I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 4

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 4
‘…There’s no way this could be fine!’
A beat too late, Lucy realized her position and swallowed a silent scream.
She was cradled in the arms of a man radiating a sinister aura, held like a princess in a bridal carry.
What had felt firm and burning hot against her hands was now plainly visible—the man’s chest.
‘Well, technically his chest armor.’
His ribcage might as well have been the Pacific; the expanse of his chest armor was vast.
‘If you were me, Lucy, would you be fine?’
A woman falls from the sky and goes fumbling at his chest—
The crimson glare he cast down at her sent ice through her spine.
Lucy withdrew her hand carefully and studied the man with cautious eyes.
If nothing else, she could be grateful for this:
She detected no immediate intent to harm her in him.
Yet with a frame so enormous came such a menacing presence. And besides….
‘If he’s equipped himself with armor of this caliber….’
Could he be a Holy Knight guarding the Temple?
‘This is serious.’
Cold sweat traced down her spine, and her lashes quivered.
‘Stay calm.’
She couldn’t let fear show on her face.
If she looked vulnerable, they’d drag her back again.
‘…I won’t.’
She didn’t want to be trapped in that cold prison again, waiting for death to finally come.
‘Not that.’
…Her previous life had been no different.
“You need to stay hidden here, understand?”
“Big sister! Little sister! Don’t go!”
“It’s okay. I’ll be back soon!”
By cruel coincidence, her life before the Transmigration had held creatures similar to the monsters here.
The moment she’d escaped the hellish university entrance exam and tasted freedom as a university student—that was when the dungeons and monsters appeared.
She’d wished, as the novels depicted, that Hunters and Awakened Ones would arise to fight them….
But miracles never came to Lucy’s world.
The survivors banded together as a Vigilante Group.
Lucy’s older sisters, both athletic, had joined and left with them.
Lucy, lacking strength, had remained in the Shelter….
“Hey! Freeloader! Be grateful we even took you in!”
“We claimed this place first! Don’t make waves—stay quiet as a dead mouse!”
The territorial disputes in the Shelter were vicious, and her sisters never came back.
To avoid being cast out, she had to keep her head down, crawl, and kill all desire.
Life in that Shelter became no different from a prison.
Her only solace was the web novels saved on her smartphone in offline mode.
‘I must have reread “The Last Dragon’s Bride” countless times back then.’
Then one day.
A monster finally descended on the Shelter.
The collapsing debris of the Shelter fell upon Lucy….
That was her last memory of her former life.
‘…And now.’
They wanted her to return to a prison no different from before?
She hated it. The cold walls and stale air made her skin crawl.
‘I’ve been given this chance to start again.’
That wasn’t all.
“Lucy, there’s a place outside called the Sea. And fields blooming thick with purple flowers.”
“Do you think we’ll get to see them someday?”
In this new life.
As the memories of her new body resurged, the voices of other disposable children who had died first in the prison echoed back to her.
Those voices felt oddly familiar, and achingly tender….
“I hate monsters now….”
“Sister, will we be able to leave someday too?”
It must have been because those voices overlapped with the children from her past life—those who’d shared her plight in the old Shelter.
‘In my past life, in this life, I had made them a promise.’
Someone had to go back out and see the world again.
Deep within her heart, resolve kindled and burned bright.
‘Yes. This time will be different.’
Across both her past life and this one, she would survive—taking the share of those who had left before her.
She would build them proper graves.
‘And I’ll crush them all.’
Crush them all and become the master of my own life—not anyone else’s.
Of course, to gather momentum, one had to know how to lie low.
‘That’s easy enough.’
Pleasing others was something she’d done as routinely as eating in her past life.
Powerless people like her could only survive by staying in the good graces of the Shelter’s real authorities.
So this time as well….
“Haha. Lovely weather, isn’t it?”
It was a cloudy night.
“And the temperature is quite pleasant too….”
It was the height of sweltering summer.
“Let me see. Your Grace is truly beautiful and….”
The man’s face was hidden behind armor.
The more she spoke, the more hollow it felt, but she had to redirect his attention somehow.
Lucy tapped the man’s chest in a cheerful rhythm, laughing good-naturedly.
“And on top of that, to catch such a delicate, feather-light lady who’s fallen from a tree—you must be an incredibly kind person.”
…….
“Would you… set me down now?”
At those words, Edward tilted his head slightly.
‘What is this?’
The grimy, small woman was skeletal—as if she hadn’t eaten in ages.
Yet even faced with someone others feared and revered, she showed no sign of terror.
But that wasn’t all.
She spoke to him as if they were close friends, rolling those large eyes as though she’d known him for years—it was utterly absurd.
But what arrested Edward more than anything was….
‘…It stopped.’
The body that had been thrashing as if about to rampage fell still.
More precisely….
The part of him in contact with this woman was becoming subtly, faintly calm.
‘Quiet.’
The violent force that had raged so loudly subsided, became peaceful.
The migraines that always pressed down on his mind, the scales that had erupted across his body—both slowly receded.
Above all, this sensation.
‘As if my body has been returned to me.’
If he were to receive true Purification….
If Sefina’s Purification could strip away that crawling sensation and leave only the essence, it would feel like this.
Edward looked down at the woman in his arms with a clarity and strangeness he’d never known.
‘A small, underfed little creature.’
Pale, diminutive, soft, skittish, with eyes black as coal….
“…Like a mouse.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Lucy’s eyes narrowed at the abrupt remark.
What was that.
‘Not even a squirrel.’
This “mousy little thing” comment of all things?
She couldn’t deny that she looked the part, but….
‘To say something like that to someone on first meeting?’
His social graces seemed equally as developed as a dog’s—a remarkable specimen of poor character, truly.
‘Though I suppose it beats the “parasite” comments I heard at the Shelter.’
Judging by the way he spoke and the ominous aura he gave off, she wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d dropped her then and there, yet he was still holding her—that itself was startling.
‘Actually, more than that….’
…Hadn’t his grip tightened slightly more than before?
As his warm armor-clad chest drew nearer and his eyes seemed to grow lazy somehow….
“…Duke Edward!”
At the shout from behind, Lucy’s body went rigid.
‘A Temple Guard!’
It was certainly a shock, but….
‘Wait a moment.’
Edward, the Duke?
Lucy found herself facing those blazing crimson eyes once more.
The familiar name and ominous aura made her swallow hard.
‘Then this means….’
He’s the Male Lead!
‘I didn’t know….’
The armor he wore was magnificently ornate and gleaming, true enough.
And she had to admit those ruby-red eyes were rather beautiful.
But to think that was why she’d been drawn to him as the Male Lead….
‘Of all the rotten luck!’
Usually when you encountered the Male Lead like this, sparkles and flowers danced through the air, and you felt the relief of meeting your savior. But….
Instead, dread coiled tight in her chest.
‘What if I die at the Male Lead’s hands before the Temple even gets me?’
In this story, the Male Lead treated anyone who wasn’t his lover as trash—a real bastard, through and through.
‘Even in the novel, he wasn’t fond of physical contact with Sefina.’
Though it was absurd that he still slept beside her regularly.
In any case, he could very well be irritated right now at the fact that she was touching him.
Perhaps that was why.
Instead of flowers, murderous intent seemed to fill the air around them.
‘What do I do?’
Lucy shrank into herself, seized by anxiety.
Clang, clang.
Even as she did, the sound of approaching footsteps from behind drew closer.
“Your Grace, if I may ask you something.”
“…….”
“A prisoner has escaped from the Temple’s….”
Upon hearing the soldier’s words, Edward tilted his head once more.
‘A prisoner.’
The moment she heard that word, the woman in his arms went rigid.
Clearly, she was the fugitive in question.
It made sense—the threadbare rags she wore were hardly the garment of nobility….
“…….”
Having thought that far, Edward examined the woman more carefully.
Painfully thin from deprivation, her face filthy, her clothes torn in places.
And there were the pallid scars on her wrists, as though her very blood had been drained, and injection marks scattered across her skin.
This was less a criminal than….
“Your Grace?”
“…….”
“Forgive me, but if it pleases you, might we see the face of the lady you’re holding?”
The moment the soldier reached out his hand.
Snap!
A sharp crack, and the soldier was shoved backward.
The soldier’s hand, struck on the back, swelled as though it had met a cauldron lid.
“…….”
Bewildered eyes rolled toward Edward.
“Y-Your Grace?”
“I’m not willing.”
“…Pardon?”
“I’m not willing to show her.”
Both Lucy and the soldier looked up at Edward simultaneously.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————