In an instant, the hair all over my body stood on end and my legs felt like they would give out.

I must have heard wrong. I should have heard wrong.

“Duke!”

Calcus shouted.

“So don’t be alone with another man when I’m not there. Friend or whatever. I absolutely cannot allow just the two of you to be in a house together. My feelings for you aren’t one-sided either, you liked me first. So you’ll understand this much of my feelings, right?”

“Haa…!”

An incredulous sigh burst out from the pit of Chloe’s stomach.

What is he saying? What did I just hear?

“You’ve said several times that there’s nothing between you two anyway, Clyne. So for the peace of mind of me, whom you ‘like’, isn’t it only natural to send the ‘nobody’ Tacan out of this house?”

“Duke Ulpaz, stop it! What nonsense is this!”

Calcus shouted in agitation.

“Calcus Tacan. What are you doing between lovers who like each other? Clyne liked me from the start. Understand? So don’t make a fuss. From this moment on, don’t even set foot in this house. This is not a place for you to be.”

Lovers? Between two men. What on earth is all this nonsense? Chloe inwardly screamed.

Has the duke forgotten that she is his personal attendant? No, has he momentarily forgotten even the fact that she is a man?

But Chloe couldn’t say a single word. She couldn’t say now that liking the duke was a lie. That would cause all the lies to unravel one after another.

Moreover, if you went back, tracing back, in the end even Calcus, who had vouched for her on the premise that she was a man, would be bound by the shackles of lies.

Then even Calcus, to whom she was already greatly indebted, would be harmed.

Why on earth is the duke saying such nonsense to try to drive Calcus out of this house?

Could it be… really? Does the duke really like me, ‘Clyne Liden’, a man? Has he gone mad?

No! That can’t be!

The duke was none other than Hugrey Ulpaz. The head of the Ulpaz ducal family, one of the most powerful houses in the empire. How could such a person like a personal attendant who was not only a commoner, but a ‘man’!

Ah! That’s right! Of course!

A valid reason why the duke’s words must be nonsense came to mind.

Her night with the duke.

The duke did not like men. He was a man with perfectly ordinary tastes, who responded to ‘women’. So those must be blatant lies. Not worth considering or being flustered over.

In fact, while knowing the duke’s words were lies, she did think for a brief moment that they might be true. Because the duke she knew wasn’t someone who would say such absurd things as a joke.

But when she recalled the duke exploring her body like a beast that night, the thought ‘this really can’t be’ dominated her mind.

“Your Grace.”

Chloe gathered her wits and called out to the duke.

“What is it, Clyne.”

Huh! Really! What’s with that affectionate gaze and tone even?

Honey seemed to be dripping from the duke’s eyes, like what they’d spread on rye bread. As if he really did like her.

“Please don’t lie.”

“…”

The duke stared at her intently.

“How can you tell such a lie, even if that’s the case? While you were even looking for the woman you… slept with. You shouldn’t just say anything like that to a male personal attendant.”

She felt a prick of conscience lecturing him like this when she herself had lied.

“…”

However, the eyes of the duke who received the lecture didn’t become solemn, but rather sharpened. Somehow he looked angry. That gaze made her heart shrink a little.

Though she wasn’t in a position to lecture, wrong was wrong, so why did he look so angry? Logically speaking, shouldn’t she be the one getting angry at the duke’s joking words?

If the duke really believed her words about liking him, he shouldn’t so easily say he likes her. The words he just said were a vicious joke and lie that would give false hope and dreams to someone who liked him.

If she really was someone who liked the duke, she might want to have hope and truly believe his words. So he shouldn’t lie about such emotions.

Of course, Chloe was aware that she was applying a double standard to her own lies and the duke’s lies. But she soon found an excuse for the double standard too. She had lied then because she was in an unavoidable situation, and knowing the duke didn’t like her, she judged there was no chance of hurting him.

However, her one-sided self-justification clearly didn’t work on the duke at all.

“You told me you liked me, so why can’t I say it? What kind of unfair relationship is this?”

“…!”

The duke precisely pointed out the flaw in the logic she was putting forward. But that logic was something he could only bring up if he really liked her. It wasn’t a point he could make while deceiving a personal attendant with lies.

Unless that person sincerely… liked her…… But if…, really…, it wasn’t a lie…….

“A-Are… are… are you serious?”

Chloe couldn’t understand why such a question popped out of her mouth, and couldn’t believe this situation.

It was a question that burst out without time to control unnecessary words. It felt like the words ran on their own from her head to the tip of her tongue.

To dare ask the duke if he liked her. Moreover, she was a man right now.

“No, I’m not…”

Having barely collected her thoughts, she tried to take back her words. That she had misspoken. That she had momentarily lost her mind. But the duke’s heavy voice stopped her mouth.

“Clyne. Four months is short if short, but long if long. Long enough for a personal attendant to grasp the nature of the master they’ve watched closely. During that time, did I seem like someone who would jokingly or falsely say they liked a ‘man’?”

What kind of rhetoric is that! Making it impossible to answer that he seemed like such a person.

But the real problem wasn’t the duke’s rhetoric. Because her answer to the duke’s question was ‘no’.

The duke wasn’t that kind of person. Moreover, the duke’s face was serious. He wasn’t making an expression to force a set answer from her either.

“I’ll say it once more. I like you. Even if you’re a man. It’s not a lie or a joke.”

“…!”

The duke directly drove in the wedge. Saying ‘even if you’re a man’.

Does this make sense? It doesn’t make sense.

Yet now she had no choice but to believe it. That this was the duke’s true feelings. His voice, his gaze, his expression, all the duke’s gestures were telling her. That all those words he was saying were sincere.

So in the end, that meant the Duke of Ulpaz liked a male personal attendant.

Good heavens….. How, why!

“Why… do you like me?”

Chloe’s mouth was moving automatically. She couldn’t hear Calcus’s voice calling out “Clyne!” several times from beside her. At this moment, in this place, it felt like everything else had disappeared and only the duke and she remained.

“Why did you like me?”

“That… well.”

That was a lie.

“It’s hard to explain, isn’t it?”

“That’s…”

Because it was a lie.

“It’s hard for me too. This is just how I feel.”

Ah….. No matter how you look at it, no matter how you hear it, it was sincere. How did it come to this?

“I’ll come pick you up early the morning after tomorrow. Rest well until then.”

“…!”

The duke reached out his hand over Chloe’s dumbfounded head, ruffled her hair, and then stood up.

“Let’s go, Calcus Tacan. You seem to have a lot to say to me too.”

As the duke moved his gaze, only then did Chloe’s gaze fall on Calcus. Calcus was glaring at the duke with eyes that seemed to be burning.

In Calcus’s completely stiffened face and golden eyes that seemed to be emitting light, an unbearable anger could be felt.

“Cal… cus.”

“Later, we’ll talk again later, Cl…yne.”

Calcus said that and then left the house just like that.

Ah! Calcus…

At last, the existence of Calcus that she had forgotten pressed down on her chest.

She hadn’t even explained to him how she had ended up lying about liking the duke. If he left with the duke like that, Calcus’s misunderstanding could grow.

In fact, after the duke entered her mother’s room last night, Chloe had tried to explain the situation to Calcus several times. But each time, Calcus stopped her mouth. Saying they could talk slowly later, after the duke left.

Chloe too was cautious about explaining the whole story while the duke was in the same house, so she kept her mouth shut. She thought there would be plenty of time to talk with Calcus after the duke left today anyway.

But.

If the duke and Calcus left in this state, and Calcus really didn’t return home until her vacation was over, there would be no chance to explain for a while.

Then she would end up hurting Calcus unintentionally. If he misunderstood that she really liked the duke…

In fact, though she hadn’t received a direct confession from Calcus, she had long noticed that he had romantic feelings for her.

Because her own feelings for Calcus weren’t the same, she had been anxious for some time that he might confess at any moment. If he really did confess, it would be difficult to reject him.

Still, she didn’t want to be indebted to him as much as possible. But the series of events ended up making her greatly indebted to him. Regrettably and shamelessly.

That’s why even if her feelings were different from Calcus’s, letting him leave with the duke in this misunderstood state didn’t sit well with her. Even if she didn’t really like the duke, even if she explained the truth later, she didn’t want to make Calcus uncomfortable with this kind of misunderstanding.

No! Why on earth is the duke acting like this! Saying he likes a male personal attendant.

“Clyne, I’ll see you the day after tomorrow.”

While Chloe felt like her head was about to explode, the duke, the very person who had thrown a fireball into her head, headed towards the entrance with a brilliant smile that seemed like it would suck out her soul.

Excuse me, Your Grace!

She wanted to grab him and say, ‘What are you doing, come to your senses’.

“Ah! Clyne!”

As if he had heard her thoughts, suddenly the duke turned to look at her and stopped.