her.
Even if it cost him another Rampage, even if it cost him his life.
If there existed any possibility of his harming her, he could not abide it—not even if that harm came from himself.
Sending her abroad was not enough.
If he found where she was, his instincts might break free and consume him entirely.
‘So then….’
Edward had decided to return to the Laboratory he’d abandoned long ago.
To the tomb he himself had carefully chosen—the previous Duke’s handiwork.
There would be restraints and chains enough to bind him.
It was a Laboratory built using him as its specimen, after all.
‘I destroyed the nursery that was kept in the House of Teseron when I married.’
Whether it was the sunless nursery of the ducal manor or the Laboratory filled with chemicals.
He’d once sworn through gritted teeth never to return to such places again—but there was no choice.
If he didn’t do this, he would find Luciana, and he would harm her.
Edward’s chest grew heavy with solemn resolve.
‘Getting back in will be somewhat difficult, though.’
Because before he killed the previous Duke and escaped that place.
Edward had set traps throughout the Laboratory.
So that if an intruder stepped on one, the entire Laboratory would collapse at once.

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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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