I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 129

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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 129
Sepina’s testimony had not come cheap.
“Let go of me! Release me! You disgusting fakes!”
“Father… If the Pope learns of this, you’ll all be finished! Do you understand?!”
Sepina, coming to her senses belatedly, cursed Luciana and Edward while begging them to return her to the Temple.
In the process, her admission that she was the Pope’s daughter had merely been a bonus.
It was Clara who dealt with her.
“Good day, Holy Maiden.”
“What are you? A servant of those fakes, and you dare lay hands on me—!”
“No, ma’am. I am the same as you. I am their hostage.”
“What?”
“The truth is, when the Holy Father tasked Gemini with a mission….”
Clara wove truth and falsehood together to win Sepina over.
It was she who had summoned the Monster to Teseron alongside Gemini.
After that was discovered, she was dragged here by Luciana.
And as she spoke, she even dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief.
“She threatened me, saying she would separate me from my family and have me executed if I returned….”
“…….”
“If she had truly been an admirable Duchess, would I ever have conspired in such wickedness?”
“…You’re right. She never could have been an admirable Duchess.”
“Precisely. So I came here to free you, unable to bear it any longer! Please, take your revenge on my behalf!”
“Of course, if you free me, I’ll repay you somehow….”
Sepina, unwilling to bear the full burden of revenge, showed reluctance at Clara’s words.
At that exact moment, Clara added as though she had merely forgotten something.
“You’ve already denounced the Duke of Teseron as a fake, but the Duchess? I heard this from Gemini too. She was an Experimental Subject of the Temple, wasn’t she? How dare such a fake steal the Holy Maiden’s place?”
“……!”
“If you come to the Square with me, the journalists will be waiting there. Tell them in the Holy Maiden’s name that the Duchess is indeed an Experimental Subject of the Temple and a fake!”
Sepina, already seething with resentment, took the bait.
Her reason was clouded by fury, leaving no room for other thoughts.
So the moment she was released into the Square….
Sepina cried out to the journalists Luciana had assembled beforehand.
“I swear by the Holy Maiden’s name! The Duchess is a fake! She was nothing but an Experimental Subject of the Temple!”
“P-Please, Holy Maiden, calm yourself!”
The priests and Holy Knights who rushed toward her pleaded with her to stop, but Sepina would not.
“A woman who lived like a maggot locked away in the Temple!”
Of course, had she known the situation beforehand, she would never have spoken so boldly.
Sepina was unaware that reports were already breaking of the Temple’s kidnapping and human experimentation.
Thus she did not realize that her testimony would cement those accusations as fact.
And her testimony produced an unexpected effect as well.
One that aligned with Luciana’s intentions in certain ways.
Luciana smiled with satisfaction and spoke.
“If the experiments are true, people are saying Sepina herself might be a fake Holy Maiden created through experimentation.”
The rumor originated from Sepina’s handmaidens, who had borne the brunt of her violence.
“Wait. Something doesn’t add up. Why are there so many stories about someone being fake? Don’t tell me the Holy Maiden is fake too?”
“I suspected as much. For a Holy Maiden, she wielded violence far too freely!”
“When we were alone with her, she showed her true colors—it was like she had a split personality….”
Those who learned the truth were appalled.
Public opinion, which had been attacking Edward, now turned against not only the Temple and Sepina but also the nobility and the Imperial Family.
They demanded to know what the nobility and Imperial Family had been doing while all this occurred.
Luciana praised Clara repeatedly.
“You’re truly remarkable. How did you even think to persuade Sepina like that?”
“Serving someone as discerning as the Duchess taught me how, naturally.”
“Ah, I understand completely.”
Clara smiled back, relieved to have been of use.
Then she continued with a determined expression.
“…Though as you say, I cannot hope to escape punishment.”
“…….”
“Still, I’m grateful I could repay the kindness shown to my family, even in this way.”
Luciana nodded and took Clara’s hand.
Seeing the warm atmosphere, Gemini suddenly interjected again, as though consumed by jealousy.
“But surely my Experimental Records played no small part? Don’t I deserve some credit as well…?”
“Credit? You’re the one who caused all this in the first place.”
“Ah. When you disparage me like that, it feels like praise to me.”
“Ugh.”
Luciana’s patience had reached its limit.
“Get out, you pervert.”
Tepe and Gorgo stormed in with dark expressions and began herding Gemini toward the door.
That they had arrived meant….
“Has the Duke returned as well?”
“He can leave right now, if you please.”
Edward, who had gone to the Imperial Palace with the two men, was back.
As Luciana hurried into the corridor, Edward himself was stepping through the door to meet her when he froze, startled.
“You’re back?”
“I am.”
As they embraced out of habit, Tepe and Gorgo quietly positioned themselves between them and the hallway.
Luciana wrapped her arms around Edward’s neck and leaned against him.
“The Emperor is shameless. He ignored you at the gates, and now he comes crawling, begging you to visit the Imperial Palace?”
Edward had made the early morning trip to the Imperial Palace because the Emperor, swept up in the tide of public opinion, had sent out a desperate plea.
He wanted Edward to testify that the Imperial Family bore no great fault in all of this.
That they had merely continued to support the Temple out of habit, done nothing wrong, nothing at all.
“It’s laughable. When you were under attack, they did nothing but stand by.”
“…….”
“The moment the fire reaches their own doorstep, they start ordering people around.”
Luciana pouted and grumbled, her lower lip jutting forward.
Edward, watching her with obvious affection, chose his words carefully before whispering.
“I told him I would think about it.”
“Think about what?”
“His proposal.”
“Why would you?! This is the perfect chance to teach them a lesson—”
“He offered to protect you.”
At that, Luciana’s brow furrowed.
Edward wet his lower lip with his tongue and continued.
“I regret that you revealed the truth about yourself being an Experimental Subject on your own. Well, regret might be too strong a word, but it’s your choice, and I respect it.”
“…….”
“When I think about it, I had no right to tell you not to reveal it in the first place.”
Whether to reveal that truth or not was entirely Luciana’s decision.
His insistence that she must not reveal it may have been nothing but his own arrogance.
In fact, it was he who had failed—Luciana had revealed it to protect him, and he felt the weight of that mistake heavily.
As if reading Edward’s thoughts, Luciana spoke in a steady voice.
“I’m telling you this because I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, but I chose this myself, just as you said. It wasn’t because of you.”
Edward nodded at her words.
“I know. My smallest and strongest one.”
“…That’s an odd way to address me.”
“But it’s the truth.”
Edward smiled softly and caressed the curve of her ear.
“However, in order to bring the Temple to trial, you’ll have to appear in court yourself and testify.”
“…Yes, I suppose that’s inevitable.”
After a series of hearings, the Temple was at last formally indicted before the Imperial Court.
Standing in the witness box, Luciana would have to recount every detail of what she had endured.
And the trial was set to begin very soon.
It was the result of the Imperial Family’s concern for public opinion.
They seemed eager to condemn the Temple quickly and sever all ties with them.
The trial was scheduled far sooner than even the case Edward faced regarding the Teseron monster incident—so much so that the Temple was reportedly mounting fierce resistance.
“The Temple must be seething with venom.”
Edward clicked his tongue and continued.
“Which means you could be exposed to far worse things during the trial.”
Edward’s concern was not unfounded.
Indeed, thanks to the public relations campaign, many had turned sympathetic toward the Duke and Duchess of Teseron….
But strange rumors had begun to spread alongside Luciana’s revelation that she was an Experimental Subject.
The rumors had originated from the Temple and the nobles, all trapped and desperate to strike back however they could.
“We must do something! If we don’t, they’ll come after us next!”
“But what can we do? There’s no proof behind the claim that the Duke is a false Divine Incarnation!”
“Wait — proof, you say? Didn’t the Duchess release some kind of Experimental Records? I heard there’s rather inflammatory material in them.”
“…Let’s use that.”

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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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