I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 2

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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 2
Luciana’s awakening—or perhaps it was Luci’s—came the evening before.
“Cough, cough, hack!”
“I told you not to eat so fast, damn it!”
After three days of fasting, she’d choked on the moldy bread she’d finally been given, wolfing it down without thought.
For a moment, she thought she’d stopped breathing altogether.
Then came the lantern light of her past life—memories flooding back with it.
‘I’m finished.’
But in that moment of clarity, she understood where she’d been reborn.
*The Last Dragon’s Bride* was a story of the final surviving Dragon Avatar and the heroine’s desperate, aching love.
Summarized in a sentence:
‘A trashy novel where both male and female leads tumble around in chaos until the bitter end.’
The male lead was the only Dragon Avatar in the entire work, but he suffered for years without finding a True Mate to purify him.
Eventually he met Sepina at the Temple and found relief from his torment, spending nights with her believing her to be his True Mate—but then.
‘It was all a lie.’
As romance fantasy novels often did, this world had the Temple as a half-hidden villain pulling strings.
Sepina’s power to purify the male lead was actually—
“What? You’re choking?”
“Be careful! Do you know how hard it is to replace you if you die?”
“Holy Power Users aren’t being born much these days!”
The result of squeezing Holy Power from countless children and funneling it to Sepina—Luciana among them.
‘Two months ago it was Rena. Last month, John. Last week, Cecil.’
Luciana looked around the empty cells surrounding her with bitter eyes.
Then fragments of memory from the body she’d inhabited began to surface.
In that recollection, those cells were the places of “consumables” like her—children who’d been captured and vanished.
Purifying a Dragon Avatar required that much Holy Power, after all.
In the end, the Temple kidnapped any child with even a trace of Holy Power to serve as Sepina’s source, and eventually—
‘They even stole the actual True Mate.’
When the True Mate came of age, a wound called the Sacred Mark appeared on her body.
The locations where these scars—shaped like a dragon’s wings—manifested varied, but this particular True Mate’s Sacred Mark happened to be in a terribly visible place.
‘On the back of her hand, wasn’t it?’
Because of that, the Temple’s High Priestess happened to find the True Mate before the male lead did.
She’d seen the Sacred Mark freshly manifesting on the back of the girl’s hand as she drew water at the well.
Forcibly brought here, the True Mate was imprisoned in the Underground Dungeon like Luciana, suffering while she waited for the male lead to rescue her—only to—
‘Be murdered after they carved the Sacred Mark from her body.’
Sepina carved the Sacred Mark from the True Mate’s body and grafted it onto herself, then began her masquerade as the genuine article.
‘But even after that, she couldn’t perform proper purification, so eventually her forgery was exposed.’
And the male lead, unable to overcome his Rampage, brought about the end of the world.
Dark as that premise was.
“Sepina and the male lead were always doing that sort of thing in scene after scene.”
The very premise that purification could only happen through physical contact was a setting designed for, by, and because of adult content.
The comment section had erupted in arguments every single day.
Debates over whether Sepina—who went that far with the male lead—or the True Mate—who never properly met him—was the real heroine.
‘It was fun to watch back then.’
But now that it was her own situation, it felt endlessly tragic.
“What’s the problem, then?”
She’d met an unlucky, violent death in her past life, and now even with a new existence, this was what awaited her.
‘If anything, just make me an extra noble girl who walks past in the background.’
But no—she had to be this consumable.
The name Luciana didn’t even appear in the original work.
She was probably going to be a worthless extra role, someone Sepina would drain of Holy Power until she died.
To accept such a fate—
‘Not a chance.’
But there was one more thing she despised.
“Ow, that’s hot!”
Every time Sepina used Holy Power to purify the male lead, heat surged through her own body as well.
The Duke must be here right now.
‘This didn’t feel this bad when the other children were still alive.’
It seemed that now they were all dead, the backlash from Holy Power usage crashed down entirely on her.
As heat bloomed in her hands, fire raced through her veins.
‘I didn’t want to know anything about another man’s bed habits!’
Besides, this duke had some obsession with hands—his were always burning hot, trembling with barely suppressed need.
“He’s deranged. Truly.”
Luciana scrubbed her palms against the cold stone floor, afraid the friction would sear her skin.
She forced herself to think rationally.
‘What am I going to do now?’
Now that she understood her past life, she couldn’t go on like this.
“…All right.”
After staring at the floor for a long moment, Luciana reached her decision.
* * *
“Ah, Duke Edward….”
An excited, girlish voice rang in his ears.
“Please, come closer….”
Sepina, speaking in that breathy tone, reached out her hand, her long lashes fluttering.
Her lips curved upward with shameless intent, her body trembling with barely concealed eagerness—yet she maintained an air of studied composure.
“Today, finally….”
Her pale, delicate hand was just reaching toward the solid plate armor at his chest when—
Snap.
“…Your Grace?”
Without a word, he caught her wrist.
In the sudden chill, Sepina laughed, forcing brightness into her voice.
“Are you embarrassed again? There’s no need to….”
“Your hand is sufficient.”
His low voice cut through the gap in his armor, ice-cold.
Sepina laughed softly, concealing the thrill that ran through her as she caressed the large hand that gripped her wrist.
“You always limit yourself to just holding hands.”
“…….”
“Is it because I’m not your true mate?”
Edward did not answer the fragile woman’s plaintive question.
Sepina obediently removed his gloves.
His hand emerged, veins standing out sharply across the back.
It was a man’s hand—all hard angles and prominent knuckles, undeniably attractive.
Fighting the urge to gaze at it with covetous eyes, Sepina kept her voice gentle and submissive.
“Don’t worry, Your Grace.”
“…….”
“I know you’re saving your chastity for your true mate. I understand perfectly—we won’t cross that line, just as you’ve wished.”
“…….”
“I’m simply grateful that my temporary Purification is of some use to you….”
“Be quick about it.”
“…I beg your pardon?”
“I need to return and hunt demons.”
At those words, Sepina fell silent, unsure how to respond.
Edward was always like this—cold, businesslike.
Even the intimate proximity required for Purification was minimal; they barely did more than hold hands.
Sometimes his manner felt cruelly dismissive.
Yet compared to how he treated others, his conduct toward her was almost gentlemanly, wasn’t it?
Besides….
‘There aren’t many days left for him to reject me like this, Your Grace.’
Word had reached her that the Temple would soon send a marriage proposal to the Duchy.
This time, it would be officially pushing Sepina as his true mate.
‘He promised to procure the Sacred Mark no matter what.’
The betrothal would almost certainly succeed.
The empire’s most valuable man would soon fall into her hands.
So for now, she would hide her true feelings and perform her Purification obediently.
Whoosh.
White light blossomed at the tips of Sepina’s fingers.
‘Hmm?’
A moment later, Sepina’s brow furrowed slightly.
The Holy Power users had all been dying off, leaving her with less power to draw on than usual.
Still, if she just exerted herself a little more….
Crack!
“Ah!”
In the next instant, Sepina jerked her hand back with a start.
‘What?’
The moment she grasped the Duke’s hand and purified even the tiniest speck of Corruption—
the Holy Power that had flowed between them all this while snapped away abruptly.
‘That’s strange…’
She had no time to dwell on the oddness.
Edward had already withdrawn his hand.
“Is that all for today’s Purification?”
“What? That is… well…”
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
“Wait, Your Grace!”
Sepina scrambled to her feet, but Edward was already stepping through the doorway.
“Your Grace!”
He did not turn at her plaintive cry.
In truth, Edward was too consumed with forcing down the Corruption raging through his own body, with holding back the Rampage.
“…Damn it all.”
A sharp curse, and then pain lanced through his skull.
At the same moment, a memory surfaced—the priests’ whispers, always guiding him toward Sepina.
“Do not fret, Your Grace. Sepina will soon awaken as your true mate. Once she does, the Rampage will cease.”
“Once you have her, everything will be well.”
“…Lies.”
A savage smile crystallized in his mind behind the visor.
True mate, true self—such nonsense…
Cough.
There was no room for further thought.
The taste of blood flooded his mouth.

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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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