“You like my body, don’t you?”

“Me?”

Chloe widened her eyes at the Duke.

“Yes, don’t you? Was it a lie?”

Only upon seeing those eyes did she recall their previous conversation. That she had fallen for the Duke’s face and body.

It wasn’t a lie. Everyone in the empire knows the Duke has a great body!

However, in the end, the carelessly uttered lies about liking the Duke and falling for his face and body were tripping her up, mercilessly tossing her back and forth.

“It wasn’t a lie. But I didn’t particularly enjoy bathing you. I was just doing my job.”

“Ah… So you did like my body after all.”

Selective hearing? Why are you doing this? Do you know it was all lies and are deliberately trying to get revenge?

Whether he was completely unable to interpret Chloe’s expression, or if her expression simply had no impact on him, the Duke’s expression remained jovial.

“Clyne, don’t you hear some noise outside?”

While her heart was pounding from the absurdity, Calcus suddenly spoke out of nowhere.

“Huh? What noise?”

“Well, I’m not sure what kind of noise it is, but would you like to go check?”

“What?”

Chloe stared at Calcus with bewildered eyes.

Why were both the Duke and Calcus acting strangely in pairs? What noise could there possibly be? She couldn’t hear anything at all.

Though she heard nothing, it was also strange that Calcus was telling her to go check on a noise he claimed to hear.

Normally, Calcus would have checked it himself without telling her, even if there really was a noise. Though many things were different from usual today. In any case, there was still no sound coming from outside.

“Hmm, now that you mention it, I think I heard something too. Clyne, go take a look.”

Now even the Duke was saying such bizarre things.

“…What… kind of noise was it?”

With both of them saying such things, she began to wonder if there really was some sound.

“Yes, I’m sure. Go check.”

“That’s right, take a careful look around. Check thoroughly around the house.”

For some reason, the Duke and Calcus were in agreement. For a moment, she even had the illusion that a peaceful atmosphere had descended upon the tense living room.

“Then I’ll go out and take a look around for a moment.”

Chloe had no choice but to stand up.

Ah! Is it okay to leave just the two of them? They’re both acting a bit strange.

With an uneasy heart, she paused while opening the front door and looked back at the two. But contrary to her anxiety, the two were peacefully holding teacups as if they had never created an unsettling atmosphere.

Hmm… I guess it’ll be fine.

Seeing the two so unexpectedly calm, Chloe went outside with a dazed feeling.

Click.

“What do you want?”

As soon as Chloe left and the door closed, Traskan asked.

“You can’t still be unaware. Are you pretending not to know?”

The fact that what I want is Clyne.

Hugrey said, leaning back against the sofa. Just because Clyne wasn’t present, he had no intention of treating that youngster as a prince.

You want to be Tacan in front of Clyne, then keep doing so.

“No, I can’t believe it. You’re not just a wolf, but an alpha, aren’t you?”

‘You’…

A commoner couldn’t use such language with Hugrey. At last, Traskan had thrown off the mask of Tacan and revealed his true identity.

A lion beastman and a prince of Elaion.

Is he only going to act as ‘Tacan’ when Clyne is around? What a convenient mask to put on and take off as he pleases.

“And you’re a lion beastman. One who ran away with his tail between his legs after being pushed out of the power struggle from the start.”

“Duke Ulpaz, it doesn’t seem right for a wolf beastman to talk about power and such to me, an Elaion.”

So you’re claiming Elaion bloodline without a lion’s claws or teeth?

How ridiculous.

Hugrey lowered his head, holding back a sneer.

Beastmen possessed both human mental abilities and superior physical abilities of animals, making them stronger than pure humans, and naturally becoming the ruling class.

As an absolute minority, they had no choice but to mix with humans. However, when beastmen and humans mated, the probability of producing a beastman child was not very high. Thus, with each passing generation, the number of beastmen inevitably decreased further.

Moreover, herbivorous beastmen, who were not overwhelmingly superior to pure humans, were not particularly attached to preserving their bloodline from the start and were much more open to unions with humans. Eventually, this trend continued and even accelerated until not a drop of beastman blood flowed in the descendants of tribes that had beastmen as their ancestors.

Of course, even carnivorous beastmen could not go against this great trend. This trend gradually spread to lower predator species, and gradually predator beastmen tribes also followed the path to extinction. Until the belief that beastmen were a species that had disappeared into history became firmly rooted among humans.

That’s why only the bloodlines that were the most powerful top predators from the beginning still had beastman blood remaining. These were the imperial and royal families, and a few powerful noble houses that had long established themselves as rulers. They had insisted on mating only among themselves to maintain their power and authority.

However, they gradually reached an agreement and conclusion that it was better to hide their blood.

With most beastman tribes extinct and the majority of the ruled class being pure humans, they judged that flaunting their bloodline could rather provoke resentment. For stable rule and maintenance of power, they chose to become beings that had disappeared.

Continuously and systematically, while spreading the belief that beastmen had disappeared into history, on the other hand, by mythologizing the fact that the roots of each country’s imperial and royal families were beastmen, they solidified humans’ reverence for beastmen.

In fact, due to constant territorial disputes and power struggles, the relationships between different top predator beastmen families were never cooperative or friendly. Rather, they had been constantly opposing and competing with each other.

However, when it came to dealing with humans, they maintained a perfect symbiotic relationship. As a ruling class community, it was advantageous and efficient to respond jointly to pure-blooded humans, the ruled class.

No matter how exceptional their abilities were, they were still a minority, so they had to cooperate with each other to solidify their superiority and dominance.

Paradoxically, this meant that beastmen family clans had to know each other’s bloodlines intimately. The representative beastmen families that competed and coexisted in this way were the lion clan of the Elaion Imperial Family, the wolf clan of the Ulpaz Ducal Family, the tiger clan of the Tigrium Royal Family, the black panther clan of the Darkus Ducal Family, and so on.

So now, Calcus Trascan was asserting his superiority over Hugrey as a beastman to beastman, and moreover, as a top predator beastman to a relatively lower predator beastman.

Of course, Hugrey had no intention of agreeing with his absurd claim.

“In the world of beastmen, righteousness is determined by strength, not bloodline… I wonder if your skills can keep up with your bloodline. Though even your bloodline means little to me.”

You think you’re something? Laughable. You overgrown cat.

Hugrey had, in his own way, indirectly told Trascan his thoughts. That the Elaion whelp was nothing to him.

“Bloodline cannot be ignored because of the power it holds. Whether it means anything to you or not, I am of Elaion blood.”

In response to Hugrey’s dismissal, Trascan, who had looked delicate, growled with flashing golden eyes as if trying to prove he was Elaion.

To Hugrey, that threat sounded like nothing more than a cat’s meow.

“I’m really curious, if you were born with such a noble bloodline, why do you pretend to be a cat in front of Clyne? Does it suit you?”

Hugrey asked, tilting his head to one side as if genuinely curious. In fact, he was a little curious.

“Rather than suiting me… it suits living with Clyne well.”

At Trascan’s response, the smirk that had been on Hugrey’s face until now disappeared.

Stop blabbering, Trascan.

Hugrey said with his eyes. But Calcus, who had no intention of paying attention to his gaze, continued speaking nonchalantly.

“I have no attachment to Elaion blood. As you said, I was pushed out of the power struggle from the start, and I don’t have any innate desire for power. But you can’t be like that. Because you’re the head of the wolf clan, the alpha. So stop doing weird things to Clyne, a man.”

“You know so well that I’m the alpha, yet you’re giving me orders. I’m not in a position to take orders from anyone.”

“If you want to stay in that position, stop your impure actions towards Clyne.”

“Whether impure or wholesome, I have no intention of stopping at all. I’ll keep him by my side.”

“You’re out of your mind. Is an alpha in heat for a man? Can you even do that? You can’t abandon your bloodline like I can.”

“…”

The urge to bite off that arrogant lion’s neck right now raged inside Hugrey.

When that scruffy whelp had flaunted his lion beastman bloodline earlier, it was laughable. After all, they were in the same boat. That bastard was also shackled by being a lion beastman. Just like himself, shackled by being an alpha.

But abandon it? He can throw that away?

Suddenly, he felt like he was being choked. But what was choking him wasn’t the lion cub in front of him. It wasn’t his identity as a wolf beastman either. It was the shackle of being the alpha, the leader of his species.