“Please!”

Chloe pleaded, struggling. At that moment, the duke’s hands lost their strength. As if the word “please” had become a command that moved him, instantly.

“Clyne! What are you doing!”

But Calcus’s shout had already pierced down onto her back. At his shout, Chloe felt as if her heart had dropped far below.

She couldn’t understand why she felt this way. She hadn’t done anything wrong. She was just trying to cover a guest who had fallen asleep without a blanket.

“Calcus, why are you like this! It was just an accident… Ah! Calcus!”

Chloe, who was trying to get up while pressing both hands just above the duke’s chest, screamed in surprise. Because Calcus quickly grabbed one of her hands and pulled, she almost rolled off the sofa. Fortunately, her knees hit the carpet spread under the sofa first.

“Ah, sorry! I’m sorry, are you okay?”

Calcus, seemingly realizing he had pulled Chloe too roughly, released her arm and blushed.

“No, I was just surprised. It doesn’t hurt.”

Chloe hurriedly stood up and answered Calcus, but her eyes were already directed towards the duke. In the meantime, the duke had sat up on the sofa.

“Duke Ulpaz! What on earth did you do to Clyne!”

Calcus, having confirmed she was alright, immediately raised his voice at the duke.

What did he do. Duke Ulpaz. Since yesterday, it was worrying how Calcus had been losing his fear, manners, and temper.

What did the duke do. That earlier… that was… that is… Wasn’t it just because he was startled awake? Just an accident.

However, Chloe, who was now recalling that situation from earlier, realized that her face was heating up.

“What did I do. Clyne, what did I do to you?”

The duke asked with a languid face and a low, hoarse voice.

His expression, like someone not fully awake, looked truly innocent as if asking what had happened.

It seems it was indeed an accident. Without any meaning.

“You just now did to Clyne…”

“Calcus!”

Chloe shook her head as if to stop Calcus.

That’s enough now. It wasn’t anything serious. She disliked both the strange atmosphere created by Calcus making a fuss and Calcus’s impolite words and actions towards the duke.

“…”

Fortunately, this time Calcus kept his mouth shut.

“Your Grace, why were you sleeping in the living room? Sleeping without even a blanket.”

Chloe changed the subject, conveniently omitting the part where she fell on top of the duke.

“You covered me with a blanket, didn’t you?”

But she immediately regretted it at the unexpected answer.

She should have just kept quiet. The attempt to ease the awkwardness only made the atmosphere more awkward. Why would he say that when he woke up right as she was covering him with the blanket.

“And you lay on top of me…”

“You were sleeping in the living room without a blanket! You must have been cold! Ah…, shall I bring you some warm tea?

Chloe hurriedly cut off the duke’s words.

Adding fuel to the fire. The duke was spilling increasingly outrageous words. When did she ever lie on top of His Grace.

‘Your Grace, you pulled me!’

She wanted to argue, but of course, she couldn’t. The duke stared at her intently as she interrupted his words.

“…”

“Tea…, I should bring tea. So… shall I bring you flower petal tea like yesterday? Did that suit your taste yesterday? Or should I look for something else?”

Unable to bear the duke’s gaze, let alone argue, she started rambling.

“Ah… Your Grace…”

She couldn’t even finish that as the duke suddenly stood up from the sofa. She took a step back as if pushed by the duke’s body that had risen right in front of her.

“…”

It was strange. The duke was just looking down at her without saying anything.

But even with just that, it felt like he was saying something to her. More precisely, it was a gaze that seemed to be asking a question.

What is he curious about? What does he want to hear from me?

However, she too kept her mouth tightly shut without uttering another word. Even though she didn’t know what question the duke was asking her with his eyes, she was certain that it would be better not to hear that question.

“Your Excellency, now that day has broken, shall we go downstairs?”

Calcus broke the silence that had been hovering between the two. It was a relief that he at least added the honorific “Excellency” again. The duke’s gaze turned from her to Calcus.

‘Haa…’

Only after the duke’s gaze left her did Chloe realize that she had been holding her breath all this time. More accurately, she had even forgotten to breathe.

“Clyne, this friend of yours is telling me, a guest, to go out into the early morning frost as soon as I open my eyes.”

However, as if he only intended to give her a brief moment to breathe when she couldn’t even breathe, the duke’s gaze instantly returned to Chloe. Even the answer that should have been directed at Calcus.

He was acting as if Calcus didn’t exist in this space.

“No, please have some breakfast before you go.”

Chloe finally came to her senses and spoke quickly. Whether an employer or not, it was too inconsiderate to drive out a guest who had just woken up from dawn.

She could feel Calcus looking down at her with a displeased expression, but this was something even Calcus couldn’t help. The duke was her guest and she was the owner of this house.

Hugrey stared intently at Clyne’s back.

Clyne was bustling about in the kitchen, saying he was making breakfast. The Traskan beside him, who looked to be twice Clyne’s size, was a bonus.

He had no desire to eat breakfast. He had even less desire to watch those two standing side by side, amicably preparing breakfast together.

Nevertheless, the reason he was watching this sight now was because he needed time. Time to observe Clyne Liden.

Clyne Liden. A personal attendant employed by the Ulpaz ducal family. So of course, he was a man. He only employed men, and there was no way a woman could be in his house. So, that fellow had to be a man. As he had been for the past four months. But why…

His heart began to pound again as the situation from earlier suddenly came to mind.

He had been dreaming that Clyne was covering him with a blanket. Then the scent and smell that wafted to his nose stimulated his hazy consciousness. A mixture of a fragrance he wanted to drink in and a foul odor awakened his senses, and when he opened his eyes with a start, Clyne was right in front of him. Emitting a fragrance he wanted to suck in, while covering him with a blanket that smelled of something he wanted to bite, tear, and rip apart.

Was it a dream or not?

Pulling Clyne down wasn’t a conscious action. It was just an impulse, a desire that overtook him in that moment. But the sensation felt from the arm he grabbed in the haziness of desire was too vivid.

It wasn’t a dream but reality.

The arm he ended up grabbing as the nightgown rode up was bare skin, and that skin was soft. And Clyne’s body that fell on top of him…

What had he been thinking at that moment?

No, what thoughts. While restraining the squirming fellow and meeting his eyes, he couldn’t think of anything.

His mind went blank at the presence of Clyne looking at him from atop his body. There was no room for thought with the premonition that his chest might explode at the fact that Clyne was in his arms.

Every part of his body that touched him was enveloped in heat, and every cell was conscious of his presence.

That’s why the thought ‘this is strange’ came only after Clyne had separated from him.

The moment immediately after that Traskan bastard roughly pulled Clyne away and took him from him, some ridiculous thought made him dizzy.

Was his head spinning, or was the ceiling above him spinning? Or was the world spinning?

The body of the fellow that had touched his body was strange.

There was something on that skinny, small body of Clyne’s that didn’t suit a man’s body. What could it be? It was almost as if…

Ha! It was nonsense.

“Calcus, please set out the forks and spoons. Ah, is this enough salt? Can you taste it for me?”

Clyne, bustling about in the kitchen, called out to Traskan. Traskan stepped closer to Clyne’s side as if to answer.

Seeing them so close together like that made his heart boil. But more than that, his head seemed to be boiling even more.

He couldn’t do anything now. Not even separate Clyne from Traskan.

Because the world he was in was spinning round and round.

Small.

Next to Traskan, Clyne looked too small.

Such a big difference. Although Traskan’s build was particularly large, Clyne standing next to him was still too small. Almost… too small to be considered the same kind of man.

It was as if he had discovered a new truth: ‘Clyne Liden is small’.

In fact, there were occasionally men shorter than that fellow. But he suddenly realized he had never seen a man with a smaller build than that fellow. That fellow wasn’t just small. He was delicate to the point of being frail.

“Your Grace, you can come to eat now. Please sit at the table.”

The delicate Clyne turned to look at him and spoke. But that fellow… his face is really small too, isn’t it? Can a man’s face be that small?

“Your Grace?”

Clyne called to him again. Come to think of it, his nose is small and his mouth is small too. There’s nothing big about him.

“Your Grace, I said you can come?”

His voice is ambiguous too. It sounds like it’s scratching his throat which grates on the nerves, but occasionally a youthful and high-pitched voice mixes in. Almost like a woman’s voice.

A woman, that’s nonsense. For the past four months, that fellow has been a male servant attending to him.

Meal service, dressing service, tea service, bedding service, washing service, et cetera. He provided all those services by his side. Even bath service, which he had never asked of other servants.

‘…!’

Bath service. Suddenly, he felt his face heating up.