I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 35

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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 35
Everyone around them froze, their faces stunned.
In the heavy silence, Lucy felt cold sweat breaking out across her skin.
‘…Did I overdo that?’
She hadn’t meant to blurt it out like that from the start.
Her plan had been to cut off the Priest’s words and emphasize Edward’s Responsibility to her.
After all, she remembered clearly how he’d spoken of taking Responsibility when he brought her here.
The lack of a Contract had made her uneasy, but… Edward wasn’t the type to go back on his word, was he?
Yet the atmosphere had grown so tense that she’d lost her chance to argue the point logically.
While she’d been rolling her eyes frantically, searching for a way forward, her gaze had caught Clara’s—standing flustered in the corner.
In that moment.
The conversation they’d been having just before came rushing back.
“Since the two of you bathed together, word will soon spread that the Duke intends to take Responsibility for the young lady.”
“No, I agreed to take Responsibility, but that kind of relationship…!”
It was true and not true at once!
‘If it looks like that between us, won’t the Priest give up?’
Of course, Edward would torment her with questions and accusations later, but to escape the Temple, wasn’t this sacrifice worth it?
Besides, it wasn’t as though they hadn’t done exactly that sort of thing.
‘And honestly, he gave me an opening too….’
That shameless philanderer had just moments ago said something about “keeping your hands off another man’s woman”!
So she’d cried it out on impulse.
“…….”
“…….”
The room fell silent as though someone had poured ice water over everyone.
Edward, the very man she was clinging to, didn’t move or say a word.
She regretted it now, wished she’d held back, but there was no taking it back.
As always, once you’ve let something loose, pretending it meant nothing only makes things stranger.
Lucy gripped Edward’s arm tighter and rubbed her forehead against it.
She didn’t have the courage to look up and meet his eyes.
“That man’s been saying weird things this whole time…, darling.”
“…….”
“You already promised to take Responsibility for me…!”
Even as she spoke, she made sure to remind Edward of something.
That he had promised to take Responsibility for her.
‘A verbal contract is still a contract!’
Yet the atmosphere continued to chill, and she felt cold sweat trickling down her spine.
Thump.
As Lucy buried her nose deeper into Edward’s forearm, unable to bring herself to lift her head,
“…….”
Edward found himself gazing endlessly down at the small, round crown of her head pressed against his arm.
Aside from how the way her hair parted at the crown was oddly charming to look at, cute even,
Edward’s mind was still spinning with the shocking term Lucy had just used.
‘Darling,’ she’d said.
Where had this little mouse learned such a thing?
It wasn’t enough that she’d seduced him in his dreams—now she was doing it right in front of everyone, draining every ounce of his composure.
He didn’t even have room in his mind to think it presumptuous, as he normally would.
Soft.
The sensation of her frightened little forehead rubbing against him, her upturned nose—these were secondary.
The sensation of her wrapped around his forearm, the familiar softness and gentle curve of her small, lean frame—
Twitch.
Edward almost pushed her away in that instant, but then, terrified she might get hurt by his careless movement, he clenched his teeth and held fast.
Even so, the sensation of her soft chest pressed against his forearm traveled through him, again and again.
How warm such a tiny thing could be, how impossibly soft.
Thanks to his recent efforts at feeding her well, he could feel that her small frame had filled out somewhat.
Edward stood rigid, as though malfunctioning, under the weight of those sensations.
Then Lucy pressed him again, urgent and desperate.
“Hurry up and take Responsibility… darling!”
Her voice sounded as though she were on the verge of tears.
In fact, Lucy had cried it out with a heart nearly breaking—so his guess was not far off at all.
“…Ha.”
The moment I exhaled a long breath I hadn’t known I was holding, feeling the stiffness in my neck.
[I shall command you to marry a young lady from the Temple who can purify you, Edward, Duke of Teseron.]
The words from the Imperial Edict surfaced clearly in my mind once more.
And I found myself thinking that Lucy indeed met the conditions.
Which was strange.
When Sephina had clung to me persistently, I’d felt only irritation and annoyance.
Yet the moment I attached the word “marriage” to this small mouse, my resistance had dissolved with surprising swiftness.
No—more than that.
‘…A Marriage Certificate is still a contract, after all.’
Such thoughts crept up unbidden, and they began to feel quite appealing indeed.
In truth, when I’d once suggested changing the contract’s name to Lucy, I’d intended to rewrite it as a slave contract—to bind her thoroughly to my side.
‘This is far better.’
Whether I meant to perform Purification or simply indulge her wishes, physical contact would be necessary regardless.
Once we were bound by the name of husband and wife, such contact would become entirely unremarkable.
Beyond that, I would be writing the contract as she desired, and for her, this would likely serve as quite a substantial reward.
‘Yes. A reward.’
She had followed me so devotedly, wanting me so earnestly, yet she asked for little beyond the contract itself.
She even fled by losing consciousness at critical moments.
Weighing it all now….
‘She wants me so much, yet she’s remarkably free of greed.’
By my standards, that was a problem.
People are moved by desire.
Those with great ambitions are easy to manipulate, easy to wield.
In that respect, this small mouse had been a failure from the start.
‘That won’t do.’
A sudden urgency seized me.
I needed to bind this mouse at my side at once.
“W-what on earth is—”
Edward’s gaze met directly with the bewildered priest’s trembling eyes.
……!
The priest’s lips began to quiver as he sensed the danger.
“Yes, darling.”
Edward drew Lucy smoothly into his embrace with an easy smile.
Ah…?
She had clung to him first.
But the moment Edward returned the endearment, Lucy opened her eyes wide as though hearing something she shouldn’t have, staring up at him.
Edward gazed down at her, wearing the sweetest of expressions.
It wasn’t difficult in the least.
A simple smile was enough to have mortals everywhere swooning as though they’d beheld the sweetest thing in the world.
“I’ve been far too irresponsible to my darling.”
The priest leapt to his feet at the suggestive undertone in Edward’s voice.
“D-Duke Teseron!”
“Of course I must take responsibility.”
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
At those words, Lucy’s heart began to race with unusual speed.
‘What is this?’
He was taking responsibility, which was good enough, and he even matched her rhythm, which made it better still.
‘So why does it feel so terribly wrong?’
Even as her thoughts spiraled, whenever Edward smiled, her stomach lurched strangely and her heart felt wrong.
As her heart fluttered erratically like a fish out of water, Lucy found herself swallowing hard without thinking.
“What exactly is happening here, Duke Teseron!”
The priest, sensing that the situation was spiraling into something twisted, finally exploded with anger.
“You have the Saint Sephina! How can you do this to her—”
Despite the priest’s tone—as though scolding an unfaithful lover caught in sin—Edward seemed utterly unaffected.
Instead, he furrowed his brow in distaste and rebuked the priest who had been about to condemn him.
“I never said I did anything with Sephina because I wanted to.”
……!
“It was purely a matter of Purification.”
Thud.
At those words, Lucy’s frantic heartbeat stumbled and sank.
Just as what had happened with Sephina was nothing more than Purification….
‘What I did with him must also be just Purification… right?’
The thought had simply occurred to her.
After all, hadn’t he himself once steeled his resolve, telling himself it was merely Purification?
Yet even as she tried to accept it as inevitable, she couldn’t understand why her chest had tightened.
It was at that moment, while she was holding down Lucy’s frantically racing pulse.
“In any case, I’ve accumulated far too much Responsibility to answer for with my wife.”
Edward whispered the words as if they meant nothing, his large hand settling gently over Lucy’s lower belly.
“There may even be our child there.”
“……!”
“How could I possibly hand her over to them?”
An even heavier silence swept through the space than before.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
Even Edward’s three attendants stared at them in shock.
‘I didn’t ask for him to go this far.’
It was the moment when Lucy herself, already cradled in his arms, looked up at Edward in bewilderment.
“Since you’ve heard, you’d do well to go to the Temple and announce it.”
Edward lifted his chin with an arrogant yet capricious air, drawing Lucy even closer before….
he dropped a bombshell on the Priest.
“We intend to marry soon, so cease this foolish talk of whether or not you’ll return the Duchess of Teseron.”

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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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