#34. Journey to Bergen

As a result, the horse he was riding now was carrying him despite rejecting him with its whole body. But this was far less worrying than being in a narrow carriage with Clyne.

In his current state, riding a horse without reins across fields seemed less anxiety-inducing than letting Clyne go to his hometown alone.

“I’m fine.”

“But still…”

“Joyce, enough.”

“Yes.”

“Enough.”

Finally, Joyce seemed to read the atmosphere and stopped pressing further.

“However, Your Grace.”

But he quickly tried to say something else.

“What.”

“Why are you going to Bergen? Didn’t you say Clyne’s sibling had already passed away?”

“……”

Hughgray pondered for a moment. Clyne would probably be as curious as Joyce was.

While he could simply order Joyce to be silent without giving a reason, he couldn’t do that with Clyne. It was strange that he was more concerned about the reaction of a mere attending servant than his chief knight who was like his hands and feet.

But he had no choice. He needed a plausible excuse for that guy who would likely question everything, forgetting his position.

Hmm. An appropriate excuse…

“I want to meet Clyne Liden’s mother. Shouldn’t I check personally whether the medicine I sent was effective?”

“That’s something I could…”

“Joyce, I’m tired. Let’s travel quietly.”

He really was tired.

The aftermath of his heat, Joyce’s meticulous personality, his own crazy obsession with Clyne. And more than all of these, he was most tired of himself, unable to do anything despite knowing he had gone mad.

* * *

“Whoa…”

As the coachman pulled the reins, the carriage that had been slowly decelerating came to a complete stop. When Clyne didn’t exit the carriage, Joyce peered inside curiously and frowned.

“What’s wrong?”

“Clyne is sleeping. I’ll wake him up.”

Joyce replied with a look of exasperation.

“No! Don’t wake him!”

Hughgray responded reflexively.

Joyce looked at him with strange eyes, but Hughgray deliberately ignored his gaze and moved to the window to look at Clyne.

Really now. Collapsed sideways, mouth hanging open with drool even dripping. In such a careless position that anyone could kidnap him without him knowing.

Is this his natural personality? To be able to sleep so peacefully after being subjected to such a terrible thing by the master he serves just the night before.

Meanwhile, that very master feels like he’s being strangled every moment, afraid he might leave him because of that crazy thing he did.

Because he was lying tilted to one side, his bangs that usually covered not just his forehead but above his eyes had completely shifted to one side, fully revealing the opposite forehead. His white, round forehead and delicate eyebrows that looked like they were drawn with a fine brush were clearly visible.

Hughgray felt like he was seeing Clyne’s face for the first time.

Damn it… How can a male… be so… pretty!

Thump thump thump. His heart beat faster.

Well. What’s damnable isn’t your face, but my eyes that find a male pretty.

Even with more than half his forehead exposed, he still wore those large, thick glasses that covered half his face.

And once his mind had turned, even while cursing his damned eyes, after seeing that forehead, he wanted to see that guy’s eyes too.

Even if they were closed.

Wouldn’t it be uncomfortable sleeping with glasses on? Should I… take them off? Yes, it must be uncomfortable. This is definitely not because I want to see his eyes, his face. I’m just being considerate so my attending servant can sleep comfortably. He’s sleeping so deeply now that he wouldn’t notice even if I removed not just his glasses but his bangs too.

Having convinced himself with this ridiculous excuse, Hughgray opened the carriage door as confidently as he could.

In reality, he was so focused on the carriage, moving like a mother trying not to wake her newly sleeping baby, that he was completely unaware of Joyce watching him with a deeply furrowed brow.

* * *

‘Chloe.’

‘Hughgray…’

The Duke and she were kissing. It was a kiss that was rough yet gentle, sweet yet passionate.

Yes, this was it. This feeling.

The Duke’s hands that had been cradling Chloe’s face had somehow moved to the top of her head.

‘Mmm, Hughgray…’

After the long, long kiss, when the Duke slightly pulled his lips away from hers, Chloe called his name again while caressing his face.

That perfectly harmonious male face.

‘You’re handsome.’

Without realizing it, sincere admiration escaped her lips. Because it truly was a beautiful face.

‘Are you pretty too?’

‘Huh?’

Chloe blinked at the Duke’s words.

What does he mean? He’s looking at my face right now. Can’t he see my face?

‘Are you pretty without your glasses?’

Ah! I was wearing glasses.

‘I should be… pretty?’

Maybe not as pretty as you, Your Grace… But I’ve never been told I have an ugly face, so…

‘Then can I take them off?’

‘Yes, you can.’

As soon as she answered, the Duke’s hand, which had been stroking her blonde hair spread luxuriously on the bed, came right in front of her face.

Yes, take these glasses off. They’re really annoying. I can’t even see your handsome face clearly. This wretched male disguise…

‘……’

Male disguise? Your Grace? Blonde hair? Glasses?

At that moment, feeling the cool touch near her ear, Chloe’s eyes flew open.

“Aaah!”

With a scream.

The Duke’s face was right in front of her nose. Not in the seductively disheveled state from her dream, but in his proper current appearance with buttons fastened up to his neck, one hand holding one arm of her glasses.

No!

“Aaah! Step back! Back away!”

Finally completely free from her suggestive dream, Chloe grabbed her glasses tightly and pushed the Duke away.

As a result, the Duke, who had been crouching on the carriage floor at the level of Chloe’s face as she lay on her side, fell backward with a ‘thump’. Though he shouldn’t be a body that would fall back so easily from a push, he seemed startled at being caught trying to do something bad to a sleeping person.

“What are you doing!”

Chloe glared at the Duke and demanded.

“What do you mean what am I doing.”

The Duke’s eyes, which had grown round, narrowed as if he had regained his composure.

“To me while I was sleeping!”

“I saw my sleeping attending servant looking uncomfortable and was trying to take off his glasses? Yet instead of being grateful for others’ goodwill and consideration, you get angry. What kind of personality…”

What’s wrong with my personality.

Just making excuses. He must have had a personality change after that fever.

Why is he so shameless?

“Thank you for your consideration, but I’m fully awake now.”

Chloe quickly recovered her professional consciousness. Even if her master wasn’t acting like a proper master, a servant should still act like a proper servant.

“It’s good that you understand gratitude. Now then, let’s get out.”

The now shameless Duke ordered with a cold expression and tone.

Right, a master is always dignified, is that it?

That aside,

“Get out?”

Having just woken up and confused by the Duke’s approach, Chloe didn’t understand his sudden words and asked back bewilderedly.

“Well, we’ve arrived, should we go somewhere else? This is your hometown and carriages can’t go any further.”

“Ah!”

Chloe’s face instantly flushed red. Only then did she realize she had been sleeping alone in the Duke’s carriage on the way to her hometown.

So much for being a proper servant. It was a case of like master, like servant. She was just as shameless an attending servant as the shameless Duke.

“I’m sorry.”

Though she hurriedly bowed her head to apologize to the Duke, he had already turned around and left the carriage.

The ears visible on both sides of his head were notably red.

Why do those ears get red so often? What strange skin.

Chloe shrugged while looking at the Duke’s back and got up from her seat.

After getting out of the carriage, Chloe stroked her chest in gratitude for her mother’s choice once again.

As the Duke had said, carriages couldn’t reach Chloe’s house, which stood alone in a secluded spot in a quiet forest away from people’s footsteps. Thanks to this, she could avoid her mother and the Duke meeting without any preparation.

After getting out of the carriage, Chloe bowed to the Duke with a refreshed face.

“Your Grace, thank you for letting me travel comfortably this far. I’ll walk alone from here.”

“Alone?”

“What?”

“Joyce, find us a place to stay in the village. I’ll visit Clyne’s house first.”

In response to Chloe’s question, the Duke spoke these shocking words while looking at Joyce instead of her. Chloe hoped she had heard wrong, but seeing Joyce’s bewildered expression, it seemed she had heard correctly.

The Duke is coming to my house? I worried this might happen, but is it really happening?

“I should visit your mother who is ill. She’s my attending servant’s mother. It wouldn’t be proper as a master who receives your care every day to just send medicine and a caregiver without showing my face.”

Pro…proper? What is he saying!

It was such an absurd sophistry that she couldn’t even imagine how such sophistry could exist. What employer in the world visits their attending servant’s family when they’re sick.

Moreover, the person saying this was none other than the great Duke Wulfaz.

Or… could he be being sarcastic?

Though it clearly seemed like an impossible situation, her lips felt stuck together, making it difficult to properly object.

Somehow the Duke’s words sounded like, ‘I treated your mother with my money, are you trying to just wipe your mouth clean without even saying thank you?’

‘Just medicine and a caregiver,’ he says. That’s nonsense to begin with. That medicine wasn’t some pebble you could pick up by the roadside.