I Thought I Was the Monster Duke's Fake Tranquilizer - Chapter 24
“I’m going to die! I’m going to die, I tell you!”
“Hey.”
Squish.
Every time Lucy panicked and clutched his head, a soft, plush sensation pressed and rubbed relentlessly against the side of Edward’s face.
…So impossibly tender that he never would have imagined such a part existed on a body this scrawny.
Edward was seized by a somewhat peculiar feeling.
‘I thought she was nothing but bones.’
And on top of that, the audacious way she was pressing against him, to the point of completely obstructing his vision.
Yet Lucy herself didn’t seem to have the slightest awareness of what she was doing.
“Big sis! Big sis!”
Because she was calling out frantically for someone, as if she had lost her mind entirely.
Her voice was laced with an affection so deep it was almost grating.
‘Big sis?’
Edward furrowed his brow faintly, thinking with an open mind.
‘Could it be that the person she purified before was a woman?’
She had said he was the only one she’d ever purifiedāhad that been a lie?
It was a desperate, tender cry that he couldn’t begin to understand unless he assumed as much.
He’d never heard of same-s*x purification pairs, but that didn’t mean they didn’t exist…
But the thought didn’t linger long.
Thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump.
The sound of a racing heartbeat pounded against Edward’s head.
It was the sound of a heart, coming from the soft chest pressed flush against the side of Edward’s face.
‘Even this is like a mouse.’
He was reminded of the soft little mice that had fit in his palm, their hearts beating rapidly.
The memory of how they would cling to him as if seeking the warmth of his hand, offering their steady pulse and heat in return.
“…”
Edward’s mood, astonishingly, lifted.
Enough to make the irritation of the temple bastards clinging annoyingly to his tail vanish in an instant.
Feeling her again, the emaciated woman’s body was, far beyond expectation, plush and warm and tender.
The thighs and the back, whose shoulder blades he could feel, that he held firmly in his grasp so she wouldn’t fall.
And above all, that chest now pressed so close to his ear, transmitting the thumping beat of her heart…
Squeeze.
Unconsciously, his grip tightened.
“Hah!”
Lucy, her thigh caught in his grip, jolted in shock.
And only then did she realize she had been clinging to Edward’s head, and she scrambled to pull away, startled.
“C-Cough!”
The warmth that had filled the side of his face receded into the distance.
A faint furrow settled between Edward’s brows at the sudden emptiness against his ear, but Lucy remained unaware.
‘He wasn’t trying to kill me.’
For a moment, she had thought he meant to drop her to her death in midair.
But seeing how tightly he was holding her, ensuring she wouldn’t fall, that didn’t seem to be the case.
‘Then… was covering my nose and mouth earlier not an attempt to kill me either?’
Perhaps he had simply blocked them out of irritation, and she had overinterpreted the whole thing.
Still, knowing that Edward had no intention of harming her brought a small measure of relief.
Even as the dizzying height continued to prickle goosebumps up her spine, Lucy stole a glance at the temple’s flag receding into the distance.
Then, pretending nonchalance, she smiled and gently looped her arms around Edward’s neck.
“S-Sorry. I was just… too startled. Haha.”
Only then did Edward’s brow smooth slightly, and he met her eyes as usual.
“You’re planning to fly, right? I won’t get in the way. I’ll be perfectly quiet, as still as a dead mouā…”
“Why would a mouse be dead.”
“Ah, erm. Th-Then I’ll be quiet as a mouse drunk on honey.”
Afraid she might have ruffled Edward’s feathers, Lucy’s body trembled faintly.
Edward interpreted it somewhat differently.
‘It seems she’s afraid of heights.’
Tch. Clicking his tongue lightly, Edward slid the hand supporting her back a little higher.
“…?”
And then he pushed Lucy’s head into his chest.
Though puzzled, Lucy obediently followed the guidance of his hand and pressed her face against his armor.
Edward let out a short sigh at the sight of her.
‘I had intended to let her enjoy the scenery. Pointlessly timid thing.’
Yet, the way she so meekly followed his gesture ā that, too, pleased him.
As did the warmth of the slender arms quietly wrapped around his neck.
With a sweep of his golden wings, Edward began to fly onward.
* * *
‘Torture, is it…’
A few hours later.
Lucy, having finally returned to solid ground, stretched her neck, which had gone stiff as a turtle’s from bowing for so long.
Crick. The neck she raised again let out an ominous sound.
‘I thought it might break.’
At first, she had been a little grateful that he had buried her face against his chest.
It was unnerving, after allāsuspended high in the sky without any safety measures, trusting solely in one male lead who might change his whims at any moment.
But that feeling had lasted for all of three minutes.
Later on, even when her neck grew numb, he wouldn’t let her go.
