I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 17

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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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Episode 17
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Thump, thump.
“Sister, I’m scared….”
Lucy’s eyes opened slowly.
At the whispered voice, she lifted her head—and found herself staring at the familiar scene once more.
The Shelter’s door, sealed tight. People huddled together on the outer edge, clinging to one another.
And deeper inside, the Shelter’s true masters, barricaded behind locked doors, hiding away.
“What if the door actually breaks this time?”
Whenever a Demon Beast appeared near the Shelter, those masters would single out the defenseless—the ones with nowhere else to turn.
Then they’d shove them into the space between the outer and inner doors, like bait for a trap, sacrifices to buy themselves time.
Lucy was always on that bait list.
As was the small child she held, whose parents had gone out with the Self-Defense Corps and never returned.
“It’ll be all right.”
Lucy stroked the trembling child’s back as tears began to fall.
“But….”
“Every time they pound like that, the door never actually breaks, does it?”
It was the truth.
For all its strength, even on the day the Shelter came down, that door hadn’t given way.
‘Instead, too many people crowded inside, and it was that section that collapsed….’
The Demon Beasts had poured through that gap and wreaked havoc, smashing everything to pieces.
The ones who’d always hidden inside, using people like her as bait, had been the first to die—which was a kind of justice, though bitter.
‘Would this child have died then too?’
Lucy gazed down at the weeping child in her arms with a pang in her chest.
‘I wish they’d lived.’
If only I’d shielded this child and died protecting them back then.
If only they’d lived because of me.
Then maybe I would’ve been worth something.
Lucy wished for it with all her heart.
That at least one person might have survived.
And if it was because of me—well, I couldn’t ask for more than that.
‘…That’s rather selfish, isn’t it.’
The fact that the far more selfish people inside had died first didn’t bring much comfort at all.
In truth, it would have been better if nothing had happened.
If no one had died, if no one had been hurt.
Lucy smiled bitterly while continuing to stroke the child’s trembling back.
From within her embrace came the sound of a child holding back tears.
“What do I do? I’m so scared, sister.”
Yeah… I’m scared too, you know.
“I don’t want to die….”
I… felt the same way.
With a wail, the child finally broke down completely.
…….
The people around them watched the crying child with vacant eyes.
Not one of them thought to comfort or quiet the small voice.
“Sob, sob, hiccup….”
Screech, screech.
The child’s cries tangled with the Demon Beast’s shrieks from beyond the door, weaving a suffocating atmosphere.
“It’s okay. Be brave now.”
“Sob, wheeze.”
“We’ll be safe….”
“But no one’s coming to save us!”
“That’s not true. My sisters are with the Self-Defense Corps, and your parents too. When the Self-Defense Corps returns, they’ll….”
“No! No one’s coming!”
The child cried out in despair.
At those words, the people around them began to wail as well.
“That’s right! Nobody’s coming!”
“There’s no one to save us!”
“We’re all going to die! We’ll all die!”
It was in that moment, as Lucy watched the crowd descend into panic, that something shifted.
Bang!
The Shelter door began to crumple, silencing everyone within.
“Ah!”
“A Demon Beast… a Demon Beast!”
Bang! Bang!
Everyone trembled and huddled into the corner where Lucy stood.
Crash!
Unexpectedly, what shone through the broken door frame was a flood of light.
‘Not just any light, either….’
Golden light?
Lucy slowly rose to her feet.
A stride.
Someone walked boldly into the Shelter.
The figure was utterly unexpected.
“…….”
The silver-haired man swept his hair back as he surveyed the room, then fixed his gaze directly on Lucy.
Lucy’s lips parted of their own accord.
“Your Grace?”
A confident smile spilled forth, as if to say he’d been expected all along.
The face she’d found beautiful yet insufferable until now made her heart catch with such sudden relief it almost hurt.
He was alive.
He would save them.
There was someone to help them now.
Someone who could….
Before she could finish, a shadow drew close.
The child cradled in his arms, the trembling people around her—all vanished in an instant.
Soon his beautiful lips parted.
“Then.”
“…….”
“Let’s see how much more use you have left.”
With those words, his approaching hand brushed across her lips.
The illusion of flames rising from every point his fingers touched….
“Ah!”
Lucy jolted awake, staring at the ceiling.
‘Was that a dream?’
A ridiculous dream, or rather—since a dragon appeared—a dragon dream, technically.
“Ugh!”
Now fully conscious, Lucy beat the innocent pillow repeatedly while lying on her stomach.
‘That terrifying, beautiful, no-good libertine!’
From living so long in the Shelter, she’d fallen into a pattern of shallow sleep and quick waking, so dreaming at all was something she hadn’t done in ages.
But of all dreams, it had to be one with the Duke in it.
And it had to end in such a suggestive way, no less!
‘If I’d known I’d have such a dream, I wouldn’t have fallen asleep at all.’
But the regret was short-lived.
“…Besides, there wasn’t anything else to do anyway.”
“Where’s the Demon Beast? Take me to it at once.”
“S-sir? Yes, y-yes, right away…!”
So, right after Edward left with the inn keeper—the woman in a daze—to go searching.
Left alone, Lucy had absolutely nothing to do.
A Demon Beast was rampaging outside; she couldn’t venture out.
And if the people crowded against the wall outside were still gathered there, the moment she stepped out she’d become a caged monkey again, which was equally troublesome.
‘…But they must have all evacuated, right?’
Though she felt some concern, the fact that the inn keeper had rushed off to call Edward gave her confidence that people had scattered to safety of their own accord.
‘So I….’
…might as well sleep.
One could say it was excessively calm behavior while a Demon Beast raged outside.
But if she was ever to reach the Teseron estate, she needed to conserve her strength.
‘Even now, that’s true.’
She was too weak to go straight to the estate, so she had to rest along the way.
If that were the case, then eating well and sleeping well right now was her duty.
Worrying about Edward, an invincible existence known as the Dragon Incarnate, was about as pointless as worrying about a celebrity.
So it was fine that she’d cheerfully grabbed a blanket and pillow.
‘This room is a bit… much, isn’t it?’
She didn’t want to sleep in the room Edward had chosen for himself.
After all, he must have picked it for his own use. So if she stayed here, she could remove her armor and….
In that moment, Lucy quickly pushed away the phantom sensation of the tight harness against her chest that had filled her mind.
‘Besides, he might come back and use it later anyway.’
With that reasoning, Lucy ventured into the corridor and found a room that was adequately comfortable and suitably small.
She’d worried, as she lay down, whether sleep would actually come.
The fact that she’d slept so soundly only to have this dream was absurd.
Lucy rolled over in frustration.
“…But is this really my fault?”
If Edward had just left without saying those things to her in the first place.
“Useful. That’s what you are.”
Frightening and crude as he was, yet he’d said exactly what she needed to hear at that moment.
“Fortunate or unfortunate—which is it?”
No, if only his face had been slightly less handsome when he said those things.
…Or better yet, if his lips hadn’t touched hers at all!
Of course, Lucy knew it had been necessary.
Before engaging in real combat, Purification would have been all the more vital.
But the intensity of that first kiss was overwhelming.
They’d only pressed their lips together.
‘He didn’t even use his tongue….’
Even now, her lips tingled with sensation.
“If every Purification from now on feels like this….”
…it probably would.
She’d tried to spin some wholesome logic, but having entered a mature-rated world, there was no escaping it.
And now that their lips had already collided, she couldn’t exactly undo it.
“There’s no helping it.”
Coolly canceling her earlier plan to minimize contact, Lucy resolved to steel herself mentally.
To be ready for whatever kiss might come next.
There was that magical phrase people used in situations like this, wasn’t there?
The excuse excitable protagonists deployed to find their reason again.
“It’s just Purification, just Purification!”
As she muttered this softly and sat up, blue dawn light was creeping through the window. Time had passed more than she’d realized.
Only then did something strike her as odd.
‘…Why is it so quiet?’
Lucy carefully stepped out into the corridor.
“He hasn’t come back yet?”
She crept toward the room Edward had marked, and sure enough, it was empty.
There was no way he should have needed this much time to catch a Demon Beast.
“This is strange.”

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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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