“You like me too. So your younger sibling must have liked you, who is similar to me. So much that just thinking about it would make you cry until you’re covered in tears and snot.”

Chloe turned her head and glared openly at the duke.

Really! This duke. Is he slapping someone who’s crying right now, or what!

“No! My younger sibling didn’t like me either, and I don’t like you, Your Grace.”

Like what! He’s just teasing people.

“……”

The duke shut his mouth. In an instant, an awkward air began to float between the two.

Did I say too bluntly that I don’t like him? Was I too harsh in rejecting someone who keeps saying he likes me?

“It seems……”

Finally, the duke broke the silence.

“You must be hungry. Seeing as you’re saying things you don’t mean.”

With an out-of-the-blue remark.

“Pardon?”

“That bakery over there has opened, so I should buy you some bread to eat. From what I’ve seen so far, you don’t seem to be in a good state when you’re hungry. You look just like that now. You didn’t eat breakfast either, did you?”

“What are you……”

What nonsense is this, sir?

“Let’s go. I think we’ve seen enough of the square by now.”

The duke stood up and strode towards the bakery that had started putting out bread one by one.

“Huh!”

Looking at the back of the duke’s head, already several meters away, Chloe let out a hollow laugh.

Liking the duke but saying things I don’t mean because I’m hungry. What a ridiculous excuse.

Grumble.

But as if by some magic, her stomach chose that moment to make a sound. She was actually hungry. She hadn’t eaten breakfast before coming out, and it was past her usual breakfast time.

Chloe sighed at her uselessly accurate internal clock and started following the duke.

Sightseeing is best done on a full stomach after all.

Sitting across from the duke at a table set out on the street in front of the bakery, eating bread, Chloe suddenly looked up and stared at the duke.

“Why aren’t you eating, Your Grace?”

The duke had bought enough bread that the two of them couldn’t possibly finish it all even if they ate earnestly, but he himself wasn’t even touching the bread.

“You just eat a lot. You must be hungry after crying your eyes out.”

“……”

Chloe was about to put bread in her mouth but stopped and glared slightly at the duke. It seemed she would be teased for a hundred years for crying once.

“Eat.”

The duke said again, slightly lifting his chin.

“How can I possibly eat all this by myself?”

“If you can’t eat it all, just leave it.”

“……”

Anyway, you don’t know the value of money. Well, someone who would throw away a horse would easily throw away bread.

Come to think of it, even on the day she woke up in his house, the duke hardly touched his breakfast. Is it that the modest food doesn’t suit his palate after eating only the best at the duke’s residence?

But from what she had observed over the past few months, the duke wasn’t particularly picky about food.

Ah, now that I look closely, his face seems a bit haggard these past few days. Is it because he’s not eating properly?

“Why are you staring at me like that?”

Chloe, who had been examining the duke’s face, snapped back to her senses at his words.

“Your Grace, have you been eating properly during your stay in Buergen? Your face… doesn’t look well.”

“Well, adequately……”

Strangely, the duke mumbled his answer. It seemed he hadn’t been eating properly. He still doesn’t seem to have recovered since being so sick a few days ago, he should eat well at times like this. No matter how strong his constitution is.

“Clyne.”

“Yes?”

“The truth is…”

“Yes.”

“I’d be fine with you even if you were a man, but I’d be fine even if you weren’t a man.”

“Pardon?”

Suddenly, it felt like all the bread she had swallowed so far was stuck in her throat.

“In other words, I’m saying that I don’t like you because you’re a man.”

“Pardon?”

Chloe felt like she had become an idiot, unable to understand what he meant at all.

She was surprised that he was saying “I like you” again without any warning or sign, but in fact, she was even more surprised by the words “even if you weren’t a man.”

If not a man… then a woman. What does that mean? Is he saying he’d be fine with her even if she were a woman?

“I’m just telling you to know. I like you, and I don’t care whether you’re a man or a woman.”

“……”

It felt like not just the sound of swallowing, but even her heartbeat and breathing would be heard by the duke. At the duke’s words of liking her whether she was a man or a woman, even the sound of her own heart starting to like this man in front of her, whether he was a duke or a master.

Why are you doing this, really? Why do you keep shaking me up like this?

I’m just a cross-dressing attendant who wants to pay off my wages and run away. Someone who doesn’t suit Your Grace at all.

“Your Grace.”

“Yes?”

“Are you not looking for the woman named Chloe anymore?”

You said the woman you spent one night with was your destiny. You were busy looking for her. Why are you saying you like a male attendant? You’re making me want to say, I’m a woman, I’m that woman you spent the night with. Even though I don’t know if I can, even though I don’t know what will happen if I do.

To the extent that I might hope that Your Grace truly likes me, likes me enough to say you’d be fine even if I were a man, that you might forgive everything – my cross-dressing, my lies.

I keep getting shaken up, I’m telling you.

“I think I’ve found her.”

Did I hear wrong? Found her? When? You only confirmed that the Chloe from Kinden and Solarin wasn’t that Chloe. After that, you’ve been here in Buergen all along.

No, that’s not the important thing!

That Chloe was Chloe Liden, herself. So how could he say he found her!

“They say it’s darkest under the lamp.”

“……”

“You don’t even think to doubt what you’ve been believing as obvious fact.”

It felt like her heart rate was increasing mercilessly. Under the lamp. Doubt. What on earth was he saying? Surely not…

“Clyne.”

“… Yes.”

“If you like me, if you come to like me, I hope you’ll tell me everything about yourself without fearing anything.”

“……”

“If you don’t tell me, I’ll continue to not know. That would be your feelings, and your answer to my feelings.”

All the words the duke had said this morning were mixing in her head like bread dough, kneading into one.

Her head felt completely white, as if filled with flour dough.

“Eat more. Eat a lot. After you finish, you should eat cookies too. You said you liked cookies so much. You don’t have to throw a tantrum with me. Eat them all yourself.”

The duke smiled brightly as he spoke, as if he didn’t know he had thrown flour dough into her head. But his words became an even bigger shock, now making the flour dough in her head feel like it had all burned black.

It was because it seemed like the duke had accurately translated what she had said. Into the story of her throwing tantrums to her elder brother.

Has he found out? That I’m a woman, that I’m that Chloe from that night? Why? What mistake did I make? What’s going to happen now?

Her body trembled.

“Clyne!”

Frozen in a daze, overwhelmed by surprise and fear, confusion and chaos, she reflexively turned her head at the voice coming from behind her.

“Calcus.”

Calcus, who hadn’t returned home even until this morning, was approaching.

“So you were here.”

Calcus said with a smile as he came right up to her. Still not fully out of her dazed state, Chloe shook her head slightly as if finally coming to her senses.

“Ah, yes. Did you go home?”

It seemed Calcus had come to see her after she had left the house.

“Yes, I went in the morning but you had already left, so I was disappointed. But you were here. I’m glad.”

“What’s there to be glad about.”

The duke’s muttering followed Calcus’s words. Chloe glanced at the duke and then smiled awkwardly at Calcus.

Calcus must have heard it too. But whether he didn’t hear or was pretending not to hear, he didn’t even glance at the duke.

“Clyne, shall we talk for a moment? Not here.”

He only stated his business to her, as if trying to keep her eyes fixed on him.

“Ah, um……”

However, Chloe unknowingly looked at the duke. Strictly speaking, since her vacation wasn’t over yet, there was no need to ask the duke’s permission to leave for a moment. Still, it was an automatic action since she was with her employer.

In fact, it might not be because he was her employer, but because she was in the middle of a strange conversation with that employer.

“Your Grace, may I excuse myself for a moment?”

She sought permission with her eyes, but since the duke seemed to not understand her gaze at all and gave no answer, she finally had to ask outright.

“Just talk here.”

Somehow I thought he’d say something like that.

“Duke, it should still be during Clyne’s vacation period. It’s not something for you to permit or not.”

I thought Calcus would say something like this too.

“True. You’ll be with me constantly from now on, so I suppose I should give you time for a farewell conversation with an old friend.”

Is this permission or obstruction? Anyway, even if it was twisted, permission was permission.

“Then, please wait a moment.”

“Alright, we should start heading to Roizen soon, so come back quickly.”

After leisurely sightseeing in the city until now, suddenly saying we need to leave?

Chloe frowned slightly at the duke, but when their eyes met, she quickly turned her head and followed Calcus.