#30. Your Grace!

Eventually, since Sir Joyce hadn’t returned, Chloe, unable to get another room, decided to try to sleep without removing her wig or glasses.

Defending herself once again with the noble cause that an attending servant shouldn’t fall ill. Regardless of whether the master refused care, when the master was sick, the servant shouldn’t fall ill too.

‘Sick’…

Suddenly, the very fact that Duke Wulfaz was ‘sick’ felt strange. She had never seen the Duke sick before, and he had seemed like someone so robust that the possibility of illness seemed impossible.

Well, the Duke is human too. But he shouldn’t be too sick, right? He shouldn’t be that sick.

Chloe pushed aside her recurring thoughts about the Duke and alternately looked at the two beds in the room.

Fortunately, Sir Joyce’s room had two beds of the same size, so she took the one closer to the window.

But even after lying down for quite a while, she couldn’t fall asleep at all.

It was partly because of the unfamiliar bed and the discomfort of sleeping with glasses on, but also because everything was on her mind — not knowing when Sir Joyce would return or when the Duke might call for her.

After about two hours of tossing and turning in bed…

“Clyne…, Clyne…”

She heard the Duke calling for her.

Though it didn’t seem like he was speaking loudly, strangely, despite being in another room, the Duke’s voice seemed to pierce directly into her ears.

In the completely dark night with no other sounds, her nerves seemed to be responding sensitively to even the smallest noise.

Was he really calling? Was she hearing things because she was too concerned? Should she go check?

But he had said absolutely not to come. Still, that person was really sick. Someone who never gets sick is sick. He’s calling for me so desperately because he’s sick.

After some deliberation, or rather, after pretending to deliberate, she finally got out of bed.

From the moment she first heard the Duke’s groans, she wanted to run to him, she just needed time to find justification for why she had to go.

Her sick master was groaning and calling for her. In a way that made it absolutely, utterly impossible to ignore.

Creak.

Perhaps because it was such a dark and quiet night, the noise of the door opening seemed particularly loud.

“Your Grace?”

Chloe carefully called out to the Duke as she entered the room, slightly furrowing her brow at the door’s sound.

The Duke was lying on his side on the bed, completely curled up. It was strange how well she could see inside the room despite there being no light. Perhaps her eyes had adapted to the darkness since it had been dark in the next room too.

Anyway, he must really be very sick.

Seeing the Duke in a state she had never seen before, like a dying beast, Chloe felt guilty for coming too late.

“Your Grace? Are you in much pain?”

Chloe asked as she took a step closer to the Duke.

“Clyne. Clyne.”

“Ah! Yes! I’m here, Your Grace.”

Chloe confidently approached the Duke quickly, as if his calling her name was a signal of permission. However, when she got close and looked down at him, the Duke had his eyes half-closed and seemed not to have heard her voice.

His face, with both body and mind in disarray, a sight she had never seen before, gave off a strangely erotic feeling.

‘……!’

You’re crazy, Chloe Liden! Having such strange thoughts while looking at your sick master.

“Clyne. I…”

The Duke mumbled something too quietly to understand.

Chloe shook off her irrelevant thoughts and moved very close to the Duke, leaning her upper body slightly toward him. Then, to better hear the patient’s voice, she turned her face and put her ear close to the Duke’s lips.

“Yes, Your Grace. It’s Clyne. Please speak.”

But the Duke said nothing. Chloe turned her face from where she had tilted it to hear the Duke’s words and looked at him directly.

His flushed face that looked like it would be hot to touch, his slightly dried full lips parted with rapid breaths escaping between them.

Why does a sick person’s face look so sensual? Seriously! So a handsome man is handsome even when sick. A sick handsome man.

Already forgetting her earlier self-reproach, her admiration for the Duke’s face began running wild again without restraint.

Perhaps because she had never seen the Duke’s face this close before, his beauty made her mind even more dizzy than usual.

Was it because he was sick? The man who had always looked so strong now even aroused something of a protective instinct.

“Hoo…”

Chloe unconsciously let out a long sigh. She didn’t even know herself what the sigh was for.

That’s when it happened.

The Duke, who had had his eyes closed, suddenly opened them and looked at Chloe. It was an intense gaze that seemed like fierce flames might burst forth at any moment.

Like the gaze of a starving beast that had finally found its prey and come back to life.

“……!”

Chloe was so startled by his suddenly fully awakened gaze that she took a step back and swallowed hard.

However, the moment he awoke, his eyes immediately tracked her movements, as if all his senses had come alive and he was ready to begin the hunt.

“……”

“……”

In the space where their gazes met, there was only silence, as if even the movement of air had stopped. But even in the suffocating silence, Chloe could tell.

That if she moved even a little more from here, that sick beast would reflexively move following her movement too. And that movement would clearly be dangerous in some way.

But nevertheless, it was also clear that she needed to get out of this room as quickly as possible.

Because if she didn’t leave, it felt like the Duke would really devour her.

Of course, a human wouldn’t actually devour another human, but right now she couldn’t find any other expression than ‘devour’.

“Your Grace, are you alright? Should I bring you a, a wet towel? Oh, or you might need water to drink…”

Chloe instinctively tried to create an escape route by saying various things while backing away. Though both her words and steps were tangled due to her panic.

However, the Duke’s movement was faster than her stumbling actions.

Just as Chloe was about to turn around completely, the Duke approached her with terrifying speed and grabbed her arm with an unimaginably strong grip, then pulled her straight onto the bed.

“Ah!”

Chloe screamed as she fell onto the Duke’s bed.

More precisely, onto the Duke’s body.

“……”

Chloe froze, unable to even blink her eyes that were locked with the Duke’s.

“Clyne.”

Strange heat and excitement poured from the Duke’s eyes as he spoke her name.

“Your Grace…, eek!”

As Chloe called out to the Duke, their bodies flipped over.

The Duke who had been looking up at Chloe from below was suddenly looking down at her from above.

Light that felt hot just from their meeting gazes poured from the Duke’s eyes. They were so bright that his usually hazel eyes looked like burning green flames in the dark.

“oo…”

The Duke’s rough breathing between his teeth and the sweet body scent that seemed to emanate from his entire body. The hot body temperature felt where their bodies touched.

Just like… that feeling.

That is…

Now, her upper body was completely trapped by the Duke’s arms, planted firmly on either side of her shoulders, while her lower body was pinned by his legs, with his knees on either side of hers.

So it feels just like… being captured!

And this feeling wasn’t unfamiliar. It was actually somewhat familiar.

That night.

It was a feeling she had experienced several times when she had slept with the Duke that night.

That feeling of being driven to her limits by the Duke who was like a merciless beast.

“Clyne.”

However, as if to prove that he wasn’t a beast who can’t talk but human, the Duke kept calling her name.

“Your Grace, get a hold…”

She needed to tell him to get a hold of himself but couldn’t finish her words.

Because the Duke who had proved his humanity by calling her name was now coming down toward her with a face that seemed to have lost reason and become a beast again.

“……!”

Chloe instinctively knew what would happen next.

Like that time, just like that…!

“Your Grace!”

Chloe tried to push the Duke away with all her strength, but the Duke didn’t budge at all. Far from budging, his lips were already touching Chloe’s lips.

And finally, under the Duke’s merciless invasion, her lips parted. Chloe felt both shock and helplessness at the Duke’s movement as he had already opened her mouth and entered.

Good heavens…

Duke Hughgray Wulfaz kissing his male attending servant…!

She couldn’t think at all about how to interpret this situation or how she should handle it.

The Duke’s hands were now perfectly cupping her face.

Your Grace! Your Grace!

“Mmph, mmph!”

Though she called out to the Duke many times in her mind, what actually burst from her mouth, blocked by him, were only meaningless sounds that couldn’t become words.

Thump thump!

Finally, Chloe started hitting the Duke’s back. The problem was that the Duke didn’t seem to feel any pain.

The Duke seemed not to even detect the fact that she was hitting him with all her strength. It was questionable whether he even felt the slight vibration on his back.

Rather, Chloe’s punching fists became so numb that after hitting him a few times, she couldn’t even attempt to hit him anymore. It was because the Duke’s back was too hard.

Chloe also tried pushing the Duke’s shoulders with her palms. But again, it was futile.

Is this what they mean by trying to break a rock with an egg?

The Duke’s body was the rock, and Chloe’s clenched fist was the egg.

If she kept hitting, the egg would be in danger of breaking.