Chloe’s words felt like sharp arrowheads continuously flying into his heart.

The sound of her calling Nathan’s name was echoing loudly like an auditory hallucination.

He looks to be around your age?

“Ha!”

Is it because he’s so angry that he finds it laughable? Axel laughed out loud several times. In reality, he wanted to rush to Nathan right now and point his sword at him. If he, a Sword Master, were to draw his sword in a fit of rage, Nathan’s corpse would be in pieces and they would have to piece together his bones just to hold a funeral. But he shouldn’t do that……

Ah, damn it!

Age. Age was the first problem.

It wasn’t that Nathan looked similar in age to Chloe, but Nathan and Chloe were actually the same age. Of course, he had never thought of the two of them together until now, but upon examination, they were both twenty-one.

Twenty-five. He was four years older than Nathan. Which meant he was also four years older than Chloe.

Does she prefer younger men? Age, of all things. Something that can’t even be changed!

Axel abruptly stood up and looked around his office.

He walked over to the mirror, which he had never paid attention to where it was located since he had no use for it in his office, and examined his face by turning it left and right. It was clearly too different from Chloe’s baby-like skin.

That Nathan bastard does look particularly young though.

He punched the mirror. His face reflected in the cracked mirror now looked like there was not a four-year, but a fourteen-year age gap with Chloe.

She said the scar was large? Did it look big because it was on his face?

He rubbed his arm which now had no sensation. It was the first time his exceptional recovery ability felt so meaningless.

Was there really a need to heal this quickly? He could have at least given Chloe some time to feel sorry for his injury before healing!

She’s concerned about him being embarrassed of his injury. Nathan was embarrassed because he did something to be embarrassed about. He disobeyed orders and acted recklessly with his youthful vigor, causing damage to the entire Ulpaz Knights. He even caused an injury to the arm of his lord, Axel himself.

She feels sorry for him even though he did something embarrassing. Chloe, it was because of him that I got hurt.

Hah! What a wolf pup he was. Not only did he want to show off his injury, but he also wanted to mention that he got hurt while saving a subordinate.

That woman was going to drag him down to the bottom at this rate. With that pretty face, with those lovely lips, with that maddening voice.

After pacing in his office for an hour, he finally headed to the training grounds. He ordered Joyce to have the members who were still injured rest in the barracks, and spent the entire afternoon in the training grounds, turning all the training dummies to dust.

Until then, Nathan, the only one who was still quite injured, enjoyed a comfortable afternoon nap in the barracks, unaware that the dummies had turned to dust in his stead. However, the rest of the knights had to go to bed an hour earlier than usual that night due to the excessive training intensity.

With the heat spreading throughout her body since the afternoon, Chloe was completely sprawled on the bed by evening, gasping for breath.

“Strange, it’s strange, strange.”

She could only repeat the same words as if talking in her sleep. Because her body felt really strange. She felt like she had experienced this feeling before, but she was too feverish to clearly recall when it was.

Her face was burning, her body was getting hot, and a dull heat was building up in her lower abdomen. Her throat was parched, but it didn’t seem like drinking something would quench the thirst. Even her breathing had become ragged.

“Miss? Are you alright? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

“Manny. Water, please. Cold water, cool water, bring me some.”

Still, she felt like she should at least drink some water. She was so out of it that she didn’t even realize she was speaking informally to Manny, unlike usual.

“Miss, are you running a fever? Oh my! Look at this cold sweat.”

Manny felt Chloe’s forehead and fidgeted her feet.

“Miss, the water is here. Ah! Cold water. Then I’ll go to the kitchen and get some ice. Ah! And a doctor, I think we need to call a doctor.”

“Ah…… we don’t need to call a doctor……”

“No! How can we not call a doctor when you’re sick!”

“That’s not it. I’m just feeling hot. I want to drink something……”

Chloe couldn’t even speak anymore and just breathed heavily.

“Oh dear, what is happening! Why are you suddenly like this?”

Chloe could feel Manny muttering something beside her and trying to get her to drink water.

“No…… not this……”

It wasn’t water. She needed something else.

“Yes! I’ll call the doctor first and then go to the kitchen. Please wait a moment.”

Manny ran out, almost shouting. Her body felt like it was burning more and more.

As soon as Axel finished his shower after training, he was contemplating whether to go to Chloe’s room or not. At that moment, he heard a loud sound of footsteps, and soon those sounds faded away down the other end of the corridor.

He had a bad feeling. Because Chloe’s room was in the direction the sounds had rushed towards. He opened the door to his room, still in his bathrobe. He had never left his bedroom in such attire before, but right now he was so anxious that he didn’t even know what he was wearing.

“……”

As soon as he opened the door, Axel openly frowned upon seeing the person he made eye contact with. He didn’t know why that man was here. It was the man who was sent as an errand runner by Reina Tilves.

The man, who was a bit further down the corridor from the stairs, quickly bowed when he made eye contact with Axel and then turned his body back towards the stairs and went down.

It was strange why he had come up to the personal space of the ducal couple, not just the floor designated as his quarters. But now was not the time to question such things.

He ran to Chloe’s room. There was no need to knock. Her door was already wide open, and not only her maid but also the family doctor and even the head maid were there.

Why was the doctor here!

A shock like the impact of a crossbow bolt rushed to his heart.

“Chloe!”

He shouted Chloe’s name and burst into the room. And soon a shocking scene was reflected in his eyes.

Chloe’s condition, lying on the bed with her eyes half-closed and trembling, was so bizarre that anyone could tell at a glance that it was not normal. She was clutching the fabric of her dress around her chest area, pulling it so hard that half of her bosom was exposed. Her breathing sounded ragged as if she was having difficulty, and faint moans were mixed in.

It wasn’t just that it wasn’t normal, this was……

“Get out! Everyone get out!”

Axel shouted so loudly that the room reverberated.

The three people in the room shuddered, seeming more startled by the duke’s shout than Chloe’s condition. But it didn’t matter whether they trembled or not. That wasn’t what was important.

“Get out.”

Now, a low growling sound, not even a shout, escaped his throat. Only then did the three people come to their senses and ran out the door like people threatened by a beast baring its fangs.

“Ah…… it’s hot. It’s hot, please, save me. Save me, Manny. Manny.”

Manny?

It seemed Chloe wasn’t even aware that Axel had entered the room.

It’s not Manny who can help you right now, Chloe.

Axel lowered his lips onto hers, who seemed to be suffering from a pain like her throat was burning up. As soon as he opened his mouth and entered, Chloe threw her arms around his neck, almost clinging to him, and absorbed his saliva. Like someone dying of thirst drinking the water of life.

The feverish heat of estrus that had taken over her body would soon subside. Axel, who had already experienced that state, knew the exact solution and could resolve it for her as much as needed.