“Ah, yes.”

“What were you so worried about?”

“It’s nothing. I was just thinking the weather is nice.”

“It doesn’t seem like that.”

Chloe shut her mouth. There was no point in revealing her true feelings to that woman anyway.

In fact, her mind was in such turmoil from Reina Tilbit just calling her ‘Chloe’ that she couldn’t even think of what to say.

“It looks like you were taking a stroll.”

Did she call me Chloe? Did I mishear? Or was she just mindlessly repeating what I mumbled to myself?

“Being a personal attendant must be quite a comfortable job here? The duke seems to be in the mansion, yet here’s the attendant, leisurely strolling alone. What an easy life.”

Whether it was sarcasm or criticism, Reina Tilbit suddenly started speaking with a mocking tone.

“I was just about to head back in.”

Chloe used her words as an excuse, as she had no desire to continue conversing with Reina Tilbit.

“It looks like you’re suddenly trying to avoid me now that I’m here.”

“That’s not it.”

“What’s not it? Chloe?”

Chloe could only stare at Reina Tilbit without saying a word. What was wrong with this woman? Why does she keep calling me ‘Chloe’!

“It was you. You were really the duke’s woman.”

“…!”

Suddenly, goosebumps rose on the back of her ears and she trembled. Reina Tilbit would surely see that she was shaking.

“It was strange. The fact that he wouldn’t show his imprinted woman to anyone, that no one had seen her. It was all strange. But the strangest thing was that you reeked of male pheromones.”

Male pheromones?

“Why are you pretending not to know anything? Why don’t you drop that act already? It’s not like either of us can hide your dark intentions anyway.”

Chloe couldn’t offer any rebuttal or excuse to Reina Tilbit’s words. Even if she had no dark intentions, it was clear that she had been acting. Pretending to be a man, pretending not to be the duke’s woman.

“You look quite different without your glasses. I was still unsure. I thought, surely a mere personal attendant, no, a commoner servant even disguised as a man wouldn’t dare to covet the duke. I wouldn’t even suspect unless there was at least a sparrow’s eye worth of plausibility, right? But to think that such an implausible suspicion was true.”

“……”

“I guess your real name is ‘Chloe’. Isn’t it?”

She couldn’t utter a single word.

“Actually, I quite liked that necklace yesterday. The green color resembled the eyes of the man I almost married. I liked it so much that I went back there this morning, thinking I might buy a jewel that looked like that man’s eyes, even if I lost the man himself.”

The more Reina spoke, the more Chloe’s body stiffened. It was obvious who the man Reina Tilbit was talking about was. She wasn’t sure if the pendant’s color was similar to the duke’s eye color, but with phrases like ‘man’s eyeballs’, she could tell how vicious this woman was without needing further explanation.

“But you know what? It was already sold. To someone the shop owner knew, he said.”

Only then did Chloe realize something and placed her hand on her chest.

“Ah!”

An exclamation that shouldn’t have escaped her lips burst out.

“As expected, he said Duke Hugrey Ulpaz bought it. And now it’s proudly hanging around your neck.”

Chloe had to resist the urge to push the pendant of the necklace visible above her shirt inside her shirt.

If she hadn’t taken off her coat, it wouldn’t have been visible. She had thought about putting her glasses back on, but not about putting her coat back on. She didn’t usually wear such necklaces. It was a mistake to wear it from the morning, thinking it might make her feel less anxious if she wore the necklace the duke had given her when her mind was troubled.

Chloe clenched her molars. It seemed too late now to make excuses or try to gloss over it with lies. Reina Tilbit seemed to have already confirmed it.

“The shop owner was excitedly talking about it. Saying that Duke Ulpaz also bought a ring. He said he had the name Chloe engraved on it. Is he planning to propose? Well, I suppose the duke has no choice. Even someone like you is still a mate after all.”

Proposal. Chloe.

It was truly ridiculous that even in this situation, those words from Reina Tilbit’s mouth brought a tiny bit of peace. It seemed that more than having her identity exposed to Reina Tilbit, she was more troubled by the possibility that the duke might actually like her, that he might propose to her.

‘Ah, I really do like the duke.’

To feel happy and relieved that she might be the one the duke would propose to, even in this situation.

“Judging by your expression, you seem quite satisfied. Well, I suppose you would be. You must have pounced on the duke during his spring rut, and your gamble of offering your body has brought the best results, so of course you’d be happy.”

“……”

However, the joy was only momentary, and Chloe instantly burned with shame and humiliation.

The thorny words felt like they were piercing through her skin and stabbing her heart.

“To think that a mere commoner human servant would dare! Or should I say maid?”

Reina Tilbit insulted her with a contemptuous expression. Chloe could understand to some extent why Reina Tilbit looked at her with such disdain.

She must think I stole the man she was going to marry.

But even so, that didn’t give her the right to treat Chloe this way.

“Miss, you have no right to speak to me so carelessly, whoever you are. There’s no reason for me to endure such insults just because I’m a commoner servant. I didn’t target anything from the duke, nor did I gamble.”

“Now your true colors are showing. Do you think I’ll believe your lies as naively as the duke? No one in this world except the duke would believe your words. This house had banned the employment of female staff, and you approached the werewolf duke by deceiving him about your gender.”

It was truly strange. Only when the word ‘werewolf’ came out of a third party’s mouth did it finally feel real that the duke was indeed a werewolf. But how did this woman know that the duke was a werewolf, a fact that even the butler didn’t know? She wasn’t even a collateral relative of the duke’s family, and she wasn’t even from Ellaion.

Could it be that the duke had told her because he thought she was the woman he would marry? Or could this woman also be a werewolf? If so, did the duke want to marry a werewolf?

The wariness towards the woman in Chloe’s heart was growing larger and larger.

“Don’t speak carelessly about other people’s intentions when you don’t even know properly. I didn’t deceive about my gender to approach the duke!”

“You’re truly shameless. It must have been with that shamelessness that you dared to pounce on the duke. Because he’s a man you can have just by imprinting on him. In a way, he’s an incredibly easy man, isn’t he?”

At some point, the woman’s other words didn’t register well in her ears. Only one word, ‘imprint’…, that alone was echoing in her ears.

Something inside Chloe crumbled.

“Imprint… I, I didn’t do such a thing on purpose.”

She barely managed to open her mouth, but there was already no strength in Chloe’s voice. She had heard it from the duke too. That he had imprinted on her, and as a result, he was subordinated to her.

Spring rut, imprint, werewolf, pounce.

The words that Reina Tilbit had carelessly spat out swirled in her head, tightening her chest.

“You say you didn’t do it on purpose? You, you know the duke is a werewolf, don’t you? How can you say you didn’t know about imprinting then? You must have desperately pounced on him, knowing you just needed to take his first time. I’ve never seen anyone as shameless as you in my life.”

Reina Tilbit wrinkled her face as if looking at an insect and trembled her eyes. So that’s what it looks like when anger and contempt are combined, Chloe thought.

She needed to say that she had only recently learned about werewolves from the duke, that she hadn’t known from the beginning. She couldn’t let her misunderstand like that. But no words came out. Because she had finally learned for certain how imprinting works.

In fact, Chloe had vaguely sensed it. That’s why she had been more anxious. But she had desperately denied it, thinking it couldn’t be just for that reason. She had tried hard to believe that it wasn’t just for such physical reasons, that the duke must have loved her or at least liked her to be able to imprint.

But to think it was really just imprinting on the person who took his virginity. When she had actually thrown herself at the duke, he had strongly resisted. Whatever happened afterward, that was an unchangeable truth.

“If a werewolf imprints, if they do that, can they not undo the imprint themselves?”

Chloe had already lost her will to fight against Reina Tilbit and was instead asking questions about imprinting. She had to know. She could no longer pretend not to know the truth about imprinting and the duke’s true feelings.

“Are you acting until the end? Ha! Impressive.”

“No, you can think it’s an act if you want, but please tell me. As you said, the duke might not tell me these things.”

“……”

Reina Tilbit, who had been mocking heavily, closed her mouth and stared at Chloe as if trying to gauge her sincerity.

“Does imprinting have nothing to do with feelings? How do you know all these facts?”

Chloe, who had become desperate, poured out the questions she had been accumulating.