I Thought I Was the Monster Duke's Fake Tranquilizer - Chapter 14
The road away from the temple, heading north.
It was the start of a clear, bright day, with a cool breeze and fair weather.
“While the coachman is resting, I’ll go fetch some water, Your Grace.”
“I’ll hunt…”
“Forget it. There’s no need to go to such lengths for a grand meal.”
“…Because we have a traveling companion who looks as though she’ll starve to death if she doesn’t eat something right this moment?”
Tepe and Gorgo, who had been glancing at Lucy, asleep on Edward’s lap, gauged his expression.
Edward, too, peered down at Lucy and then nodded at them as if he had no choice—and even then, he was in a good mood.
They had driven the carriage through the entire night to escape the temple in haste, and as a result, he had only managed to catch snatches of sleep.
‘No, it’s a miracle that I managed even that much.’
Lately, the headaches and seizures had been so severe that he had suffered from insomnia.
But with the woman draped over him as he slept, he had been able to rest his eyes, if only a little.
Even after being shut up in a cramped carriage, jostling along for more than half a day, his condition was excellent.
Flutter, flutter, flutter.
It was—until Tepe and Gorgo left to hunt, and a white piece of paper came waving before his eyes.
“…”
Edward stared at the woman standing rigidly before him.
The woman, who had just woken up, bore a vivid imprint on her cheek, and her white hair was tangled in disarray.
Coincidentally, the mark on her cheek was from Edward’s armor.
As if to prove she belonged to him, the crest of the duchy was imprinted clearly on her soft cheek, as though stamped there.
Feeling oddly satisfied by this, Edward nonetheless furrowed his brow.
‘Seen in broad daylight, she’s still small, and scrawny, and grimy.’
And yet, for all that, her eyes and cheeks were round, making her the sort of woman who drew the eye.
‘Though I’ll only make use of her and dispose of her.’
But what did she say she had brought?
“A contract?”
“Yes. First of all, my name is Lucy, and as it happens, I’m from the temple’s…”
“You already told me your name yesterday. And I’ve more or less figured out that you’re a test subject of the temple.”
In an instant, Lucy lost her words, her eyes rounding.
‘He already figured out I’m a test subject?’
As expected, the male lead was different in more ways than one.
‘Well, there goes that.’
Her attempt to spin the saga of her wretched life into the most pitiful tale possible had been thwarted, pathetically so.
Still, Lucy refused to be daunted.
‘This might be better, actually.’
If he knew exactly what kind of experiment she had been used for, then his attitude would surely change…
“The holy power I sense from you is familiar. You must have been supplementing Lady Sepina’s purification power, I take it?”
…Or so she had thought.
“…Yes. That’s right.”
“I see.”
“…Is there something you’d like to say?”
“Should there be?”
He had even grasped the nature of her holy power already. And if that was the case, she had expected him to press her with questions, to demand something…
‘He knows everything, and yet nothing’s changed?’
It seemed it really was because Edward was an equal-opportunity bastard to everyone except the female lead.
Her energy deflated, but Lucy struggled to add something, anything.
“In that case, allow me to tell you. The temple treated me so horribly, they starved poor, pitiful me, and…”
“I could tell that much just by touching you.”
“…Pardon? Touching me?”
While she had been asleep? Where exactly?
At the rather dangerous remark, Lucy surreptitiously crossed her arms over her body.
And only then did she realize she had just treated the very person she needed to impress as some sort of pervert. She hastily uncrossed her arms, but…
Edward’s smile had already deepened.
“Where did you think I touched you?”
“…”
“Such impure thoughts.”
“Uh…”
“I meant that when I held you, you were so thin there was almost nothing but bones left.”
Feeling as though she had been counterattacked instead, Lucy bit the tip of her tongue.
‘Get a grip!’
Then, clearing her throat, she composed herself.
“In any case, since you seem to already know everything…”
“Since I do?”
“Before you take me to the duchy, there’s something I’d like to settle clearly between us.”
Tilt.
At Lucy’s words, Edward cocked his head with exaggerated emphasis.
Whoosh. His white-gold hair, as if spun from threads of gold, scattered in the sunlight.
“And what is it you’d like to settle clearly?”
Then, folding his eyes into a smile, he spoke.
It was the sort of smile that could coax open even the secret vault of a purely conceptual, nonexistent basement.
