I suddenly got goosebumps.

I didn’t know why the Duke felt like such a dangerous beast.

Was it because Lord Joyce’s words “tear to pieces” remained in my mind?

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

Seeing the Duke approaching the sofa, Chloe spoke, implying that she had done her job and would leave.

“No! Sit down and drink together.”

“Pardon?”

Why?

This had never happened even once before.

He always said to leave it after bringing the tea, or to bring it closer, or if neither, that he didn’t need tea so clear it away. He only ever said such things!

But suddenly why drink together!

“I’m fine.”

The Duke looked up blankly at Chloe, who was standing as if nailed beside the table.

“Why.”

In the Duke’s gaze, which asked without intonation, she felt a pressure that pinned her down, unable to move.

“How could I possibly sit down and have tea time face to face with Your Grace?”

Chloe also asked without raising her voice at the end, as if it were obvious.

As if asking why he was asking such an obvious thing.

Where would there be a case of a servant and master sitting face to face drinking tea?

“I see.”

The Duke muttered to himself glumly, and Chloe was about to nod.

But her head stiffened when the Duke added, “It just seems like you don’t want to drink with me.”

Frozen stiff, she took the teacup she had prepared on the side table to the low table in front of the sofa where the Duke was sitting.

Since he said he would sit on the sofa to eat, she had to serve it in front of him.

Clink.

The moment she carefully set down the teacup in front of him and stood up, the Duke’s breath, “Hmm,” pierced her ears like thunder.

No, it was closer to a moan than a breath.

Goosebumps instantly rose on the back of Chloe’s neck.

Because that sound was familiar.

It was the same sound the Duke had made that night in bed.

Has this Duke gone mad?

Why is he suddenly making such a suggestive sound!

The Duke inhaled and exhaled deeply several times, as if he were short of breath.

Chloe was so flustered that she stepped back sideways.

“Clyne!”

“Yes!”

She stopped in attention at the Duke’s sharp voice, but.

“Don’t move!”

“Pardon?”

“I said don’t move an inch from there.”

“……”

At the Duke’s sudden order, Chloe stopped without being able to answer.

“Open the window.”

What kind of inconsistent order was it to tell her not to move and then to open the window.

Which tune should I dance to?

It was also strange that he kept telling her to open the window lately.

Glancing at the Duke bringing the teacup close to his nose, Chloe awkwardly approached the window.

As she turned around after opening the window, wind blew in from outside.

“Cly……ne.”

“Yes?”

“I said don’t move.”

What do you want me to do!

He hadn’t been such a difficult master to please, but how did it come to this…

“Don’t stand by the window.”

By this point, the Duke looked like someone with a personality disorder.

“From now on, I will not move.”

Though indignant, she answered quietly and slowly moved to the side of the table.

“Is this tea’s scent originally like this? Today the scent seems…”

He closed his mouth as soon as his eyes met Chloe’s, and eventually even closed his eyes.

“……”

It was a suffocating silence.

“Perhaps.”

Just as she was thinking of leaving, the Duke broke the silence again.

“Yes…?”

An inexplicable sense of unease came over her.

“Do you have a sister?”

“Pardon?”

“Do you have a female sibling?”

“Ah… No.”

She broke out in a cold sweat.

“You’re saying you don’t…”

He set down the teacup.

Feeling her lips drying up, Chloe lightly licked her lower lip with her tongue.

“Then why do you have this scent? This isn’t the scent coming from the tea. This scent is clearly the one from the woman I slept with…”

“I don’t have a sister! And I don’t know what scent you’re saying is coming from me.”

Her voice was trembling a little, but she had no composure left to cover even that up.

Did he really remember the scent that had come from her that night?

Even at this distance?

“Clyne, come closer.”

“Pardon?”

Chloe shuddered.

Saying to come closer to smell her scent. Was he a beast or what?

Moreover, if she went that close, it seemed her trembling would be visible even to the Duke’s eyes.

“I said come here.”

“No! I don’t have a sister, and there’s no scent coming from me.”

Chloe shook her head vigorously from side to side.

The Duke she knew was a rational and logical person.

Not someone who would say to come closer to smell a servant’s scent!

“Your Grace, you seem to have become a bit sensitive lately. May I leave now? I still need to finish packing my luggage and also check if someone has been chosen to take over my duties…”

She wasn’t sure if she could wait even until tomorrow. She wanted to run out of this ducal mansion right away.

“Sensitive, you say?”

The Duke frowned.

Chloe only then realized she had been rude.

“Perhaps you’re a bit tired?”

She hurriedly changed her words.

“…Is that so.”

But unexpectedly, the Duke readily agreed with her words.

“Then may I leave now? Is there anything else you need me to do?”

“When will you make the request to the information guild?”

“About that, it’s already gotten late… I was planning to make the request tomorrow as I leave the ducal residence.”

If she had gone out right after receiving the order, she might have been able to visit before the guild closed, but Chloe’s personal matters had been too urgent. Now the timing had become awkward, where she would barely make it to the guild alley just as it was about to close.

“I see, do that then.”

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

The Duke said nothing more.

Chloe quickly slipped out of his room, lest he call her back again.

Her heart, which should have been pounding thump thump thump, seemed to be beating with varying intensity, thump thump thump thump thump thump.

She wanted to ask if he had gone mad, but the crazier thing was that the woman he had slept with was herself.

So that insane-sounding strange claim wasn’t insanity, but insanely accurate sense of smell.

Perhaps she had sweated from running around here and there?

Come to think of it, she could have sweated that night too. They had rolled around so vigorously after all.

But no matter how she thought about it, she hadn’t sweated that much today, and even if she had, the distance between the Duke and her wasn’t close enough to smell sweat.

Since she had decided not to receive tomorrow’s wages anyway, Chloe made up her mind to leave this house as soon as dawn broke tomorrow.

[This is the timeline separator]

The next morning, Chloe went to the Duke’s bedroom with water prepared for washing.

As usual, after setting down the washbasin in front of the door,

Knock knock.

She knocked and,

“Your Grace,”

Called out, but there was no response.

“Your Grace, I’m coming in.”

Since there were often times with no response, and the Duke was always up at this hour, Chloe carefully opened the door and entered.

“Your Grace…”

Chloe, who was calling the Duke again, looked around the bedroom. The Duke was nowhere to be seen, not in bed or anywhere else in the room.

Had he already gone to the study?

The Duke’s study was right next to the bedroom.

The two rooms each had their own doors from the hallway, but once inside, they were connected to each other.

But the Duke wasn’t in the study either when she went through the connecting passage.

This is even better!

At least her last day of work was lucky.

She had been worried he might say something about her smell or whatnot from the morning again.

Since she had already prepared the washbasin, it seemed she could just report to the butler while leaving this way, before facing the Duke.

Of course, she might get scolded for leaving so early in the morning, but since she had said she wouldn’t receive today’s wages anyway, they couldn’t say much.

Creeeeak.

Ugh! Why is the door sound so loud?

The sound of opening the door seemed as loud as thunder.

Chloe, who had quickly packed her luggage bag from her room, was trying her best not to make any sound while leaving, in case the Duke had returned to his room in the meantime.

Since the study was next to the Duke’s bedroom, and Chloe’s tiny room as the attending servant was attached next to the study, a loud noise could be heard in the study as well.

Usually she didn’t care about door sounds, but now everything bothered her.

In fact, Chloe’s room wasn’t originally a space made for servants. It was no different from a storage room attached to the Duke’s study. It was converted into a room by bringing in a bed when Chloe started working as an attending servant.

She glanced towards the Duke’s room after leaving her room.

Fortunately, there was no sign of movement.

Holding luggage bags in both hands, she looked back at the room she had just left.

There were no personal belongings left except for the furniture provided by the ducal family.

It’s clean!

As she was about to close the door again, she hesitated for a very brief moment.

Should I leave the door open like this, or put down the bags and close the door?

It was a fleeting dilemma over something trivial, but in this situation of running away, it felt like a major life decision.

She wanted to quickly move towards the stairs, regardless of what happened to the door.

But right now, she was trying to leave this house forever.

Yes, finishing touches.

I should close the door before leaving.

She put down her bags and pulled the door, trying her best not to make any creaking sound this time as well.

Creeeeeak.

As if mocking her efforts, the door made that nerve-grating sound once again.

The noise that she usually didn’t even notice suddenly sounded as loud as thunder.

“Phew…”

A small sigh escaped, but at least the door was closed.

She proudly picked up her bags again with both hands, straightened her back, and turned around.

“Hup!”

She let out a single gasp, swallowing her breath as soon as she turned around.

Because the Duke was standing right in front of her with his arms crossed.

“Your Grace…”

She had no idea when the Duke had appeared.

He who had been standing right in front of her nose, took a step back and slightly frowned as their eyes met.

It was a face full of displeasure, evident in the deep wrinkles between his brows.

There he goes again.

That expression, as if avoiding someone with the plague.

“What are you doing?”

The Duke asked, taking another step back.

The Duke’s narrowed eyes moved to the large bags in both of Chloe’s hands.

“Uh…, I…”

Chloe opened and closed her mouth, trying to find words to say.

She couldn’t say she was in the middle of trying to disappear before encountering the Duke.

“You said you were leaving today, did you mean leaving this early in the morning?”

Chloe, who had been trying hard not to avoid the Duke’s eyes, unconsciously swallowed.

It wasn’t easy to pretend to be calm at times like this.

“I have a long way to go, so I decided to leave early in the morning. I also need to stop by the information guild.”

Strangely, the Duke’s gaze as he listened to her answer was directed slightly below her eyes.

Where are you looking? My neck?

Due to the Duke’s ambiguous gaze, Chloe oddly felt her neck becoming itchy.

“Your Grace, thank you for everything. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye since you weren’t in your room this morning, but I’m glad I could greet you in person before leaving. The washbasin is…”

Chloe’s mouth was babbling on its own as if it were an involuntary muscle.

“I get it. I get it, so stop talking and if you’re leaving, leave quickly.”

The Duke said, as if to shut Chloe’s mouth, with an even more distorted face than before.

“…!”

Rather, it was Chloe whose feet froze at the Duke’s words.

She felt deflated and pathetic for making such a fuss trying to run away on her own, when the Duke gave such a cool permission that was close to sending her away.

But there was no need to hesitate further when he was letting her go, no, telling her to leave quickly.

“Yes! Your Grace, thank you. Then, please take care of your health.”

Chloe bowed her head in greeting.

“……”

The Duke didn’t give any answer.

He only covered his nose and mouth with one hand.

As if Chloe were a smelly waste that he wanted to send away quickly.

Chloe almost glared at him for his strange behavior, but fortunately she didn’t break her polite expression until the end.

Because it could be that the Duke really did smell the scent from that night on her.

And if it was the scent of the woman he had slept with, his behavior was understandable.

The Duke extremely disliked women, so even if he had rolled around terrifyingly with her for one night when his mind went haywire, if he had come back to his senses, he could act like this.

If he found out that she was the woman he had slept with, when he disliked it so much, it was unpredictable how he would react.

There was absolutely no way she could take such a risk.

Chloe headed towards the stairs, deliberately ignoring the Duke’s gaze she felt on the back of her head.

Once she reached the stairs, she would be out of the Duke’s sight.

At most, would it be twenty steps?

Not too hurriedly. Calmly. Don’t run.

It felt like she had been chanting these words as she walked.

The twenty steps felt like two hundred steps, but she finally reached the stairs. Until then, there was no sound of the Duke moving.

Anyway, now it would really be over after just saying goodbye to the butler.