I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 72

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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 72
“Wait.”
Edward seemed about to say something, but Luciana didn’t want to hear it.
She shook her head as if to silence him, and tried desperately to understand.
To keep her heart from breaking further—any way she could.
‘…Right. I already knew what kind of man Edward is, more or less.’
She’d thought him different from her expectations after living through it, but…
At least the core of him she knew hadn’t changed.
If that was true, then it made perfect sense that he wouldn’t trust someone who wasn’t the heroine.
‘But then…’
Why did this fact disappoint her so deeply?
Why did all the excitement and playfulness she’d felt around him seem ruined now?
She herself had never expected anything from Edward in the beginning.
There was even a time when she’d thought: once Edward becomes a complete incarnation and meets the heroine, I’ll find my escape and slip away on my own.
Without thinking, Luciana scratched at the back of her hand, hidden beneath cloth.
Where the false Mark of Consort he’d inscribed on her lay.
‘A date, of all things.’
It wasn’t even funny.
“…Luciana.”
The moment Edward called her name again.
She reflexively turned her gaze toward the proprietor.
And answered curtly.
“I’ll take a look at what you have.”
……
“Show me the merchandise, please.”
And she turned quickly toward the tent shop, pressing the bouquet back into Edward’s hands.
…Crunch.
As Edward watched her receding figure hurrying away, the sound of his teeth grinding slipped through clenched jaws.
The bouquet nearly crumpled in his massive grip.
Edward hastily relaxed his hold and shook his head.
‘I made a mistake.’
He knew it himself.
He’d definitely misspoken just now.
Seeing Luciana refuse to accept things after he’d gone to all the trouble of arranging this date, frustration had gotten the better of him—he’d said something harsh.
It was true that he didn’t expect her to understand, but that wasn’t because he didn’t trust her.
The truth was, he…
……
But as Edward hesitated, unable to follow her.
The proprietor came rushing out and met Luciana.
“Is there something particular you’d like to see?”
As the proprietor spoke and wrapped a gentle arm around Luciana’s shoulders, Edward felt a sudden flare of irritation.
The proprietor, noticing Edward’s gaze, merely offered him a cryptic smile.
In truth, the proprietor—Gemini—was inwardly thrilled.
‘This is working.’
Honestly, even he’d thought the tent shop itself looked suspicious, so he’d been worried.
‘But still, I couldn’t afford to miss the opportunity.’
Days ago, the moment he’d entered Teseron, his Holy Power Detector had sent out a signal.
A detector fashioned from the fragments of a Holy Power Extraction device that the Experimental Subject had destroyed and fled with, it had been modified to track the Experimental Subject.
Following the signal, he’d found a small woman shopping the market floor with a towering man, purchasing magical items and materials.
That’s when he’d known instinctively.
‘That’s the Experimental Subject.’
After that, he’d kept them under surveillance, discovered which specific items they were buying, and deliberately set himself up as a magical goods merchant to lay a trap and wait.
He hadn’t expected them to actually fall for it.
Gemini watched the small woman stepping into the tent shop with keen interest.
Luciana—the Experimental Subject he’d once made restraints for himself, the one who’d been locked in the basement.
The image of the Pope, who had summoned him, flickered through his mind.
“But I didn’t mention it until now—the Experimental Subject that disappeared was actually taken by the Duke of Teseron.”
“…So the rumors were true, then?”
He’d wondered why he was being called so abruptly.
There had been good reason for it.
“So you’re saying the woman now known as the True Mate is actually one of our Experimental Subjects? That’s… correct.”
“…it is.”
“…….”
“I went to Teseron myself and saw it with these eyes.”
Sepina added her own testimony.
The woman who had become the Duke’s new bride and True Mate, causing such a stir in society—she was none other than Gemini’s Experimental Subject.
“But surely that Experimental Subject bore no Sacred Mark?”
“Whatever he did, the Duke has made her his True Mate.”
“…How most intriguing.”
“I called you here precisely because I knew you’d find it so. We must reclaim that Experimental Subject at any cost.”
The Pope spoke with an urgency that belied his measured tone.
“The priest we had stationed in Teseron has already failed. Now we have no choice but to resort to more… extreme measures.”
“Extreme measures, you say?”
“I grant you full authority to employ any drastic method you deem necessary.”
“…….”
“Retrieve the Experimental Subject. Whatever it takes.”
And with those words, the Pope commanded Gemini to bring her back.
Even the Pope seemed pressed for time.
“This one here—might I see these materials?”
Even as Gemini finished recalling this, Luciana remained absorbed in examining the goods.
“…….”
Gemini’s mind drifted further back in time, and he found himself remembering her past as well.
“‘This’ one?”
“Yes. Best to dispose of it quickly while she’s unconscious.”
The memory of fastening the Holy Power Extraction cuff around Luciana’s arm while she lay senseless.
The Experimental Subject had been gaunt then, appearing nearly lifeless—small, wretched, and frail.
Installing the Holy Power Extraction apparatus without letting her die had been a delicate undertaking.
‘How things have changed.’
Though her face and body were now concealed, beneath the hood he caught glimpses of fuller cheeks and a frame undeniably more robust than before.
Watching her now, he felt something strangely novel stirring within him.
‘True, she was called prodigious even then.’
Gemini had been quite young himself when he first laid eyes on her.
The cuff he’d fashioned for Luciana was among his earliest creations.
Few of those early pieces remained in his possession.
He had long since donated them all to the Temple that had sponsored his work.
Perhaps because of that.
The more he looked at her, the more a curious tenderness began to bloom quietly within his chest.
Not romantic in nature, but rather like the bond between parent and child.
‘In truth, she is hardly different from my own daughter.’
An affection blooming for his first Experimental Subject—the kind that would have made Luciana cry out in indignation and strike him with her fists.
The Pope had commanded him to reclaim her by any means necessary, but Gemini would have done so anyway, with or without the order.
For now he genuinely wished to have her back.
‘What parent abandons their child?’
Next time, he thought, he should keep her somewhere safer.
Say, in his own secret laboratory, hidden away deep below—anywhere but the Temple catacombs.
‘Best not to rush things.’
Gemini understood that building rapport must come first.
Move too hastily and everything would crumble to dust.
Patience was the cardinal rule in any experiment.
So he smiled broadly and rubbed his hands together before Luciana.
“Snow Mountain Beast Tail Bone—excellent material indeed.”
“I’ll need quite a lot of it. I’m planning to grind it into powder.”
“Hmm. Ground powder, you say. That’s not the method most people employ. Might I ask what you intend to use it for?”
“You don’t ask customers about their personal affairs, do you?”
“Ah, quite right.”
Though Luciana’s reply was rather curt….
“How about this as an extra? Stone dust that’s excellent for building stamina….”
“I’m not interested.”
“Ah, or this water, which forms particles in a hexagonal pattern….”
“I said I’m not buying.”
“I simply wanted to give you more.”
Gemini responded to Luciana with utmost sincerity.
The fact that the Experimental Subject—who had seemed only frail—possessed a sharp, cold edge beneath that facade intrigued Gemini all the more.
One might even say there was something admirable about her composure.
‘I must keep this connection alive.’
With that thought, Gemini furrowed his brow as though grieved.
“The Snow Mountain Beast Tail Bone is rather delicate, however—it will require specialized packing.”
“Cost doesn’t matter. As long as it arrives safely.”
“Then I’ll deliver it personally within a few days. Where shall I have it sent?”
“The Duke’s—”
Luciana had begun to speak calmly, but her words caught in her throat.
‘I’m hiding that I’m a Duke. I can’t very well ask for it to be sent to the Duke’s Residence.’
And besides, she had no other address in mind.
Surely the Duke’s Residence kept a temporary address for situations like this.
Normally, she would have approached Edward gently and asked him to provide it, but in this moment, she couldn’t bring herself to do so.
“Send it to this address.”
It was fortunate, one might say.
Edward approached with a sullen air and thrust a slip of paper with an address written on it toward Luciana instead.
Then his hand twitched.
…….
Because he had just noticed that Gemini’s hand still rested upon Luciana’s shoulder.

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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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