#31. The Kiss

Finally, Chloe’s weakened fists could no longer push or hit, and just held onto the Duke’s shoulders. This is really not right. I’m a man right now.

Your Grace…

However, at some point, even the sounds of her resistance against the Duke began to change their tone.

From sounds trying to escape somehow to strange sounds as if she were falling into his kiss.

“……!”

But the very next moment, lightning struck in Chloe’s head. Because one of the Duke’s hands that had been cupping her face was now fumbling up her cheek and grabbing the arm of her glasses.

He was trying to remove her glasses.

It seemed less like a conscious action and more like trying to get rid of something interfering with the kiss. Clearly, the Duke was not in his right mind anymore.

But whether it was conscious or unconscious, it didn’t change the fact that this absolutely could not happen.

Chloe properly realized her situation. More desperately than before.

She was the commoner woman who had stolen the Duke’s virginity and run away, who according to Sir Joyce deserved to be torn to pieces.

And now, on top of that, she was about to make the Duke commit sodomy while he wasn’t in his right mind due to illness. And the attending servant who became his partner in sodomy would be revealed to be the commoner woman who had stolen his virginity, all at once. I’ll be torn to pieces by Sir Joyce.

Ah! Since he’s already kissing me now, have I already made the Duke commit sodomy?

Of course, she was being forced by the Duke, but that didn’t change the fact that the Duke had kissed a man and that person was her.

As she realized this terrible reality again, strength returned to Chloe’s arms that had gone weak. She began pushing the Duke away with all her might.

What is this! Is it rock? Diamond? Is this really a human body?

The Duke’s body was like a mass of rock in perfect human form.

Solid and immovable.

The Duke seemed not even to notice her desperate resistance.

“……!”

However, as Chloe shook her head left and right desperately trying to avoid the Duke’s hand attempting to remove her glasses, she was struck by an even greater shock the next moment.

Because this beast’s hand, seemingly having lost interest in Chloe’s glasses due to her resistant movements, suddenly started moving downward.

<Which one is the voluptuous one?>

Why, of all moments, did she have to remember the Duke’s question to Sir Joyce about a woman’s body now?

Various things the Duke had done to her body on the night they slept together flashed through her mind.

Crazy! No!

Sure enough, the Duke’s hand had already reached her chest. This was a crisis of a whole different dimension than before.

If only there was a way to get this beast-like man who’s lost his mind off… Ah!

In that moment that felt both like an eon and a brief instant, Chloe realized the only method of resistance available to her now.

“……!”

And the method was effective.

The Duke’s lips, which had seemed completely out of his mind, immediately separated from hers.

At the same time, she tasted blood in her mouth.

Of course, it wasn’t her blood. It was blood coming from the Duke’s tongue that Chloe had bitten without mercy.

I hope his tongue wasn’t cut off?

“Your Grace!”

Even while worried, Chloe shouted with a voice so loud it surprised even herself. And at that moment, the Duke’s eyes snapped open.

“Clyne?”

He looked at Chloe with a different expression and voice than just before. It was a face that seemed to ask, why are you here?

So he really was crazy!

It seemed he had been out of his mind due to the fever.

“Your Grace, it’s me. It’s me. I’m your ‘male’ attending servant, Clyne Liden.”

Chloe spoke deliberately, trying to bring him to his senses.

“Male Clyne…”

The Duke mumbled.

Not missing that opening, Chloe sprang up from the bed like a coiled spring and pushed the Duke’s chest.

Unlike before, when he wouldn’t budge at all like a rock, the Duke was surprisingly easily pushed aside and slumped down beside her.

“Your Grace, you seem very ill indeed. I’ll bring you some fever medicine. Please lie down for now.”

Chloe instinctively babbled whatever came to mind. She had to cover up what the Duke had done to her, and what she had done to the Duke.

What fever medicine! Though she might be able to get some from the innkeeper, even if she got medicine, there was no way she could enter this room again.

She just needed a suitable excuse to escape from this room right now.

“……”

The Duke said nothing. Chloe slowly shifted her bottom to the opposite side from where the Duke sat, and finally got off the bed.

The Duke didn’t move at all while she was moving. Rather, he looked somewhat dazed, like he was shocked by something.

“Please lie down for now.”

Regardless, Chloe shouted as she ran toward the door and left the Duke’s room. What had just happened overwhelmed her mind too much to worry about the Duke’s condition.

After closing the Duke’s door with a loud bang, Chloe touched her tingling lips and trembled.

Kissing Duke Hughgray Wulfaz while disguised as a male attending servant…

And it might not have ended with just a kiss… At some point, even I… I must have been crazy…

The future seemed so bleak that she couldn’t even imagine what would happen next.

Only the feeling of regret that she should never have come on this trip to Solaine became clearer.

Damn Solaine…

Even by the next morning, Chloe still felt fuzzy-headed.

It was the aftermath of staying up all night, unable to sleep despite trying to calm herself down after what had happened in the Duke’s room.

Kissing the Duke.

Of course, sleeping with the Duke as a woman about a month ago had been an enormous incident too. If that hadn’t happened, the Duke wouldn’t have come to Solaine looking for the woman he had slept with, wouldn’t have brought her along on the trip to Solaine, and last night’s incident wouldn’t have happened either.

But in some ways, last night’s incident seemed even more serious than the incident a month ago. Back then, she hadn’t been dressed as a man and the Duke didn’t know who she was.

Unlike yesterday.

Last night, it happened while she was in the state of being Clyne Liden, the male attending servant. The more she thought about it, the more frightening yesterday’s events became.

Sir Joyce’s absence from the inn last night was an unfortunate coincidence. If Sir Joyce had been there, such an unfortunate incident might not have happened.

But on the other hand, since it had already happened, she thought it fortunate that Sir Joyce hadn’t returned to the inn until morning.

If she had had to face Sir Joyce last night, she might have fainted from fear.

He was someone who said he would tear her to pieces just for being a woman. Let alone if he found out she had kissed his lord while pretending to be a man…

“Aah…”

A sigh escaped involuntarily and her knees went weak.

By the way, where on earth had Sir Joyce gone?

She couldn’t understand where he had gone when his master was so sick he was losing his mind, but thinking back to what the Duke had said in his fevered state last night, it seemed Sir Joyce too had gone out to help the Duke somehow.

Based on what she had observed over the past four months, Sir Joyce was the most loyal person to the Duke at the mansion, so he would absolutely never leave his post without reason when his lord was in such a state that his mind was wandering.

So while it was fortunate he hadn’t come back until now, Sir Joyce needed to come now.

I wonder if His Grace is feeling better now? Is he still in that state?

She couldn’t muster the courage to go check on the Duke’s condition. She didn’t know how she could face him either.

Moreover, given what happened yesterday, it seemed it would be difficult to continue working at the Duke’s mansion.

Who would have thought she would have to leave the Duke’s mansion for this reason, when it hadn’t even been revealed that she was the woman who had slept with him.

What about the salary I received in advance?

Aside from thinking about quitting due to the previous incident, last night’s situation wasn’t actually her responsibility. Rather than it being her fault, it happened because the Duke was sick and not in his right mind.

But even so, she couldn’t say she wouldn’t pay back the salary because it was the Duke’s fault. Even mentioning yesterday’s incident felt taboo to her.

It was pathetic and pitiful that she was worried about money calculations even in this situation.

Moreover, she had to inform them that she was taking her vacation today. Although it was a right she had confidently claimed, for some reason, even that made her feel uneasy today.

Would they tell her there was no need to ever come back from her vacation?

Click!

‘……!’

Chloe, who had been lost in worry, jumped up from the bed at the sound. It was the sound of a door from the next room.

Either the Duke had come out or Sir Joyce had returned.

Chloe unconsciously started to run out toward the Duke’s room but checked her condition. Though she looked haggard from lack of sleep, her wig and glasses were properly in place.

After patting down and straightening her wrinkled clothes, she quietly left the room.

Neither the Duke nor Sir Joyce could be seen in the hallway. It seemed Sir Joyce had returned and entered the Duke’s room.

She approached the Duke’s room on tiptoe and listened to the sounds coming from inside. She could hear something but couldn’t make it out clearly.

But she was sure that Sir Joyce was conversing with the Duke.

Chloe’s ear moved closer and closer to the door until finally it was pressed right against it.