I Thought I Was the Monster Duke's Fake Tranquilizer - Chapter 20
Flutter, flutter.
At the sight of the temple’s flag waving in the distance, Lucy’s mouth fell open.
‘Already?!’
She was bewildered.
‘No matter how much the temple guards witnessed the duke taking me, this is still…’
By her reckoning, Edward had driven the carriage at a considerable speed.
And they hadn’t even taken ordinary roads, hadn’t they detoured through mountain paths and the like?
And yet they had pinpointed her location in such a short time?
‘Did those bastards put some kind of tracking spell on me?’
…The more she thought about it, the more plausible it seemed, and a chill ran through her.
‘Right. I am the last remaining test subject.’
Finding a new child with holy power was like plucking a star from the sky.
She should have anticipated that they would be obsessed with her!
Lucy, who had no desire to become the baby deer to an obsessive templeānot an obsessive male leadāfelt her eyes begin to tremble.
Tepe and Gorgo had also gone pale.
“Your Grace. It appears they are coming, as expected.”
“…But to move that quickly.”
“Their numbers seem far from ordinary as well…”
Swish.
As their words ended, sharp glares flew and lodged into Lucy.
‘I’m dead.’
The two of them hadn’t thought much of her to begin with.
Lucy swallowed hard.
‘Those eyes right now…’
Anyone could see they were weighing whether or not to abandon her.
“Hic.”
Perhaps she was too tense.
A hiccup burst out of Lucy’s mouth.
It was so violent that her whole body shook with each hiccup.
Seeing this, Edward drew his brows together.
‘At this rate, she’ll cough up her heart.’
She was already small and frail, and now she was being shaken so violently by mere hiccups.
“Hic! Your Grace? You’re… taking me with you, right?”
“…”
“Your Hic, Grace! You said you’d take me with you!”
You said you’d raise me! Raise me!
Lucy’s pitiful questions didn’t even register in his ears.
He was too irked by the sight of her body shuddering with every word she uttered.
‘At least she eats well. That’s a relief.’
While Edward was thinking that he ought to keep feeding her well from now on, an earthquake was erupting inside Lucy’s head.
She was doing her best to look as pitiful as possible, desperately appealing to him.
But Edward didn’t seem to be listening to a single word she said.
‘Damn it.’
She should have gotten him to stamp the contract first, even if it meant scamming him!
She was just regretting this whenā
Tepe and Gorgo, who had been watching Lucy with narrowed eyes, interjected.
“This woman may be a far more important test subject than we anticipated.”
“Pardon? No, I’m not!”
“We may have effectively stolen a valuable resource from the temple…”
“I said I’m not valuable!”
“If they raise an issue, it could become troublesome, Your Grace.”
“Where would you ever find such a frail, tiny, cute, useless speck like me!”
She couldn’t let them abandon her here.
Clasping her hands together as if pleading her innocence, Lucy gazed up at Edward with desperate eyes.
Edward’s expression flickered subtly.
A wicked smile naturally curled at the corner of his lips.
“You think of yourself as that useless, and yet you dared present a contract to me?”
“Hic.”
What came back at her was a look that seemed to ask if she had dared to lie.
“No, Your, Hic, Grace! Of course!”
Beneath his expression of displeasure was a smile that looked thoroughly entertained, but in her panic, Lucy failed to notice it.
“I am exceedingly, hic! Useful, and valuable, hic! And a splendid exis…!”
Before she could even finish her sentence.
Edward’s hand reached out and gently wrapped around Lucy’s face, covering her nose and mouth.
There was no force behind it. It didn’t hurt at all.
But the feel of his solid hand, and the mere act of having half her face entirely covered by his palm aloneā
‘Hah!’
A dizzying sensation washed over her, and Lucy froze on the spot.
Whether Lucy froze or not, Edward kneaded her soft cheeks and cocked his head. Then…
“10.”
“…”
“9…”
He began counting down just like that.
He had heard somewhere that to stop hiccups, you had to hold your breath and count to ten.
He had covered both her nose and mouth, so she was probably holding her breath by default.
‘Any more and even her bones might break.’
Her body already looked so small and frail.
She had been shaking so violently with every hiccup since earlier.
Of course, he could simply tell her to hold her breath…
But Edward had long since stopped explaining the reasons behind his actions.
