#38. The Duke and Kalkus

“Since it’s been my room ever since Chloe left, it’s currently filled with my things and quite disorganized. Too embarrassing to show, really.”

Fortunately, Kalkus, who had noticed the situation, stepped in with timely and appropriate words.

Yes, I should insist on what Kalkus said.

If they called her brother’s belongings Kalkus’s things, there shouldn’t be any problem.

But her room was still an issue.

She absolutely must not show it. He couldn’t just look around someone else’s house as he pleased. He wasn’t that inconsiderate of a person.

“Hmm… Did you change the bed too? Threw out the bed Clyne’s sister used?”

Why ask about the bed? Having almost gotten into trouble earlier by answering the Duke’s question hastily, Chloe tensed up.

“Why do you ask that?”

The sharp-witted Kalkus also carefully asked back instead of answering directly.

“If you can use the sister’s bed, since I’m not that much bigger than you, I thought there shouldn’t be any problem with me using the mother’s bed. I just wanted to see the bed.”

Chloe finally understood the Duke’s intention.

If Kalkus could use a woman’s bed, she would have to admit the Duke could use her mother’s bed too. Also, if Kalkus said he had removed Chloe’s bed and replaced it with a man’s bed, it would be difficult for her to refuse that bed to the Duke who was a guest.

Since she had made the excuse of sending him back because the bed would be uncomfortable.

Of course, being a sensible and considerate person, the Duke didn’t explicitly demand the bed. He only asked about the size of the bed.

But from her position, it would be difficult to stubbornly pretend not to know while Kalkus, who was almost the same size as the Duke, had a usable bed.

He wasn’t just anyone, but her master whom she served, and moreover, a benefactor who had saved her mother. And the reason this benefactor had come to her house was simply to see how much her mother had recovered.

If she didn’t show the room, it would look like she was refusing to give up a large bed that was available, and if she said Kalkus had been managing fine with the small bed, the Duke would say he could sleep in her mother’s bed too.

One way or another, she couldn’t send the Duke out onto the dark mountain path.

Ugh, why is he so insistent on staying!

While internally fuming but with slumped shoulders, Chloe finally decided to give the Duke her mother’s bed.

“Just my mother’s,”

Whether it was her room or her brother’s room that Kalkus was using, it would be best to cleanly put him in her mother’s room which had no secrets, rather than letting the Duke poke around here and there.

“Let’s go down. I’ll escort you.”

However, as soon as she opened her mouth, Kalkus cut in. Chloe looked at Kalkus with surprised eyes.

‘Kalkus, this isn’t the time for that. We’ve already lost the chance to send him away.’

However, even after meeting her eyes, Kalkus turned his head toward the Duke as if he hadn’t understood the meaning in her gaze. She couldn’t understand why he was playing dumb like this.

“Kalkus Tarkan, you should know, if I had made up my mind to go down the mountain path, I wouldn’t need help from you or anyone else.”

“?”

Chloe tilted her head.

What would Kalkus know? No help needed? Does he mean the path at night won’t be a problem?

Well, the other party was Duke Wulfaz. The Swordmaster known as the most excellent in the empire. So he could probably dispatch any beast with one stroke.

But Your Grace, you don’t have your sword right now! Can you just beat beasts with your bare hands? That’s not right! Wait, is he saying he’ll go down?

“Your Grace, are you leaving?”

Well, if a Swordmaster says he’ll go down the mountain path alone, there’s no need to stop him…

“Clyne, at times like this you’re really heartless.”

“Pardon?”

“Don’t you clearly remember how I was last night? Being in such pain I lost consciousness, what I did.”

“……!”

Suddenly, Chloe’s face felt like it was burning up.

What is the Duke saying now! Surely he’s not talking about that ‘kiss’ incident from last night? Could he actually remember?

It was difficult even to swallow.

“Knowing that I couldn’t even sleep properly because I was so sick I can’t remember last night, you’re still trying to send me back at this hour?”

Phew… So he doesn’t remember.

Yes, please stay and sleep! If you don’t remember last night’s incident, you can stay for two or three days for all I care!

“Of course I remember! That’s right, Your Grace! Since you were so ill, you must rest at our house today!”

Chloe quickly blurted before the Duke could possibly recall memories of last night.

“Your Grace, since we’re talking about rest, even if one is an attending servant, don’t they need rest too? If Your Grace needs rest to this extent, surely the attending servant needs it too, yet you would stay at your vacationing servant’s house? Is Duke Wulfaz that kind of employer?”

“……!”

Chloe glared at Kalkus with her lower lip dropped to her chin.

‘Kalkus, is that supposed to be helping me?’

Though he should be able to understand what she meant just by her fierce gaze, Kalkus continued to ignore her eyes.

‘Is Duke Wulfaz that kind of employer?’ Really, Kalkus, you’ve completely crossed the line! That’s Duke Wulfaz over there! Besides, if such words need to be said, I should be the one saying them, why do you keep speaking to my Duke like that?

The Kalkus she knew would never make others uncomfortable or attack first without reason. Chloe couldn’t understand why Kalkus would make such reckless and aggressive remarks to her employer the Duke, of all people.

Of course, examining Kalkus’s words carefully, they weren’t wrong. All points are valid. But speaking so directly to someone’s face like that was neither polite nor proper.

And she couldn’t understand why Kalkus was acting this way when she said she was fine. Her male disguise hadn’t been discovered yet and she still had much money to repay. So the Duke was still her employer. Kalkus shouldn’t be speaking so freely to such a person!

Moreover, apart from the employer-servant relationship, hearing the Duke’s words reminded her how unwell he had been just this morning, which made her feel bad.

She had managed to sleep a bit in the carriage, but the Duke who had been sick all night hadn’t even had that chance. It wasn’t right to drive out someone who hadn’t gotten proper sleep and had been ill into the dark night. As she thought about it, she even felt remorse that she had been too heartless, as the Duke had pointed out.

“Hmm… I didn’t know I was such an uncomfortable employer. Was I, Clyne? Was I such a fastidious master that you couldn’t even bear me staying one night at your house?”

“……!”

Oh no. See this? Kalkus, that really wasn’t right!

Fastidious? That adjective was very far from the Duke. Though he had been acting strange occasionally lately, the Duke was absolutely not a master who troubled servants without reason.

“Answer me, Clyne.”

The Duke looked at her with somehow sad eyes.

“No, that’s not it! How could there be a better employer than Your Grace?”

“Did you hear that, Kalkus Tarkan? Clyne says so?”

The Duke who had looked sad suddenly turned to look at Kalkus with a composed expression.

“……?”

Why is the Duke looking at Kalkus with such an expression?

The Duke’s gaze felt as if he had just knocked Kalkus down.

No, this isn’t right either. This isn’t it.

Now, Chloe was watching Kalkus’s expression. She couldn’t understand why she was alternately watching both their reactions, but the atmosphere was strangely unsettling.

“No matter how good, no outsider is as good as family.”

See, I knew this would happen.

The uneasiness she had felt was indeed not wrong.

Kalkus ignored her desperate gaze and again responded curtly to the Duke as if squaring off against him. Even using the unexpected word ‘family’. Family? What on earth did he mean by that.

“Kalkus, stop it!”

Finally, Chloe spoke firmly to Kalkus. Not only was the tension between Kalkus and the Duke uncomfortable, but it also bothered her that Kalkus spoke as if he were her family. Though Kalkus was a precious friend like no other, he wasn’t ‘family’.

“So I’m staying here then?”

And what does the Duke mean by this!

“Pardon?”

Chloe looked at the Duke with a dumbfounded voice at his response that had neither context nor logic. However, the Duke’s gaze was directed at Kalkus.

“Right now, Clyne’s only family, his mother, isn’t at home. And you’re staying in this house. You who are not family but an outsider. If I were to leave my attending servant to sleep in the same house with an unrelated man, wouldn’t I be neglecting my duty as a master?”

Unrelated what? Duty as a what?

Chloe’s head was not just spinning but starting to throb. Both the Duke and Kalkus were acting too strange.

“Your Grace, you seem to be quite mistaken about something. Both Clyne and I are men, what’s so significant about male friends sleeping in the same house that you would say such strange things?”

Now Kalkus’s tone was so impolite it could be said he was having an argument with the Duke.

And one more thing. It also bothered her that there was something about the Duke and her that Kalkus didn’t know.