I Thought It Was the Monster Duke's Fake Sedative - Chapter 91

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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 91
Even if he hadn’t meant to imply it, wouldn’t it have felt like an unspoken pressure to go out hunting monsters more earnestly?
‘Because the world mustn’t fall into ruin….’
She had condemned others for forcing the mantle of hero onto him, yet hadn’t she herself unconsciously wished for him to become one?
Thinking back, it had been the same from their first meeting.
When she said she might be able to resolve the Avatar problem, Edward’s expression had been surprisingly lukewarm.
Instead, he’d accepted the contract as though Purification alone would suffice.
‘If he’d truly cared about the consciousness issue,’
she would have pressed him harder, questioned him more closely about his nature and abilities.
But if he’d contracted with Purification as the sole objective from the start, his attitude made perfect sense.
Luciana steadied her breathing and continued.
“If that’s been weighing on you, just tell me plainly.”
“…….”
“I won’t speak of it to anyone. I’m your only Weakness, so I’ll carry all the others too.”
“Luciana.”
“And if you want to postpone the wedding night or don’t wish for it, then… well, you’d still need to become a complete Avatar to accumulate less Corruption, but….”
“Luciana.”
A soft touch.
Her cheek was caught, and Luciana’s words died on her lips.
Edward cradled her face between both palms, his thumbs tracing her skin with infinite gentleness.
“…….”
While Luciana met his gaze in silence, a steady pulse of something kept striking at Edward’s chest.
Had it not been hard? Had it not frightened him?
‘It was hard.’
And it terrified me.
For reasons different from what she imagined.
Yet all of it was nothing but a past now behind him.
She hadn’t merely expressed concern outright — she’d asked if he wasn’t afraid.
He couldn’t tell who was worrying about whom; it was absurd, exasperating — and yet when he saw Luciana speak with such raw honesty, words his own advisors would never dare utter, his throat grew tight.
Edward swallowed slowly at the emotion surging up within him.
Then he composed his face into its familiar arrogance and spoke.
“Let’s be clear about one thing. I’ve never been afraid of hunting monsters.”
The sheer Edward-ness of it left Luciana momentarily speechless.
And before she could stop herself, she answered with a hint of sarcasm.
“…Wow. Impressive indeed.”
“Such trivial things could never frighten me.”
Edward spoke with conviction, then slowly drew his hand across her face.
And even then, the monsters weren’t what scared him.
“But this time.”
What frightened him was what might happen to the people he held dear because he hadn’t caught the monster in time.
It had terrified him.
“I was scared.”
Scared something might happen to you too.
“More precisely, I kept thinking: what if you were beneath that monster?”
“I… what?”
“You frightened me.”
“…Me?”
Edward had made a decision.
Even if he couldn’t speak the most important thing….
Since Luciana had laid bare her true heart, he would show her everything else with equal honesty.
“I told you. You’re my only Weakness.”
“…….”
Edward closed his eyes for a long moment, then whispered.
“I was afraid of losing you.”
“…….”
“I’ve never been this afraid in my life.”
It was a confession brief but heavy with weight.
“I… huh?”
Luciana stammered for a moment before his words reached her understanding, a beat too late.
As her face slowly flushed crimson, Edward extended his little finger and gently traced the line of her neck.
Where she could feel the soft beating of her small heart most clearly.
And he exhaled quietly.
The thought that he feared losing a Purifier who could cleanse his Corruption was nothing but a hollow rationalization.
Asking why she hadn’t evacuated had been sincere.
‘…I should never have married her.’
If she were merely a Purifier and not the Duchess, there would have been no banquet, no exposure to such danger.
There had been a time when the thought of the Wedding Night consumed him so intensely he could hardly bear it.
Yet before her safety, such desires became something he couldn’t afford.
She had become that precious to him.
…This small woman who told him that duties everyone else took for granted were unfair, who insisted that what everyone assumed was acceptable was anything but—
“So don’t mistake me for avoiding the ceremony because I’m reluctant to hunt monsters.”
“…Then, sir?”
…….
“Then why aren’t you looking forward to it…?”
Luciana’s eyes hardened with focus.
She had heard his apology, but her expression said curiosity was something she couldn’t resist.
The words that had been flowing so smoothly came to an abrupt halt.
The thought from the moment he’d held Luciana in his arms was still vivid in his mind.
Edward, uncharacteristically, rolled his eyes once.
Then he opened his mouth slowly.
“I’ve managed well enough up until now.”
Even as he spoke, he felt the excuse fall hollow—and Luciana felt it too.
Her eyes brightened slightly.
“…Even while receiving Purification from Sepina, which you don’t even want?”
His next words made Edward himself falter.
“Wait. Now that I think about it, you really did hate it, didn’t you?”
“…What?”
“So how much did you actually enjoy it? And if you were satisfied with that, then why did you want me, and—ack!”
The torrential flow of words dried up in an instant.
Edward had hooked his hands under her armpits and lifted Luciana off the bed as though plucking a vegetable from soil.
Hiccup.
A tiny hiccup made her chest rise.
Edward kept his gaze fixed on her and whispered.
“Wasn’t the atmosphere rather nice just before?”
“B-but you started it first….”
“You deserve punishment.”
At those words, another hiccup escaped Luciana.
A sight he hadn’t seen in so long—unbearably lovely.
At the same time, warmth surged through him, and Edward’s eyes grew heavy-lidded.
“…Ah!”
His lips drew near.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
“Mmph…!”
Ragged breaths overlapped, soft skin meeting soft skin.
Startled by the contact after so long, Luciana’s eyelashes trembled delicately.
‘I… I wasn’t not looking forward to it.’
She had begun to anticipate it from the moment he’d said he would warm her….
So this is how it ends.
As Luciana squeezed her eyes shut, Edward felt her eyelashes tickle his nose and drew his lips downward.
“Ah!”
To her pale, slender neck where her heart still raced against his touch.
Lower, to the collarbone—the one place on her delicate frame that could be called firm.
And then….
“N-no, sir….”
Across the generous curves of her chest, a stark contrast to her lean frame.
A brief moment from the waiting room just before the banquet flickered through Edward’s mind.
Of course, this was different from then.
Edward had torn away her garments so thoroughly that all she wore now was her underclothes.
…….
Seeing the rather indecent sight herself, Luciana swallowed hard and looked away.
‘Endearing, isn’t she.’
Edward drew in breath after breath of Luciana’s scent, savoring it as soft fabric rustled against her delicate skin.
Then he buried his face in her left chest, where her heart raced, rubbing his cheek against her.
“Ah…”
Luciana exhaled, her eyes glistening with moisture.
…Edward’s mind suddenly struck upon something different from before.
That Luciana no longer turned away from him.
Satisfied by this realization, Edward’s lips curved upward as he gazed into her eyes, bright with arousal.
Then he opened his mouth slowly.
“Let me settle one more thing beyond doubt.”
“Wh—wh—what, what are you—”
*Smack.*
Edward made an obscenely wet sound as he wrapped his arms firmly around her back and the nape of her neck.
Preventing her from turning her head or looking away.
At the sight of her eyes, glistening with tears from the intensity of sensation, the ache in his lower body only deepened.
“…I’ve been thinking about it.”
“Y—yes?”
“And I’ve realized I’m not quite the depraved beast I thought I was.”
“S—so what does that m—”
“I don’t.”
Edward looked down at Luciana with a gaze that seemed to pierce straight through her.
“I don’t do this with my True Mate.”
With those words, his eyes curved into a smile, and Luciana’s mouth fell open in shock.
Watching her pupils tremble faintly, Edward emphasized once more.
“And truthfully, normally I don’t even—”
…….
“—do this with humans at all.”

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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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