#Prologue 

So, this is why it felt like I was being let go too easily.  

Chloe Liden, who had just turned away with a light heart after finally escaping from the Duke’s mansion, froze in place as her legs stiffened the moment she turned around.  

Standing right in the middle of the alley entrance, staring intently at her, was none other than the lord of the Duke’s mansion she thought she had safely escaped from—Duke Hughgray Wulfaz.  

He stood there like a gatekeeper, as if he dared her to try and pass, and Chloe instinctively realized it.  

That he had been waiting for her.  

To be precise, that he had come to catch her.  

“Your Grace…”  

A sound as faint as that of a mosquito that hadn’t eaten for days escaped from her throat.  

“Clyne Liden.”  

The Duke called her name. Of course, he called her by the name ‘Clyne,’ the man’s name he believed was hers.  

Even though all he did was say her name, Chloe felt as if she had also heard the command, ‘Come here, right now.’  

Is this what it feels like to be a cow dragged to the slaughterhouse?  

Reluctantly, she took one step, then another, and approached the Duke.  

“Your Grace, what brings you here…?”  

“Why do you think I’m here?”  

The Duke’s voice, cutting her off mid-sentence, was chillingly cold.  

The icy tone made her lips feel frozen together, as if her upper and lower lips had stuck to one another. Chloe found it difficult to open her mouth.  

Nothing had been discovered yet.  

So why did it feel like everything had been found out?  

“If you came because of the woman you’re looking for…”  

“Woman? No, that’s not it. Not at all.”  

“……”  

In response to the answer Chloe barely managed to give, the Duke denied it not once, but three times.  

“It’s not a woman, but rather a man I need to investigate.”  

“A man…?”  

Her head spun.  

Could it be that she had been found out?  

She had thought that if she just returned home, everything would be fine, but it seemed she was already too late.  

The moment the Duke had mentioned, “There’s a woman I must find,” a few days ago, she should have fled right then and there.  

That very day, a few days ago.