I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 80

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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 80
Burning scarlet eyes fixed straight on Luciana.
They held the gaze of a hunter eyeing prey—as though he would devour her soft, pale skin in an instant.
As Luciana met those eyes and drew an inadvertent breath,
Edward’s fangs pressed harder against the delicate white of her throat.
……
Yet instead of marking that tender skin, Edward tensed the veins in his neck and fought down the impulse.
The effort was so fierce
that sinews stood out not only along his neck but across his jaw and the backs of his hands.
Anyone watching would have taken him for a man consumed with rage.
Still, the restraint spared her white chest from bearing his marks.
Though every fiber of his being burned to leave them there.
‘No. That won’t do.’
The Dress Luciana wore was cut to expose skin.
If he indulged his hunger and left marks, they would be visible to every soul present.
The basest voice in his depths whispered low.
‘Why not?’
She’s your wife. Your woman.
You’ve already placed a false Sacred Mark on her, claiming her as yours before them all—what difference does a bite mark make from a Mark?
Perhaps it’s an opportunity.
‘A chance to make it clearer to all these gathered people that Luciana is mine.’
Yet despite the endless whisper of instinct,
reason pulled the reins tight and drove him forward.
‘Are you insane?’
There was something far more important now than broadcasting to the world that Luciana was his.
It was keeping her from becoming a spectacle or a joke to others.
‘If I leave marks.’
Those who saw them would certainly drag Luciana into gossip and stare at her.
Ugh.
The thought brought a wave of revulsion.
When he’d become the subject of idle talk himself, elevated to a pervert by Sepina’s machinations, it had barely mattered.
But the thought of Luciana enduring such treatment was unbearable—it kindled a fury he could not suppress.
The mere image of strangers daring to speak her name, spinning tales of their intimacy, embellishing and fabricating—it made him want to tear the world apart.
And besides…
‘She’s already angry with me.’
He couldn’t afford to earn more of her resentment.
He still had no idea how to unravel this, where to even begin to make things right…
It was as Edward wrestled with the knot of it all that his crimson tongue traced slowly again.
A soft, lingering stroke.
“Ah!”
Luciana gasped at the sensation of his tongue running along the hollow between her breasts.
She clenched her fists and then released them, struggling to recover her senses.
……
But the glistening moisture between her breasts, the crimson tongue he was extending—both looked dangerously alluring.
And her body, perhaps because it had been so long, responded with even greater intensity.
Heat was already spreading through her limbs.
‘No. This has to stop.’
Luciana swallowed and steadied her resolve.
If this continued, she would end up giving in before the guests even arrived.
And then all her careful preparation, all the grooming she’d done, would be for nothing.
‘But more than that…’
She hated the thought of letting desire overtake reason, of letting things between them dissolve into nothing.
To let it pass over carelessly after weeks of hurt, of not even seeing each other’s face…
‘No. Absolutely not.’
This Purification would have to end here.
With that thought, Luciana gently lifted her hands.
As if to push him away.
Edward, seeing the gesture, couldn’t help but let out a small, pleading sound, his head turning slightly side to side as he drew a deep breath.
Reluctant to leave the familiar warmth of her scent, which he’d missed for so long.
He held her carefully, mindful not to disturb the shape of her Dress.
“…Ah!”
“Luciana.”
“Y-Your Grace.”
“…I won’t ruin it.”
The words that left his lips carried absolute sincerity.
“I know how hard you worked to prepare for today. So…”
“……….”
“I absolutely will not ruin it.”
At the raw honesty in his voice, Luciana felt her throat tighten once more.
‘And yet he can say such things.’
Why did he always avoid the real conversation?
But she couldn’t follow that thought any further.
“So…”
“……….”
“So, just for a moment.”
Slip.
With those words, Edward carefully drew down one side of the dress that had been clinging to Luciana’s chest.
“…!”
The dress was designed to fit snugly against her body with minimal undergarments, allowing it to be partially lowered or removed without destroying its overall form.
Thanks to this, Luciana’s dress remained intact in all the places that mattered.
And yet…
‘…This is still, I mean, this is…strange.’
Luciana thought about how she must look in this moment, and her ears flushed crimson.
Standing in the middle of the waiting room where a guest could arrive at any moment, with one bare breast exposed to the open air.
Even she had to admit it felt rather indecent.
Edward could not tear his gaze from Luciana’s exposed chest.
His eyes held a rapturous hunger, as though he wanted nothing more than to seize her in his hands that instant.
“Your Grace…”
Sensing something dangerous in the air, Luciana tried to pull her dress back up.
But the words she meant to speak died on her tongue.
“Ah, mmph!”
Edward approached slowly, and his hands seized hers with desperate urgency before she could restore her dress.
In the next moment, he had filled his palm with the soft weight of her breast.
“Ah…!”
At the sensation of bare skin—soft, yielding—Edward trembled despite himself.
He found it endearing how the flesh molded itself to his touch like warm dough, reshaping itself to follow every movement of his hand.
“Ah, oh…”
Whether he squeezed firmly, letting the soft tissue spill between his fingers, or rolled it gently in his palm, each of Luciana’s gasps stirred him.
And the flush that crept across her face from so simple an act—
‘Damn it.’
Impatience rose within him, yet Edward deliberately restrained himself, caressing her breast with only one hand.
He resisted the urge to kiss her until her makeup smeared away entirely, resisted the desire to lavish both breasts with attention and affection.
‘If I did such things…’
He would lose all control afterward.
He would break his own promise not to ruin her, clinging to her body and devouring her instead.
Instead, Edward caressed Luciana’s breast with deliberate slowness.
As though determined to experience everything this single piece of flesh could offer him.
His touch was careful, reverent—then he cupped it fully, pressing the entire breast into his palm, kneading it.
When he finally pinched and twisted the peak with his forefinger and thumb, tears began to glisten at the corners of Luciana’s eyes.
“Hah, oh…”
Luciana bit down hard on her lower lip.
Even as she endured this way, she felt Edward’s violent Corruption gradually subsiding, piece by piece.
Luciana swallowed repeatedly, her mind turning over a familiar thought.
‘That’s right, I thought this before too. This is merely Purification…’
And she had failed.
‘…But it isn’t, is it?’
In novels, people seemed to call such things ‘merely Purification’ and go about them without a second thought.
For her part, such rationalization was impossible.
‘If it’s obscene, then it’s obscene. What kind of Purification is this?’
Of course, if others heard her, they might say both descriptions fit—but that only kindled a petty frustration that kept rising in her chest.
There was nothing she could do about it.
All Luciana could manage was to hold her breath, keeping the wild hammering of her heart from reaching Edward’s ears despite her will.
How much longer did time stretch on like this?
Rustle.
“…….”
“…….”
The hand that had been caressing Luciana’s chest for so long finally withdrew, slowly.
She shivered involuntarily at the sudden emptiness and chill that followed.
Goosebumps rose across her pale skin, now laid bare to the cold air.
The Corruption flowing into her also settled, quieter than before.
‘It’s… finished, isn’t it?’
She was swallowing a quiet sigh, uncertain whether to feel disappointed or relieved, when—
Thud.
Edward sank to his knees before her.
Then he buried himself against her chest.

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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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