She quickly looked around. After confirming that the unpleasant man from earlier had not reappeared, she pressed her ear against the fence.

The duke had told her to go straight inside, but she had nothing to do inside and wanted to hear the duke’s pleasant voice. Since she could hear the voices of Sir Joyce and Nathan, she should be able to hear the duke’s voice as well. It wasn’t normal for her to want to hear his voice again right after escorting him to the training grounds.

“Nathan, I told you not to train and to rest, so why do you keep coming out? Don’t cause trouble for others with your unhealed body. The Ulpaz Knights do not force injured knights to train. Understood?”

It was truly amazing.

As if on cue, the duke’s voice came from beyond the fence. With how loud his voice was, it seemed like she would have been able to hear it even without pressing her ear against the fence.

As expected, the duke seemed to cherish his injured subordinates, making her feel somehow proud.

“Since he’s like that, Chloe is worried. So annoying…”

Suddenly, her ears caught the duke’s voice with a completely different tone. It was definitely different from the loud and solemn voice that had resounded throughout the training grounds just a moment ago. It must have been him muttering to himself. Only her ears heard it, but the tone, pronunciation, and intonation were utterly loose. Above all, the content was the most unhinged.

What is this? Why am I hearing this?

Chloe was momentarily confused as to whether she had really heard the duke’s voice.

‘So annoying?’

She had never heard the duke say such things before. Not when she became a woman to him, nor when she was his male attendant.

Why on earth did he say that to Nathan? Did I mishear it?

It was so shocking that the duke, who had seemed concerned about the injury, was saying something completely different in his mutterings that she even thought she must have misheard.

“Haa… Now I’m even jealous of that bastard Nathan. I must be crazy.”

But it seemed she hadn’t misheard after all. She heard the duke’s voice again. This time, it was close to a self-mocking sigh mixed with a lament.

Why is he acting like that? Jealous? Why is he jealous of Nathan? What is he saying!

The duke’s sigh, his grumbling, even her own hearing that could catch such mutterings, everything was strange.

Suddenly, what the duke had glossed over earlier came to mind.

Could it be that he heard what I muttered to myself?

‘Not my name.’

Ah! He heard it! He really heard it.

It seemed like he must have heard her say, “Nathan, stay strong.” It was said that the duke, as a wolf shapeshifter, had exceptional hearing. Perhaps his hearing was keen enough to hear even the words she had muttered to herself here.

Come to think of it, the duke’s words could be interpreted differently. They were words that could be misunderstood if he had heard her muttering.

Oh my, having ears that are too sharp is troublesome. Causing unnecessary misunderstandings. Of course I came to see you, why would I come to see Nathan? Seriously!

Chloe looked at the fence again as if in disbelief. As if looking at the duke beyond it.

The duke’s voice could no longer be heard. Only the shouts of the training knights could be heard.

Perhaps she also had good hearing because she was a shapeshifter. It had been a while since she stopped taking suppressants, so maybe her shapeshifter hearing was coming back.

She would find out in time.

She suddenly grinned. The thought occurred to her that she should find out if the duke had really heard her muttering and childishly misunderstood and got jealous.

“Your Grace, black suits you well. I think black would look even better for pajamas… A robe would be easier to take off than a dress too.”

Having been the duke’s attendant, she was well aware of the inside of his wardrobe. The duke favored wearing the most traditional style of men’s noble sleepwear, a white dress-like pajama.

The recent trend was robe-style sleepwear, but while the duke didn’t pay much attention to clothes, he tended to follow tradition rather than trends, so he didn’t have a single robe-style sleepwear.

In fact, apart from wanting to test the duke’s hearing, she genuinely wanted to see him in a robe.

Why does he always button up the dress-like pajamas all the way to the neck when it’s going to be taken off anyway?

The duke’s dress was really difficult for her to take off, so she had no choice but to wait until he took it off himself. As a result, she was always the one who ended up naked first.

Despite it being the same type of dress, the duke would somehow strip off her sleepwear at a dazzlingly fast speed. Sometimes his hands moved so fast that they couldn’t be seen. He was definitely using his swordmaster talent in strange ways.

Actually, she had only mentioned the color black out of necessity since the training uniform he wore today was black. She didn’t really care what color or what clothes he wore. No matter what he showed up in, even if he buttoned it up to the neck, he was always sexy.

To the point where she would forget the embarrassment of always ending up naked first.

Anyway, now that she had cast the bait, it was time to wait and see how he would react.

The butler began to sweat slightly at the duke’s sudden summons and unexpected request.

“You want a black robe for sleepwear by tonight, Your Grace?”

“Why, is it difficult?”

“No! Of course it’s possible, but it might be a bit challenging to have it ready for you to wear tonight. Even if it’s a robe, the time is too short to prepare it for immediate wear.”

“You should already know my measurements, and can’t you just cut some fabric and make it? It’s sleepwear anyway.”

“I’m not sure if we have the black fabric used for Your Grace’s sleepwear ready.”

“No, the fabric doesn’t matter. Just make it black and have it ready by 9 p.m. tonight at the latest.”

“Even so…”

“Tennant.”

The duke called the butler by his name. The duke rarely called the butler by name. Since the butler had served him since he was very young, the duke had always referred to him by his title of butler, which he had used since childhood.

Calling him by name was a very exceptional case. For example, when the duke had strong dissatisfaction with the butler’s work to the point of saying things like, “Do you no longer wish to be a butler?” or “Do you want to become a commoner?”

“Yes! I understand! If we procure it from ready-made clothes instead of custom-made, I think we can have it ready by this evening.”

The butler immediately gave the answer the duke wanted, straightening his back. Giving up the soft and light fabric that felt like wearing nothing was ten thousand times better than giving up the position of butler to the Ulpaz Dukedom.

All of the duke’s clothes had been custom-made by the tailor who had been in charge of the Ulpaz Dukedom, ever since Hugrey Ulpaz was a very young child, not the head of the family as he was now.

Although Hugrey Ulpaz had a perfect appearance no matter what he wore, the fact that he didn’t have much interest in or was particularly picky about his attire was also because the dedicated tailor was the most outstanding expert in the empire.

The tailor pursued perfection from the fabric to a single button, and took great pride in the duke wearing the clothes he made. The duke had the looks and physique that any tailor would desire, and he didn’t mind the cost, allowing the tailor to use any fabric and materials he wanted.

But for the first time, a situation arose where he had to buy ready-made clothes without going through that tailor. Not just any clothes, but sleepwear. Seeing how resolute the duke was, when he had never been sensitive about clothes before, this was clearly an emergency situation.

“Yes, I thought you could do it if it was you, Butler. Then, please take care of it.”

As the duke left the butler’s office with a very satisfied face, Tennant immediately prepared to go out.

The duke’s order was somewhat unexpected to entrust to someone else, and judging by the duke’s unusually serious and solemn attitude and demeanor, it could be a very important and confidential matter. It must be something complex and high-level beyond his imagination. So he had to go himself. Without anyone knowing that the duke’s sleepwear was changing to a black robe.

However, the butler’s expression was etched with anguish as he walked briskly. It seemed difficult to maintain confidentiality if he were to buy clothes that fit the duke’s size.

‘I wonder if there are ready-made pajamas that would fit that physique.’

The butler, who was pondering with a gravely serious expression, had no idea that the duke would drop the black robe he rushed to the dressing room to buy under the bed without wearing it for even a few minutes.

Reina Tilbeth was mulling over Hans’ report in the carriage on her way to the palace after being summoned by the King of Tigrium.

A shapeshifter… The woman is a shapeshifter.

According to Hans’ report, there was a high possibility that Chloe Liden was a shapeshifter. But if that woman was a shapeshifter, there was no way she wouldn’t have smelled her scent. But from that woman, she didn’t particularly… Ah!

She finally remembered the strange and unpleasant smell coming from the woman. She was so surprised that the woman understood Tigrian that she forgot where she had smelled that scent.

What was that smell again? Strange. The smell didn’t seem that strong…