#7. Accurate Sense of Smell

A chill suddenly ran down her spine.

She couldn’t understand why the Duke felt like such a dangerous beast.

Was it because of Sir Joyce’s words about ‘tearing to pieces’ that lingered in her mind?

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

Watching the Duke approach the sofa, Chloe spoke with an air suggesting she had finished her duties and would leave.

“No! Sit and drink with me.”

“Pardon?”

Why?

This had never happened before.

He would always say things like ‘leave it and go,’ or ‘bring it closer,’ or if neither, ‘I don’t need tea, clear it away.’ That’s all he ever said!

But why did he suddenly suggest drink together!

“I’m fine, thank you.”

The Duke stared up at Chloe, who stood frozen beside the table.

“Why.”

The pressure in his toneless question made her feel unable to move.

“How could I possibly sit down and have tea time with Your Grace?”

Chloe asked back without raising her voice, equally toneless.

As if asking why he would question something so obvious.

Where in the world would a personal attendant sit down to drink tea with their master?

“Is that so.”

The Duke muttered glumly to himself, and Chloe was about to nod,

Though her head stiffened when the Duke added, “It seems you just don’t want to drink with me.”

Frozen stiff, she carried the teacup from the side table to the low table in front of the sofa where the Duke sat.

Since he said he would drink on the sofa, she had to serve it before him.

Clink.

As she carefully set down the teacup and stood up, the sound of the Duke’s breathing as he said “Hmm” pierced her ears like thunder.

No, it was closer to a moan than breathing.

Goosebumps instantly rose on the back of Chloe’s neck.

That sound was familiar because…

It was the same sound the Duke had made that night in bed.

Has His Grace gone mad?

Why is he suddenly making such suggestive sounds!

The Duke took several deep breaths in and out like someone short of breath.

Chloe stepped back hesitantly, too flustered.

“Clyne!”

“Yes!”

Though she froze at attention at the Duke’s sharp voice.

“Don’t move!”

“Pardon?”

“I said don’t move from there.”

“……”

Chloe stopped moving without being able to answer the Duke’s sudden command.

“Open the window.”

What kind of contradictory order was this, telling her not to move but then to open the window?

Which rhythm should she follow?

It was also strange how he kept asking to open windows lately.

Watching the Duke bring the teacup close to his nose from the corner of her eye, Chloe awkwardly made her way to the window.

As she opened it and turned around, wind blew in from outside.

“Cl…yne.”

“Yes?”

“I said don’t move.”

What am I supposed to do!

He hadn’t been such a difficult master to please before, how did it come to this…

“Don’t stand by the window.”

By this point, the Duke seemed like someone with a broken personality.

“I won’t move from now on.”

Though indignant, she answered quietly and slowly moved beside the table.

“Is this tea’s fragrance usually like this? Today the scent…”

He closed his mouth when his eyes met Chloe’s, and eventually closed his eyes completely.

“……”

It was a suffocating silence.

“Perhaps.”

Just as she was thinking of leaving, the Duke broke the silence.

“Yes…?”

An inexplicable anxiety washed over her.

“Do you have any sisters?”

“Pardon?”

“Do you have any female siblings?”

“Ah… no.”

Cold sweat broke out.

“So you don’t…”

He set down the teacup.

Chloe’s lips felt parched, and she lightly licked her lower lip.

“Then why do you have this scent? This isn’t from the tea. This scent is definitely from the woman I slept with…”

“I have no sisters! And I don’t know what scent you’re talking about.”

Though her voice was trembling slightly, she didn’t have the luxury to worry about fixing that.

Could he really remember her scent from that night?

Even at this distance?

“Clyne, come closer.”

“Pardon?”

Chloe shuddered.

Coming closer to smell her? Was he a beast or what?

Besides, if she got that close, she was sure the Duke would see her trembling.

“I said come here.”

“No! I have no sisters, and I don’t have any scent!”

Chloe shook her head violently from side to side.

The Duke she knew was a rational and logical person.

Not someone who would ask a servant to come closer to smell them!

“Your Grace, you seem a bit sensitive lately. May I leave? I still need to pack my things and also check if someone has been chosen to take over my duties…”

She wasn’t sure she could wait until tomorrow. She wanted to run away from this mansion right now.

“Sensitive?”

The Duke frowned.

Chloe only then realized she had been rude.

“Perhaps you’re just tired?”

She quickly changed her words.

“…Is that so.”

Unexpectedly, the Duke readily agreed with her suggestion.

“Then may I take my leave? Do you have any other tasks for me?”

“When will you make the request to the information guild?”

“Since it’s already late… I was planning to make the request tomorrow when I leave the mansion.”

If she had gone right after receiving the order, she could have visited before the guild closed, but Chloe had been busy with personal matters. Now the timing was awkward as she would barely make it before closing time if she went to the guild alley.

“Alright, do that.”

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

The Duke said nothing more.

Chloe quickly slipped out of his room before he could stop her again.

Her heart that should have been pounding steadily seemed to beat with varying intensity: thump thump-thump thump thump-thump.

<Then why do you have this scent? This isn’t from the tea. This scent is definitely from the woman I slept with…>

She wanted to ask if he was crazy, but what was crazier was the fact that she was the woman he had slept with.

So that seemingly insane claim wasn’t insane at all – it was an insanely accurate sense of smell.

Could it be she was sweating from running around?

Come to think of it, she might have sweated that night too. After all that intense rolling around.

But no matter how she thought about it, she hadn’t sweated that much today, and even if she had, she wasn’t close enough to the Duke for him to smell her sweat.

Since she had decided not to receive tomorrow’s wages anyway, Chloe resolved to leave this house at dawn tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning, Chloe went to the Duke’s bedroom with washing water prepared.

As always, after setting down the washing water in front of the door,

Knock knock.

She knocked and,

“Your Grace,”

Called out, but there was no response.

“Your Grace, I’m coming in.”

Since there were often times with no response, and the Duke was always awake at this hour, Chloe carefully opened the door and entered.

“Your Grace…”

When Chloe called out again while looking around the bedroom. The Duke was nowhere to be found, not in bed or anywhere else in the room.

Had he already gone to his office?

The Duke’s office was right next to his bedroom.

Both rooms had their own doors from the corridor, but they were connected when you went inside.

But the Duke wasn’t in the office through the connecting passage either.

This is even better!

At least she was lucky on her last day of work.

She had been worried he might say something about her smell again from the morning.

Now that she had prepared the washing water, she could just leave the house right away and report to the butler before facing the Duke.

Of course, she might get scolded for leaving so early in the morning, but since she had said she wouldn’t take today’s wages anyway, they couldn’t say much.

Creeeeak.

Ugh! Why is the door so loud?

The sound of opening the door seemed as loud as thunder.

Having quickly packed her bags from her room, Chloe was trying her best to leave without making any sound in case the Duke had returned to his room.

Since her room as the personal attendant was a tiny room attached to the office next to the Duke’s bedroom, any loud noise could be heard in the office.

She usually didn’t care about the sound of doors, but now everything made her nervous.

Actually, Chloe’s room wasn’t originally meant to be a servant’s quarters. It was practically a storage room attached to the Duke’s office. It had been converted into a room with a bed added when Chloe started working as his personal attendant.

After leaving the room, she glanced towards the Duke’s room.

Fortunately, there was no sign of movement.

With bags in both hands, she looked back at the room she had just left.

There were no personal belongings left except for the furniture provided by the ducal household.

How clean!

She hesitated for a brief moment before closing the door again.

Should she leave it open, or put down her bags and close it?

Though it was a momentary dilemma, in this situation of trying to make a getaway, it felt like a life-changing decision.

She wanted to just quickly head to the stairs regardless of what happened to the door.

But she was about to leave this house forever.

Right, finish things properly.

She should close the door before leaving.

She put down her bags and tried to pull the door closed as quietly as possible without any creaking.

Creeeeeak.

As if mocking her efforts, the door made another nerve-grating sound.

The noise that usually went unnoticed now seemed as loud as thunder.

“Sigh…”

Though she let out a small sigh, at least the door was closed.

She proudly picked up her bags again and straightened her back as she turned around.

“Eep!”

She let out a startled gasp as soon as she turned.

Because the Duke was standing there with his arms crossed.

“Your Grace…”

She had no idea when the Duke had appeared.

He had been standing right in front of her, but when their eyes met, he suddenly stepped back with a slight frown.

His face was full of displeasure, evident in the deep wrinkles between his brows.

There he goes again.

That expression, like he was avoiding someone with the plague.

“What are you doing?”

The Duke asked as he took another step back.

His narrowed eyes moved to the large bags in Chloe’s hands.

“Well… I…”

Chloe opened and closed her mouth, searching for words.

She couldn’t exactly say she was trying to disappear before running into the Duke.

“You said you were leaving today, but I didn’t know you meant this early in the morning?”

Chloe unconsciously gulped as she tried not to avoid the Duke’s eyes.

It wasn’t easy to act calm in this situation.

“I decided to leave early since I have a long way to go. I also need to stop by the information guild.”

Strangely, as the Duke listened to her answer, his gaze was fixed slightly below her eyes.

What is he looking at? My neck?

Due to the Duke’s ambiguous gaze, Chloe’s neck felt oddly itchy.

“Your Grace, thank you for everything. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to say goodbye since you weren’t in your room this morning, but I’m glad I could see you and properly bid farewell. The washing water…”

Chloe’s mouth seemed to have a mind of its own, rambling on and on.

“I get it. I get it, so stop talking and if you’re going to leave, leave quickly.”

The Duke said like he’s trying to stop Chloe’s from speaking, his face even more distorted than before.

“……!”

Instead, it was Chloe whose feet froze at the Duke’s words.

She felt both deflated and pathetic for making such a fuss about sneaking away when the Duke was so readily giving her permission to leave, almost like he was driving her out.

But there was no need to hesitate when he was telling her to leave, no, telling her to leave quickly.

“Yes! Thank you, Your Grace. Please take care of yourself.”

Chloe bowed her head in greeting.

“……”

The Duke gave no response.

He just covered his nose and mouth with one hand.

As if Chloe was some foul-smelling waste he wanted to get rid of quickly.

Chloe almost glared at the Duke for his strange behavior, but fortunately managed to maintain her polite expression until the end.

After all, the Duke might really have caught the scent from that night.

And if he had smelled the scent of the woman he had slept with, his behavior was understandable.

Since the Duke extremely disliked women, even though he had rolled around intensely with her for one night when his mind wasn’t right, it made sense that he would act like this once he came to his senses.

If he were to find out that she was the woman he had slept with when he hated women so much, there was no telling how he would react.

She absolutely could not risk such danger.

Chloe headed towards the stairs, deliberately ignoring the Duke’s gaze she could feel on the back of her head.

Once she reached the stairs, she would be out of the Duke’s sight.

How many steps would it take, maybe twenty?

Don’t look too rushed. Stay calm. Don’t run.

It felt like she was chanting a mantra as she walked.

Those twenty steps felt like two hundred, but she finally reached the stairs. Until then, she hadn’t heard the Duke move at all.

Anyway, now she just needed to say goodbye to the butler and it would truly be over.