I Thought I Was the Monster Duke's Fake Tranquilizer - Chapter 38
So, to begin with, she hadn’t intended to step forward like this.
‘Count Moro or whatever his name is.’
Earlier, when she had quietly opened the door and heard the shouting.
Even when some count, who seemed like little more than a passing extra, had boldly defied Edward, Lucy had been ready to tear open a bag of popcorn.
And indeed, Edward had silenced Count Moro with just a few words.
“Demonic beasts have poor eyesight. They loathe places like mine shafts where visibility cannot be secured.”
Hearing Edward’s words, Lucy tilted her head slightly.
“Hm.”
That was similar to the place she had lived in.
The monsters in Lucy’s world had also despised cramped, dark places.
A conversation she’d once shared with her sisters surfaced unbidden.
“Seeing as they hate underground spaces and narrow passages, they say the monsters’ original habitat must have been close to an open plain.”
“Where do you think they came from? Another world, beyond the Gates?”
“I don’t know where, but if only we could send them back.”
“If only there had been some kind of device to relocate them, how good would that have been.”
But considering it was her sisters who had ended up being sent outside instead, it was a bitter conversation, even in retrospect.
‘In any case.’
For that very reason, people had built their shelters as deep underground as possible.
Regrettably, the shelter Lucy had lived in wasn’t one purpose-built for fighting monsters, it was a school hastily converted into a shelter in the early days of the crisis.
Which was why such a tragedy had occurred.
‘…So there are commonalities between demonic beasts and monsters after all.’
Were there perhaps more similar traits, more shared characteristics?
If so, that could prove helpful.
After all, during all that time in the shelter, she had frantically studied everything she could about fighting monsters.
Even so, with Edward present, stepping forward herself would still be nothing but a hindrance.
“…”
Lucy quietly watched Edward, who had pummeled the count with facts without the slightest shift in expression.
The male lead, equally foul-tempered toward all, never lost, no matter where he went.
‘Should I just go back in and sit quietly?’
Nothing could possibly happen to the strongest being in this world. She felt foolish for having worried and come out.
So she had been about to simply go back in.
“It’s your fault!”
“If only you had slain the beast sooner!”
People came swarming in, and one among them began jabbing a finger at Edward.
…It was the very same woman who, just yesterday, had been shouting “I love you, Your Grace!” more fervently than anyone.
For a moment, her head went blank.
“What? The reconnaissance team sent out to retrieve supplies was wiped out?”
“What the hell are the volunteer militia even doing?”
Whenever supplies ran low, the people in the shelter would pick out those who had no one to lean on and send them out as reconnaissance teams. Yet when those teams were wiped out, they would click their tongues and blame the militia.
“Taking the priority rations on the claim that they’re protecting us from the monsters. Incompetent fools!”
“This is all because the militia didn’t help the recon team in time!”
She remembered how her insides had churned every time she heard those words.
She hated the people who hid safely in the shelter while cursing the militia who went out to fight the monsters.
‘My sisters are out there trying to protect even people like you.’
They weren’t some great superhumans or awakened beings.
There was no such thing in that world.
Her sisters had been conscripted simply because their physical abilities were slightly better than others, simply because they were physical education majors.
The fury she had swallowed every time her sistersâwhose fate she couldn’t even confirm, whether they were dead or aliveâwere spoken of in such a way… it surged awake anew.
That was why.
“…You left it to him?!”
She had come bursting out, pouring forth the words she had always wanted to say in her past life but had held back.
“…What?”
She could feel the startled crowd staring at her in bewilderment at the sudden intrusion.
Even Edward himself was looking at Lucy with an expression that said, “What is this?”
‘How awkward, for the person who came out to help.’
Well. He hadn’t asked for help, after all.
Having impulsively rushed out, Lucy felt a twinge of regret.
‘Would’ve been better if he’d just crushed them with words the way he did the nobles.’
But no matter what anyone said, Edward simply kept his mouth shut, impassive.
Now that she thought about it, wasn’t there a setting where, due to the previous duke’s strict upbringing, he toned down his foul personality when dealing with commoners?
‘Because of the teaching that a hero must never attack civilians.’
Lucy was just sighing inwardly whenâ
Count Moro, the first to regain his senses, barked at her.
“What are you?! How dare you insert yourself into such a gathering!”
“And aren’t those commoners who came to take issue also inserting themselves into this gathering?”
“What?!”
The count’s face crumpled at her audacious reply.
“At any rate, how truly excellent and virtuous you are, Count Whatever.”
“Excuse me? It’s not Whatever, it’s Moroâ…”
