I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 39

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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 39
Her heart sank with a heavy thud.
‘…Is that a threat or a confession?’
By ordinary standards of character, it was obviously the former, but….
Taking the sentence at face value, it sounded rather like he wanted to spend his whole life with her, didn’t it?
‘You’re going to give people the wrong idea.’
Lucy’s heart began to race wildly of its own accord.
If she wanted to keep appeasing him here, she ought to say whatever he wanted to hear, but.
Lucy swallowed hard and collected herself.
‘No matter what, some things just can’t be done.’
She couldn’t go signing anything without proper safeguards.
A contract mattered, and her life mattered too.
Soon she opened her mouth, stealing a careful glance at Edward.
“Ah, well, you see…”
“……”
“No matter how ambitious I might be, surely I wouldn’t stab your precious, beautiful back!”
“…Beautiful?”
“Yes. Truly beautiful, wouldn’t you say?”
It was more fact than flattery, at any rate.
‘That back I saw while washing him was absolutely stunning.’
It might well be the most beautiful back she’d ever seen.
In fact, aside from her sisters, Edward was the first man whose bare back she’d ever laid eyes on.
“I could never harvest such a beautiful back.”
At those words, Edward’s expression grew peculiarly rigid.
‘…Did calling him beautiful instead of handsome offend him?’
Lucy thought as much and ventured another cautious glance, but….
Edward’s mind was painting an entirely different scene.
“Sir, you’re beautiful here and here too.”
“That’s why I want to do this for you.”
The moment when the Lucy from his dream had whispered those words to him.
How wickedly she had smiled then.
How thin her waist had been as she straddled him carelessly and swayed, and how beautiful her breasts had been as they trembled with the moonlight whenever she moved, their rhythm matching hers.
…And he found himself remembering just how desperately he’d wanted to take that small pomegranate hanging at the end between his teeth and swallow it whole.
‘Who’s calling whom beautiful.’
Edward found Lucy’s soft, lithe body to be the truly beautiful thing.
‘…But no.’
Strictly speaking, that had only been a dream of his, so calling her body beautiful might be a rather strange thing to say.
‘I won’t know until I actually see it bare.’
The moment that thought crossed his mind, what Lucy had said mere moments ago came flooding back in sequence.
“For instance… what if the Duke and I were to do something that might result in a child!”
Remarks that were truly bold beyond measure.
‘So that’s it.’
So she did harbor the desire to be found beautiful in his eyes.
He was pleased to realize that it wasn’t only he who felt this way—Lucy harbored such feelings too.
To think she was entertaining such wicked thoughts in that small, adorable head of hers.
The clause Lucy was insisting upon hardly pleased him at all, but….
Learning that she desired him, and that she found his body attractive, his ill humor dissolved and bloomed anew into satisfaction.
Beautiful meant good, after all.
Edward’s mind grew clearer as he considered the matter.
‘…Then I’ll consent to it.’
The clause still displeased him, but….
‘It’s only speculation under the assumption we’d separate, after all.’
If he saw to it that divorce never came to pass, then whether it appeared in the contract or not hardly mattered, did it?
Once he reached this conclusion, Edward’s spirits rose further.
At the same time, the strange, oppressive tension that had hung in the air dissipated without a trace.
Lucy breathed easier, adding softly:
“Besides, this clause is for your benefit too, sir. You haven’t forgotten our contract terms, have you? You said once you achieve your True Form, you’ll be able to find a real companion?”
“……”
“When that person appears, it’s only natural that I should step aside….”
A soft, swallowing sound.
Lucy started to speak, then faltered.
Edward too glanced down at the armrest he’d snapped off, then calmly pretended nothing had happened and slotted it back into place.
Then he smiled brightly, as if the world were still intact.
“It’s genuinely mutual, isn’t it?”
“Isn’t it?”
“But now that I think about it, Lucy—doesn’t that clause apply to you as well?”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“If a better man comes along, you’re free to withdraw by mutual agreement. That’s how it sounded. Surely you didn’t slip that in on purpose…?”
“What? Of course not!”
“Right. You’d never find a man more perfect than me anywhere else.”
‘Is he angry, or is he just showing off?’
Lucy broke into a cold sweat, but she played along with Edward’s words.
“Of course not. Where else would I find another man like you, Duke?”
“For what it’s worth, even the Crown Prince isn’t as handsome as I am.”
“Well, obviously! The Duke is the most beautiful man in the world!”
“…Do you really think so?”
“I could spend a hundred years just admiring your face, Duke.”
……
“Anyway, I’d never ask to invoke that clause!”
Worried the mood might sour again, Lucy added one last flattering remark.
“Why would I marry anyone but you, Duke?”
It was the truth, anyway.
‘He’s rich, he’s handsome, and when it comes to… well, he’s probably excellent at that too.’
For now, at least, she couldn’t find a better match than Edward.
And he would be the first and last man she ever signed a contract with like this.
At her words, the red eyes watching Lucy flickered slightly.
“…All right.”
Edward then pressed his seal to the contract with the added clause.
Lucy smiled radiantly, cradling the newly signed contract.
* * *
A few days passed.
“Thank you so much!”
“We’ll visit again next time!”
The enthusiastic costume designers rushed out of the Reception Room, their faces flushed with excitement.
Lucy waved at them until the door shut, then draped herself across the sofa like a limp rice cake.
“…I’m… exhausted.”
The table was buried under a mountain of fabric samples and dress sketches.
These were the designs for the gowns Lucy would need to wear as the Duke’s wife.
‘I could’ve just worn something from the Duke’s Residence.’
It had been fun at first, but it was starting to feel excessive.
‘Even so, dozens of gowns every single day is a bit much…’
She’d hinted at this gently, but Edward’s answer was blunt.
“Just have everything made new.”
“But Duke…”
“The Dowager Duchess keeps all the former duchess’s gowns anyway. Have new ones made. If you want, buy them all.”
Of course, she wasn’t unhappy about getting new clothes…
‘But this is starting to feel like work.’
The hardest part was having to change into dozens of different gowns every day.
‘Why are there so many Wedding Dress sketches?’
Perhaps because the mountain of designs included samples for the wedding gown for the upcoming ceremony. There were far too many.
Moreover, Thesseron’s Wedding Dress came with exacting specifications.
Elaborate yet modest, refined yet honoring tradition, sensual yet pure, elegant yet familiar to the common folk of the domain.
It was the kind of brief that only an impossible client would demand—and yet the designers threw themselves into it with fervor.
“We’ll create something truly spectacular for you!”
“Just wait and see, future Duchess!”
The designers, having shouted this, spent hours today cycling Lucy through dozens of Wedding Dress designs.
Drained of energy, Lucy muttered absently to herself.
“I could just pick any one…”
“That won’t do, ma’am.”
‘Oops.’
And from the voice that reached her ears, she realized she wasn’t alone.
It was Rosendale, who had been quietly attending to Lucy’s needs all along.
“There is still more to be reviewed, madam.”
Rosendale regarded Lucy with the stern expression he always wore.
“Couldn’t we look at it tomorrow, Rosendale?”
“Tomorrow you have etiquette lessons. And you must not use formal speech with me. The same applies to Tepe and Gorgo.”
“I’m sorry, I mean—forgive me.”
“It must be corrected before the wedding.”
His words were polite in form, yet cold.
“I do acknowledge that you possess considerable talent, madam.”
……
“But the position of Duchess requires far more than talent alone, and I trust you understand.”
‘Oh, heavens.’
While Lucy stole a glance at Rosendale, the maids standing outside hurried in and began neatly organizing the fabrics and sketches.
“Well then, please get some rest. Duchess—I mean, madam.”
……
With an awkward bow, he withdrew stiffly.
Lucy watched him go and smiled ruefully once more.
‘It was already awkward enough.’
The distance between the servants and Lucy had grown far more uncomfortable than before.
Lucy understood well enough that even if she were to say now that she too was an employee bound by contract, that the paperwork simply happened to be a marriage registration rather than a hiring agreement, it would change nothing.
‘So in any case, I do need to fulfill my role as Duchess, just as Rosendale said.’
But she couldn’t promise she would do it well.
Especially since the Dowager Duchess still lived in the house….
The moment Lucy thought of the Dowager Duchess, someone rushed into the Reception Room.
The one maid among those who had met Lucy who didn’t find her presence awkward.
“Madam, I asked the Kitchen to prepare herbal tea for you.”
“Clara?”

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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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