I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 51

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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 51
‘Breath.’
Luciana held her breath without realizing it.
As she slowly turned her head, a sight greeted her that was decidedly unkind to her heart in several respects.
…Namely, Edward’s face, smiling brilliantly.
Behind him, Sophie was catching her breath, hastily readjusting her lopsided lace hat as she ran.
“I, well, that is, huff, I was just about to call the steward.”
Sophie, flushed to the point of looking pitiable as she panted, finally noticed the watching eyes around her before speaking.
“By chance, I, huff… the Duke was here, so….”
Luciana’s eyes widened as she asked.
“You’ve returned already?”
She’d thought he’d gone to hunt a monster. Since he’d mentioned dinner, she’d assumed he wouldn’t be back until then.
Edward himself merely shrugged as if it were nothing.
“I just finished quickly and came back.”
The words — because I wanted to see you — were unconsciously left unsaid.
He’d hunted the monster in such haste that he’d barely exchanged a word with the knights at the scene.
“My goodness. That’s impressive.”
……
“I thought we’d meet at dinner, but I’m so glad to see you this early.”
Luciana offered what was, in its own way, sincere praise.
After all, meeting Edward in this troubling situation felt as though she’d gained an army of angels.
Yet whatever thought crossed his mind at those words.
Soft.
Edward’s hand, which had briefly stilled, drew Luciana’s shoulders close in a firm embrace.
“Were you waiting for me?”
His smile deepened at the corners of his mouth.
It was enough to make everyone present forget the situation for a moment and turn their gaze to his face.
Luciana was no exception.
‘How is it that he’s so beautiful every single time?’
Rustle.
His hair, damp with monster blood yet gleaming like melted gold, fell across his forehead.
It was far more radiant and beautiful than the one she’d picked up earlier.
Meanwhile, the hand encircling her shoulders was growing steadily firmer.
Not painful, but with a strength that suggested it would never let go.
Feeling that grip, Luciana’s heart began to race foolishly once more.
Thump-thump-thump.
Overwhelmed by an emotion she couldn’t quite name — fear or tension — Luciana took a deep breath and gazed up at Edward.
Meeting her eyes, Edward tilted his head slightly.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Well….”
“Did you miss me that much?”
There was something oddly teasing about it, or so it seemed….
Even as she thought this, Luciana actively played along.
“Of course. How much I’ve been missing you.”
……
“My, what a difficult time you must have had to be soaked in blood like this?”
It was as she lightly touched his blood-spattered cheek with her fingertips — the picture of a newlywed couple that would give one goosebumps — that Edward flinched and stared intently at her fingertips.
……
‘Oh no.’
Had she been too obvious?
As she withdrew her fingers with that thought.
“…Duke.”
A restrained voice cut between the two of them.
It was the Dowager Duchess’s voice, as if startled by Edward’s arrival.
Only then did his gaze turn in that direction.
At the same moment, Edward’s lips drew close to Luciana’s ear.
“We’ll see about that.”
Just you wait — we’ll settle this later.
At those words, Luciana swallowed hard.
‘…Was I really too obvious?!’
While she wrestled inwardly with doubt, Edward’s gaze upon the Dowager Duchess tilted slowly to one side.
The Dowager Duchess, who had been raging mere moments before, went rigid beneath that look.
Edward, unbothered by her reaction, opened his mouth with deliberate slowness.
“Mother.”
The Dowager Duchess, her face drained of color, managed a faint response to that soft, measured call.
“…Yes, my lord.”
Edward, meanwhile, curved his crimson lips into an open smile.
“How strange.”
“…….”
“I don’t recall ever granting you leave to enter this building.”
“I am not a person who receives orders from….”
“That’s correct, Mother.”
“…What did you say?”
“The Previous Duke is dead, and I am Duke now — therefore, all authority over the duchy belongs to me, not to you.”
“……!”
“You should consider yourself retired, and I made it perfectly clear you were to remain at rest and not wander about. Surely you remember that.”
At this blatantly unfilial statement, everyone save Gorgo widened their eyes and stared at Edward in shock.
Luciana’s pupils darted rapidly about as well.
She had sensed it before, but….
‘He truly shows no mercy.’
To speak to one’s own parents that way — it was perfectly in character for Edward, really.
He seemed far more suited to attacking the elderly than venerating them.
Regardless of what others thought, Edward’s words flowed on without hesitation.
“Since I’ve already arranged quarters for you far away, so you might rest….”
“…….”
“Instead of resting, you’ve done nothing but drag your aching joints about — and it pains me to witness it.”
Whether Edward’s presence had cowed her, or whether she was seized by fury at an insult beyond her imagination, the Dowager Duchess remained trembling, her fists clenched.
She was shaking uncontrollably.
‘Hmm?’
Luciana opened her eyes wider, struck by a peculiar sense of unease.
Her expression seemed to be something more than mere anger.
The ashen pallor of her face, the tremor in her pupils….
…it was as though she were afraid.
‘Afraid? Of what?’
Of what?
As Luciana gazed at the two of them, turning the question over in her mind, Edward smiled crookedly toward the Dowager Duchess.
‘There was a time when I would flee from that woman into corners, running for my life.’
And now that same woman called him “my lord” and trembled at his gaze.
Now, the pain she had once caused him felt like nothing more than a memory of old days.
Irritation came before fear, contempt before anger.
‘Obsolete thing — her meddling has gone too far.’
Considering what she and the Previous Duke had done, allowing the Dowager Duchess to live was generosity enough.
That he had settled the matter merely by confining her to a back room showed some restraint on his part.
‘But she’s no longer important to my life anyway.’
He had long since made peace with the certainty that she could no longer touch his existence.
Beyond that, there was the practical matter: if she were to spout nonsense outside the duchy, it would only create inconveniences for him.
So he had meant to let her fade into obscurity — to forget her entirely.
‘Yet she dares to reach for this one.’
Edward’s eyes shifted once more toward the small creature nestled in his arms — Luciana.
The little mouse who kept stumbling into trouble whenever he took his eyes off her.
‘Better off than expected, at any rate.’
He had rushed back at maximum speed, just in case.
Just moments ago, he had dispatched the Monster swiftly, taking care not to let a single scratch touch her face, before hurrying back.
“Steward! Steward!”
A young maid he recognized rushed hurriedly into the Main Manor.
At her frantic appearance, even Rozendale — who had only just begun to receive Edward’s Armor — furrowed his brow.
“Such reckless conduct before the Duke. To abandon all propriety….”
“Oh, miss — I mean, madam, she….”

“Take me there at once.”
“Your Grace?”
The moment Sophie spoke, Edward didn’t ask questions or offer objections—he simply ushered her forward.
She hurried him along, urging him faster, until they arrived at the Western Annex, where the Dowager Duchess—whom he’d expelled—stood waiting.
From the brief exclamation that reached them, the situation became instantly clear.
The Dowager Duchess had overstepped, interfering where she had no business to meddle.
Edward fixed her with a penetrating stare, his presence emanating a quiet, suffocating pressure.
“Perhaps you should retire inside, Mother. The cold will aggravate your joints.”
……
“Besides, any accusation of theft becomes rather meaningless, don’t you think?”
“What do you mean—”
“This little mouse here,”
Edward drew Luciana close against him with unmistakable tenderness.
To any observer, they appeared as newlyweds overflowing with sweetness.
“will shortly become the Duchess.”
……
“This building has belonged to the Duchess for generations, as have all its contents.”
Edward continued as though stating the obvious.
“Therefore, everything in this place now belongs to this woman—doesn’t it, Mother?”
The Dowager Duchess’s hands clenched into fists, but Edward pressed on.
“Indeed, if we’re to assign blame for any theft, it wouldn’t be to this lady, would it?”
His gaze drifted toward the jewels and dress the Dowager Duchess wore.
Items far more costly and lavish than anything Luciana had taken.
They had originally belonged to this house.
“In fact, you ought to remove them all this very moment and surrender them to my wife, the future Duchess.”
The smile hovering at Edward’s lips deepened further.
“Don’t you agree, Mother?”

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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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