As a result, the horse he was now riding was rejecting him with its whole body, but had no choice but to carry him. However, this was much less unsettling than being in a cramped carriage with that Clyne fellow.

In his current state, it seemed less anxiety-inducing to ride a horse without reins across a field than to let Clyne go home alone.

“It’s fine.”

“But still…”

“Joyce, enough.”

“Yes.”

“Enough.”

Finally, Joyce seemed to read the mood and didn’t argue further.

“However, Your Excellency.”

But he was about to say something else again.

“What.”

“Why are you going to Bergen? Didn’t you say Clyne’s sister had already passed away?”

“…”

Hugrey pondered for a moment. Clyne would be just as curious as Joyce was.

He could simply order Joyce to be silent without giving a reason, but he couldn’t do that with Clyne. It was ridiculous that he felt more cautious around a mere attendant than his chief knight who was like his hands and feet.

But he had no choice. He needed a plausible excuse for the fellow who would likely pester him with questions, forgetting his place.

Hmm. An appropriate excuse…

“I want to meet Clyne Liden’s mother. Shouldn’t I check in person if the medicine I sent was effective?”

“That, I could…”

“Joyce, I’m tired. Let’s go quietly.”

He really was tired.

The aftermath of his lust, Joyce’s meticulous personality, his own mad obsession with Clyne. And more than all of these, he was most exhausted by himself, knowing he was crazy yet unable to do anything about it.

“Whoa.”

As the coachman pulled the reins, the carriage that had been slowly decelerating came to a complete stop. Yet Clyne didn’t get out of the carriage. Joyce, who peeked inside curiously, frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

“Clyne is sleeping. I’ll wake him up.”

Joyce replied with a look of exasperation.

“No! Don’t wake him.”

Hugrey answered reflexively.

Joyce looked at him strangely, but Hugrey deliberately ignored his gaze and moved to the window to look at Clyne.

Really, you. Collapsed sideways, mouth gaping open with drool trickling out. In such a careless state that anyone could take you away without you noticing.

Is it his innate personality? To be able to sleep so peacefully sprawled out like that, even after being mistreated by the master he serves the night before.

Meanwhile, that very master feels like he’s being strangled every moment, fearing you might leave me because of that crazy thing I did.

Due to lying tilted to one side, the bangs that usually cover not only his forehead but above his eyes had been completely pushed to one side, fully revealing the opposite side of his forehead. His white, round forehead and delicate eyebrows that looked as if drawn with a fine brush were clearly visible.

Hugrey felt like he was seeing Clyne’s face for the first time.

Damn it… How can a man… be so… pretty!

Thump thump thump. His heart beat faster.

Well. What’s damnable isn’t your face, but my eyes that find a man pretty.

Even with more than half his forehead exposed, he was still wearing those large, thick glasses that covered nearly half his face.

And once his mind had gone there, even while cursing his damn eyes, after seeing the forehead, he now wanted to see that fellow’s eyes too.

Even if they were closed eyes.

Isn’t it uncomfortable to sleep with glasses on? Should I… take them off? Yes, it must be uncomfortable. It’s certainly not because I want to see his eyes, his face. It’s just to ensure the attendant can sleep comfortably. That fellow is sleeping so deeply now that he wouldn’t notice even if I removed not only his glasses but his bangs too.

Having convinced himself with this implausible excuse, Hugrey opened the carriage door as confidently as he could.

In reality, he was opening the door as carefully as a mother trying not to wake a newborn baby, focusing all his attention on the carriage to the point where he was completely unaware of Joyce watching him with a deeply furrowed brow.

‘Chloe.’

‘Hugrey…’

The duke and she were kissing. It was a kiss both rough yet gentle, sweet yet passionate.

Yes, this was it. This feeling.

The duke’s hands that had been cradling Chloe’s face had moved to her head at some point.

‘Mmm, Hugrey…’

After the long, lingering kiss, when the duke slightly pulled his lips away from hers, Chloe called his name again as she caressed his face.

The perfectly harmonious face of a man.

‘You’re handsome.’

Without realizing it, sincere admiration close to an exclamation escaped her lips. Because it truly was a beautiful face.

‘Are you pretty too?’

‘Huh?’

Chloe blinked at the duke’s words.

What does he mean? He’s looking at my face right now. Can’t he see my face?

‘Are you pretty when you take off your glasses?’

Ah! I was wearing glasses.

‘I should be… pretty too?’

Maybe not as pretty as you, Your Grace… But I haven’t been told I have an ugly face either.

‘Then may I take them off?’

‘Yes, you may.’

As soon as she answered, the duke’s hand that had been stroking her golden hair splayed out luxuriously on the bed moved right in front of her face.

Yes, take off these glasses. They’re really bothersome. Even your handsome face looks blurry, you know. This wretched male disguise…

‘…’

Male disguise? Your Grace? Golden hair? Glasses?

At that moment, feeling the cool touch on her ear, Chloe’s eyes flew open.

“Ahh!”

With a scream.

The duke’s face was right in front of her nose. Not in the seductively disheveled state from her dream, but in his neat, real-life appearance with buttons done up to his neck, one hand holding one arm of her glasses.

No!

“Ahh! Get back! Get away!”

Finally completely free from her sensual dream, Chloe clutched her glasses tightly and pushed the duke away.

As a result, the duke, who had been crouching on the carriage floor at the level of Chloe’s face as she lay on her side, fell backwards with a thud. Though he shouldn’t have fallen back so easily, it seemed the duke was also startled at being caught trying to do something improper to a sleeping person.

“What are you doing!”

Chloe glared at the duke and demanded.

“What do you mean, what am I doing.”

The duke’s eyes, which had grown round, narrowed as if he had regained his composure.

“To me while I was sleeping just now!”

“I saw my sleeping attendant looked uncomfortable, so I was trying to take off your glasses? You don’t even thank others for their goodwill and consideration, but instead get angry. I wonder what’s wrong with your personality…”

What’s wrong with my personality.

He was making excuses. It was clear his personality had changed after suffering from the fever.

Why is he so shameless?

“Thank you for your consideration, but I’m fully awake now.”

Chloe quickly regained her professional consciousness. Even if the master doesn’t act like a master, a servant must act like a servant.

“I’m glad you understand you should be grateful. Now then, let’s get off.”

The suddenly shameless duke commanded in a cool expression and tone.

Right, the master is always confident, is that it?

That aside,

“Get off?”

Having just woken up and confused by the duke’s approach, Chloe didn’t understand his sudden words and asked in bewilderment.

“Then shall we go somewhere else when we’ve arrived? This is your hometown and the carriage can’t go any further.”

“Ah!”

Chloe’s face suddenly flushed red. Only then did she realize that she had been sleeping alone in the duke’s carriage on the way to her hometown.

So much for acting like a proper servant. It was a case of like master, like servant. She was just as shameless an attendant as the brazen duke.

“I’m sorry.”

She hurriedly bowed her head to the duke in apology, but he had already turned around and gotten off the carriage.

His ears on either side of the back of his head looked unusually red.

Why do those ears turn red so often? What strange skin.

Chloe shrugged as she looked at the duke’s back and stood up from her seat.

After getting off the carriage, Chloe stroked her chest once more in gratitude for her mother’s choice.

As the duke had said, the carriage couldn’t go all the way to Chloe’s house, which stood alone in a secluded part of the forest where few people passed by. Thanks to that, she could avoid her mother and the duke meeting unexpectedly without preparation.

Chloe got off the carriage and bowed slightly to the duke with a refreshed face.

“Your Grace, thanks to you I was able to come home comfortably. I’ll walk from here by myself now.”

“Alone?”

“Pardon?”

“Joyce, find a place to stay in the village. I’ll visit Clyne’s house before I go.”

In response to Chloe’s question, the duke spoke these shocking words while looking not at her, but at Joyce. Chloe hoped she had misheard, but seeing Joyce’s bewildered expression, it seemed she had heard correctly.

The duke is coming to the house? I thought no way, but is this really happening?

“I should pay a sick visit to your mother. She’s my attendant’s mother after all. It wouldn’t be right for a master who receives your care every day to just send medicine and a caregiver without showing his face even once.”

Du…duty? What is he saying now!

It was such sophistry that she didn’t even know such sophistry could exist. What employer in the world would visit their attendant’s family member who was ill.

Moreover, the one saying these words was none other than the great Duke of Ulpaz.

Or… could he be mocking me?

Though it clearly seemed to be an absurd situation, her lips felt glued together, making it difficult to object.

Somehow the duke’s words sounded like, “I spent my money to treat your mother, are you trying to wipe your mouth clean without even thanking me?”

“Just medicine and a caregiver,” he says. That doesn’t make sense from the start. That medicine isn’t some pebble you can pick up on the roadside.