I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 74

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

Chapter 74
As the Dowager Duchess vented her fury with a sharp intake of breath and raised her hand, Clara instinctively flinched.
Her body was covered in bruises beneath her clothes, but at this point, simply not being cast out was something she ought to be grateful for.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, ma’am….”
While Clara choked back her tears, the Dowager Duchess gnawed at her thumbnail once more.
‘Those insolent wretches!’
Ever since the scheme she’d attempted with Clara had failed so spectacularly.
“The physician says I require rest and recuperation.”
“But what do you mean—!”
“You ought to take some time away.”
“You’re not even going to let me attend the wedding? How could you—!”
“Mother.”
Edward addressed the Dowager Duchess with a title that made her skin crawl, offering a smile.
“I said you should rest.”
…….
“There will be no second warning.”
And with that, he’d sent her away.
Out of the Duchy itself.
‘I thought at worst I’d be confined to some other annex within the Duchy!’
In truth, she hadn’t been sent far from the Duchy grounds—merely to a nearby villa—but to the Dowager Duchess, it felt like an unspeakable humiliation.
What’s more, she’d been forcibly separated from her retainers, leaving her unable to formulate any new plans.
Though realistically, most of the Dowager Duchess’s attendants had been dealt with by Edward in the wake of the Theft Incident, so meaningful conversation would have been difficult even if she’d remained in the Duchy.
She couldn’t fathom how things had come to this.
She’d been certain it would be simple….
‘That small, lowborn creature!’
She never imagined the girl would prove to be anything more than easy prey.
The Dowager Duchess clutched her head and ground her teeth.
‘If only my husband were still alive.’
If the Previous Duke Teseron hadn’t died in that accident, things never would have spiraled like this.
With him alive, that small creature would have been suppressed easily enough—Edward too, for that matter.
He was celebrated now as the Dragon Avatar, but Edward had once been nothing more than a small boy who’d cower in the corner whenever the Previous Duke so much as raised his staff.
And now that same boy had climbed over her head and dared to cast her out.
Sparks of rage kindled in the Dowager Duchess’s eyes.
‘The ungrateful wretch! How dare he!’
She wanted nothing more than to expose his true nature to the entire world.
But if she did such a thing….
‘It wouldn’t be just him who’d be ruined.’
The entire House of Teseron could collapse in an instant.
‘That cannot happen. Absolutely not.’
What the Dowager Duchess wanted was to reclaim the power she’d once enjoyed and bring the Duchy back under her control.
What use would it be to expose the truth, see Teseron fall, and lose the very house she meant to reclaim?
So in the end, there was nothing she could do to harm Edward.
And Edward knew it well—which was precisely why he’d locked her away like this.
“Damn it!”
“Oof!”
The Dowager Duchess kicked the floor without restraint, and her slipper went flying, striking the shoulder of the cowering Clara.
This was the moment she’d been about to vent her frustrations on Clara once again.
…….
As she removed her remaining slipper and gripped it in her hand, something caught her eye.
“A calling card?”
It was a calling card that lay on the tray Clara had dropped moments before.
On the back were written a location, and a note that someone would wait there for a time.
It appeared to be both an appointment place and a time.
Who else would send her something like this…?
“Have my remaining retainers found a way to contact me?”
As the Dowager Duchess looked down at Clara with sudden interest, the girl shrank back.
“N-no, that’s not—”
“Then what? Surely Edward wouldn’t have sent me something like this.”
“It’s—well, actually, it was from some man….”
“Some man? Speak clearly and tell me everything!”
“I-I’d never seen him before!”
Clara swallowed hard and continued.
“He looked like a merchant at first glance, and he was actually carrying all sorts of magic supplies, but he was loitering beyond the villa’s wall, and when he saw me, he approached.”
A merchant.
The Dowager Duchess’s eyes narrowed instinctively.
“Surely he didn’t come to me peddling some common merchant’s catalog?”
The Dowager Duchess, her pride wounded, raised her hand—but Clara threw herself flat on the ground in supplication.
“No, no! I was going to refuse him too, but—”
“But?”
“He said if I mentioned the Silver Staff, you would understand!”
She froze.
At those words, the Dowager Duchess’s hand slowly fell away.
‘The Silver Staff?’
That was a form of secret code.
Back when the Previous Duke was still alive, she and the Pope had created it as a cipher to refer to him, a private channel kept between them.
The Teseron Territory maintained a delicate relationship with the Temple, and direct mention of the Pope or close dealings with him were tacitly discouraged.
‘Could it be someone the Pope sent?’
With that thought, the Dowager Duchess examined the calling card again.
‘Perhaps…’
This might be an excellent breakthrough.
The Dowager Duchess smiled with an unsettling expression.
And she opened her mouth with measured calm.
“Prepare at once.”
“…….”
“I must meet this man.”
* * *
“Ah. Today really is a fine day for reconciliation.”
“…….”
“I don’t see anyone reconciling. I could even hold a reconciliation ceremony for you….”
Soon after, in the quiet Library of the Duchy.
“Be quiet, Tepe.”
Luciana shut the book she’d been holding with a snap and glared at him.
“Don’t you know you’re supposed to be silent in the library?”
Tepe shrugged with an air of innocence.
“I was merely sharing my thoughts aloud, nothing more.”
“If I can hear it, that’s not thinking aloud—that’s talking. Besides, why are you even here in the first place?”
“What? That’s quite hurtful to hear, actually.”
“My guard has always been Gorgo. Why are you here all of a sudden?”
“Well, about that matter….”
“Don’t tell me you got sent away from the Duke’s side for doing the same thing—running your mouth like that?”
At that, Tepe went silent, confirming the truth.
The way his eyes rolled aimlessly reminded her of the mischievous children she’d cared for at the shelter.
They’d made exactly that face right after getting into trouble.
Thinking to herself that familiarity brought all sorts of surprises, Luciana found herself scolding him the way she would a child.
“Tsk-tsk.”
“…….”
“Bad boys deserve punishment.”
“…Wait. You seem to have a real knack for this.”
“What knack?”
“That expression, that tone just now. Shall I fetch you a stick? You could go scold the Duke with that….”
“Enough!”
Even as Luciana bristled, Tepe didn’t stop.
Instead, with a more earnest expression, he pleaded to her like he was hanging on for dear life.
“Aren’t you curious what the Duke said? I can tell you absolutely everything about his every move and….”
“I’m not curious!”
“You don’t seem that way. You just flinched, didn’t you?”
“…Don’t you dare tattle to me about the Duke’s affairs. Tsk-tsk!”
Smack.
Luciana finally struck his forearm, but Tepe merely brushed it away as if tickled and did nothing but beg.
“Please! I’m a dead man if this continues!”
There was good reason for his desperation.
It had been several days since Edward and Luciana had left together in high spirits, only to return in a cold, brittle silence.
Since then, Luciana had locked herself away in the Duchy’s Library, doing nothing but read, and had not exchanged a single word with Edward.
And Edward….
“What’s so amusing, Tepe?”
“Sir? I—I wasn’t smiling. No, that is, you must be mistaken, sir. Now that I think of it, the corner of my mouth was indeed tilted at perhaps three degrees. That was my error. You told me not to create such matters for correction….”
“And you there, Sir Hamilton. Your sword grip is off by five degrees. Is the Duchy’s discipline a joke to you?”
“I—I apologize, sir!”
“Sir Winston, there’s a loose thread on your final button. Sir Meyer, there’s a speck of dust on your scabbard.”
“…We apologize! We’ll correct it at once!”
“All of you have grown slack in bearing. Five additional laps around the Training Ground.”
“We’ll correct it, sir!”
His gaze had turned several times sharper when surveying his knights and soldiers—ever since that day when something had passed between him and Luciana, and a chill had descended.

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