I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 16

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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 16
“Y-Your Grace! Your Grace!”
At the cry, Edward turned—and found the Innkeeper charging toward him without preamble.
“…What is it?”
Edward lifted his head with an irritated expression, his eyes already cold and sharp.
“A M-Monster has appeared in the vicinity, sir!”
Chill.
Monster.
The moment Lucy heard that word, her stomach seized as though she’d swallowed a ball of ice-cold fire.
Her heart, which had only just begun to steady itself, lurched into a frantic rhythm.
‘That’s right. This world, too….’
It was a sudden realization, yet it bore the weight of truth: this world also harbored monsters.
Just as they had existed in her life before the possession.
“Save me! Please! I want to live!”
“H-Help! Help… cough!”
The screams of the dying flickered across her consciousness like shadows.
The sight of people being torn apart by a single monster that had breached the shelter.
And the rubble collapsing upon her, sealing her fate.
“…Ah.”
Lucy quietly curled her trembling fingers and hid them from view.
‘Stay calm. It’s all in the past.’
Besides, unlike her previous life—where ordinary people without any power had desperately formed vigilante groups—this world possessed those who could hunt monsters.
The Dragon Avatar.
“I’m going now.”
So, even a monster-slayer was still a hero after all.
Edward released Lucy from his grip, radiating chill despite the casual dismissal, and gazed at her face for a long moment.
Then, without a trace of hesitation, he swiftly reequipped himself for battle.
Lucy approached him and opened her mouth to speak.
“Your Grace, I….”
“You stay here.”
“I’ll stay here!”
They spoke at the same moment, and an awkward silence settled between them.
Edward’s expression turned ambiguous at his own command, but Lucy remained resolute.
Even if Edward had insisted she come, her place was here.
This was different from wounded pride over being called weak.
‘I’m no help at all.’
Lucy judged the situation coldly.
Reality was not a novel.
Running off, insisting that someone who couldn’t even fight would be useful, was nothing but a burden to others.
Moreover, merely hearing the word ‘monster’ drained the warmth from her fingertips.
She hadn’t yet escaped her trauma.
‘Meeting a monster in this state would be suicide.’
Never mind getting herself hurt—but the lives of others hung in the balance too.
So she had resolved to let him go with a smile instead.
“You understand well enough.”
……
“You’d only get in the way.”
At those words from Edward, a memory resurfaced.
“Sisters! Come with us!”
“You stay here. It’s dangerous.”
“But…!”
“Let’s be honest—with your athletic ability, you’d just slow us down. Stay here and eat some sweets while you wait.”
They had spoken with smiles, coaxing her as they went….
Yet there had been truth in their words.
The truth that the Lucy of then, like the Lucy of now, was nothing but a hindrance.
Edward clicked his tongue at the sight of Lucy’s blanched face.
‘She’s a nervous one, that’s for certain.’
If he brought this woman along, she would undoubtedly be a liability.
The problem wasn’t with her—it was with him.
Worried that the frail woman might get hurt, he’d hold back while fighting, crippling his own strength.
Or else to check whether he trembled every time he launched an attack.
Of course, fighting with her in his arms was never even a consideration.
If even a fragment caught her, what then?
One way or another, his attention would scatter toward the woman, and then….
‘I’d lose time catching the Monster.’
Confidence in his own ability was an entirely separate matter.
So even if leaving her behind felt wrong, he had to go.
While Edward reached his conclusion, Lucy drove back the ghosts of memory and smiled bitterly.
“Yes, I understand, Duke.”
…….
“Don’t worry! I won’t go anywhere—I’ll wait quietly right here.”
Even as she said it, her fists clenched tight, yet still—just a little, just a tiny bit….
She felt something almost like sadness.
‘Right. This sort of situation isn’t really helping me, is it.’
The exaggeration was born of survival, but….
She’d trumpeted loudly that she’d be useful, that there was no Purifier as clever and cute and capable as herself.
Yet she still feared Monsters. And the truth remained unchanged—her stepping forward only caused trouble.
Perhaps in this life too, she could do nothing but cling desperately to survival alone.
She’d remain useless to everyone around her.
‘…and I don’t have any grand ambitions beyond that, anyway.’
Lucy answered with forced cheerfulness.
“I’m useless when it comes to fighting Monsters, so I’ll just rest here.”
Watching her face, Edward tilted his head slowly.
‘What’s this.’line>
Why did it feel like he was abandoning her?

The image of a small mouse waiting forlornly for him flickered through his mind, and something in his chest grew uneasy.
Those small lips that had been so scheming until moments ago—now they trembled weakly, putting on a show of confidence—and he didn’t like that either.
Was she really that frightened of Monsters?
Or was she afraid that he, whom she’d come to care for, might not return because something went wrong in the fight?
Either way, it troubled him equally.
‘…At least.’
At the very least, he felt he ought to leave his little mouse with some reassurance.
“I’ll be back soon. When I return, about the Contract seal—”
Lucy’s words were cut short by a hand that suddenly wrapped around the back of her head.
‘What?’
What she felt next was a soft sensation.
Something warm and tender brushed swiftly across Lucy’s lips.
Then, as if drawing away to create distance, it pressed back firmly like a seal being stamped.
…She realized afterward that what had pressed against her lips was troublingly handsome, making those lips an almost burdensome sensation.
‘What…?’
That wasn’t what she meant by putting a seal here, was it?
Before she could even blink in confusion at the crimson eyes drawing so close.
Their mucous membranes met.
“…Mmh!”
The Vital Energy pooling in her solar plexus began to flow, warming her suddenly chilled stomach.
‘This… this is different.’
It was entirely unlike simply being held or touched.
She could feel the Vital Energy that raced along the sensitive membrane being drawn into Edward’s lips like water being pulled through a straw.
‘Surely not.’
Was there some rule that Purification worked better when the membranes touched?
Now that she thought about it, it seemed plausible enough. It was the sort of setting that appeared often in these kinds of novels.
‘This damn 19-rated… mmh!’
The sensation awakened by the flowing Vital Energy felt unfamiliar.
A feeling both sharp and ticklish, the same sensation that coiled through her chest, scratched her throat, and moved on.
A crackling, static-like sensation bloomed across the tips of her fingers and toes.
Lucy’s eyes gradually grew hazy and unfocused.
‘Is this the tingling sensation those novels talked about?’
Strange as it was, it didn’t feel bad.
No—when that tingling sensation brushed across her skin, something indescribable began to sweep upward through her lower body.
It felt exactly like a cold fire wrapped in burning skin moving through her veins.
“…Huff!”
Her toes curled involuntarily, her hands drawing inward.
Soft.
Long strands of golden lashes brushed gently across Lucy’s nose.
When she lifted her gaze, she found herself staring into crimson eyes looking down at her.
The moment those red eyes curved with delight….
“Eek!”
The Innkeeper, having witnessed the kiss between them, let out a shriek like a girl and covered his eyes.
‘But I’m the one who should be—why is he…’
“Cough!
Edward finally released the back of Lucy’s head.
Only then did Lucy realize she’d been holding her breath, and she gasped for air urgently.
“Cough, cough, gasp!”
“An elderly man would cough more gracefully than that.”
She had no chance to protest against his backhanded compliment.
Her mind was too scattered.
‘What is this.’
It wasn’t even a lingering kiss.
‘Just one brush of lips?’
Confusion swept through her as the vital energy within her body surged chaotically.
It was at that moment—while Lucy’s pupils trembled with inner turmoil—that
Tap.
his finger came back and lightly touched her forehead.
Then he squeezed his fist tightly, as if holding something back.
His voice spilled out in an instant.
“You were right.”
“W-What…”
“Purification ability.”
……
“Does have. Use.”
As if he had read every thought Lucy had harbored until moments before.

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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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