I Thought I Was the Monster Duke's Fake Tranquilizer - Chapter 30
“D-D-Duke!”
Startled by the cry, she turned her head to see the innkeeper, who had barged in without warning.
“…What is it?”
Edward, his eyes already icy, raised his head in irritation.
“A d-demonā a demonic beast has appeared in the vicinity!”
Rush.
A demonic beast.
The moment she heard those words, Lucy’s stomach turned as cold as if she’d swallowed a chunk of ice.
Her heart, which had barely regained its calm, began pounding once more.
‘Right. This world, too…’
It was a belated realization, but this world, too, was one where demonic beasts existed.
Just as monsters had existed in the life she’d lived before transmigrating.
“Save me! Please! I want to live!”
“H-Help, helā… Gurk!”
The screams of the dying swept past her ears in an instant.
The sight of people being torn apart by a single monster that had breached the shelter.
And the scene of the crumbling debris finally crashing down over her.
“…Ah.”
Lucy quietly curled her rapidly chilling fingertips and hid them.
‘Calm down. It’s all in the past.’
Besides, unlike her previous life, where powerless people had been forced to frantically form a volunteer militia, this world had beings who could hunt demonic beasts.
Beings like the dragon incarnation.
“I’m going now.”
Perhaps a hero was a hero, after all.
Even as he radiated cold fury, Edward slowly released Lucy’s face.
Then, without a trace of hesitation, he rearmed himself in an instant.
Lucy approached Edward and opened her mouth.
“Your Grace, I’ll…”
“You stay here.”
“I’ll stay here!”
After they spoke at the same time, a strange silence settled.
Edward, who had told her to stay, wore an ambiguous expression for some reason, but Lucy was resolute.
Even if Edward had told her to come, she was right to stay here.
That was a different matter from her wounded pride at being called weak.
‘I won’t be of any help.’
Lucy judged the situation coldly.
Reality was different from a novel.
Rushing out claiming she’d be useful when she didn’t even know how to fight was nothing short of being a nuisance.
And on top of that, just hearing the words “demonic beast” had turned her fingertips ice-cold.
She hadn’t yet escaped her trauma.
‘Facing a demonic beast in this state would be suicide.’
If it were only herself getting hurt, fineābut weren’t other people’s lives at stake here?
And so, she had actually been about to smile and send him off, whenā
“You know your place.”
“…”
“You’d be in the way.”
At those words Edward added, a memory resurfaced.
“Big sis! Let me come with you!”
“You stay here. It’s dangerous.”
“But…!”
“Honestly, with your motor skills, you’d just be in the way, you know? Stay here and be good, eat some snacks, and wait.”
They had smiled and spoken as if coaxing her, but…
Those words of her sisters’ had contained a truth.
The truth that the Lucy of then, and the Lucy of now, would only ever be in the way.
Edward clicked his tongue at the sight of Lucy’s pale face.
‘Honestly, so timid.’
If he brought this woman along, she would definitely be a hindrance.
It was less her problem and more his.
The likelihood was high that he’d hold back while fighting, even while carrying her, for fear that such a small woman might get hurt.
Or else he’d check whether she’d been jostled every time he launched an attack.
Of course, setting her down to fight hadn’t even crossed his mind.
What if this tiny thing got hit by shrapnel?
In any case, his attention would be wholly fixed on her at every moment, and if that happened…
‘The time it takes to slay the beasts would be delayed as well.’
That was an entirely separate issue from his confidence in his own skill.
Which was why, even though leaving her behind left a bad taste in his mouth, he had to go.
While Edward arrived at his conclusion, Lucy pushed away the lingering afterimages of memory and smiled bitterly.
“Yes, I understand, Your Grace.”
“…”
“Don’t worry! I’ll stay right here and wait quietly.”
As she said this, her fists clenched tight, yet still, just the tiniest, smallest bit…
A single ant’s tear of sadness seemed to well up inside her.
‘Hmm. I really am useless in situations like this.’
She had exaggerated to survive, but still…
She had boasted so loudly that she’d be helpful, that there was no purifier as adorable and cute and useful as her.
And yet she was still afraid of monsters. No, demonic beasts. And if she stepped forward, she would still be nothing but a nuisance.
Perhaps in this life, too, there was nothing she could do except desperately survive on her own.
Perhaps she would remain a useless person to others, unchanging.
‘…It’s not like I have any grand ambitions beyond that.’
Lucy deliberately answered with feigned cheerfulness.
“I’m useless when it comes to demonic beasts, so I’ll rest here.”
Edward, watching her face, quietly cocked his head.
