I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 49

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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 49
Gorgo swallowed hard as he watched the Dowager, having positioned Lucy behind him.
The way she’d arrived with servants and guards in tow suggested this visit had been planned from the outset.
Under normal circumstances, the Dowager would have locked herself away in her quarters out of fear of Edward alone.
But Edward happened to be absent.
Plainly, she knew it too—and had grown bold because of it.
‘I’ve been played.’
Gorgo grimaced at the bitter acknowledgment, his mind rewinding to what had just occurred.
To the moment he’d been driven from the room by Clara’s words and now stood guard at the door.
It was the instant Gorgo had tightened his grip on his sword hilt and shifted his stance.
“Ahhhhh!”
A piercing scream shattered the air from somewhere nearby.
It was Sophie’s cry—the maid who’d gone to fetch medicine for Lucy.
‘What’s happened?’
The scream had come from a place not far from where Lucy was, and it was the cry of the maid attending her.
‘If something happens to the mistress, it would be catastrophic.’
Gorgo’s face hardened as he raced toward the source of the scream.
Yet no matter how he searched, Sophie was nowhere to be found.
‘What in the world—?’
Gorgo stopped and scanned his surroundings.
That was when Sophie came rushing from the opposite direction, ointment in hand, her eyes wide as she stared at him.
“Gorgo? What are you doing here…?”
“That’s my question. Didn’t you just scream?”
“Scream? No, I was in the Main Residence just a moment ago.”
“The Main Residence?”
“Yes. The ointment for the mistress was nowhere to be found, so I had to go all the way to the Main Residence to fetch it.”
“…Then the mistress is alone right now?”
The moment those words left his mouth, both of them realized it simultaneously.
That they had left Lucy and Clara—just the two of them—in an enclosed space.
Sophie, knowing nothing of the situation, simply stood there with the vague assurance that at least one maid remained with Lucy.
But for Gorgo, who knew that Clara belonged to the Dowager, this was no trivial matter.
‘It was a trap.’
To have fallen for such an obvious snare.
His excessive concern for Lucy’s safety had caused him to commit the very mistake of leaving her unguarded.
Gorgo cursed under his breath and shouted at Sophie.
“Go back to the Main Residence! Alert Rozendale to what’s happened!”
“Yes! Yes!”
He rushed back, but when he reached the room where the two should have been, neither Lucy nor Clara was there.
Anxiety seized him by the throat, cold and suffocating.
‘The mistress.’
Lucy had already become someone precious to him.
Gorgo had never seen Edward look at anyone the way he looked at her.
Tepe seemed to think it was nothing much, and even Edward himself appeared not fully aware of it.
But Gorgo saw it differently.
Gorgo was taciturn, often inarticulate, and frequently bypassed logic entirely—yet he trusted his instincts implicitly.
And those instincts whispered that Lucy was someone of profound importance to Edward.
‘If anything happens to such a person…’
He’d rushed frantically through the West Wing when he finally saw it.
“You impudent little wretch!”
The Dowager, bearing down on Lucy and commanding her guards to seize her.
“Dowager.”
Gorgo’s gaze turned glacial as he surveyed the scene before him.
The oppressive weight of his presence made the Dowager’s guards falter and retreat.
The Dowager herself, momentarily cowed by his bearing, then erupted in fury.
“How dare you? A mere guard, not even the Duke, presume to obstruct me? Do you know who I am?”
“Dowager, you are no longer permitted to enter this residence. Your presence here constitutes an overstepping of authority.”
“Overstepping? I spent thirty years in this house!”
“Dowager!”
“And now you dare try to cast me out because of one insignificant woman? By what right do you and your kind presume—”
The tension in the room was rapidly escalating.
“Mother.”
A soft rustling.
A small head emerged from behind the enormous frame.
“So what’s angered you now?”
“What?!”
“Were you cast out? Or did someone steal your jewels?”
“This… yes, you’ve brought it up at just the right moment!”
At Lucy’s innocently blinking words, the Dowager’s shoulders straightened with sudden vigor, her bearing growing imperious.
“No amount of courtesy would protect a thief.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“That impertinent creature had been coveting this residence even before becoming a duchess, always finding excuses to come here.”
“But I didn’t covet it.”
“And wouldn’t you know it—the moment she left, my jewels vanished!”
“Your jewels, you say?”
“The Black Rose of the Goddess. You know well enough how precious it is.”
Gorgo turned to face Lucy with calm composure.
But before he could speak, Lucy’s eyes widened.
“What a lovely name for a jewel. Did you give it that name, Mother? You have such a gift for naming things.”
“What?”
“Take Edward, for instance. To bestow such an ordinary, common name upon someone so radiant, brilliant, and beautiful—that must have been a lesson to always remain humble before others, wasn’t it?”
Whether this was flattery or mockery hung in the air.
The Dowager had been caught mid-breath, praising Edward while Lucy had deftly undermined her taste.
“But I haven’t the faintest idea what it looks like. If you would describe it with that eloquent tongue of yours…”
“Hmph! High-grade black pearls set in silver, fashioned into a rose-shaped brooch—wait! Are you playing ignorant, pretending you didn’t steal it?”
“Now that you mention it, I understand. But I really didn’t, I promise.”
“It will turn up when we search for it.”
The Dowager’s eyes gleamed as she tapped her fan sharply against her palm.
“Since we don’t know where you’ve hidden it, I’ll have your clothes removed for a thorough body search—”
“Dowager!”
It was Gorgo who cried out, his voice raw with fury.
“How dare you speak such words!”
“Why? Did I say I would do it myself right here?”
The Dowager shook her head with exaggerated innocence.
“I meant I would take her away and have my servants search her thoroughly. Is there a problem?”
At the mere thought of such humiliation, Gorgo’s face grew increasingly pale.
‘If only Tepe were here.’
Someone who could deliver the appropriate curses and insults this moment demanded.
Gorgo’s jaw clenched as he began to speak.
“I absolutely object—”
“It is entirely my fault, Dowager!”
The moment Lucy opened her mouth, Clara dashed forward and dropped to her knees before the Dowager—a movement so swift it caught even Gorgo and Lucy off guard.
The speed was such that both of them froze.
The Dowager let out a low laugh through her nose.
“Your fault?”
“Yes. The master’s fault is the servant’s fault. Any mistake made by the young lady is my mistake as well—”
At those words, Lucy’s eyes grew wide.
At the same moment, Clara and the Dowager’s gazes met.
The smile playing at the corner of the Dowager’s mouth deepened.
She had never intended to simply pin the crime on Lucy alone.
The plan had been arranged long in advance.
“This is how we shall do it.”
On the very day Lucy and Edward’s engagement had been announced.
The Dowager had pulled Clara aside and whispered to her.
“However well I pretend to treat her, that Edward will block it all anyway.”
“That is… true enough.”
“Besides, I’ve no wish to feign kindness toward that common creature.”
“Then…”
“I hear the imperial investigators divide their roles—one plays the kind interrogator and one plays the harsh one.”
This was the method she had devised.
“One treats the suspect with nothing but gentleness, while the other bears down relentlessly.”
“…….”
“But their aims are the same, aren’t they?”
Frame Lucy for theft, have Clara cover for her, and make Lucy trust Clara in return.
Once Lucy comes to trust her completely, she’ll confess everything—and the Dowager will use it all against her.
The beauty of this scheme was that no matter how it unfolded, the Dowager would accomplish her goal of humiliating Lucy.
She could keep playing the cruel investigator, tormenting Lucy relentlessly for years to come.
‘Even thinking it over again, it’s flawless.’
Watching Lucy in person only deepened the Dowager’s certainty.
Though the girl had a talent for sweet talk that could drain a person’s very soul, in the Dowager’s eyes Lucy was nothing but a fragile, defenseless creature.
When Clara stepped forward and took the punishment in her place, Lucy would panic with remorse, stumbling over herself with gratitude.
“Yes. Truly, if this was your carelessness.”
The Dowager gazed down at Clara with cold eyes, suppressing the smile that threatened to break through.
“Then you’re prepared to accept proper punishment, I trust?”
“Dowager….”
The Dowager smiled, waiting for Lucy’s response—and in that moment, caught sight of a small head and bright eyes peering out from behind the large frame.
“Oh dear, how unfortunate.”
“…Miss?”
Lucy looked directly at Clara and let out a long breath.
Then she spoke, her voice steady and resolute.
“Goodbye, 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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