I Thought I Was the Monster Duke's Fake Tranquilizer - Chapter 26
At the unexpected remark, Lucy’s eyes went round as well.
“My condition?”
“Yes.”
“I’m perfectly fiā…”
“You were trembling like a leaf earlier.”
Lucy blinked.
True, she had flinched at first, startled by the suddenness of it all, but it hadn’t been enough to say she was trembling.
“When did I tremble like a…”
Then it hit her.
Something belatedly came to mind.
“Are you talking about that, at the very end?”
Just before they had landed here.
While flying in Edward’s arms, her body had shivered involuntarily.
‘That was just because I was a little chilly.’
The gate was in the north, and Lucy was still wearing the same grimy, tattered clothes from the underground dungeon.
Clothes so ripped that the wind whistled in through every tear.
And perhaps because they were up in the sky.
The air was several times colder than it had been on the ground.
‘Still, it wasn’t as cold as I expected.’
People said he was cold and chill like a reptile, like touching scales.
But contrary to the descriptions in the original story, the duke’s embrace had been intensely, swelteringly warm.
Even with the hard, thick armor between them, his body seemed to radiate immense heat.
It felt like being wrapped in a giant electric blanket.
Thanks to his hand firmly cupping her head, she had been spared the biting wind, even if her neck did ache a bit.
Honestly, it was so warm that toward the end, she had been a little reluctant to pull away.
So much so that after landing, she had dawdled, planning to climb down from his arms as slowly as possible.
But the crowd had swarmed in, and with so many eyes on them, she had changed plans and bolted out faster than light.
At that moment, Edward’s face had looked like someone who had just watched a bullet shoot out of a gun that hadn’t even been fired.
In any case.
‘It really was just a brief shiver.’
But Edward seemed to think otherwise.
“Your face went pale. You looked ready to vomit at any moment.”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“And you were shaking like your bones were about to snap.”
“I’m not that weak! Shall I show you?”
Afraid he might cast her aside for not being sturdy enough, she rolled up her sleeve and flexed her arm, but only a pitifully thin silhouette emerged.
At the sight of her scrawny arm, Edward scoffed and started walking ahead.
“In any case, with that paper-thin stamina of yours, pushing on without rest is out of the question.”
“…”
She couldn’t say he was entirely wrong, yet it stung and rankled her all the same, and the reason why was…
‘…Because being physically weak was a complex of mine in my past life, too.’
It was why she hadn’t been able to go with her sisters. Why she had been trapped living in that shelter all that time.
But on the other hand, it was also a little unexpected.
‘Could he actually be thinking of me?’
If he hadn’t cared at all, she doubted he would have stopped to rest like this.
‘I thought he was a complete bastard.’
Still, it seemed he was at least capable of kindnessāto those who were useful to him.
‘All that fawning and sucking up is finally paying oā…’
“I have no intention of carrying a corpse back to the duchy.”
Lucy, who had been rubbing under her nose with a touch of pride, furrowed her brow in secret at those words.
Just when she’d thought he was being somewhat considerate.
It seemed a rotten personality wasn’t something that went anywhere.
“Honestly, you’ve been exaggerating since earlier. I’m still fit enough to workā…”
“Malnourished. Feeble. Weak.”
“…”
“Small as it is, on top of everything else.”
The criticism, coming from someone so robust he looked like he wouldn’t die even if he fell off a rooftop, landed with extra sting.
She felt as though her complexes were being poked at one after another.
“But still, we don’t know when the temple might catch up…”
When she added this in a small, rebellious murmur, a casual reply came back.
“Do you not trust me?”
At those words, Lucy shut her mouth with the force of a hiccup about to erupt.
‘Is he angry?’
His voice was even, but one could never know.
Leaving the impression that she didn’t trust him was certainly not a good idea.
“Hehe, oh no. Of course I trust you.”
Lucy beamed and rubbed her hands together like a sycophant.
“Who else would I trust, if not my Masterāso beautiful, so reliable, so magnificent?”
“Good.”
Only then did Edward smile and turn his head.
The sight of those tiny hands rubbing together was so absurdly insignificant and adorable.
That little mouse was definitely, utterly smitten with him, no doubt about it.
