“Aaaaah!”

Neeeigh.

The screams of people and horses mixed together.

She couldn’t think of anything. She could only curl up and try not to tremble, as if the duke’s words to not move were a protective charm.

However, soon she could no longer keep the duke’s request to stay still. Because shortly after the horse’s scream, the carriage started moving. It happened to be at the start of a downhill slope, and the carriage was rushing forward at a terrifying speed.

Her body rolled under the opposite seat and hit her head on the reinforced wooden panel. The impact struck her head hard enough to make her cry out. A terrible pain was felt in her head.

Outside, there were no more screams or sounds of clashing swords. Only the sound of fierce wind through the broken window, the horses’ hooves, and the carriage wheels rattling so loudly it seemed they might break at any moment.

She felt something warm on her eyes. Blood… It seemed her forehead had been cut by a nail in the wooden panel when she hit her head.

Her body kept mercilessly hitting the wooden panels on the floor, but due to the tremendous speed of the carriage heading downhill and the impact of hitting her head, she simply couldn’t control her body. Perhaps because of this, her consciousness seemed to keep fading. Fear swept over her at the thought of fainting again.

Like that day.

The day her elder brother died and her mother was injured to the point of life and death. The day she fainted without being able to help at all.

Will I die today too?

Strangely, tears came to her eyes.

It wasn’t because she feared death or because her injured head hurt. It was just that suddenly she thought, shouldn’t she have been the one to die that day? That’s why.

She didn’t know why such a thought came to her at this moment, but vaguely she felt that perhaps it was her turn to die this time.

That day, her mother and Chloe were on their way back from shopping in town. Her elder brother was alone at home. After the two of them had grown up a bit, they often took turns going to town instead of all going together like before, and that day her mother said she had a lot to buy and would go with her elder brother.

But Chloe stopped Clyne and told him to pack his luggage for the duke’s mansion before following her mother out. She knew that a new book she was waiting for was coming to the library that day. Moreover, because she was reading at the library and came back a little later than the time she was supposed to meet her mother, they left for the mountain later than usual.

When they had almost climbed all the way up the mountain, they saw her elder brother dying in front of the house. He was already shot with arrows all over his body, surrounded by strangers.

With sharp metal objects in their hands.

Chloe dropped everything she was holding and froze, unable to even scream. Then, just as she came to her senses and tried to run to her elder brother, she lost consciousness with a pain in her shoulder.

If she hadn’t lost consciousness like that, she would have run to her elder brother. She wouldn’t have been able to help, but at least she wouldn’t have been just lying there unconscious while her elder brother died and her mother was injured.

If her elder brother had gone to town with her mother as originally planned, it would have been her who died that day, not her elder brother.

If only she hadn’t been so greedy to read the book quickly. If only she hadn’t come back so late because of reading.

Then her elder brother wouldn’t have died alone like that and would still be alive by her side.

As it should have been, her elder brother would have become the duke’s personal attendant, wouldn’t have spent the night with the duke, wouldn’t have had to travel this mountain pass with the duke, and even if he had come, they would have stayed at ‘The Dog and Cat’s Night’, and wouldn’t have been attacked by bandits like this.

She couldn’t open her eyes due to the hot mixture of what might be tears or blood.

“That day… I should have died.”

The moment Chloe muttered, a terrible sound that was clearly made by a horse was heard. However, that sound didn’t even finish properly before disappearing, and the carriage tilted to one side.

The carriage is going to flip over!

As she finally became certain that her moment of death had come, she reached out and grabbed the edge of the seat.

It had been barely a few seconds since she said that she should have died instead of her elder brother, but faced with death, her survival instinct reared its head. As the thought flashed through her mind that her desperate struggle to live was ridiculous, she blinked.

She thought she saw a dark brown blur of fur pass by like the wind through the broken window.

What was that?

Just as she wondered what she had seen, what had flashed by, another terrible sound was heard and her body floated up.

Once again pain struck somewhere she couldn’t even specify, and finally, her body that had been floating in the air fell to the ground.

Not to the floor of the carriage, but to the dirt ground.

With the final blow, the carriage had flipped over and her body had fallen out along with the carriage door.

“Ugh…”

Groaning and closing her eyes, she sensed that she was about to lose consciousness again, just like that day. Again, without being of any use or help.

Just before her consciousness faded, she felt something warm and huge and furry wrap around her body. The furry mass smelled of grass, like Duke Ulpaz.

Hugrey’s mind was filled with various thoughts as he looked down at Clyne lying on his bed.

Even after stitching up the wound on his forehead, Clyne still hadn’t regained consciousness, so they finally moved him to Royzen, which was two hours away. It was decided that it would be better to move him to Royzen since they didn’t know when he would wake up. The doctor said that although his forehead was cut and he lost a lot of blood, it didn’t seem like there was serious internal damage.

However, contrary to the expectation that he would wake up after just a few hours, she still hadn’t regained consciousness. A whole night had passed and the sun was high in the sky again.

Surely she won’t just never wake up. Fear gripped his entire body.

Why aren’t you waking up, Chloe?

The reason he brought up the story of her dead elder brother in Boergen Square was to confirm that she was a woman, that she was Chloe.

Every time he called her ‘Chloe’, her eyes wavered, neither denying nor affirming, and when she talked about her elder brother’s death, her emotions became so intense that she couldn’t even lie properly. It was as if she was honestly confessing, ‘I am Chloe Liden.’

However, even as he confirmed the truth, he didn’t feel happy at all. It was because her appearance, on the verge of tears as she recalled her elder brother’s death, was so pitiful.

He had just vowed a few hours ago that he must never hurt her or make her cry, and yet she had ended up in this state.

Knock knock.

There was a knock from the direction of the office. It seemed Joyce had come to report on the cleanup of the remaining bandits.

“Is everything taken care of?”

He moved to the office and let Joyce in. Until Chloe woke up, he wasn’t allowing anyone except the doctor into the bedroom.

“Yes. We’ve dealt with every single one of them without exception.”

“Even their hideout?”

“Yes, we burned it down completely.”

“I see. That will be all.”

Hugrey showed little reaction to Joyce’s report.

What use was it to kill all those who had done this to Clyne, no, Chloe? She was still lying there unconscious.

“Your Grace.”

Joyce called out to him as he was about to return to the bedroom. He turned back to Joyce with furrowed brows.

“Why aren’t you leaving? Go.”

“How is Clyne doing?”

“He still hasn’t woken up.”

“Um… Those bandits deserved to die anyway. But I don’t think Your Grace needs to go this far for a mere attendant. For Clyne’s treatment, perhaps the butler, or I could…”

Anger rose again. He knew it wasn’t Joyce’s fault. It was because of those damn bandits they unfortunately encountered, and because he had given in to Chloe’s desperate plea not to stay at the inn.

Chloe was a weak woman who couldn’t even protect herself against bandits.

Even though he was already certain she was a woman, his judgment had been clouded by her male disguise right in front of him. He thought there wouldn’t be any problem since she was with him.

If only the arrows shot by those bandits hadn’t hit the horse tied to the carriage, there really wouldn’t have been any problem. But as if all the bad luck had gathered, things went wrong, and the arrow-struck horse ran like a madman. Down the mountain pass towards the cliff, at full speed.

He had to throw his sword to kill the arrow-struck horse, and even transform into a wolf to catch up with the remaining crazed horse. He knew that if the carriage stopped suddenly, Chloe inside might get hurt from the recoil, but it was a better choice than letting it fall off the cliff.

However, as a result of choosing the lesser evil, she was now in this state, unable to wake up.

“Don’t ever dare to say such nonsense about taking charge of Clyne again. Clyne is… We’ll talk about it later. Don’t come this way unless I call for you.”

It wasn’t time to tell Joyce yet. That Clyne was Chloe, and the owner of the imprint.

She must have understood clearly. So if she accepts his feelings, she will tell him herself that she is a woman.