Hugrey couldn’t sleep properly all night.

His head throbbed as if Clyne Liden’s body scent that had risen from the tip of his nose had penetrated his brain.

Eventually, in the early dawn, he gave up on sleeping and headed to the Second Archive to see if there might be any unknown facts related to side effects among the records on imprinting.

The Second Archive was a secret archive inside the First Archive, a place where records about the Ulpaz ducal family of wolf beastmen were collected.

The beastmen, who were few in number to begin with, had continuously mixed blood with humans over the long years, and now most were extinct except for the highest predatory species.

Humans believed that there were beastmen emperors and kings only in history or legends.

Not knowing that the bloodlines of the imperial family, royal families, and top nobility had continued only among beastmen.

If they were to learn that their rulers were a tiny minority of beastmen, it was all too obvious that they would rebel.

That’s why the remaining beastmen agreed to leave humans’ misunderstanding that they were extinct alone, and even went further to promote and strengthen such beliefs.

Even though they never agreed on anything in any other area.

Therefore, in the Ulpaz family too, records about beastmen were treated as secret, and the Second Archive where the records were kept was strictly off-limits without the permission of the family head.

However, even after thoroughly examining the documents in the Second Archive, there was nothing new that he didn’t know.

To be precise, there was no side effect of causing scent confusion with someone who wasn’t the imprinting partner, especially a man, after imprinting, no matter how hard he looked.

Reading the records only increased his self-loathing.

On his way back to his room in that state, he saw the protagonist of the problem.

Clyne Liden, the provider of a new problem that was like adding fuel to the fire when his head was already complicated because of the imprinting.

He had been watching him from the end of the corridor.

More closely because what he was doing was strange.

It was truly odd how he came out with two large bags in his hands, put them down, and then took several seconds to close his room door, so engrossed in whatever he was doing.

He was so focused on closing the door, holding the doorknob as if he was praying.

To the extent that he didn’t even notice his presence until he stood right behind him.

And then what?

Leaving this early in the morning?

It was amusing that he was saying such nonsense, but he no longer needed a personal attendant who could speak Tigrium, and keeping him around because he had no scent had become meaningless.

Given that this guy was now emitting a stronger scent than anyone else.

He had kept him as a personal attendant because he had no scent, but now he was emitting a stronger scent than anyone.

He should be kicked out right away.

So it didn’t matter whether he left in the morning or evening.

He should tell him to go. Rightfully so.

The problem was…

Why had the scent that wasn’t there until now become so terribly strong?

And why, of all things, was that scent not unpleasant?

This was it.

Far from disliking it, he wanted to drink in the scent…!

Was he crazy? Drink?

In fact, he found it difficult to take his eyes off Clyne Liden’s neck, overwhelmed by the desire to bite it right away due to a burning thirst.

To the point where he had to step back out of fear of himself.

He must be crazy.

He had to consider the side effects of imprinting to be extremely serious. To show such a deranged physical reaction to a man.

He needed to find a woman, and that male should be sent away from the house quickly.

So he told him to go.

And that guy finally left.

Without even looking back once until the end.

He really left.

Well, that’s, what.

One strange side effect has been physically resolved.

Because the abnormal reaction only came from that guy.

Now he just needed to find a woman to resolve this thirst that felt like his throat was cracking painfully.

The problem had become very simple.

Fortunately. Yes, fortunately.

Hugrey stared blankly at the stairs where Clyne had disappeared, nodded his head quietly as if understanding his situation, and eventually turned to his own room.

He paused.

But his feet returned to that spot, and his eyes turned to the doorknob of that guy’s room that Clyne had been holding.

Why did he close that door so carefully as if handling a glass artwork?

Suddenly thinking this, he grabbed and turned the doorknob that Clyne Liden had been holding so preciously just a moment ago.

“Hah!”

The moment he opened the door, a strong scent that filled the room rushed in, making him dizzy.

It was a powerful fragrance that made his consciousness blur.

But strangely, far from feeling repulsed by the overwhelming scent, his body was being drawn into Clyne’s room as if pulled by a strong magnet.

It was an empty room.

With no belongings left, only a bed, nightstand, and small wardrobe remaining.

Other than that…

His eyes, scanning the room, lingered on the bedding on the bed.

He had already approached the bed and picked up the pillow as if entranced.

The pillow had an even stronger scent.

What on earth is this? This strange feeling?

Whether it was thirst or longing, or maybe heat, he couldn’t tell at all.

“I’ve completely lost it.”

He uttered the words as if chewing them, his hand already gripping the pillow tightly.

To fall into such an incomprehensible state in the room used by a male servant who had worked beside him for months.

There was no other way to explain it except as a side effect of imprinting.

Clearly, these symptoms had appeared from the day after the imprinting.

So if he could just find his imprinting partner, this deranged state would improve.

It had to be so.

The damned heat that comes after imprinting not only comes every month but is also much stronger than before imprinting.

To the point where he could fall into a quite dangerous state if he didn’t find his imprinting partner before the next heat came.

And yet, to react this much to a man’s scent in this situation.

The pillow in his hand was now completely crumpled.

The state of the pillow seemed exactly like his current physical and mental state.

“Damn it!”

He threw the pillow onto the bed.

“…!”

But his eyes, which had been fiercely contorted, suddenly widened the moment the pillow fell on the bed.

“What… is this.”

Words unconsciously flowed from his mouth as he discovered something on the bed.

He picked up the pillow again.

He hadn’t seen wrong.

It was really there.

A few strands of thin, golden-shining thread.

No, he had only thought it might be thread.

He carefully picked it up and brought it close to his eyes.

As expected, it wasn’t thread.

“Golden hair.”

It was long, golden hair.

Hair that could never have come from Clyne, who had short brown hair.

Clyne Liden had stayed in this small room for three months.

There were no other servants who cleaned the servants’ rooms.

So why had this come out of this room?

He brought the golden hair in his hand up to his nose and smelled it.

As expected, the hair had that scent.

So identical that he couldn’t tell if it belonged to Chloe, the woman he had imprinted on, or to Clyne Liden – that very scent.

Powerful enough to burrow from the tip of his nose to his brain in an instant.

Tightly gripping the golden hair, he immediately headed towards Wilson’s room, the estate manager.

[This is the timeline separator]

Chloe went straight to the Information Guild after leaving the ducal residence.

“Chloe, long golden hair, blue eyes, height 168, Arne, Night of Dog and Cat.”

The guild member recited the information she had given.

“Yes!”

“And the client is Duke Ulpaz.”

“Yes!”

“Why is the Duke looking for this woman?”

“Pardon?”

Chloe was at a loss for words.

“Shouldn’t you tell us exactly what happened there? Did the Duke Ulpaz sleep with that woman?”

“What?”

Chloe’s voice cracked in surprise at the guild member’s accurate guess.

“Why are you surprised? When a man is looking for a woman, what other reason could there be? Either it’s a woman he slept with or a woman he wants to sleep with, one of the two.”

“It’s not like that!”

Chloe raised her voice as if to refute.

The mindset that thought there were only those two reasons why a man would look for a woman was incomprehensible.

But her raised voice cracked because the reason the Duke was looking for her was indeed one of the two reasons the guild member had suggested. Lamentably so.

“Hmph! What do you mean it’s not. Anyway, I understand. I’ll visit the ducal residence when the results come in.”

The guild member said with a snort at Chloe’s reaction, her face bright red.

It felt as if the guild member was seeing right through her, thinking ‘You slept with the Duke, didn’t you.’

She hurriedly left the Information Guild building.

She should have been able to return home now, escaping this emergency situation caused by one night’s mistake.

“…!”

If only Duke Hugrey Ulpaz hadn’t been standing outside the guild building, looking at her.

As soon as she came out of the building and turned around, the sight of the Duke made Chloe’s two legs stiffen like rods.

No wonder it seemed too easy to let her go.

The Duke was standing idly at the entrance of the Information Guild alley.

Like a gatekeeper.

As if daring her to pass if she could.

To get out of the Information Guild alley, one had to pass through that entrance.

So as long as the Duke was standing like that in the middle of the alley entrance, Chloe could never leave this alley.

Therefore, the Duke’s intention was clear.

He was waiting for her.

More accurately, it looked closer to coming to catch her.

But why?

Anxiety swept through her entire body.

Why was he standing there so menacingly, like someone who had come to catch a fugitive?

“Your Grace…”

A sound that a starved mosquito might make squeezed out of her throat.

“Clyne Liden.”

The Duke just called her name.

It felt like the words ‘Come to me right now’ would follow, but.

Is this how a cow feels being led to the slaughterhouse?

Chloe took one step, then another, reluctantly approaching the Duke.

“Your Grace, what brings you to the Information Guild alley…”

“Well, it’s the Information Guild alley, so I must have come to make a request? As for what the request is, why don’t you tell me?”

The Duke’s voice, cutting off Chloe’s words midway, was chillingly cold.

In that cold air, it was difficult for Chloe to part her lips, as if her upper and lower lips had frozen and stuck together.

“If you’ve come because of the woman you’re looking for, I just…”

“Woman? No, no. That’s not it.”

“…”

To Chloe’s answer that she had barely managed to spit out, the Duke said ‘no’ as many as three times.

Chloe gulped.

“This time, I came to inquire about a man, not a woman.”

“A man…”

Her head was spinning.

Could it be that she had been found out?

She had thought there would be no problem if she just returned home now, but was it already too late?

Should she have fled right away that day, a few days ago, when the words ‘I have a woman I need to find’ came out of the Duke’s mouth?

The Duke was staring at Chloe as if glaring at her.

Chloe found it difficult to meet the Duke’s eyes and slightly averted her gaze.

But she had to look at him again at the Duke’s voice calling her Clyne Liden.

“Clyne Liden, I think I need to make a request about a man with this name.”

“…!”

Indeed, the man the Duke spoke of was her.

The woman the Duke had been looking for was her, and the man the Duke now said he would inquire about was also her.

“Didn’t you say you had no sister? But you do have a sister. Why did you hide that fact? Will you tell me with your own mouth, or should I request the Information Guild?”

“…!”

Ah! A sister. That’s what he had found out?

At least it meant he hadn’t discovered that she was a woman. He had found out that she was lying about her family, but.

“We’re returning to the ducal residence for now.”

Leaving Chloe, with a storm raging in her head, standing in the alley, the Duke turned around abruptly, mounted his horse, and rode away.

Should she just run away now?

The impulse surged.

It was truly a foolish and reckless impulse, but Chloe’s body was already heading in the opposite direction from where the Duke had disappeared.