I Thought I Was the Monster Duke's Fake Tranquilizer - Chapter 10
“…Pardon?”
What was he saying?
She was faltering, unable to follow the flow of the conversation, when—
Edward began to walk without another word, his strides steady.
Huh?
‘That’s it?’
She had just revealed something of immense importance.
That the saintess Sepina was a fake, and that the temple was falsely presenting her as his mate.
‘And he’s just letting it go?’
For Edward, who had been half-forced into doing those things with Sepina all this time, shouldn’t this have been a crucial revelation?
‘Why doesn’t he seem the least bit surprised?’
Edward was shockingly unruffled.
Given the splendid personality he had displayed just moments ago, she had thought he might very well set the temple on fire, furious at having been deceived.
‘Honestly… I was kind of hoping he would.’
Those expectations now went poof, cooling into disappointment.
Feeling that something was off, Lucy rolled her eyes.
“Erm, Your Grace?”
“…”
“I feel as though we were in the middle of a conversation…”
She was just testing the waters when—
“You don’t want to leave here?”
“Pardon? No, I do want to leave!”
“If you become mine, you can leave right now.”
That… was a fair point.
“I’m being incredibly merciful right now.”
‘…That also feels like a fair point?’
It was a little confusing, but having witnessed the temper he’d shown the guard moments earlier, Edward’s current attitude was on the level of a well-fed lion.
“And besides, I’m in a good mood.”
“Uh…”
“Still no?”
It wasn’t that she was saying no…
She was poised to say as much, gauging his reaction, when a soft scoff sounded from within the armor.
“Then it’s decided.”
As if telling her to seize the chance while it was offered, Edward shrugged and resumed walking.
‘I…’
Had she just survived?
“Urp.”
The moment the thought crossed her mind, the tension drained from her body, and her stomach heaved violently.
Her stamina, which she had pushed and pushed past its limits, had finally given out.
‘I think I’m going to pass out.’
But there was still something she wanted to ask.
“Hah, wait a moment. B-But, that is to say…!”
‘You’re not going to kill me, right?!’
That, at least, she wanted to be certain of.
He could very well decide she was a bother and toss her aside as he went, couldn’t he?
‘At the very least, a guarantee of my life…’
She had meant to ask for that much.
“Haah.”
Edward let out a sigh, as if thoroughly annoyed…
Clank.
And then, without warning, he removed his helm.
Softly.
Bathed in moonlight, his white-gold hair cascaded down, dazzlingly luminous.
His long lashes fluttered, a glint of light catching at their tips.
Features that seemed to insist he was not a duke but a prince. A delicate nose bridge and an elegant jawline.
And between them, lips of a vivid, bewitching red parted in a wanton smile.
“Still?”
“…”
“You still won’t go, even now?”
I’m this pretty right now, you know.
Faced with a look that seemed to be saying just that, Lucy’s mouth fell open.
‘This bastard really is the male lead…’
But if there was something more important than that in this moment—
“Then will you…”
“I’ll take responsibility.”
You’re mine now, after all.
The moment she heard those words.
‘I survived.’
Snap.
The thread of tension and stamina that had been hounding her all this time finally broke.
* * *
“Hwaaahm.”
Before the grand temple, inside a sleek black carriage.
“How long has it been?”
“He should be returning any moment now.”
Tepe pulled out a pocket watch and stretched.
“After all, the time His Grace spends receiving purifications keeps getting shorter and shorter.”
At those words, Gorgo, seated across from him, spoke up.
“…That’s not a good sign.”
“I know. But what can we do when he detests it so much?”
The two men sank into worry in an instant.
As the duke’s closest confidants and his escort knights, they too had grown deeply concerned over his condition as of late.
‘This is grave.’
‘It’s plain to see that controlling his rampages is becoming more and more difficult.’
The duke’s insistence on wearing armor that covered even his face was largely due to that.
When the scales of a dragon began to surface on his skin as a harbinger of an uncontrolled rampage, those who saw it would panic and recoil.
‘They sing his praises as the dragon incarnation when it suits them.’
And then look at him as if he were a monster.
‘The duke himself pays it no mind, so it’s a bit awkward to get angry on his behalf.’
The duke truly wasn’t bothered by being treated like a monster.
The only reason he bothered to cover his face was to prevent the evacuations from being unnecessarily delayed by those who recoiled in horror at the sight of him.
Because that would interfere with the fighting.
Still, his closest aides were furious.
