“Please let it be an easy question,” Chloe said.

“Before that, I need to ventilate a bit.”

He didn’t ask the question but casually ventilated instead. Chloe was a bit annoyed, but quickly opened the window and returned.

“Is there a blonde among the servants working in this house? Blonde hair about this long.”

The duke said, spreading his hands about 60cm apart.

Blonde?

There were hardly any blondes, and in this house with only male servants, there wouldn’t be any with hair that long.

“As far as I know, there’s no one with hair that long… but I don’t know all the servants, so it might be better to ask the butler.”

“No, there isn’t.”

“Pardon?”

She couldn’t readily understand the duke’s words.

Of course, she thought there probably wasn’t anyone like that either. But if he already knew so well, why did he ask?

“There isn’t a single servant in the Ulpaz duchy with hair this long. Nor is there such bright and soft blonde hair.”

“…!”

Bright, soft blonde hair about 60cm long.

A very familiar image came to mind. It was Chloe’s own hair.

But there was no way the owner of the hair the duke was talking about could be her. Her blonde hair was perfectly concealed by a brown wig.

Still, she had to suppress the urge to touch her head to check if the wig had slipped or if she had forgotten to put it on.

“I’m not allowed to hire female servants in my house.”

Chloe’s face darkened at the duke’s somewhat out-of-context words. The shift from talking about hair to female servants somehow felt ominous.

“I’m not supposed to bring women into the house either. You know that well, don’t you?”

“Yes, I know.”

Chloe barely managed to answer, tensing her stomach for fear her voice might tremble.

“You also know that breaking that rule incurs a penalty fee.”

What on earth was he trying to say?

“And yet you…”

“…?”

She felt like a small animal being driven towards a trap by a hunter, knowing the trap was there but having no choice.

“Did you bring a blonde woman into my house?”

“What? What are you saying! How could I bring a woman into the house?”

So this is what he was trying to say?

That I brought in a woman?

Ha!

It was such an unexpected accusation that she almost snorted in disbelief. What insane servant would risk the penalty fee to bring a woman into the duke’s residence?

Besides, her room was right next to the duke’s office. Unless she had gone mad, there’s no way she would have done that.

She couldn’t understand why the conversation had veered in this direction after talking about his sister.

“If that’s not the case, then how do you explain it?”

“I don’t understand why you’re saying this, but it’s not true! It absolutely never happened. How could I dare to bring a woman into the duke’s residence…!”

Chloe was about to protest vehemently against the duke’s sudden accusation when she stopped short.

She hadn’t brought in a woman, but she herself was a woman.

“I found several strands of long blonde hair in your room. I thought they might be your sister’s hair. Come to think of it, it would be strange for your sister’s hair to be in your room too.”

“Hair… you say?”

“Whose hair is it? Explain.”

Ah…

This bad duke. He should have mentioned the hair from the beginning!

Though even if he had, I’m not sure how I could have explained it.

When sleeping, I locked the door and took off the stuffy wig. Because of that, some hair must have been left on the bedding.

This morning, when I hurried to leave while the duke was out, I checked if there were any items left behind, but I didn’t pay attention to hair.

Looking back now, it was a heartbreaking mistake.

But how on earth did the duke discover that hair? Did he enter the room I was using?

Why?

Even though I made a mistake, it was really strange that the duke entered my room and found hair left on the bed.

What kind of master inspects a servant’s room?

“As I said, I really hate lies.”

“… Yes.”

“Whose hair is it? Who did you bring into my house?”

“I don’t know.”

There was nothing else she could say.

“I don’t know…”

The duke slowly repeated Chloe’s words.

“I’m sorry, I really don’t know.”

“You really don’t know, you say…”

The duke’s gaze was growing colder.

“I’m sorry. Your Grace, I really…”

There was no way to explain the hair.

It’s not like hair has hooks, and she couldn’t say it must have been brought in from outside.

“You’re a man too, so you can meet women all you want. Whether you meet women outside or not, that’s not something I can control.”

“…”

Chloe swallowed hard, at a loss for words.

To say she was a man meeting women. Was her male disguise too perfect?

Not only was she disguised as a man, but now she was being treated as a man in a relationship with a woman.

“But you smell of the woman I slept with. The hair on your bed also has the scent of the woman I slept with.”

So the duke is saying that the woman he slept with is having an affair with his personal attendant?

This is crazy. How could his thoughts flow in that direction?

“Your Grace, that’s…”

“Whatever your relationship with that woman was, I must find her.”

“It’s not like that.”

If there was any silver lining in this situation, it was that the duke didn’t suspect she was a man.

Other than that, it was the worst situation.

And the duke’s personality was the worst.

He was essentially saying that he spent a night with a woman who was in a relationship with his personal attendant, and now he wanted that woman handed over.

Really. How could there be such a self-centered and one-sided declaration?

Regardless of whether the duke’s claims were actually true or not, Chloe was flabbergasted.

Did the duke eat something wrong that night? Like a personality-changing drug?

“I couldn’t have mistaken that scent. I thought it was strange. You clearly had that scent on you. If you’ve been meeting that woman, it all makes sense. So tell me. Where is that woman?”

The duke’s eyes were burning as strangely as his bizarre thought process.

Like the eyes of a beast meeting its natural enemy.

Or like the eyes of a rutting male fighting another male over a female.

The problem was that the female the male was after was Chloe herself, and the competing male the duke was burning with hostility towards was also Chloe, but…

No, is it right to look for the woman he slept with to hold her responsible for taking his virginity?

Now that she thought about it, she wondered if there might be a different reason for looking for the woman.

He seemed like a man claiming ownership of a woman.

Even though no one had given him that ownership.

“Your Grace!”

“Tell me. Just tell me where that woman is. I don’t care what your relationship with her has been until now. I just need to find her.”

He wasn’t known for being a perfect person, but he didn’t have any serious flaws either. No, he was known to have a balanced personality.

That attitude was so different from the personality the duke had shown before.

Saying he needs to find the woman whether she’s meeting another man or not. What about the woman’s position? What about the woman’s thoughts? What about the other man’s position?

Now the duke’s blind attitude was becoming frightening.

At this point, she wanted to ask outright what he intended to do once he found the woman. She was increasingly thinking that his reason for searching so desperately might be different from what she had fearfully assumed.

Of course, even if the reason was different from what she thought, it still seemed like it wouldn’t be anything good.

“What woman? How could I be meeting a woman! When would I have time to meet a woman? I work 24 hours a day at the duke’s residence.”

The seemingly conscienceless duke looked pathetic, and perhaps because she thought there might be a different reason why the duke was looking for her, Chloe was talking back to the duke point by point.

“Why not? You leave the duke’s residence for a whole 4 days every month. And you just came back from that vacation a few days ago. Since then, you’ve had that woman’s scent on you.”

The duke seemed to have filled the void left by morality with delusions.

“No! That’s not it, Your Grace. You’re mistaken.”

“Mistaken… Then who does that hair belong to? Explain it to me in a way I can understand. As soon as you knew I was looking for that woman, you suddenly said you were quitting your job. Abruptly, without even paying back the advance on your salary. Why is that?”

“That’s…”

“It’s because you’ve been meeting that woman.”

“That’s an absurd claim.”

“If it’s absurd, why don’t you explain it in a way that makes sense?”

The duke was thinking about all the circumstances to fit his own logic that he had already constructed.

What should I do? How can I dispel that blind suspicion?

“You’re a man too! Yes, you’re a man. You could have a woman you’re seeing. Yes, that must be it.”

As he spoke, the duke’s face was becoming more and more distorted. As if he wouldn’t believe anything she said, he was showing hostility bordering on killing intent towards Chloe.

She shuddered at the duke’s fierce demeanor. The duke was now openly glaring at Chloe.

This is dangerous.

The current duke was definitely dangerous.

“…”

“…”

Only a silence filled with killing intent and fear flowed between the two. She couldn’t think of what to say at all.

It seemed like those blind eyes wouldn’t believe anything she said…

But she had to say something.

Anything.

Any words to clear up that misunderstanding.

Ah…! Would this work? But this is too…

“You, you…!”

But there was no more time. She had to cut off his delusion before his anger boiled over even more.

“I like men!”

In the end, without time to calculate sufficiently, the words lingering on the tip of her lips burst out.

Words that made her face burn even more as she uttered them.