Chapter 48
“Ah…”
Lucy and the servants were just turning to each other with dazed looks, wondering if they’d heard correctly, when—
“Let’s go.”
Edward scooped Lucy up.
The way a predator carries its young by the scruff of the neck.
“Wh-What is this, just a— hold on…”
Lucy belatedly stammered and flailed her legs.
Edward let out a short sigh and added,
For him, long accustomed to not explaining himself, this was a gesture that took considerable time.
“Demon beast blood cannot be touched by anyone but me.”
“…!”
“Who else, besides me, could wash you?”
At those words, Lucy clamped her mouth shut.
‘…He’s right, but still.’
Demon beast blood was extremely toxic to ordinary humans.
Only someone like Edward, a dragon incarnation, could even handle it.
Lucy was safe because bearers of holy power could neutralize most poisons, including demon beast blood.
The servants, too, now seemed to understand, exchanging glances and nodding.
Rosendal, as well, looked at Lucy once more with reappraising eyes and quickly answered.
“I shall have the scented oils brought up at once.”
“Good.”
With no further obstacles, Edward strode forward, Lucy still in his grasp.
Even as he entered the magnificent, resplendent ducal residence and ascended the stairs, Lucy remained frozen.
Click.
“…Hah!”
And it was only when Edward opened the door and stepped inside the room that she jolted back to her senses.
‘But still, letting him actually wash me is a bit…!’
“…I don’t need to wash! I don’t need to wash!”
She flailed belatedly, but Edward’s reaction was indifferent.
If anything, a voice that seemed almost coaxing came down to her.
“Stop fussing and stay still.”
“No! I! That is to say!”
“As a test subject of the temple, you surely know that demon beast blood becomes an even more potent poison if not washed off.”
“I have holy power, so I’m fine!”
And she possessed a suspiciously large amount of holy power, even for a possessed extra.
Enough that she alone, without the other children, could shoulder the purification power that Sepina had wrung out.
‘At this level… wouldn’t that be about high-priest tier?’
So it wouldn’t be a problem. And even if it were, she could just scrub herself clean on her own.
And yet he was insisting on washing her himself.
‘…Could it be that he’s suspicious enough of me that he can’t leave me alone even while I wash?’
Hadn’t he just brought up her being a temple test subject?
And he still hadn’t stamped the contract.
If it was because of suspicions toward her—someone he’d only known for a short while—she could understand, if only a little. But a surge of indignation welled up anyway.
After looking after her so well in his own way, to act like this now…
“Uh, anyway! I’m completely fine!”
Lucy was waving her hands, hiding her hurt feelings, when—
Rip.
“…”
“…”
From her clothes, already little better than rags, a sleeve dirtied by demon beast blood tore away and dropped, tattered.
The mold from the dungeon and the layers of old grime hidden beneath the patched cloth were revealed in full.
As if to say the demon beast blood wasn’t the problem.
Edward, frowning as though even the sight was unsanitary, let out,
“Wash. Now.”
“…Yes!”
Lucy found herself nodding before she knew it.
* * *
“…What a fate this is.”
A few minutes later.
Lucy was breaking out in a cold sweat, glaring at the bathroom door.
All her efforts to stall for time had come to nothing.
“Your Grace— no, Master! As I thought, this truly isn’t right! For you, my Master, to wash me! It’s absolutely absurd!”
“Then?”
“…I’ll wash you instead. I will!”
“You…”
“I’ll wash you, and wash myself at the same time! I’ll whip up a bath with my own special recipe! Do you happen to know about milk baths?!”
Bet you don’t have those at your place, do you?
After declaring that with a triumphant expression, she had tried to stall for time by preparing the bathwater.
“The faucets are enchanted with magic that aids in recovery, so there is no need to put strange things into His Grace’s bathwater.”
…If only Rosendal hadn’t stared at her with suspicion when she’d gone down to prepare the bath ingredients.
Having already made a poor first impression, she couldn’t afford to make Rosendal dislike her any further.
Lucy had returned with tears in her heart and filled the tub with water.
And when she turned toward Edward at the sound of rustling…
‘Gah!’
She had come face-to-face with Edward’s naked body.
