I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 89

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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 89
Gorgo’s expression hardened as if the suggestion were nonsense.
“I cannot leave you behind, madam.”
“Who said anything about being left? Come back and get me too.”
……
“But leave the children at the Evacuation Shelter. There’s no room to carry anyone else right now.”
Luciana understood Gorgo’s obligation, but she would not yield.
“They’re children I called to me, and they’re my responsibility.”
……
“I won’t lose a single person.”
Even as the words left her lips, she recognized them as clichéd—but they weren’t.
“Myself included.”
She meant it.
“This child has an injured leg. I can heal it with Holy Power faster than we could manage any other way.”
“Madam!”
“Hurry. We’re wasting precious time with this.”
Gorgo saw the resolve etched into Luciana’s face and swallowed hard, a faint whistle of air hissing through his teeth.
“I’ll return shortly.”
In one smooth motion, he scooped up the children and began to run.
“Sister!”
“Ahhhhh!”
The moment Gorgo and the children vanished from sight, the flower-selling girl burst into tears.
She had forced herself to stay composed in front of the other children.
“Sob—s-sob! Whimper! I’m s-scared!”
“Once you’re done crying, we’ll—”
“—g-get to work, hic! So please—hic—heal me f-faster!”
“Almost there!”
The sound of ragged breathing filled the air with urgency.
“Done!”
As Luciana’s healing finished and the Holy Power faded in a shimmer of light, it happened.
Bang!
A thunderous crash far louder than before echoed through the space.
“Oh!”
Luciana shoved the child forward on pure instinct.
Cracks immediately spiderwebbed across the floor between them.
“M—”
Gulp.
The girl’s cry caught in her throat as she stared past Luciana’s back.
Luciana did not turn around.
Instead, she rose as slowly as possible and whispered,
“Don’t look. They’re living creatures—they sense when they’re being watched.”
“H-hic.”
“But their eyes and ears are poor. As long as we don’t make loud noises or sudden movements, we’ll be fine.”
Even as her fingertips went numb with cold, knowledge from her past life about monsters flooded her mind.
Given their shared dislike of cramped, dark spaces, she’d reasoned that the monsters here might share similar traits.
She could only hope she was right.
“Move as slowly as possible. Keep your eyes on the ground and back away step by step.”
“Mmmph…”
“Go on. I can’t leave until you do.”
Only then did the child begin to move, each motion glacial and deliberate.
Cold sweat trickled from Luciana’s brow, traced slowly down her cheek, and fell to the floor with a soft tap.
Mercifully, the monster did not move.
Her guess had been correct.
“Good. Now turn around slowly.”
……
“And keep going. Don’t look back.”
Even as she spoke, Luciana felt as though she were laying a trap with those very words, so she added quickly,
“—or at least, check on me now and then. About every fifty paces or so.”
……
“And once you’ve gone a hundred paces, run. That’s what will save me.”
Hurry.
As the whisper left his lips, the child turned away as slowly as possible.
And began to recede gradually from her sight.
‘It’s all right.’
All the while, Luciana stood rigid, receiving the weight of the monster’s gaze pouring down her back.
If she moved even an inch, the creature would certainly react.
Even just being watched felt like her skin was being flayed from her bones.
‘Steady, Luciana.’
I need to reach Edward soon.
Not merely wait for him, but be able to go to him myself….
With that resolve, Luciana waited until the child had completely vanished before she moved.
Between the floor leading to the Evacuation Shelter and her lay a crevasse.
Not so wide that she couldn’t cross it, yet not something she could traverse without careful movement.
After steeling herself again and again, Luciana crossed the crevasse with agonizing slowness, feeling the monster’s breath upon her.
Very slowly.
Thinking of Edward battling the monsters, and thinking still….
‘…I made it!’
Thud!
The moment her hands barely touched the floor, Luciana felt an electric rush of triumph surge through her.
…Crash!
The decorations hung for the celebration began to fall from the ceiling, which had been shaking uneasily in the crevasse that opened earlier.
Boom, crash, crash, crash!
The cascade of falling ornaments reached Luciana’s side in mere seconds.
And….
Screeeech!
The monster, reacting to the noise, began to move.
“Ugh!”
She tried desperately to summon her Holy Power to defend herself, but the creature only grew more frenzied, shrieking louder.
As though it reacted violently to the Holy Power she possessed.
As though destroying it were its sacred duty….
Whoosh.
Claws came slashing toward her.
‘Ah.’
They say when people are truly panicked, no thought comes at all.
Luciana’s body went rigid, her mind flooding white with terror.
‘If only I had known.’
If only I had known, I should have had a real conversation instead of just… that.
I should have just asked first, like I always do….
Luciana squeezed her eyes shut and felt the rush of wind bearing down on her.
For an instant, sight and sound alike vanished, as though the entire world had been swallowed by darkness.
…And instead of the monster’s claws, she felt something else approach.
“Luciana.”
Not the ridiculous pet name he called her—his little mouse.
“…Luciana.”
A low voice pronouncing her name with deliberate precision.
“Gasp…!”
The moment she drew a ragged breath, all her senses returned.
Sound returned first—the crumbling rumble of the cracked building, followed by the dying screech of the monster exhaling its last.
Touch and smell returned with the heat radiating through the air and the acrid scent of dust.
And….
“Why.”
“…….”
“Why didn’t you….”
evacuate?
As he whispered this, sight returned to her—meeting his flickering crimson eyes.
Drip.
A single drop of the monster’s blood that had spattered on Edward’s cheek fell like a tear down his face.
“…Damn it.”
In the instant she could only stare up at him in shock,
his firm, enormous embrace pulled her against him all at once.
Only then, as if to prove she was still alive, Luciana heard the rhythmic thudding of her own heartbeat echoing in her ears.
“Every time you close your eyes, you’re always like this.”
……
“Truly, I can’t bring myself to let go….”
Edward’s murmured words came with a neck damp against hers.
Luciana slowly raised her hands and held him in return.
Immediately after, her entire body began to tremble beyond her control.
What emerged was nothing but a petulant complaint.
“Then you should just stay by my side and look after me.”
Her lips were already trembling of their own accord.
‘…That’s not what I meant.’
That wasn’t what she’d wanted to say at all.
She’d wanted to thank him for coming.
To apologize for not being able to go to him as she’d meant to.
To apologize for making him play the hero again.
She’d wanted to say that while his treatment of her as a True Mate was a bit much, she forgave him for it.
She’d meant to say all of that….
Instead, what came out was a voice trembling with tears and reproach.
“If you just didn’t give me things to worry about in the first place, you could take care of everything from start to finish, couldn’t you….”
……
“You always have. But, but… just because we fought over something small, you don’t even come near me. You made the mistake first, and yet you won’t even speak to me….”
Squeeze.
Her trembling hands gripped Edward’s back tightly.
Once the words had spilled out, they escaped beyond Luciana’s reason and restraint, running wild.
“Don’t, don’t be cruel to me.”
“…I would never.”
“Every time you do, I hate it so much. When you talk as though I’m of no help….”
“I’ve never said that, nor have I ever thought it.”
“Like I’m some small thing that bothers you, and—sigh—like you don’t even have any expectations of me. But still….”
“…That’s something I should apologize for.”
……
“I’m sorry.”
So don’t cry.
As Edward belatedly gave in and spoke gently to soothe her, Luciana swallowed her sobs and whispered.
“…And yet.”
……
“I hate you more because I can’t hate you.”
……
“It makes me keep worrying. How foolish.”
At those words, Edward drew a deep breath.
Feeling the chest holding her swell with that breath, Luciana whispered softly.
“Why would I worry about someone as strong as you? It’s me who should be the one who needs worrying about….”
Edward pulled Luciana close, his heart thundering as if it might burst.
He couldn’t remember how they’d gotten here.
He’d simply flown forward like a madman and cut down the Monster blocking their path.
And there she was, alive, looking at him with eyes he would never forget.
In that moment, his heart had lurched.
He was overjoyed that Luciana lived, but the look in her eyes as she beheld him emerging victorious from the Monster’s corpse pierced his chest like an awl.
‘With eyes like that.’
She was looking at him with the gaze one reserves for a noble savior.
Those who had once pushed the bleeding, young version of himself forward and begged him for salvation had worn precisely that same expression.
Telling him to fulfill his duty.
Insisting that if he couldn’t save people, then he held no value at all.
But Luciana, who now held him with those very eyes….
“I’m worried about you….”
She spoke words that no one else had ever uttered, and she meant every syllable.
“Someone as perfect as you—I worry so, so much….”
Ah.
Edward’s throat grew hot in an instant.
“This isn’t normal. I, I am….”
“…Yes, you’re right.”
“…….”
“I’m so relentlessly perfect that I don’t need to worry about anything.”
Edward exhaled his roiling emotions in hot breath and pulled Luciana close.
“Ah….”
“I should have worried about you instead, like you said.”
And he held her with all the strength he could muster.
As fiercely as he was able.
Yet careful enough not to break this small, fragile woman.
What escaped between his teeth was a confession too honest to bear.
“You were never supposed to become the weakness of someone so perfect.”

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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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