“I… love you?”

I ended up saying it again. Once I said it, it felt more real that I truly ‘loved’ the duke. Despite all the worries and fears, the reason I ultimately told him I was a woman and Chloe was because I had come to ‘love’ him.

Whoosh.

Suddenly the duke grabbed one of her arms. In an instant, he pulled her close to him, wrapping one arm around her waist and the other around her back. Then he rested his head on her upper chest.

Thump thump thump.

Chloe’s heart started beating abnormally. She thought the duke might be able to hear her heartbeat too.

“Your Grace.”

Feeling embarrassed that he might have heard all of her racing heartbeats, Chloe tried to push back on his shoulders and pull her body away. But his stone-like body didn’t budge an inch.

“Chloe Liden’s heart, who loves Hugrey Ulpaz, is beating so fast… It’s cute.”

The duke mumbled somewhere near her chest. So he did hear it. His tone, different from usual, made her chest tingle and her insides flutter.

“So please let go of me now.”

Before my heart explodes.

The duke lifted his face from her and looked up at her intently.

Chloe blinked, unable to turn her gaze away from the duke’s eyes.

“You probably don’t know what it means to me when you say you love me.”

“…”

“It feels a bit like you belong to me. Though it’s incomparable to how I’m bound to you.”

“Bound… what do you mean?”

“That’s what imprinting is. An absolute submission to the other person.”

“…!”

Absolute submission? The duke to her? Is that what imprinting is?

Only now did the weight of imprinting feel real. The duke had said something similar before. But she hadn’t really heard it then. Both imprinting and wolf shifters were too unfamiliar. But now she seemed to have become somewhat accustomed to the word imprinting. And as she became familiar, fears also arose.

Wasn’t there something different about the duke’s feelings towards her? Something different from the emotions she felt for the duke.

Suddenly Chloe realized that the duke had never once said “I love you” to her. He had poured out all sorts of ticklish and sweet words, but he never said the words “I love you”. Even now, he’s still talking about ‘imprinting’ instead of ‘love’.

Despite the duke’s gaze and words that both craved her affection and poured affection on her, strangely, a faint sense of unease began to squirm in Chloe’s chest.

Imprinting.

Isn’t that emotion something different from ‘love’? What is ‘imprinting’? Why do they do it, and how? Who do they do it to? Why did he imprint on me? Why…

“Chloe.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t like seeing you without glasses.”

Suddenly not understanding what he meant, she was dumbfounded, unable to follow his train of thought.

“Wear your glasses. I’m fine with it, so don’t wear them in my room. I mean wear them when you’re walking around outside my room.”

“…?”

“You said you don’t want to reveal that you’re a woman yet, right? Then you need to be thorough about it.”

The thought that the duke might have only ‘imprinted’ on her, rather than ‘loving’ her, kept growing stronger. To Chloe’s eyes, not only the duke’s eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, but even his hair, unusually disheveled from sleeping and waking up, looked nothing but beautiful.

When she wears glasses, her face becomes almost opaque. Her eye color looks faded, and with her bangs and glasses covering half her face, she looks stuffy. So why is he telling her to wear glasses? He says he’s fine with it. Does he mean that while others might find her face unappealing, he can tolerate it because it’s him?

Perhaps because suspicion had sprouted that while she loved the duke, his feelings might not be the same, the duke’s words felt particularly hurtful.

“Answer me.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Chloe answered, unconsciously clenching her fists.

What is this? She hadn’t dreamed of something as sweet as romance, but this was a bit too much. She had been ready to gladly throw away her glasses if the duke told her to take them off, but now he’s telling her to wear them.

She remembered Joyce’s admonition to maintain dignity as an employee of the duke’s household. It seemed she would have to go get new glasses fitted after all.

Just as she was wondering when she would go to get new glasses fitted, the duke left to inspect the territory ahead of spring wheat sowing, also resolving a dispute between two villages within the Ulpaz duchy that had been in constant friction.

It was a bit strange that he would go on an inspection today of all days when there was even a rare guest, but anyway, since he would return late in the afternoon after the inspection, Chloe had quite a lot of free time.

However, the butler who could give permission for an outing was also absent from the office. Chloe, who had been waiting in the office, finally decided to walk around the mansion looking for the butler.

Just then, as she was about to go down the central staircase, she saw the butler coming down with a woman. It was the first time Chloe had seen a woman in the duke’s residence, and she was such a stunning beauty that Chloe stared at her face for a moment, entranced.

The first thing that caught her eye was her silver hair that fell to her waist, on a tall figure at least 5 centimeters taller than Chloe, with distinct and gorgeous features. Not only her height but her build was quite large, yet she gave the impression of being firm without an ounce of unnecessary fat anywhere.

‘So that’s the young lady from the Tilbeth family.’

At some point, Chloe’s eyes met the woman’s. Chloe quickly stepped aside and lowered her head. The butler had probably been absent from his post to attend to this female guest.

The butler’s eyes widened momentarily when he saw Chloe, but he passed by without saying anything special. Chloe kept her head lowered until the woman passed in front of her.

But the woman, who she thought would just pass by, suddenly stopped in front of Chloe.

“Who is this?”

The woman asked, lifting Chloe’s face. Chloe was confused about whether she should answer directly to the woman about who she was.

Why would a guest be interested in a mere servant of someone else’s house?

“Ah! This is His Grace the Duke’s personal attendant. He’s been recently injured and is not in the best condition.”

The butler glanced at Chloe’s glasses, which had become crooked due to the broken leg being glued back on, as he spoke. There was still a small wound left near her eye as well.

“Duke Ulpaz’s personal attendant?”

Contrary to Chloe’s expectation that she would lose interest once she knew he was a servant, the woman was now completely bending down towards Chloe.

“Yes, I’m Clyne Liden.”

Chloe had no choice but to give her name. Face to face like this, she couldn’t just stay silent when she was perfectly capable of speaking.

“Clyne, where were you headed?”

The butler asked from the side.

“The leg of my glasses broke, so I was going to get new ones fitted. I was looking for you, sir, to get permission for a brief outing.”

Chloe asked the butler for permission to go out, feeling the woman’s gaze pouring onto one side of her face.

“Ah! Right. With your glasses in that state, you do need to buy new ones. Go ahead. It doesn’t matter anyway since His Grace is out.”

“Yes! Then I’ll be going now.”

Chloe wanted to quickly escape from the woman’s gaze, so she bowed her head deeply and was about to head towards the stairs.

“Wait! Just a moment!”

But the woman grabbed Chloe’s arm, stopping her.

Chloe almost cried out in surprise. The arm caught by the woman hurt so much for a moment that it made her mind jolt awake. Chloe looked at the woman, involuntarily grimacing.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I’m a bit strong, aren’t I?”

Seeing her immediately let go, it seemed there was no ill intent.

Is she from Tigrium? There was a strange mix of Tigrium accent and pronunciation, but the woman spoke Elaion quite fluently.

“Butler, is there really a need to find someone else? This servant will do for me, won’t he? His master is absent, and he’s going out now, so it’s perfect timing.”

Chloe looked at the butler, not understanding what the woman meant.

“His Grace instructed that Clyne, having been injured, should not be given any tasks other than the duke’s personal errands. I’m sorry, but another attendant…”

“I was just asking the butler for a servant to go into Roizen town and buy some local specialties. I brought my maid, but my maid knows nothing about Roizen, just like me. Could you come along?”

The woman cut off the butler’s words and poured out words to Chloe. Conflict surged. She didn’t particularly want to do what this woman was asking, but wouldn’t it be a bit brazen to refuse work using the duke’s instructions as an excuse when she looked fine except for the wound on her face? One thing was certain, it wouldn’t be appropriate behavior as a personal attendant. She had also told both Sir Joyce and the duke that she would work properly starting today.

“Clyne, if you’re still not feeling well, don’t push yourself. I wouldn’t be able to face His Grace if you do.”

The butler was someone who prioritized the duke’s will as the highest standard for judgment. The fact that he was dissuading Chloe this much meant that he must have received firm instructions from the duke.

“I can see the level of guest hospitality at the Ulpaz duchy. The convenience of a servant takes precedence over the guest, and the master doesn’t even show his face for breakfast. What a peculiar way of treating guests. This is why they need to properly bring in a mistress.”

The woman’s voice was sharp. Chloe felt rebellious at the woman’s arbitrary criticism of the Ulpaz duchy. What’s the big deal about guiding someone around Roizen town?

“Butler! Since I was about to go out to town anyway, it would be even better if I could guide the guest too! I’ll go. I’ve been lying down all this time, so I wanted to go out anyway.”

“Ah… is that so.”

The butler, whose face had reddened at the woman’s criticism, muttered.

“Since you were about to go out anyway, it’s perfect. Lead the way.”

Ignoring the dejected butler, the woman gestured to Chloe with her chin as if to say let’s depart quickly. Although reluctant, Chloe pretended not to notice and strode forward vigorously. Holding an uneasy hope that nothing would happen.