I Thought I Was the Monster Duke's Fake Tranquilizer - Chapter 29
He had smiled inwardly and thought little of it. But when he’d removed the armor he’d worn like a second skin and turned around…
The woman was bent over at the waist, covering her entire face with her hands.
In that instant, Edward’s face had crumpled into a deep frown.
‘Don’t tell me.’
Surely her nose bone hadn’t broken just from bumping into that.
The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like something that could actually happen. She was such a pathetically weak woman, after all.
That was why he had immediately approached and peered into her face.
But…
“…”
He’d felt it when he’d buried her head against his chest, too.
For someone so malnourished, her cheeks held a surprising amount of flesh.
Skin as plush and clinging as the soft mounds that swelled at her chest.
Brush.
“…”
Then, his bare hand, now freed of its armor, grazed the woman’s lips.
Slightly damp, soft, tender flesh.
The warm breath that spilled from her small mouth crept up his fingers, eerily, giving him goosebumps.
It was then that the impulse coiled around his body.
‘As it is.’
Shall he receive his first proper purification?
True, his headaches had vanished thanks to this woman ever since they’d first met, but those had been purifications achieved through unconscious contact, hadn’t they?
Soon, the thoughts he’d entertained while throwing his arm around her shoulder earlier resurfaced.
‘Just touching alone had been that effective. If we were to do it deliberately, properly…’
He had wondered just how much greater the effect would be.
The rationalization came swiftly.
Yes. He ought to test how well she could purify, too.
If she couldn’t do it, he’d have to discard her quickly, even here. Wasn’t that only right?
That was why he had said what he’d said.
“Ye… What?!”
Was that a yes, or a no?
The furrow already etched between Edward’s brows deepened further.
“Be clear.”
“Pardon? No, I… Yeees? No, that’s…”
“What do you want to do?”
‘Exactly. What do I want to do?’
Lucy was just as stunned by the unexpected words.
He hadn’t even held her hand yet, and he was already demanding a kiss purification?!
‘Th-This lecherous bastard!’
Heat rushed to her ears unbidden.
So this was nothing to him, a debauched body that had done all manner of things with Sepina, biting and sucking and who knew what else.
‘Just how much bad karma are you planning to rack up before the female lead arrives?’
Of course, whether she felt guilty toward the female lead or not was none of Lucy’s concern.
The one who should feel guilty was this bastard, who’d rolled around messily with Sepina.
‘It’d be weirder for me to back out now.’
She still had no intention of entering the male lead’s bed.
But it hadn’t even been a few hours since she’d declared she was useful, that she could do it all.
In this situation, refusing purification out of mere embarrassment…
‘That would be a character contradiction.’
She had no desire to invite suspicion at this point.
Her life was precious, and she had just resolved to survive at all costs and build graves for the other children.
‘There’s only one real problem.’
What if she got punished later, when the male lead cleaned house and got rid of all the women who weren’t the female lead?
But she wasn’t planning to cling to him and toy around. And to perform purification, this was necessary anyway.
It wasn’t her fault that this world operated on an R-19 premise where purification was only possible through physical contact.
Then again, now that she thought about it, by the time he became a complete incarnation and met the female lead…
‘Might not even be in the Duchy of Thesseron anymore.’
She could find her own way to survive and run off by then.
‘Then I probably won’t lose my head later.’
In that case, a kiss was nothing…
…She decided to momentarily forget that this would be her first kiss in both her past life and her current one.
“…Neyesno, yes, yes!”
“You’ll do it?”
“Yes! Let’s do it!”
Lucy shouted deliberately and squeezed her eyes shut, puckering her lips outward.
She thought she heard a short, stifled laugh, but there was nothing to be done about that.
‘It’d be weird to keep my eyes wide open while kissing, anyway.’
He was probably used to it, having done it so many times with Sepina.
‘At least, bastard though he is, the face I’m kissing is handsome. Small mercies…’
But would he really be good at it?
Now that things had come to this, she was pointlessly curious.
The descriptions from Sepina’s point of view that had surfaced earlier kept replaying in her mind.
‘They said it felt amazing.’
In the novel, just a kiss with the male lead was described as making one’s knees buckle, sending tingles and shivers.
What’s more, a mere kiss was often depicted as stirring such intense arousal that it provoked sticky, blatantly s****l reactions.
‘Honestly, as a complete beginner, I can’t say I have zero curiosity…’
Lucy was flinching at the heat drawing closer, her fists clenched tight, when—
Bam!
The door flew open with a clamorous racket.
