Of course, it could be that she was reacting sensitively due to a sense of indebtedness for the great favor and concern about possibly having to see her mother while cross-dressing with the duke.

“The grace that Your Grace has bestowed upon my mother is as wide and deep as the sea. How could I ever forget such a great and profound kindness? However, my house is far too small and shabby to host Your Grace, so I simply cannot…”

Even though it was in the mountains, her house wasn’t that shabby or insignificant.

Of course, the basic framework was that of a wooden house in the mountains, but her mother had created a fairly neat and cozy home. Moreover, her mother had quite high aesthetic standards. There were also many strange decorations from who knows where.

But for now, getting rid of the duke was the priority. Even if it meant rambling on about anything.

“Stop talking and get on the horse.”

“H-horse, you say?”

“I can’t walk just because you’re walking. I was a sick patient, so I can’t walk on a mountain path.”

“That’s true, but for me to ride a horse…”

“It would be difficult to match your walking pace while riding a horse, wouldn’t it? So it makes sense for you to ride behind me, right?”

Did he take the wrong medicine yesterday? Or did his tongue loosen up after biting it yesterday?

How could he say such nonsensical things, while her words kept getting stuck in her throat?

“I’ll run!”

She’d rather run than ride behind the duke.

In fact, it was said more with the hope that he might give up on the idea of coming to her house, rather than with the actual determination to run.

“Hahaha. You?”

It was clearly mockery.

“Yes!”

As if rebelling against the duke’s laughter, Chloe answered even more firmly.

It’s not like I can’t run.

“So it was running after all?”

What does he mean? Ah!

Only then did she recall the duke’s words asking if she was good at running when he couldn’t figure out what she was good at.

He’s teasing me. Chloe bit her lip.

“Then run if you want. But you’ll have to run as fast as you can. It’s getting dark, you see.”

The duke had already pulled one rein and headed towards the mountain where Chloe’s house was. Watching him, Sir Joyce turned his horse in the opposite direction and headed to the village with the coachman.

Chloe glared at the back of the duke’s head, who had already started riding towards the mountain.

He’s clearly the benefactor who saved my mother, but why does he keep being so annoying today?

Whoosh. Suddenly, the duke turned to look at her.

“Hup.”

Chloe was startled and lowered her eyes, swallowing her breath.

“What are you doing? Not running? Should I go first?”

At his provocative words, Chloe found herself glaring at the duke once again before she knew it. Fortunately, the duke had already turned his head away.

“Sigh…”

Letting out a long sigh, Chloe finally started running. As the duke said, she couldn’t let him arrive at the house first.

Huff, huff.

Just a few minutes after she started running, Chloe realized that although she had climbed this uphill path to her house hundreds of times, it was the first time in her life she had run so fiercely on this slope.

“If I match your pace and it gets too dark, I won’t be able to come down the mountain path, so I might have to stay at your house.”

The duke said peacefully from behind.

This man, really! Is he really the one who was sick?

Chloe was too out of breath to even say no. She just had to keep running without a chance to look back, lest she be trampled by the duke’s horse hooves.

How would her mother react to seeing her cross-dressing? Chloe’s mouth tasted of blood as she ran uphill with her head full of worries.

Sweating profusely, Chloe stopped when she reached a point where the house was visible. She couldn’t let the duke into the house like this.

She had to go in first and at least briefly explain the situation to her mother.

“Woah.”

The duke also stopped his horse.

“Your Grace, I’m afraid my mother might be surprised if she suddenly sees the master I serve. Could you please wait outside for a moment so I can at least tell her that you’ve come? Haa, haa…”

Chloe finished her words, panting heavily.

“Alright, do that then. I’ll wait here.”

Fortunately, the duke graciously agreed. Chloe bowed her head and immediately entered the house.

She couldn’t keep the duke waiting for long. With the duke as he was now, he might barge in if she made him wait too long.

“Mom! Ah…! Calcus!”

The one who greeted Chloe as she entered the house wasn’t her mother, but Calcus.

“Chloe!”

Calcus walked towards her with a bright smile.

“You, that’s right… You’re off work!”

Only upon seeing Calcus did she finally remember. Whenever she came home on leave, Calcus would come early to wait for her.

I didn’t even think about that until now.

She suddenly realized how inconsiderate she had been towards Calcus.

“Yes, it’s the day you come home on leave. Of course I should be here before you arrive.”

Calcus, who had approached with big strides, was now right in front of her.

“Ah… That’s right. It was like that.”

Why did she feel so sorry?

“But why do you look like that? You look completely like a drenched cat.”

“Well, things turned out that way. But where’s mom? I heard she had woken up.”

“Ah! Chloe, about that… I was going to tell you anyway. You were about to come home on leave soon, and I didn’t want you to worry too much, so I couldn’t tell you until now.”

“Huh? Tell me what?”

Calcus slightly frowned and rubbed his forehead.

“A few days after your mother got up from her sickbed, she went somewhere. She still hasn’t returned. I told her everything about you getting a job and leaving, even about you living in men’s clothes, and then two days later? She disappeared without saying where she was going.”

“What?”

“It was just before someone from the duke’s family came looking for you, I mean, ‘Chloe’. Ah! But why did they come looking for you from the duke’s family?”

Chloe felt dizzy at the news that her mother had disappeared. Even though she had recovered, where could she have gone that she hadn’t returned for days?

But she had to think about her mother’s situation later. For now, sending the duke away was the priority. She came to see her mother, but since her mother wasn’t here, maybe she could send him back right away.

“Calcus! Duke Ulpaz is in front of the house right now. I’ll explain later about how the duke came here and why they were looking for me at the duke’s residence. For now, just remember that I can’t let him find out I’m a woman. Got it?”

“Hmm?”

Calcus’s eyes widened, and his face filled with confusion and bewilderment.

“Things ended up like this somehow. He already knows you’re living in our house and that you’re my friend, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. But he thinks I’m a man, so…”

“Shh!”

Suddenly turning his gaze towards the entrance, Calcus cut off Chloe’s words.

“Calcus…?”

Chloe blinked, looking back and forth between Calcus’s face and the entrance.

“Calcus, why… are you doing that?”

Chloe asked in a lowered voice, puzzled by Calcus’s sudden behavior.

“Clyne, nothing special happened, right?”

However, surprisingly, Calcus asked in a louder voice. It was baffling – telling her to be quiet one moment, then suddenly raising his voice the next. She couldn’t make sense of this whimsical behavior.

Moreover, Clyne? The name Clyne was more than enough to hear just at the Ulpaz duke’s residence. Why was Calcus suddenly calling her Clyne too?

Knock knock knock.

But at that moment, the sound of knocking made Chloe stop thinking.

“Clyne Liden. Should I wait longer?”

It seems she had kept the duke waiting too long. He had come all the way to the front door, by the looks of it.

“Ah, I’m coming out! Your Grace.”

Chloe stopped halfway to the entrance and turned to look at Calcus.

Calcus nodded once. It looked as if he was asking, “You can do it, right?”

“Ah…!”

Finally, Chloe realized why Calcus had called her ‘Clyne’ earlier, as if for her to hear.

Calcus had already noticed that the duke was at the door.

She didn’t know how Calcus could have sensed the presence outside the door. Moreover, she wondered if calling her ‘Clyne’ thinking the sound would be heard outside was overestimating the duke’s hearing.

Well, it couldn’t hurt to be careful anyway. Considering the duke’s terrifyingly developed sense of smell, his hearing might be developed too.

After all, they say the duke, as a Swordmaster, can hear even the sound of leaves falling in the wind.

“Phew…”

Chloe let out a short sigh and opened the front door wide with the heart of a soldier heading into battle.

The first thing that caught Hugrey’s eye through the open door was a man’s face. Because they were of similar height, their eyes would meet if he lowered his gaze just slightly. This was unusual for Hugrey, who had to look down completely at most people.

But an even stranger thing happened.

He had to frown noticeably as soon as his eyes met the man’s.

Lion scent!

The man was vibrating with the scent of a lion that sharpened Hugrey’s nerves.

Such a strong scent occurred in two cases. Either the other person was deliberately emitting pheromones, or they were unconsciously releasing pheromones due to wariness towards a predator.

Which case it was, or if it was both, he couldn’t tell yet.

So it was true after all. He thought there was a high possibility, but actually seeing it with his own eyes, the feeling was…

Extremely unpleasant. No, it was beyond unpleasant. It was disgusting to the point of nausea.

Golden hair falling messily to the shoulders, skin as fair as a woman’s, round golden eyes. While giving an overall youthful impression, his build was close to Hugrey’s in size. A young man with golden eyes, the symbol of royalty.

This pretty boy with just a large build wasn’t Calcus Tacan, but Calcus Traskan, the missing First Prince of the lion beastkin Traskan royal bloodline.