I Thought I Was the Monster Duke's Fake Tranquilizer - Chapter 44
Of course, it wasn’t because such experiments were wrong.
“If something like that exists, you should have made me the very first!”
“It is not yet safe. Would I subject my precious daughter to an unverified experiment?”
“Then when will it be verified? When can it be used on me!”
“In about… three…”
“Three, two, one. Time’s up. Now, right?”
“Three months… or perhaps longer…”
“What is that!”
Sepina shrieked.
The Pope answered, pretending to be cornered.
“Still, we have several excellent talents. There is one scientist, a bit peculiar but outstanding… They may resolve it sooner than three months.”
“I need holy power right now!”
Sepina was genuinely aggrieved.
‘It was supposed to be mine soon.’
Ten years old. Ever since she had first seen Edward in the social circles.
That man had become the greatest purpose of Sepina’s life.
‘Everything special must be mine.’
Because the Pope had remarried her mother to a noble to keep her silenced, Sepina had been raised utterly spoiled.
Though they were lower nobility, she was revered like a princess at home, and every good thing was Sepina’s alone.
Only, that cursed title always held her back.
‘Why am I merely a baron’s daughter?’
Sepina could not be satisfied.
She deserved a station far better than that of a baron.
Her real father was the Pope. Even if she couldn’t say it aloud because it was a secret, she was the child of a far more exalted man.
Some mere baron’s daughter’s position…
In such circumstances, the sight of the continent’s sole dragon incarnation, the only one in existence, was unlike anything else.
Struck by the golden-haired boy, Sepina thought,
‘Nothing more special than that could possibly exist in this world.’
Edward was perfect in wealth, title, and even appearance.
What’s more, he didn’t come running to her with a simple smile the way other boys did.
‘The expensive ones play hard to get.’
That only made her like him more.
She might say he seemed exactly her caliber.
And since he couldn’t be obtained as easily as everything else, he appeared all the more precious, and she grew all the more desperate.
And so Sepina had ultimately resolved to sacrifice herself.
The sacrifice of entering the dullest of temples and playing the saintess.
As a saintess, she would be able to meet the dragon incarnation under the pretext of purification.
As it happened, the Pope, who needed a means to bind Edward, welcomed Sepina and made her a saintess.
For Sepina, it was a time of considerable ordeal.
Receiving far more attention than she had as a baron’s daughter was pleasant.
The fact that she was the one and only saintess also satisfied her heart.
But she loathed having to pretend to be kind to everyone, so ill-suited to her nature, to the point where her lips twitched in spasms dozens of times a day.
When she was forced to wear less expensive ornaments because a saintess had to be frugal, she was on the verge of bursting with outrage.
‘Do you know how great a sacrifice that is?’
Sepina was proud. She could confidently say that there was no one who wanted him, who loved him, as much as she did.
It only infuriated her that Edward did not recognize such sacrifices.
Still, there was something that remained in Sepina’s favor.
The fact that even Edward, perfect in all else, had to periodically receive purification from a human mate.
That without it, he would fall into a state where it would be no surprise if he departed for the demon realm at any moment.
‘And on top of that, purification requires physical contact.’
Wasn’t this a board set entirely in her favor?
Her father had always said so.
When bodies meet often, hearts meet as well. That was how he and her mother had come together.
Though in reality, instead of leaving the priesthood and taking her mother as his wife, he had remarried her to another noble and met her in secret… but still.
Sepina understood even that in her own way.
‘Honestly, even I can see… Mother isn’t the kind of noble young lady worth throwing away the priesthood for.’
She loved her mother, of course. But even Sepina could see that her mother was not a woman bold enough to be worth giving up a high position for.
Wasn’t she a timid woman? The kind who, instead of pulling more from her father, had been content just to be tied to a baron.
If only her mother had demanded a duke. No, the emperor. Then Sepina herself could have…
‘Well. Looking at it plainly, Mother simply isn’t worth what Edward is worth.’
In any case, all she had to do now was fix her eyes on him alone.
“That will be all.”
“Pardon? But, Your Grace…”
“I am a busy man, Lady Sepina. Unlike you.”
Edward had always pushed her away, cold.
