In my heart, I wanted to say not to rush to the wrong conclusion, but of course I didn’t say anything out loud.

“Of course. How could I not know the Duke?”

“It sounds like you know me well.”

Heh heh. Of course I would know you well.

Not just people in the Elaion Empire, but even those in the Tigrium Kingdom would know who the Duke was.

A wealthy and skilled Sword Master, and the young head of the Ulpaz ducal family, which boasted a long history as one of the influential families of the Elaion Empire since its early days.

And even more famous than his background was the fact that he was one of the most handsome men on this continent.

Who wouldn’t know him?

For the first time, Chloe thought that her logical and rational master seemed to have become a bit foolish.

The current Duke looked like someone who was enchanted. For instance, as if he was under the delusion of meeting the woman he spent his first night with. Or as if he was enchanted by a beautiful woman who made him think she was the one he spent his first night with.

If not that, then…

Was the Duke after all just a man weak to a woman’s beauty?

Because that florist Chloe was one of the most beautiful women Chloe had ever seen.

The rumors about him being into men or being impotent were all lies, and in the end, the Duke was just a man.

Yes, that’s right. He was a man. And quite an extraordinary one at that.

Strangely, Chloe’s heart kept growing sharper as she looked at the Duke’s broad back. Without realizing why she was getting angry at the Duke. No, without even realizing that she was angry at the Duke in the first place.

“Of course the Duke knows, but why do you ask?”

“Have you ever stayed at an inn called The Night of Dogs and Cats? I’d like to know if… anything happened there. Did you not meet someone there?”

The Duke’s words were getting a bit faster than usual.

“I don’t know of such a name. I’ve never stayed at a place like that, nor have I met anyone there. Is there even such an inn?”

At the florist Chloe’s naturally expected answer, Chloe felt strangely at ease.

Right, as if a personal maid like Chloe would stay at an inn in such a remote place!

While it wasn’t good for the Duke to chase after an illusory existence, for some reason, the distortion of facts made her even more uncomfortable.

Since that woman said so, the Duke would no longer misunderstand. Fortunately.

‘…!’

No, what’s fortunate about it?

At last, Chloe became aware of her strange psychology and startled.

What does it matter if the facts are distorted or not? It would be better if the Duke met such a beautiful woman and forgot about the Chloe he spent a night with!

“May I… come a little closer?”

But the Duke said something strange to the florist Chloe.

Had he really fallen for the florist Chloe?

The florist Chloe looked up at the Duke with widened eyes again and took a step back.

“Why are you…”

She seemed to be both enchanted by the Duke’s beauty and simultaneously afraid of the existence known as Duke Ulpaz.

“Just a moment, just a very brief moment. I’ll come a little closer. There’s something I need to confirm.”

Saying that, the Duke had already approached the florist Chloe.

Confirm! Surely not… At the word ‘confirm’, Chloe recalled the Duke who had kept talking about body scent after sleeping with her.

“…”

The florist Chloe froze, and the Duke immediately backed away from her, frowning.

“I’ve been very rude. Miss Chloe.”

The Duke said that and immediately turned around, heading towards the carriage. Seeing the Duke’s darkened face, Chloe could finally tell that the Duke had surely realized.

That this woman was not the Chloe he had slept with.

His face now was exactly the same as the one he had shown after returning from Kinden yesterday.

A face as dark as if a total solar eclipse had occurred, showing no hope or future.

No, in fact, it was even darker.

Yesterday he just looked psychologically distressed, but strangely today, not only his mind but his body seemed to be in pain too. It was exactly the kind of face she thought she might have had when she reached the peak of motion sickness just a few hours ago.

It seemed he hadn’t fallen for the florist Chloe after all.

Phew…

A sigh came from deep in her heart. Whether it was due to guilt, fatigue from this whole situation, or relief that the Duke wasn’t looking for the wrong woman, it was a sigh she couldn’t quite place.

“Shall we return to the Duke’s residence?”

Joyce, who had boarded the carriage, asked.

Probably because they had returned directly to the Duke’s residence from Kinden yesterday.

“No, I’ll stay here.”

But his condition was completely opposite from yesterday. Yesterday he had to go back because Clyne was there, but now Clyne was here with him.

And now his heat had come.

It had been fine until noon, but as the afternoon approached, his body started feeling strange. So much so that he desperately wished the commoner woman named Chloe who worked at the flower shop would be his imprinted partner.

In fact, from the moment he saw the woman, he had a gut feeling she wasn’t the one he had imprinted on, yet he wanted to cling to even a false hope.

Although there wasn’t the feeling of rejection in her body scent like with the Chloe from Kinden, she was just a woman who didn’t particularly smell good or bad, just neutral.

But his condition was so urgent that he hoped she was the imprinted woman even if there was just no feeling of rejection.

So, although it was a foolish act, knowing it was already hopeless, he approached her closely to check her body scent until the very end.

No, to be more honest, because the sweet scent that seemed to melt his brain wasn’t coming from the woman named Chloe standing in front of him, but was emanating from Clyne standing behind him, he couldn’t properly smell the scent of the woman named Chloe at all.

He felt he needed to distance himself a bit from Clyne, who was clouding his judgment, to at least check the scent of the woman named Chloe.

In the end, he only realized that it wasn’t that he had no aversion to the scent of the woman named Chloe, but unlike in Kinden, Clyne’s presence beside him had offset even the unpleasant scent.

Hugrey’s eyes, swallowing bitterness, unconsciously turned to Clyne sitting beside him, whom he had been trying not to look at until now.

“Mmm…”

As soon as he saw the lad, he quickly turned his head away at the momentary surge of something tightening in his lower abdomen, but a moan he couldn’t suppress had already escaped.

Damn it. He clenched his fist with all his might.

“Are you alright, Your Grace?”

Clyne, sitting beside him, asked while staring up at his face.

Ah…! This vexing lad, this thoughtless lad, this cruel lad.

Don’t stare at me like that! I’m at the point where I want to pounce on you and devour you right now, yet you look at me with such an innocent expression. Are you trying to drive me to my death?

I’m using all my strength to try not to look at your face.

“I’m fine. I’d appreciate it if you could move over there a bit. You’re too close.”

“…”

What’s with that expression? Those protruding lips as if there’s some complaint.

At the words to move away from him, Clyne’s lips jutted out three feet, and he moved away as if about to press his body against the window opposite to where Hugrey was sitting.

Clyne was already defying his master’s order with his expression. While his body was obeying too faithfully. If only he would obey with his expression and defy with his body instead.

Couldn’t he not move away even when I tell him to, and smile at me?

Even those sulky, pouting lips of yours look tempting. So much that I want to devour them right away.

“…!”

Ah, you crazy wolf. You’ve really gone into heat and lost your mind. Now Clyne’s face was starting to look like Chloe’s from the night of the imprinting.

What kind of face would you have if I removed that stuffy fringe that’s fallen below your glasses and those thick glasses that don’t even show your eye color properly?

If only I could take off those stuffy glasses…

“Your Grace?”

“Your Grace!”

“Ah!”

Hugrey finally came to his senses at the sound of both Clyne and Joyce calling him simultaneously. The realization that he had unconsciously reached out his hand right in front of Clyne’s face, almost to his glasses, was an added bonus.

Seeing Clyne’s flushed face that seemed to have shrunk back, and Joyce’s frozen face, Hugrey swallowed a groan inwardly.

His condition was getting worse and worse. To the point where he couldn’t even recognize what he was doing. To the point where he almost touched a man’s face and tried to take off his glasses.

“Joyce, I’m not feeling well. Quickly, find lodgings quickly. Right now!”

It was no longer a situation where he could hide his condition. Joyce knew everything anyway.

As for Clyne…

Yes, it would be better if that lad didn’t know.

So for now, he needed to quickly hide his body somewhere, even if it was to keep that lad from knowing. In this state, it would soon be obvious to Clyne that something was wrong with his body.

It was truly a strange affair.

The Duke, who had seemed quite unwell even before meeting the florist Chloe, behaved almost like a person who had lost his mind after parting with that woman and returning to the carriage.

In the midst of that, he made a fuss telling Chloe to stay far away from him for no reason, which was unpleasant, but thinking about it now, it seemed fortunate.

The Duke’s condition was so strange that if she had gotten close, he might have even grabbed her by the hair.

He was making strange groaning sounds, trembling, and then suddenly glaring at Chloe with blazing eyes. How frightening it was when he suddenly extended his hand right in front of her face with eyes caught in a strange heat.

It was fortunate that Lord Joyce put the Duke into a nearby inn at a lightning-fast, fierce speed. If they had continued to stay together in that carriage, surely something would have happened.

Come to think of it, Lord Joyce was a bit strange too.