#24. Crazy Man

What did he just do to me?

Why… is he acting like this towards me?

Countless unresolvable questions swirled in Chloe’s mind.

It was similar to the confusion she felt that moment when the Duke held her frozen hands during their last outdoor meal. That day her hands felt like they were on fire, but today her whole body felt frozen.

However, the Duke who had thrown her into confusion had already passed by her and was heading to the bathroom.

Chloe hurriedly followed behind the Duke. Her state remained unchanged — as if her soul had escaped through her brain leaving her body like a block of ice.

Halt.

As the Duke suddenly stopped while opening the bathroom door and turned to look at her, she almost bumped her head into his back. Chloe quickly stepped back and looked up at the Duke.

“……?”

Full of questions about why he wasn’t entering the bathroom.

“Why are you following me in?”

“Pardon?”

“Are you planning to attend to my bath?”

“What…? Then should I not attend to you?”

“……”

The Duke tilted his head slightly and stared at Chloe. As if trying to read her intentions from her face.

Wasn’t he asking for bath attendance? Come to think of it, he only said ‘prepare the bath’ didn’t he? Why did I interpret that as attending to his bath? Looking back, while he hadn’t asked her to attend his bath, the order to ‘prepare the bath’ was something he frequently gave…

Chloe felt heat rising from her neck to her forehead.

Even without looking in a mirror, she knew her face must be red.

Though it was probably because of the Duke’s ominous aura that she particularly misinterpreted his instructions today, it felt awkward to make such excuses to the Duke.

“Ah, I thought I needed to attend to your bath… Then I shall take my leave now.”

“Why?”

The Duke didn’t let her answer slide and asked again.

“Ah, well, I thought you would be especially tired today. Since it was a long journey to make in just one day.”

“Not because you wanted to see my body?”

“……!”

This man, seriously! When did I ever say I wanted to see his body.

Chloe felt her face, which had just started to cool down, rapidly heating up again.

Of course, she had made a mistake a few days ago. That slip of the tongue when she admitted being attracted to the Duke’s face and body.

When the Duke directly asked what part of him she was attracted to, she was flustered and her true feelings came out. She had been attracted to his face and body when she first saw the Duke.

But wasn’t that a natural reaction? Anyone in the world would give the same answer if asked. Probably no one in the entire empire would be immune to being enchanted by the Duke’s appearance at first sight.

Yet annoyingly, the Duke who had been so proper until recently was now using those words to tease her by picking at that detail.

“I told you before, didn’t I? I can show you everything.”

The Duke said with a bewitching smile to Chloe, who could only blush without answering.

“No! I don’t want to see your body! Absolutely not!”

Startled by how she might lose her mind to the Duke’s smile, she raised her voice in agitation.

“What do you mean absolutely not? Haven’t you already seen it several times?”

“Your Grace!”

“Hahaha!”

The Duke finally laughed out loud. Not the forced smile he showed earlier in the office, but a perfectly genuine laugh.

Still, it’s good that he seems to be in a better mood.

‘……!’

No! What’s good about it!

Right now, this Duke is teasing his attending servant who he said practices male love and likes him! How wicked!

Shocked at her own train of thought that found relief in the Duke’s improved mood, Chloe gathered herself.

“Your Grace, if you don’t need attendance, I’ll take my leave now.”

“…….”

“Your Grace?”

“Yes. Do that.”

The Duke, his smile now gone, entered the bathroom without looking back and slammed the door shut with enough force to make a bang.

“…….!”

Chloe became dumbfounded for the second time today as she stared at the door that had closed violently before her.

What was that about? After saying he’d show everything and whatnot, he’s suddenly putting up walls with such behavior.

The door closed so harshly, it felt like she’d been slapped by it while begging “Please let me see.”

Really now. Even though the Duke is my benefactor, and I feel guilty about all the lies, I feel bad seeing him especially tired today.

Somehow it felt like she had been played in the palm of the Duke’s hand.

Because of his mask of disappointment and fatigue, she had been completely enchanted by his beauty that looked particularly melancholic today.

* * *

Hughgray soaked in the bathtub and closed his tired eyes, lost in thought.

It’s been almost a month since the imprinting, so his heat would come again within this week. That’s why he had desperately hoped the Chloe in Kinden would be his imprinted mate.

However, he knew the Chloe woman in Kinden wasn’t his imprinted mate even before properly seeing her face. Because it wasn’t her scent.

When the door to the woman’s room opened and the air rushed out, she was so incompatible with him that it made him feel sick. Though they had to stay for about a minute due to their hastily made-up reason for visiting, he wanted to run out immediately.

No matter how out of his mind a wolf might be in heat, they would never sleep with someone who repulsed them.

Joyce, seeing his reaction, apologetically asked if they should head straight to Solaine. According to the original plan, if the Chloe in Kinden wasn’t his imprinted mate, they should have departed immediately to check the Chloe in Solaine.

Not only because of the route, but mainly because they had no time to spare, not knowing when his heat would come.

But he couldn’t do that.

In that moment, when anxiety and impatience about not finding his imprinted mate threatened to swallow him whole, he realized he needed something right away.

Actually, saying he needed ‘something’ was just self-deception. More precisely, it wasn’t something but someone else he needed.

Even if the Chloe in Solaine turned out to be his imprinted mate, even if it meant delaying the search for his imprinted mate a bit longer, he had no choice but to decide to return to Roizen in that moment.

His only thought was that he needed to return to that guy as soon as possible.

He needed to see that guy’s face, hear that voice, inhale that intoxicating scent. It felt like only then could he overcome the anxiety and impatience threatening to consume him.

And the burning thirst as well.

Was it some kind of instinct, no, it couldn’t be wolf instinct, so perhaps something like intuition?

And his intuition was right.

When Clyne recommended a bath with that naive way of speaking, it felt like his head cleared and all that impatience and anxiety dissipated.

Despite being in what was essentially a life-or-death situation of not finding his imprinted mate, seeing that guy’s appearance and actions eventually brought genuine laughter from deep within his heart.

In fact, he wanted to drag in the guy who volunteered to attend his bath right then and there.

Wanted to hold that guy in his arms and deeply inhale that scent.

And…

Ah! Enough! What a crazy bastard.

Even just thinking about it makes him crazy.

He was only temporarily crazy, not completely crazy, so he shouldn’t continue these thoughts.

He was a wolf beast-person bound to his imprinted mate, and there are no homosexual wolves in nature. Moreover, he was the Alpha, the leader of the few remaining wolf beast-people on this continent.

He needed to produce an Alpha to succeed him. For someone like him to even fantasize about male love was unthinkable.

If he weren’t an Alpha, he might have grabbed that guy’s wrist and dragged him into the bathroom.

But he was an Alpha with the responsibility to lead his people. That’s why in that moment, he suppressed the fierce desire that felt like it would crumble if he looked at that guy’s face any longer, a desire so strong it was frightening.

Like the slamming door—like he’s disciplining his own heart.

Even if his identity as a normal male wolf was wavering, he couldn’t throw away his responsibility as the Alpha leading his people.

So Clyne should only be a temporary refuge until he found his imprinted mate. While he could accept being temporarily crazy, he couldn’t accept anything beyond that.

The peace he felt while looking at that guy’s face and smelling that scent, as if he had found his imprinted mate, was just temporary mental confusion.

Not true, lasting peace.

Even though right now it felt like he couldn’t endure without that peace.

Even though he desperately wanted it to the point where even a moment’s separation made him anxious.

* * *

“Did you sleep well?”

The Duke asked.

Did you sleep well? Really now.

She had been woken up with his string bell like it was her alarm clock much earlier than her usual waking time, and had to rush to put on her wig and fix her clothes so hurriedly she couldn’t even wipe the sleep from her eyes.

“Yes, I slept well. Did you also sleep well, Your Grace?”

“Yes. Fortunately…”

Fortunately? Doesn’t he always sleep well?

Though she didn’t understand the Duke’s trailing words, Chloe just nodded.

“Why did you call for me? Do you have any specific tasks for me?”

Usually, she prepares the washing water and visits the Duke’s room before he calls for her. There must be a reason he broke this routine today and called her an hour early.

“But you… haven’t washed…?”

“Pardon…?”

Ah, do I look dirty?

Chloe stared at the Duke’s face with a slightly reddened face. But strangely, at that moment, the Duke turned his head away.

Hmm?

It looked as if he was avoiding eye contact with her. But that couldn’t be.