The conversation between the butler and Wilson continued inside the door.
“Hmm… The Duke must have his reasons.”
“That weak-looking fellow seems to be born with good luck with people. Who would vouch for someone in this day and age? I thought it was strange from the beginning.”
“It must be Clyne Liden’s fortune. Both the guarantor and the Duke.”
“Hmph! That guy looks a bit like a woman. Don’t you think that guarantor might be… you know?”
“Hey! What are you saying? That’s outrageous.”
“No, it’s strange, isn’t it? I even remember the name, Calcus Tacan? Seeing that they have different surnames, they’re not even relatives, so who would vouch for him? That guy is suspicious. I think…”
“I told you to stop. That’s enough.”
The butler’s voice was firm as he restrained Wilson. But Hugrey’s face, having heard every word Wilson said outside the room, was already completely crumpled.
He didn’t like any of the words Wilson had spat out.
The implications were impossible not to understand.
He knew that when servants gathered, all sorts of gossip ran rampant. And that Wilson, that fellow, was known to talk a bit too much.
But still… this is unnecessarily too much.
Hugrey turned sharply and returned to his office.
He had forgotten that if he sent Clyne Liden away, he would return to his hometown and meet his only friend, Calcus Tacan.
He had been so focused on the thought of getting Clyne Liden out of his sight.
A man.
Man.
Right, Clyne Liden likes men.
Even though he knew full well that liking him was a lie, he wanted to fluster the fellow who kept mentioning his only friend.
Ugh. Hugrey unconsciously clenched his molars.
“No, he doesn’t know that,” he says?
Did you not want to tell that bastard that you like me? Because it’s a lie?
Then did you tell Calcus Tacan that you like him?
Like how you told me you liked me?
Come to think of it, you’ve already left this house once.
To return to your hometown.
And in that hometown is that male bastard you call your only friend. Right in your house, no less.
Irritation and thirst came at the same time. He pulled the bell rope without further thought.
“My Lord, did you call?”
Clyne came running immediately.
“You, when you return to your hometown, will you take care of your mother?”
In other words, are you going to send that male bastard out of the house?
“Yes! I should. I’ve been indebted to my friend a lot. But to repay the advance on my salary, I’ll have to find work near home even if I leave the Duke’s residence. So I’m not sure how things will turn out.”
“Ah, the advance on your salary… You’re not sure how things will turn out, you say.”
So you’re saying you won’t leave?
Ha! Are you saying you can’t leave, or you don’t want to leave!
“Yes. I feel like I shouldn’t burden my friend… Calcus anymore. But why are you asking this?”
“You say you’re indebted to your friend, what kind of debt do you owe so much?”
He didn’t like any of it.
“I’ve received so much from Calcus that I can never repay. He’s always a friend I’m grateful for when I think about it.”
“Received? Caretaking?”
“No, not just caretaking, but since we were young…”
“Ah! Since you were young.”
I see. So you’re only trapped in my house because of money.
You’re only thinking about going back.
And there’s that Calcus guy who’s been so precious to you and has done everything for you since childhood.
It makes me sick. It’s unpleasant. It makes me angry.
All those bad feelings tangled and knotted, rising from the lower abdomen to the head.
“How is your mother’s condition?”
Clyne tilted his head slightly and looked at Hugrey’s expression. The sight of it looking cute again was irritating.
“She got through the crisis with the marrow treatment drug, but we don’t have money for more medicine, so she’s just barely hanging on. I need to earn money quickly…”
“Marrow treatment drug…”
While your mother is sick, you’ll have to keep relying on that Calcus bastard. You, who clearly love your mother, will continue to owe him.
A debt you can never repay.
So, if that bastard tries to collect the debt from you in some way someday, what do you plan to do?
“What will you do after you’ve repaid the advance on your salary?”
“My Lord, why are you asking such things?”
Clyne looked at him cautiously again. He always does this when asked something.
“Because you’re my personal attendant. I tend to be quite interested in the circumstances of my servants.”
That’s nonsense. He had not an ounce of interest in such things.
Clyne frowned at the answer. Even that fellow must know that he has no interest in servants.
Regardless.
“What are your plans?”
Answer me.
“Well. I guess when I go back home, I’ll live with my mother and think about it then. I haven’t had the luxury to think about such things.”
“What about Calcus?”
“Pardon?”
“You said you’re living together. Are you going to send him away?”
“Ah!”
He could see Clyne’s face hardening.
I see.
That fellow has no intention of sending Calcus Tacan away. It was clear that this guy, who claims to like men, was planning to live with Calcus, that male bastard.
It was also clear that this would be how that fellow repays his debt to that bastard who supposedly gave him so much that he could never repay.
Ha! Damn it all.
If I let him go from my hands, he’s going to go and fall into another man’s arms.
What to do.
I can’t allow that.
Clearly, due to hormonal imbalance or imprinting, all my mind and body were temporarily fixated on that fellow in a state of mental confusion, and I thought this state was dangerous and shouldn’t be allowed.
But that thought was wrong.
What do you mean it can’t be done!
When the imprinted woman comes, all his problems will be solved. But until then, he can’t let that fellow go.
He absolutely cannot let him go.
Hugrey instinctively realized that he needed that fellow until he found the imprinted woman. So he couldn’t lose him to anyone else.
“Call the butler.”
So the plan to send that fellow back is scrapped.
“Right now?”
Clyne asked, opening his blue eyes wide behind his glasses at the sudden order.
Your eyes are pretty too.
Ah…!
Pretty eyes, he says. You’ve really gone mad.
Mad for that fellow.
But this is just a temporary phenomenon. He will be fine. Once he finds that damned imprint match.
“Yes, right now.”
“Yes.”
Clyne left the room.
Leaving behind the sweetest scent filling the room.
Yes, for now it’s okay to be a little crazy for this scent, for that fellow.
Today the duke told Chloe to do the translation in his office, so she had been working for an hour at a small desk placed in one corner of the office.
After concentrating intently for a while, her hand holding the quill pen started to sweat.
Is it a bit hot in here? Looking now, the fireplace in the office was blazing.
The weather has warmed up a lot, so it probably doesn’t need to be heated that much. Since their last outdoor meal, the duke had been heating excessively.
“Hmm!”
“What?”
Oh my!
She had just slightly cleared her throat to ask if the heating could be reduced, but the duke answered as if he had been waiting for Chloe to call him, startling her.
“Ah, the indoor temperature is a bit…”
“Are you cold? Are your hands chilly?”
“Pardon?”
No, my hands are sweating enough to drip.
“No, I’m not. Are you cold, Your Grace?”
“What? Me? How could I be cold?”
“Then, the heating…”
“Open the window a bit. Leave the heating as is. You get cold easily.”
“Yes! Ye-es?”
Chloe stood up immediately to go to the window at the order to open it, but ended up asking back stupidly. Leaving the heating on because she gets cold.
“Open the door too.”
“Ah, yes!”
Heating so strongly and opening both windows and doors. It would be more economical to reduce the heating and not open the windows.
Well, worrying about heating costs is probably only applicable to commoners like Chloe.
Recently, opening windows for ventilation like this seemed to have become the duke’s new hobby.
He would tell her to open the windows as soon as she entered. Today he had managed to hold out for an hour without opening them.
“Your Grace, shall I bring you some tea? It’s teatime.”
Chloe asked as she returned to her place after opening the windows.
“Sure. You’ll have some too, right?”
“Pardon?”
Chloe’s heart pounded.
Why on earth is he acting like this? It’s not just once or twice, but every time.
“No, I won’t.”
“No? Then I don’t really want any either.”
Wow. It’s not like he’s torturing someone. It was just extremely uncomfortable.
“Then I’ll continue with the translation work I was doing.”
“…”
As the duke gave no reply, Chloe returned to her seat and resumed her work.
“Clyne.”
She had to look up at the duke again as he called.
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“Isn’t it uncomfortable to work with your bangs falling down to your eyes like that?”
“Ah! No! I’m not uncomfortable at all!”
“It looks stuffy.”
“No. It’s not stuffy at all.”
“It seems like it would lower work efficiency too.”
“No! I’m almost finished with translating this book!”
Chloe earnestly refuted the duke’s words, feeling somewhat ominous.
“Almost finished?”
“Yes!”
The duke lowered his gaze to look at his desk. He seemed displeased that the assigned work was nearing completion.
I really can’t figure him out.
Chloe looked back down at the book.
I need to finish this work quickly so I can have even a little time to rest.
“Clyne.”
The duke called again, interrupting.
“Yes!”
“Is your eyesight very poor?”
“Ah, somewhat.”
He must be asking because of the glasses. In truth, her eyesight was very good, but she couldn’t tell the truth.
“So bad you can’t see the book without glasses?”
“Ah.”
She had to choose between farsightedness or nearsightedness, but the thick lenses of the glasses would clearly look like magnifying glasses. So she should claim to be farsighted.
But then he might ask why she doesn’t need glasses normally.
“My eyes are a bit special.”
Special so should I say nearsighted or farsighted? Are there cases where both far and near vision is poor?
But with her excellent eyesight, this was an unfamiliar area for her.
She had never thought the duke would interrogate her so thoroughly about her glasses.
“Can’t you see the book even without the glasses?”
“No, I can’t see well if I take them off.”
“Then, can you see my face with those on?”
“Ah, I can see well with them on.”
Oh really, why are you doing this, Your Grace.
“If you can see the book well with those on, you should see me better if you take them off.”
“That’s… probably…”
She absolutely couldn’t say that actually everything is perfectly visible but the glasses always make things a bit hard to see.
She felt like crying.
“So will you take them off?”
What? Ta… take them off?
Goosebumps rose all over Chloe’s body.
An Indifferent Woman is the One Men Desire the Most
One-line summary: The female lead is actually cold-hearted and extremely rational. She has stage-by-stage relationships and won’t two-time, but there will always be someone who secretly likes her.
This novel has the following triggers, so if you’re sensitive to these, please don’t read:
1. The female lead has had many relationships, but she treated each one seriously and broke up properly.
It’s just that the men unilaterally pestered her incessantly. For the female lead, when she doesn’t like someone anymore, she simply doesn’t like them.
(This applies to her relationships with Male Lead 1, 2, 3, and 4 as well, but she’s loyal in each 1-on-1 relationship!)
2. In this novel, Male Lead 2 and the female lead kiss in a car, and Male Lead 1 sees it and beats up Male Lead 2.
The female lead calls the police and sends both Male Lead 1 and 2 to the police station! Male Lead 1 begs the female lead not to break up with him.
3. Male Lead 1 has a gentle appearance but an obsessive personality.
Male Lead 2 has a delicate and soft appearance, slightly green tea-like (two-faced).
Male Lead 3 is a youthful college student and a smart person who has secretly liked the female lead for a long time.
Male Lead 4 is the female lead’s father’s special assistant, a business elite with deep, hidden thoughts.
4. At the beginning of this novel, the female lead has already broken up with Male Lead 1 (Chapter 4) and gotten back together with Male Lead 2 (ex-boyfriend).
5. Enter with caution if you have triggers!!!
