#40. Can It Be Thrown Away?

“You like my body.”

“Me?”

Chloe widened her eyes at the duke.

“Yes, don’t you? Was that a lie?”

Only then did she recall their previous conversation. When she said she was attracted to the duke’s face and body.

It wasn’t a lie. The duke having a good body was a fact known throughout the empire!

However, the lies she had carelessly uttered—that she liked the duke, that she was attracted to his face and body—were now catching up with her, mercilessly throwing her around.

“It wasn’t a lie. But I didn’t particularly enjoy bathing you. I was just doing my job.”

“Ah…… So you did like my body.”

Selective hearing? Why are you acting like this?! Do you know they were all lies and are deliberately trying to get revenge?

Whether he couldn’t interpret Chloe’s expression at all or her expression simply had no impact on him, the duke’s expression remained cheerful.

“Clyne, don’t you hear something outside?”

While her heart was pounding from the absurdity, Kalkus suddenly changed the subject.

“Huh? What sound?”

“I’m not sure what it is, but would you go check?”

“What?”

Chloe stared at Kalkus with bewildered eyes.

Why were both the duke and Kalkus acting strange together? What sound was he talking about? She couldn’t hear anything.

Nothing was audible to her, but Kalkus asking her to go check on some supposed sound was also strange.

The normal Kalkus would have checked himself without telling her, even if there really was a sound. Today was different in many ways, though. Still, there was absolutely no sound coming from outside.

“Hmm, now that you mention it, I think I heard something too. Clyne, go check it out.”

Now even the duke was making strange comments.

“……What…… sound did you hear?”

Since both of them were saying this, she began to wonder if there really was a sound.

“Yes, I’m sure. Go check.”

“Right, take your time and look around. Check the entire perimeter thoroughly.”

The duke and Kalkus had reached an agreement for once. For a moment, she even had the illusion that a peaceful atmosphere had returned to the living room that had been filled with tension.

“Then I’ll go out and look around for a moment.”

Chloe had no choice but to stand up.

Ah! Is it okay to leave these two alone? They’re both acting strange.

With an anxious heart, she opened the front door and looked back at the two of them. Contrary to her concerns, the two were peacefully holding their teacups as if they had never created an uncomfortable atmosphere.

Hmm…… It seems fine.

Seeing the two become so peaceful, Chloe went outside with a dazed feeling.

* * *

Click.

“What do you want?”

As soon as the door closed behind Chloe, Traskan asked.

“You should have figured it out by now. Are you pretending not to know?”

That what I want is Clyne.

Hughgray leaned back against the sofa and spoke. Just because Clyne wasn’t present didn’t mean he had any intention of treating that youngster as a prince.

If you want to be Tarkan in front of Clyne, keep doing that.

“No, I can’t believe it. You’re not just any wolf, you’re an Alpha, aren’t you?”

‘You’……

A commoner couldn’t use such a tone with Hughgray. Finally, Traskan had thrown off his Tarkan mask and revealed his true identity.

A lion beast-person and a prince of Elaion.

So he’ll only act as ‘Tarkan’ when Clyne is around? Using a mask that he can put on and take off at his convenience.

“And you’re a lion beast-person. One who fled with his tail between his legs after being pushed out of the power struggle from the start.”

“Duke Wulfaz, I don’t think it’s right for a wolf beast-person to talk about power and such to me, an Elaion.”

So you claim to be an Elaion by blood alone, without a lion’s claws or teeth?

How ridiculous.

Hughgray lowered his head with a sneer.

Beast-people, possessing both human mental abilities and exceptional physical capabilities of animals, were stronger than pure humans and naturally became the ruling class.

Being an absolute minority, they couldn’t avoid mixing with humans while living among them. However, when beast-people and humans mated, the probability of producing beast-person offspring wasn’t very high. Thus, the number of beast-people inevitably decreased with each generation.

Moreover, herbivorous beast-people, who weren’t overwhelmingly superior to pure humans, weren’t particularly concerned with preserving their bloodline and were much more open to unions with humans. Eventually, this trend continued and even accelerated until not a drop of beast-person blood flowed in the descendants of those who had beast-person ancestors.

Of course, predatory beast-people couldn’t resist this great trend either. The trend gradually spread to lower predator species, and predator beast-people also followed the path to extinction. Until the belief that beast-people were a species that had disappeared into history became firmly rooted among humans.

That’s why only the bloodlines of the most powerful apex predator beast-people from the beginning still had beast-person blood remaining. The imperial and royal families who had established themselves as rulers early on, and several powerful noble families were precisely those. They had insisted on mating only among beast-people to maintain their power and authority.

However, they gradually reached an agreement and conclusion that it was better to hide their blood.

With most beast-people extinct and the majority of the ruled class being pure humans, they judged that emphasizing their lineage could provoke resistance. For stable rule and maintenance of power, they chose to become forgotten existences.

Systematically and deliberately, they spread the belief that beast-people had disappeared into history while simultaneously mythologizing the fact that the roots of each country’s imperial and royal families were beast-people, thereby solidifying humans’ reverence.

In fact, due to constant territorial disputes and power struggles, the relationships between different apex predator beast-person families were never cooperative or friendly. Rather, they had continuously opposed and competed with each other.

However, they maintained a perfect symbiotic relationship when dealing with humans. As a ruling class community, it was advantageous and efficient to respond collectively to the pure humans, the ruled class.

No matter how exceptional their abilities were, being a minority meant they had no choice but to cooperate with each other to solidify their superiority and dominance.

Paradoxically, this meant that beast-person family clans knew each other’s bloodlines inside out. The representative beast-person families competing and coexisting in this way were the lion clan of the Elaion imperial family, the wolf clan of the Wulfaz duchy, the tiger clan of the Tigrium royal family, and the black panther clan of the Darkus duchy.

So now Kalkus Traskan was asserting his superiority over Hughgray as one apex predator beast-person to another, and a relatively lower predator beast-person at that.

Of course, Hughgray had no intention of agreeing with his preposterous claim.

“In the world of beast-people, rightness is determined by strength, not bloodline…… I wonder if your skills can match your bloodline. Though even your bloodline doesn’t mean much to me.”

Do you think you’re something special? Ridiculous. You oversized cat.

Hughgray had, in his own way, indirectly told Traskan his thoughts. That the Elaion youngster was nothing to him.

“Bloodline cannot be ignored because of the power it holds. Whether it means anything to you or not, I am of Elaion blood.”

In response to Hughgray’s dismissal, the delicate-looking Traskan growled, flashing his golden eyes as if trying to prove he was an Elaion.

To Hughgray, that threat sounded like nothing more than a cat’s meow.

“I’m genuinely curious, if you were born with such noble blood, why do you pretend to be a cat in front of Clyne? Does it suit your aptitude?”

Hughgray tilted his head to one side as if truly curious. Actually, he was a little curious.

“Rather than suiting my aptitude…… it’s more that it suits staying with Clyne.”

At Traskan’s response, the expression disappeared from Hughgray’s face, which had been wearing a sneer until now.

Stop babbling, Traskan.

Hughgray said with his eyes. But Kalkus, who had no intention of paying attention to his glare, continued speaking calmly.

“I have no attachment to my Elaion blood. As you said, I was pushed out of the power struggle from the start, and I don’t have an innate desire for power. But you can’t be like that. You’re the head of the wolf clan, an Alpha. So stop doing strange things to Clyne, a man.”

“You know so well that I’m an Alpha, yet you’re giving me orders. I’m not in a position to take orders from anyone.”

“If you want to stay in that position, stop your impure acts toward Clyne.”

“Whether impure or wholesome, I have no intention of stopping. I’ll keep him by my side.”

“You’re out of your mind. Has an Alpha gone into heat for a man? Can you even do that? When you can’t abandon your bloodline like I can.”

“……”

The urge to tear out that arrogant lion’s throat surged within Hughgray.

When that scruffy youngster flaunted his lion beast-person bloodline, it was laughable. After all, they were in the same situation. That guy was also shackled by being a lion beast-person. Just like himself, shackled by being an Alpha.

But to say he could give it up? That he could throw it away?

Suddenly, he felt as if he was being strangled. But what was choking him wasn’t the lion cub in front of him. It wasn’t his identity as a wolf beast-person either. It was the shackle of being an Alpha, the leader of his species.