I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 58

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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 58
“My lady has arrived.”
Rozendale knocked lightly on the door and spoke, whereupon a resonant voice came from beyond it.
“The bride is entering!”
Then, with a heavy sound, the door began to swing open.
Luciana swallowed without thinking.
‘…Steel yourself. You can do this.’
But the moment the door opened and she stepped into the Wedding Hall.
‘Wait—?’
A sound of confusion escaped her.
The Wedding Hall was certainly magnificent and lavishly decorated beyond compare.
The grand banquet hall of Teseron, already wealthy and sprawling, had been adorned beautifully by many hands.
But there were no guests.
Only the knights standing guard, the servants managing the hall, and Tepe and Gorgo waiting near the dais made up the gathered assembly.
The moment Luciana turned her head in bewilderment.
“Come here.”
A low voice rang out through the empty space, reaching her.
It was Edward’s voice, standing at the end of the wedding aisle.
…….
The instant she felt his presence shimmering beyond the white veil.
Her vision narrowed in a heartbeat, and all thought scattered like white snow.
Edward, seen after so long, set her heart racing even as nothing more than a dim silhouette beyond the veil.
‘I… this man….’
She wanted to see him far more than she’d realized.
Even as the realization struck, an urgent voice came again.
“Hurry.”
It was as if his voice alone pulled her by the wrist.
Click, click.
Before she knew it, she stood before Edward as if entranced, and he naturally lifted her veil away.
The moment she saw Edward’s face clearly.
“Hic—”
Luciana stifled a hiccup that threatened to escape.
‘…God, he’s impossible.’
Edward was always transcendently beautiful, but seeing him after so long was almost too much.
His beauty alone seemed capable of felling a person.
‘The bride—me—isn’t prettier than this?’
She was almost serious in the thought.
The finely tailored white dress uniform suited him perfectly.
His forehead was smooth, a few strands of hair falling across it, and his sculpted nose and deep-set eyes were beyond remark.
And that—his lips, tinged slightly red with whatever he’d applied, curved in a seductive line.
At first, his smile had only frightened her.
But now….
His beauty struck her fresh and electric, no matter how many times she saw it.
“Am I beautiful?”
“Yes… oh!”
Luciana answered his beguiling expression without thinking, then clamped her mouth shut and looked down.
……!
And what caught her eye shocked her once more.
A Ruby Ornament dangled from a golden cord on Edward’s left chest.
A garish, unnatural ornament that ought to clash with formal dress—yet worn by Edward, it appeared as nothing but a fashion statement.
‘Truly, I’ve lost my mind!’
She could not mistake what it was.
The jeweled ornament he’d worn that night.
The last jewel she’d glimpsed before closing her eyes.
‘This dissolute man…!’
To wear such a thing to a wedding ceremony, of all places.
As her eyelashes quivered rapidly against the resurfacing memory of that night, at a loss for words.
Edward, too, was gazing down at Luciana intently.
…….
In truth, Edward had no particular thoughts about the wedding itself.
The importance of this ceremony lay in one thing alone: it would bind Luciana to him.
Everything else—decorating the Wedding Hall, arranging the banquet, the Wedding Dress itself—
he had deemed inconsequential.
‘She’ll be beautiful in anything, and it will be the most perfect day regardless.’
So he had entrusted everything to Rozendale, and she had seen the preparations through with meticulous care.
The only legal requirement under Imperial Law was that a Priest serve as witness to the marriage, but he had solved even that by bringing in a foreign clergyman.
The grooming had been a minor inconvenience, yet he had endured it quietly, knowing Luciana would appreciate the effort.
After all, they had hardly seen each other.
Two weeks, perhaps—a mere fraction of time—yet for Edward it had felt an eternity of restraint.
‘Now it’s over.’
So he had thought to simply proceed with the wedding and be done with it.
“…Yes, you’re truly beautiful.”
……
“Your Grace?”
Perhaps their eyes met through the jewels, or some perversity seized him.
The moment he looked away in confusion, Luciana praised him as beautiful, trembling with nervousness as she did.
Edward gazed at her with a deep smile.
“Yes.”
……
“Truly beautiful.”
He returned the words she had offered him.
As he looked at Luciana standing before him in her Wedding Dress, shy and smiling, a satisfaction too profound for words kindled in his chest.
The Wedding Veil sat like a flowering bud atop her small, round head; the Wedding Dress was sewn with overlapping scales that openly declared her the Dragon’s Pair.
But what moved him most was her cheeks—flushed with color as she looked at him, now full and soft with the beauty of well-being.
‘She’s been eating well enough without me.’
Whether he felt exasperation or pride, his thoughts remained unchanged.
“You’re beautiful, Luciana.”
The woman’s eyes widened in surprise for a moment, then…
“Hehe.”
she broke into a delighted smile.
A resonance echoed through his chest.
Something deep within him trembled in answer.
But what satisfied him most was something else entirely.
According to Rozendale, this small woman had been reluctant even to try on different dresses—yet she had adorned herself lavishly, for him alone.
That charming devotion alone made her beautiful, breathtakingly so.
His own presence was so overwhelmingly radiant that he risked eclipsing her, and it frustrated him to an almost unreasonable degree.
‘I should have made myself look shabby.’
Had he dulled his own appearance, Luciana would have shone all the brighter.
Only now did he truly understand what was meant when they said the bride was the true star of a wedding.
Yet even as he thought it, he knew it couldn’t be so—not when Luciana loved his face as she did.
While Edward and Luciana stood absorbed in studying each other’s features,
the foreign Priest, dragged here against his will, stood perspiring heavily as he prepared to insert himself between them.
‘I must finish this quickly!’
He had already received multiple warnings from the Duke of Teseron to ‘keep it brief.’
So he omitted every formality and declared them married with breathless haste.
“By this, I declare the two of you joined in matrimony!”
Luciana, who had been expecting a grand ceremony and a solemn kiss of vows, opened her eyes wide.
‘Already?’
They hadn’t even exchanged the Wedding Rings or kissed yet.
But before she could protest, the Priest hastily stamped the Marriage Certificate that Rozendale held and retreated in haste.
“Be blessed foreveeeer!”
He called out like an echo as he vanished beyond the doors.
Luciana stood with wide eyes, blinking slowly.
‘…That was a bit anticlimactic.’
There were no guests to orchestrate the expected moments, and weeks of preparation had dissolved into a single pronouncement from the Priest.
Yet one thing mattered above all else—
the two of them were now legally husband and wife.
Now no one could harm or abduct Luciana without consequence.
‘For now, we’re safe.’
Luciana breathed a sigh of relief, subtle enough to hide, burying her face softly into the Bouquet.
“Shall we go, then?”
“Pardon?”
Edward’s words, delivered with a deep smile, sent a flush creeping up the sides of Luciana’s face.
Her heart dropped in her chest.
After the wedding ceremony was over, where could he possibly mean to take her…?
‘…He must mean the bedroom, doesn’t he?’
Was she really going through with the wedding night?
So much for thinking this would be anticlimactic.
‘Will it really be that thrilling?’
Luciana, recalling the electric rush of that first kiss, pressed a hand to her racing heart and swallowed hard.
“Hm?”
Edward took her hand and began walking toward the Balcony.

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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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