I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 22

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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 22
Soon after, a cold voice fell like a blade.
“You’re being remarkably flippant today, Tephe.”
“…My apologies.”
“Anyone watching would think you’d earned your place as my aide with that tongue of yours, not with a sword.”
The sharp reproofs, meted out even-handedly to his closest retainers, drew a slightly weary look from Lucy.
‘What a way to speak.’
Yet Tephe, who’d heard the blunt criticism firsthand, took it without visible injury and assented.
“I will correct myself.”
“Don’t make me correct you twice.”
“Of course not.”
As if sensing he’d pushed a touch too far, he immediately straightened his posture.
He seemed accustomed to Edward’s manner of speech.
‘At least that’s something?’
Lucy, who’d worried the atmosphere might sour, relaxed a fraction.
Then she felt Edward’s body draw close to hers.
‘Oh?’
An odd sensation stirred through her.
The armor that had felt cold when it brushed her neck moments before now radiated heat once more.
Like when they’d kissed, just after she’d spent the whole of yesterday wrapped in his embrace….
‘Stop thinking about that right now!’
Slipping away from the flush of warmth, she felt the demon beast’s blood that had clung to Edward’s armor transfer onto her own clothes.
Noticing this, Edward too subtly pushed her back and turned to Tephe with a question.
“That’s settled. What of the Temple’s forces?”
“Ah. I’ve positioned them as far away as possible.”
“So they won’t be here anytime soon.”
“Correct. I sent the driver back by relay station. They should reach the Duchy in a few days.”
Gorgo, who added cautiously to Tephe’s words, studied Lucy and Edward with careful attention.
His gaze carried an oddly meaningful weight.
‘What was that?’
The question barely formed in Lucy’s mind before Edward gave a nod.
He gestured dismissively, then examined Lucy.
Her face had grown so flushed and gleaming it seemed she might start moving at any moment, like a freshly peeled egg.
And above all, he needed to get her to the Duchy soon enough to….
‘Break her of that habit of charming everyone indiscriminately.’
Look at how she’d praised that count earlier without a second thought.
Even just now—Tephe had proven susceptible to this small mouse’s allure without resistance.
But she was his mouse.
The thought of her falling into someone else’s hands, retainer or no, sat poorly with him.
Soon his gaze drifted toward the inn door.
Through the crack left ajar, he could see uninvited guests crowding together inside.
“Everyone, please—you mustn’t disturb the Duke. He needs his rest….”
“Just a quick moment, that’s all we ask!”
Before the innkeeper, who sweated profusely in his anxiety, stood a cluster of nobles eager to make amends and the commoners who’d confronted Edward earlier.
The moment he finished his conversation, they looked ready to burst through the door and rush at him with pleas.
‘Tedious business, all of it.’
Whatever they meant to say, he frankly had no interest in hearing it.
His only thought was to whisk this woman away to his domain with all speed.
Edward made his decision swiftly.
“Then we leave at once.”
“We’re leaving now?”
“Yes.”
And he gave Lucy the answer she’d longed for throughout.
“For the Teseron Duchy.”
* * *
“Aaaaagh!”
Crash!
Meanwhile, in the innermost chamber of the Capital’s Temple.
Costly vases and paperweights alike tumbled through the air.
The faces of the Temple handmaids standing nearby drained of color.
“Sepina, what’s wrong? Why are you so angry? Please, calm yourself.”
“That’s right. If you upset yourself too much, you’ll damage your health….”
“Shut up!”
“Ah!”
A vase flew toward the handmaidens.
Crash!
The handmaidens scattered like a retreating tide, barely dodging the shattered fragments.
Cold sweat beading on their foreheads, they backed into the corner.
“Why is she suddenly acting like this?”
“I know. She was always so angelic before.”
“I have no idea….”
The clueless handmaidens exchanged glances, studying Sepina carefully.
The saintess who ordinarily smiled at them and spoke kindly had suddenly turned into someone they didn’t recognize—it was shocking.
Sepina gnashed her teeth, paying them no mind.
She’d exhausted her patience for wearing the mask of kindness.
‘We were almost there!’
Edward had always been cold, yet he kept visiting her regularly to receive Purification.
Once the body was attached, the heart would follow soon enough—that was how it worked.
At least, that’s what Sepina had learned.
‘But why….’
“What troubles you, Saintess Sepina?”
At that moment, the very man who had taught her this lesson entered the room with a gentle expression.
The Father of All Temples, presiding over every temple in the empire.
The Pope himself.
“Your Holiness, you’ve come.”
The handmaidens welcomed their savior with relief, though they hadn’t expected someone of such high rank to appear, and they bowed their heads deeply.
“Sisters, you may leave.”
At the Pope’s words, they fled in a rustle, as if they’d been waiting for permission.
‘Coming in person to console the Saintess….’
‘What a kind man he is.’
Surely he was a good person who cherished the Saintess and looked after humble servants like them.
Click.
The door closed, and the Pope settled onto the sofa in the center of the room.
“Father!”
The moment prying eyes disappeared, Sepina’s anguish burst forth.
She rushed to the Pope and clung to him like a child.
“I’m so upset!”
“Now, now. Look how you’ve troubled that pretty face, our daughter.”
The Pope spoke with hollow flattery, stroking Sepina’s hair.
Few in the Temple knew that the two were father and daughter—it was a closely guarded secret.
Priests who devoted themselves to the Temple were strictly forbidden from marrying or having children.
Yet not all clergy were virtuous.
The higher they climbed, the more likely they were to transgress or keep secret mistresses.
Sepina herself was the result of such an indiscretion, committed when the Pope was still a high priest.
The Pope stroked her hair and reflected.
‘Fortunately, she doesn’t look much like me.’
Originally, he’d meant to destroy his shame by killing her at birth.
But the moment the infant opened her eyes, his mind changed.
Though she didn’t resemble him closely, seeing a baby with eyes the same color as his own stirred his appetite for possession.
‘She carries my superior bloodline, none other’s.’
Why throw away something so valuable?
Wasn’t this an opportunity to leave his mark—proof of his excellence—upon the world?
Besides, the infant had low Magical Power and was female to boot.
With Magical Power barely above that of a commoner, suspicion of any connection to him seemed remote, and the prospect of ‘selling’ her later was enticing.
‘If her Magical Power had been high, I might have been suspected, and I’d have disposed of her no matter how valuable—I wouldn’t risk demotion over a momentary mistake. Much less now that I am Pope.’
He had no intention of being defrocked for a mere past transgression. Least of all now.
Thinking coldly, yet chuckling softly, the Pope patted Sepina with the air of a kind father.
He had always played the devoted biological father to her.
It was far easier to control her that way.
“It’s all right, Sepina.”
“I’m not all right! Not only did the Duke leave like that… our final experimental subject escaped!”
“That is….”
Even as Pope, it was a deeply painful loss.
The final experimental subject that the Temple had been cultivating so carefully had vanished.
‘And of all people… with the Duke of Teseron.’
He had been robbed of his only means to control the Duke.
Yet there was still a way….
“It’s all because Father’s Holy Knights are incompetent!”
……
“I hate you! Father, I bet even your hair hated you and ran away!”
…Ahem.
The Pope’s mood soured at once at Sepina’s thoughtless, impertinent words.
‘If only she had seduced him properly with her body as I taught her, this wouldn’t have happened.’
He kept her alive because she bore his bloodline, but with nothing to her name but her flesh, her arrogance reached the heavens.
The Pope forced a smile and soothed Sepina with soft words.
Still, she remained useful enough that he couldn’t allow her to slip beyond his control.
If she learned that the Duke had departed with the experimental subject, she would grow even more agitated, so it seemed best to keep that fact hidden.
The Pope pressed his wig down firmly and whispered.
“Don’t worry. We can always find another experimental subject.”
“Children born with Magical Power are rarely born these days!”
“Our order is already researching a method of implanting Magical Power with scholars we’ve invited, you see.”
Of course, such research was illegal.
It was research where the pretense of transplantation masked the forcible extraction of one person’s Magical Power to give to another—and the person from whom it was taken died.
Sepina’s eyes widened; she had never known the Pope conducted such experiments.

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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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