I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 13

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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 13
“I’m dying! I’m going to die!”
“Listen.”
Squelch.
Each time Lucy cried out in panic and wrapped her arms around his head, the soft give of her flesh pressed and rubbed insistently against Edward’s cheek.
So impossibly soft—he would never have imagined such a thing could exist on a frame as skeletal as hers.
Edward found himself overcome by a peculiar sensation.
‘I thought there was nothing but bone.’
And audaciously, she was rubbing against him so thoroughly that she nearly eclipsed his entire field of vision.
Yet Lucy herself seemed utterly oblivious to what she was doing.
“Sister! Sister!”
She called out to someone like a woman possessed, her wits scattered to the wind.
Her voice carried an ache so poignant it was almost unbearable.
‘Sister?’
Edward’s brow furrowed slightly as he considered the matter without prejudice.
‘Was the person who performed the Purification for her before a woman?’
She had said she’d only ever been purified by him—was that a lie?
The tenderness in her voice was too profound to be explained any other way.
He’d never heard of two people of the same sex performing a Purification together, but that didn’t mean it was impossible either….
But the thought didn’t linger long.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.
The frantic pounding of her racing footsteps thundered in his ears.
The sound of her heartbeat, echoing from the soft chest pressed so close to his cheek.
‘Like a frightened mouse.’
He recalled how the soft mice he’d held in his palm would race their hearts like this.
How they would cling to him, seeking the warmth of his hand, their rhythmic pulses and heat a comfort to him.
……
Edward’s mood improved remarkably.
Even the irritation of having those Temple monks dogging his heels vanished in an instant.
The skeletal girl’s body felt even softer, warmer, and more supple than he’d anticipated.
The thighs he held firm in his grasp, the shoulder blade visible through her skin—all of it.
And most of all, her chest, pressed so closely against his ear, transmitting each heartbeat to him….
Squeeze.
Without thinking, his grip tightened.
“Agh!”
Lucy, clutching his thigh, gasped in alarm.
Only then did she realize she’d been cradling his head, and she jerked away in embarrassment.
“Ahem! Ahem!”
The warmth that had filled his cheek withdrew swiftly.
Edward’s brow narrowed slightly at the sudden emptiness near his ear, though Lucy didn’t notice.
‘He wasn’t trying to kill me.’
For a moment she’d thought he meant to drop her from the sky and let her plummet to her death.
But the way he held her firmly so she wouldn’t fall suggested otherwise.
‘Then he wasn’t trying to kill me when he covered my nose and mouth before, either?’
Perhaps he’d only done it out of annoyance, and she’d simply overreacted.
At least knowing Edward wouldn’t harm her brought some small comfort.
Lucy felt a chill run down her spine from her heightened vantage point, but she glanced back at the Temple’s retreating banner without flinching.
Then, feigning composure, she smiled and gently wrapped her arms around Edward’s neck.
“S-sorry. I was just… so startled. Haha.”
Edward’s brow relaxed slightly, and he met Lucy’s gaze steadily.
“You’re flying away now, right? I won’t be any trouble. I’ll stay completely still, quiet as a mouse.”
“Why would a mouse be dead.”
“Oh, I see. Then I’ll stay quiet as a mouse who’s found honey.”
Lucy’s body trembled slightly, afraid she might have irritated him.
Edward read her fear in a different light.
‘She’s afraid of heights.’
With a soft tsk, Edward moved the hand supporting her back higher.
……?
He pressed her face against his chest.
Lucy, puzzled but compliant, leaned her cheek into his armor as his hand guided her there.
Seeing Lucy like that, Edward let out a short sigh.
‘I only meant to show her the sights, but she’s wound up so needlessly afraid.’
Still, there was something pleasant about the way she followed his gestures without protest.
Pleasant too was the warmth of her slender arms wrapped obediently around his neck.
Edward spread his Golden Wings and began to fly.
* * *
‘Is this torture…?’
A few hours later.
As soon as Lucy’s feet touched the ground, she stretched her stiff neck—she’d been hunched over so long it had gone rigid.
Crack. When she lifted her head again, a distinctly troubling sound came from her neck.
‘I thought it was going to snap.’
At first, she’d been grateful for the way he’d let her bury her face against his chest.
High above the earth with no safety net, clinging to nothing but a nobleman’s whim—she had no idea when he might lose interest—the anxiety had been overwhelming.
But that gratitude had lasted all of three minutes.
Later on, her neck had begun to ache terribly, and still he wouldn’t let go.
Once the fear wore off, she’d wanted to look around and enjoy the flight, but—
“Um, Your Grace.”
“…….”
“My neck is rather….”
“Shh.”
He would murmur like that, coaxing her the way one might soothe a child, pressing her head deeper into his chest.
‘And why does he keep touching my cheek like that?’
The way he’d knead her cheek as though running an experiment—it seemed he was testing whether she’d wrap her arms around his head again or not.
Each time, Lucy found herself burying her face deeper into Edward’s embrace.
Her cheeks bore a dark impression from the seal of House Tesseron carved into his armor, as though she’d just woken from sleep.
Her neck, which had been bent the whole time, ached as well.
‘But at least….’
She’d escaped the Temple. And this man….
‘…seems to be taking me to House Tesseron.’
The way he’d set out immediately at her word was proof enough.
Most of all, in that first moment when Edward had pressed her head down firmly against his chest.
Crack.
Something small and crystalline had shattered at the back of her neck where his hand touched.
And simultaneously, something that had been connecting her to something else snapped.
Given the oddly pleasant sensation that had bloomed in that instant….
‘He must have destroyed the Tracking Magic the Temple had placed on me.’
Lucy cringed at the realization that her suspicion about the Tracking Magic was correct.
Then she quietly lifted her head and surveyed her surroundings.
Chirp, chirp. Chirp, chirp.
Small birds flew across the roof of the high-class inn.
The blue sky had turned crimson in the approaching dusk.
“The Gate is now closed for the day! Please return tomorrow!”
“Order! Maintain order!”
Beyond the wall, people crowded against the Gate, desperate to pass.
They were those trying to get through the Gate to the Northern Region.
Beyond this checkpoint, the vast Tesseron Territory sprawled northward.
Broader than any land the Imperial Court possessed, with fertile soil and barren earth alike—the legendary Tesseron Territory.
She recalled hearing that Tesseron Castle stood quite far north within that domain.
‘I wonder if it’s something like the Northern Grand Castle?’
…Though the castle’s master looked more like a frivolous blond crown prince.
Lucy cast a sidelong glance at Edward, who was still speaking with the innkeeper.
“Oh my, yes. We’ve emptied the whole inn, naturally. Since you’re the Duke of House Tesseron, it’s only proper we give you every room.”
From the moment they’d landed in the courtyard, the innkeeper had been in a state of panic, bowing and scraping constantly.
As though it were the greatest honor his establishment could receive, he’d been bowing frantically and had even driven out all his other guests without being asked.
The Golden Wings and the armor emblazoned with House Tesseron’s seal.
Apparently his beautiful face alone was enough to identify him as Edward.
‘Fame is fame, I suppose.’
The innkeeper wasn’t the only one reacting this way.
“Is that the legendary hero Duke?”
“I’ve never seen a Transcendent before….”
“I love you, Duke!”
The guests who’d been evicted to make room for him, along with passersby heading through the gate, pressed themselves against the inn’s fence, stealing glimpses of Edward.
As though they’d forgotten their earlier indignation at being cast out, many found themselves slack-jawed and enchanted each time he casually turned his gaze their way.
It felt as though the crowd kept swelling.
‘This is rather uncomfortable.’
Because she happened to be traveling with his party, Lucy had unwillingly become a spectacle herself.
“Who is that woman?”
“A maidservant, perhaps?”
“Did he pick up some vagrant?”
…In an instant, she’d become a monkey in a zoo.
‘He should at least cover his face when he goes out.’
All this fuss—wasn’t it because he was unnecessarily handsome?
Lucy was grumbling to herself while shooting sidelong glances at his infuriatingly perfect features.
Click.
Edward stepped into the inn and flicked his eyes toward her.
“…Yes!”
“Wait! Hold on!”
“Don’t close it!”
“Duke, I love you!”
Lucy bolted after him and promptly slammed the inn door shut, cutting off the crowd’s stares in one swift motion.
Then she scurried after Edward, hands clasped together like a supplicant, and whispered urgently.
“But Duke, there’s something I’ve been curious about.”
“What is it.”
“Why did we stop to rest?”
There was good reason for the question.
Honestly, she hadn’t expected him to reach the gate this quickly.
It would have taken days by carriage from the Capital to this gate.
‘He covered it in just a few hours.’
If he’d flown for only another day or so, they would’ve arrived at Tesseron Castle in no time.
There was no need to linger in such a crowded place and draw attention like this.
Even if he’d severed the magical connection, what if the Temple caught wind of something and came chasing?
‘We need to get to the Northern Region as soon as possible to be safe.’
Lucy was rolling her eyes with anxiety when
Edward let out a dry laugh.
“Look at your condition before you talk.”

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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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