I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 9

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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 9
“I’m sorry?”
“What exactly is this clause?”
Edward’s beautiful eyes narrowed as though he’d taken offense.
His smile remained, though it had shifted into something distinctly petulant.
‘Even when he pouts, he’s handsome. It’s ridiculous.’
Yet rather than feel her pulse quicken, Lucy had only one impulse: to wrench her shoulder free from his grip.
To anyone else, his face would have commanded worship, admiration, reverence—but to Lucy, who knew his true nature, Edward’s beauty was nothing less than an unexploded bomb.
Edward felt her shoulders tense even as she drew inward, yet they remained rigid with quiet resistance.
Then he looked down at her with an expression that said, ‘See?’
This woman was infatuated with him, so surely if he simply held her like this and smiled….
‘I thought she’d tear up that tedious contract all on her own.’
He’d never expected her to produce one in the first place.
He’d assumed that with a little coaxing and proper incentive, she’d follow him around like a docile pet.
But instead, she’d brought paperwork.
‘She’s sharper than I gave her credit for.’
To be infatuated with him and yet maintain her reason—that was almost admirable.
Edward wasn’t blind to the fact that though he’d done her a kindness, he would be the one left wanting if she walked away.
Even if he locked her away by force, if Lucy refused to perform Purification, he’d be the loser.
So instead of coercing her, he’d been planning to coax her into tearing up the contract herself.
‘I never expected this to fail.’
It had never happened before.
A simple smile, a knowing glance—and whoever he spoke with would be delighted, moving just as he intended.
But this small mouse….
Her large, round eyes darted about nervously.
Her entire demeanor screamed discomfort, awkwardness, unease.
‘Uncomfortable?’
Nervous?
When he was being this handsome, even linking arms with her?
‘When she claims to like me, to be infatuated with me?’
That didn’t sit well with him at all.
Shouldn’t someone who liked him be pleased when he went to such lengths?
The truth was that Edward enjoyed the contact with Lucy—but he framed it as a gift he was bestowing upon her, a kindness he was offering.
He’d grown accustomed to people of all persuasions throwing themselves at him with reckless abandon, desperate to be held in his arms.
Even as his pride pricked slightly, a cool, clarifying sensation rippled through him where their shoulders touched.
It was as though turbidity was settling, the murk dissipating.
‘If merely touching brings this much….’
What would happen when a full Purification took place?
‘Yet she’s written “once a week, hand-holding only”?’
There was no way he could be satisfied with such meager Purification.
Without quite realizing it, Edward’s gaze shifted into something predatory as he looked down at Lucy.
Sensing the sudden chill in his eyes, Lucy answered carefully.
“Which part troubles you?”
“You’re joking.”
“No, really! I’m serious!”
As far as Lucy knew, Edward was an extraordinarily powerful Incarnation.
‘The unique Incarnation, the Male Lead—he couldn’t possibly be weak.’
And she was right.
Lucy didn’t know that the Rampage episode he’d nearly suffered would have destroyed the world—reduced it to rubble—if any other Incarnation had experienced it instead.
Nevertheless….
‘Once a week should be perfectly adequate.’
“…I thought it would be better to minimize contact, so I wrote it that way….”
“Better?”
Lucy nodded earnestly.
‘True, this world’s Purification is an Adults Only affair conducted through physical intimacy….’
But Lucy was absolutely, categorically certain that even if the heavens split open and the Male Lead became a eunuch, she would never set foot in Edward’s bed.
Edward had already hated performing Purification even with Sepina.
What would be different with her?
‘Besides, in a depraved Adults Only novel like this, any woman who sleeps with the Male Lead instead of the Female Lead will be….’
At best, discarded once he has his epiphany: ‘What I really want is the Female Lead, not this woman.’
Sepina died a cruel death in the ending.
A fake who killed the real one just to pose as the genuine article—it was only fitting.
Lucy had no intention of treading the same path.
‘I won’t die as some foreign object meant to deepen the love between the Female Lead and Male Lead.’
If nothing else, had she truly been reborn as a wealthy villainess, at least there’d be money.
Lucy was simply a freshly escaped convict with nothing to her name.
And given Edward’s current condition, no amount of Purification would—
“Ahem!”
‘No need to reveal what I know just yet.’
Lucy cleared her throat and shifted her demeanor.
“Hehe. I picked up a thing or two while staying at the Temple.”
“What sort of thing?”
“That you actually found the Purification sessions with Sepina quite dreadful—enduring them only by force.”
“Ah.”
“It seems you dislike the acts required for Purification, so if we limit the frequency and contact…”
“Dreadful, you say.”
Edward took her words with a smile still playing on his lips.
“So the Temple knew the whole time and still forced it on me.”
His red eyes, incongruous with their color, turned glacial.
Lucy felt a chill run through her even as she offered mental condolences to the Temple that would bear the brunt of his wrath.
‘Not sorry, and goodbye to you all…’
She thought the Temple deserved to fall, after all—kidnapping children and using them as expendable resources.
“And you cooperated while knowing everything?”
But it was unfair that the arrow turned back on her!
“I was only a test subject forced into service!”
“If you heard that I found it dreadful, you must have been quite close to the Temple, no?”
“I didn’t hear it directly. I felt your feelings too, Your Grace!”
“What?”
She wasn’t fabricating—it was true.
Whenever Sepina and Edward had their Purification sessions, her own body responded.
‘Only my hands, though.’
And across those heated palms, a sensation like needles pricking had often swept through her.
A feeling closer to loathing and rage than affection.
‘It must have been his doing.’
At the memory of that murderous intent, the back of her neck grew damp.
“You felt it?”
Hearing that question, dampness gave way to a creeping cold.
…come to think of it.
‘You felt his emotions while he was receiving Purification.’
Not intentional, but…
‘Isn’t that basically admitting you spied on him during his intimate moments?’
Even she could tell this would sound bad.
Sweat trickled between her shoulder blades. Her confident posture wilted in an instant.
“Well, you see…”
Edward continued watching her with evident amusement.
Eyes cold, only his mouth curved upward in a smile.
“To what extent did you sense it?”
“…”
“Did you feel everything?”
Edward’s hand then traced slowly down her forearm.
As if taking measure of exactly how far she had invaded.
“Hic!”
An involuntary hiccup escaped her.
The moment the threat of death became real, Lucy squeezed her eyes shut and cried out.
“N-not very much!”
“No?”
“No indeed. Only that Your Grace’s technique is quite exceptional…”
How skilled must one be for hands to grow that fevered.
Her hands were in direct contact with the Holy Power-Draining Chain, so Edward and Sepina’s intimate exchanges had felt viscerally real to her.
Had that chain wrapped around her whole body…
‘Ugh.’
Lucy shook her head, her face drained of color.
“Ha.”
A low, crystalline laugh burst forth.
Lucy looked up in alarm.
“Ha-ha, ha-ha-ha!”
What was this?
The Dragon’s Incarnation was laughing.
Not the seductive or spiteful smile he’d worn until now, but the pure, unburdened joy of a boy.
‘What is he doing now?’
Anyone else would have felt their heart race at the sight.
…But for Lucy, it felt like he’d just pressed the button on a time bomb.
‘This is terrifying!’
While Lucy endured this unexpected wave of dread, Edward stopped laughing and tilted his head at an odd angle.
“You’re being evasive.”
That accusation made her aggrieved again—as if she’d never been frightened at all.
“No, it’s just that—”
“Yet in the contract you were so restrained?”
“Because—!”
“Why don’t we just increase the frequency and contact?”
“…….”
“I might agree to it, you know.”
Edward meant it sincerely.
With Sepina, the most he’d allowed was holding hands.
Even then, all he’d imagined was biting that revolting hand instead of kissing the back of it.
But what about this? Her technique was good?
‘Does she know or not?’
A rueful smile escaped him at how oblivious she seemed.
He genuinely felt like teaching her what real technique was.
‘With this woman.’
Kissing the back of her hand wouldn’t feel unpleasant.
Or perhaps even her cheek might be acceptable.
The fact that he felt like biting that cheek—still marked by the Duke’s Household seal—suggested how far he was willing to go.
‘She seems to have fallen for me, after all.’
There was little he wouldn’t give her.
Yet the innocent words he’d just spoken…
‘Is this a trap question?’
Lucy interpreted them entirely differently.
Her strong bias—that Edward, of all people, would never suggest increasing Purification contact with anyone but the Female Lead—made her read malice into his offer.
‘Is he testing me?’
With the very real possibility that one wrong word would get her cut down, staying silent about what she knew felt pointless.
Lucy steeled herself and spoke with careful levity.
“You’re just saying that to tease me.”
“Why?”
“Because increasing Purification wouldn’t help you at all, my lord.”
“Wouldn’t help?”
“No. Because—”
Rustle.
As Lucy pressed forward intently with her words,
Tepe and Gorgo, returning with provisions, approached silently as was their habit.
Unaware of their presence, Lucy spoke with complete confidence:
“You’re an incomplete Incarnation right now, my lord.”
Whoosh.
“Ack!”
A blade flashed toward Lucy in the next instant.

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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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