I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 8

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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 8
The road north, leaving the Temple behind.
It was the beginning of a day swept clean by spring—the breeze mild, the sky brilliant.
“I’ll fetch some water while the driver sleeps, my lord.”
“I was going to hunt—”
“Never mind. No need for anything grand like that.”
“But we have company that looks ready to starve if they don’t eat something soon, don’t we?”
Tepe and Gorgo, who had been glancing at Lucy asleep on Edward’s lap, now looked to him for a reaction.
Only when he gazed down at Lucy and gave them a resigned nod did Edward feel his mood lift.
They’d fled the Temple in haste, driving the carriage through the night, and though he’d managed only broken snatches of sleep all the way—
‘Even that much was a miracle, if I’m honest.’
Lately, the headaches and fits had kept him awake more nights than not.
But with a woman settled against his body, he’d found at least some rest.
Cramped in the rocking carriage for more than half a day, his condition was nonetheless in peak form.
Flutter, flutter, flutter.
That is, until Tepe and Gorgo left to hunt, and a white sheet of paper began waving before his eyes.
……
Edward studied the woman standing rigidly before him.
The marks where she’d lain pressed against him were vivid on her cheeks, and her white hair hung tangled and mussed.
By coincidence, those marks were the imprint of Edward’s armor.
As if stamping proof of ownership, the ducal crest had left its clear impression on her pale cheek.
While he found something oddly satisfying in that, Edward’s brow still furrowed.
‘Even in daylight, she’s still small, still gaunt, still shabby.’
And yet her eyes and cheeks were round enough to draw the eye, for all that.
‘Still, once I’ve made use of her, I’ll dispose of her readily enough.’
So why had she brought this out?
“A Contract?”
“Yes, well, my name is Lucy, and actually I was from the Temple—”
“You told me your name yesterday, and I’d already figured out you were the Temple’s test subject.”
Lucy’s words died in her throat, her eyes widening.
‘He already knew I was an experimental subject?’
So the lord was different in some fundamental way after all.
‘Damn. He saw right through it.’
Her carefully prepared attempt to frame her dreary life story in the most pitiful light possible crumbled to nothing.
Yet Lucy didn’t lose her composure.
‘Actually, this is better.’
If he knew precisely what sort of experiment she’d been used for, his attitude would change—
“The Mystical Power I’m sensing feels familiar. You’ve been supplementing it with Lady Sepina’s Purification Power, haven’t you?”
Or so she’d thought.
“…Yes, that’s correct.”
“I see.”
“…Is there something you’d like to say?”
“Should there be?”
He’d perceived the nature of her Mystical Power in mere moments. She’d expected him to demand answers, to press her on something—
‘But nothing’s changed, even though he knows everything?’
It seemed Edward was equally indifferent to everyone except the lady, playing the tyrant with perfect fairness.
Lucy felt the wind go out of her sails, but she pressed on, searching for words.
“Then let me tell you. The Temple treated me so poorly—starving poor, pitiful me—”
“I noticed when I examined you.”
“…Examined? What do you mean?”
Where could he possibly have touched her while she slept?
Alarmed by the dangerous implication, Lucy quickly crossed her arms over herself defensively.
It was only then she realized she’d just treated the man she should have been making a good impression on like a pervert—and she quickly uncrossed her arms—
But Edward’s smile had already deepened.
“What did you think I was touching?”
……
“You’ve got a suspicious mind.”
“I…”
“When I held you, there was barely anything left but bone. That’s what I meant.”
Caught in his counterattack, Lucy bit down on her tongue.
‘Get ahold of yourself!’
Then, with a small cough, he cleared his throat.
“Well, it seems you already know quite a bit, so….”
“So?”
“Before you take me to the Duchy, there’s something I want to settle between us.”
He tilted his head.
At Lucy’s words, Edward exaggerated the gesture, his head tilting at an angle.
His platinum hair—stranded with golden thread as if sewn in place—scattered and caught the sunlight as he moved.
“Settle what?”
Soon he narrowed his eyes and smiled.
It was the sort of smile that could coax secrets from a conceptual vault in a basement that didn’t even exist.
To Lucy, it was nothing but a horrifying, skin-crawling sight.
‘What kind of twisted game is he playing?’
She’d already tasted just how much ugliness lurked beneath that beautiful face—barely a taste yesterday, but enough.
Lucy swallowed hard.
“So what I’m saying is….”
And, moving slowly, she pressed the paper into his view once more.
“I learned something from that business with the Temple. Contracts need to be binding.”
“…….”
“This is a Contract stating that I provide my Purification Power, and you protect me in return.”
Edward’s eyebrows shot up.
“Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously.”
“I already told you I’d take responsibility for you.”
“Oral agreements aren’t legally binding…!”
She knew it was a bit much, pressing a Contract on someone who’d just saved her life.
‘But you have to leave documents and evidence, no matter what!’
Lucy had evolved into someone who understood the weight of contracts—hardened by a harsh world in both her past life and this one.
And she was offering it partly because she believed in him, at least to some degree.
‘Anyway, he decided to take me with him.’
If he’d disliked the idea, he would’ve thrown her away the moment she fell into his chest yesterday.
‘But he brought me along.’
Though their conversation before that had been strange and awkward….
He’d instinctively sensed her usefulness—there was no doubt about it.
‘He felt my Mystical Power. He must have liked what he found.’
The extraordinary use she represented: Purification.
‘Right. He’s the one who needs me.’
She didn’t know the details of the Rampage Side Effect a Fire Spirit Vessel suffered, but she’d decided to think of it as a chronic condition he lived with.
‘If someone had chronic migraines, a herniated disc, and indigestion all at once, and a single keychain made them all vanish?’
If she were in his position, she’d become obsessive and agree to any terms.
She wasn’t asking for anything grand.
‘Just keep me alive.’
Beyond that, just guarantee me a livelihood where I can live without worry.
Even so, she’d been careful—offering the Contract while his other guards had gone to fetch water and provisions.
Lucy gnawed at her lower lip as she studied Edward.
He still wore that inscrutable, beautiful smile.
Soon his elegant lips parted slowly.
“I thought you were weak.”
“…….”
“But you’re cunning too.”
His expression was difficult to read—whether he was angry or amused.
Lucy answered quietly but firmly.
“You did save me, it’s true. I’m genuinely grateful. But that’s one thing, and this is another….”
“And yesterday you were calling me ‘master’ well enough.”
“…What does that have to do with anything?”
“Wasn’t that you pledging yourself as my servant?”
“…That’s not it at all!”
“I thought you were bringing me a slave contract when you said you had a Contract.”
“I said it’s not!”
As his preposterous accusations continued to pour out, Lucy literally jumped to her feet.
“This is simply a fair and equitable contract between us….”
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
Edward snatched the contract away and stepped toward Lucy.
Unable to escape, Lucy found herself pulled firmly into his embrace, pinned by the arm he’d wrapped around her shoulders.
“And here you come with a fraudulent contract, no less.”
“Fraudulent!”
She protested, though a flush of guilt crept up her neck.
‘All right, fine — maybe one or two clauses are a bit… questionable.’
There were indeed certain provisions she’d tucked in rather timidly.
For instance, she’d listed the lunch break as two hours instead of one out of each eight-hour workday.
Or written the guarantee of safety as “10 years,” then added a tiny circle next to the “10” to make it read “10○ years” instead.
‘Maybe I should’ve written “10·” instead of “10○”?’
She hadn’t truly intended to stay by his side for a century, but that clause was there as a safeguard against unforeseen circumstances.
‘At least I didn’t ask for payment — that’s something.’
Though she had rather subtly inserted a clause ensuring that Edward, Duke of Le Teseron, would cover all her food and lodging, since one had to eat to survive.
And she’d also quietly written in special leave provisions for each purification performed….
‘Surely he won’t cross out every single one of those?’
It was at that moment Lucy glanced up at Edward with anxious eyes.
He chuckled softly.
Laughing lightly, Edward pulled her close in a half-embrace, drawing her tighter against him.
A cool, crisp scent washed over her in an instant.
“Take, for instance, Article 2, Section 2.”
“Yes? Article 2?”
It was a clause she hadn’t anticipated him mentioning.
‘So the content of that clause….’
“‘Purification shall occur once per week, conducted by holding hands’?”

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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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