I Thought I Was the Monster Duke's Fake Tranquilizer - Chapter 31
‘What is this.’
Why did it feel as though he were abandoning her.
The image of a tiny mouse waiting for him, pitiful and alone, made a corner of his heart feel strangely uneasy.
Those little lips, so temptingly coy just moments ago, now feigning boldness as they spoke so feebly. That, too, displeased him.
Was she that afraid of demonic beasts?
Or was she worried that he, whom she adored, might meet with disaster in battleĀ and fail to return?
Either way, it bothered him all the same.
‘…At the very least.’
At the very least, he ought to give his little mouse some measure of reassurance before he left.
“Have a safe trip. And when you return, the contract stamp for surā…”
Lucy’s words were cut off by the hand that suddenly cupped the back of her head.
‘Huh?’
What she felt next was a plush, yielding sensation.
Something hot and soft swept fleetingly over Lucy’s lips.
And then, just as it seemed to pull away and put distance between them, it pressed and rubbed firmly against her, as though stamping a seal.
…Only belatedly did she realize that the thing pressed against her lips was a set of lips so excessively, burdensomely handsome.
‘What…?’
She hadn’t meant for him to stamp a seal here.
Before she could even blink in bewilderment at the red eyes that had drawn close to the tip of her noseā
Their mucous membranes met.
“…H-Hngh!”
The holy power that had been pooled at the pit of her stomach began to flow, warming her chilled insides.
‘Th-This is different.’
It was different from simply being held or touching.
The holy power, racing along the sensitive skin of her mucous membranes, felt as though it was being drawn across into Edward’s lips, sucked away.
‘Could it be.’
Was there some kind of setting where purification worked better when mucous membranes touched?
Now that she thought about it, it was an entirely plausible premise. One that appeared often in these kinds of novels.
‘This damned R-19… H-Hngh!’
The sensations awakened by the flowing holy power were unfamiliar.
A feeling that was both stinging and ticklish, swirling through her chest and scraping at her throat.
A prickling, tingling sensation, like static electricity, rose at the tips of her entire body.
Lucy’s eyes gradually glazed over, growing hazy.
‘Is this what they meant by that tingling, numbing sensation in the novel?’
It was strange, but not unpleasant.
No, if anything, every time that tingling, numbing sensation swept through her body… something indescribable licked up her lower half.
A cold ball of fire wrapped in a burning shell, that was exactly how it would feel, roaming through her body.
“…H-Haah!”
Her toes curled and her hands clenched of their own accord.
Brush.
Long, golden lashes gently grazed the bridge of Lucy’s nose.
When she lifted her gaze, she met red eyes looking down at her.
Those red eyes curved as if pleased, and at the same momentā
“Kyaah!”
The innkeeper, who had witnessed their kiss, shrieked like a maiden and covered his eyes.
‘No, I’m the one who got kissed. Why is the old man…’
“Cough!”
Soon, Edward slowly released the back of Lucy’s head.
Only then did Lucy realize she had been holding her breath, and she frantically gasped for air.
“Cough, hack, haah!”
“Even an old man would cough more healthily than that.”
She didn’t even have the breath to retort against the backhandedānot that backhandedāinsult.
Her mind was in complete disarray.
‘What is this.’
It hadn’t even been a deep kiss.
‘Just a peck on the lips, and this happens?’
Confusion flooded in at the holy power that had churned so wildly within her body.
Lucy, having cleanly forgotten even the inner conflict she’d been wrestling with just moments before, was in the midst of a pupil-quaking crisis whenā
Tap.
The fingers that had pulled away returned, lightly tapping her forehead.
Then, as if suppressing something, they curled into a tight fist.
The words came pouring out in an instant.
“You were right.”
“Wh-What…”
“Your purification ability.”
“…”
“It’s useful. There is.”
…As if he had read every last thought that had been running through Lucy’s mind just moments before.
