#10. You’re a Man Too
“Yes. Please speak.”
Clinging to the hope that it would be an easy question, Chloe spoke.
“Before that… I think I should let some air in.”
Instead of asking the question he was supposed to, the Duke casually told her to ventilate the room. Chloe felt a bit irritated, but she quickly opened the window and returned.
“Among the servants working in this house, is there anyone blond? About this length of blond hair.”
The Duke said, spreading his hands roughly sixty centimeters apart.
Blond?
There were hardly any blond people in the mansion, and among the male servants, there definitely didn’t seem to be anyone with hair that long.
“Nothing that length, as far as I know… but I don’t know every single servant, so it might be better to ask the butler.”
“No. There isn’t.”
“Pardon?”
His answer made no sense to her.
Of course, she also thought there probably wasn’t anyone like that. But if he already knew that, why was he even asking?
“There is not a single servant in the Wolpaz Ducal House with hair of that length. And certainly no blond with such bright, soft hair.”
“…!”
Sixty centimeters of bright, soft blond hair.
An all-too-familiar image flashed through her mind—her own hair.
But there was no way the Duke could be talking about her. Her blond hair was perfectly concealed beneath a brown wig.
Still, she had to suppress the urge to check her head with her hands, worried the wig might have slipped or that she had forgotten to put it on properly.
“There is a rule in my house that female servants are not allowed.”
At his suddenly unrelated remark, Chloe’s face darkened. The shift from hair to female servants felt ominous.
“And women are not allowed to be brought into the house at all. You are aware of that, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I know.”
Fearing her voice might tremble, Chloe tightened her core and answered.
“And you also know that violating that rule requires paying a penalty, don’t you?”
What on earth was he trying to say?
“And yet you…”
“…?”
She felt like a small animal being driven toward a trap it could see but could not avoid.
“In my house… did you bring in a blond-haired woman?”
“What? What are you talking about? Me bringing a woman into the mansion?”
So that was what this was about?
A woman?
Ha!
It was so absurd she almost scoffed out loud.
Who in their right mind would risk a penalty fee just to sneak a woman into the Duke’s estate?
Besides, her room was right next to the Duke’s office. Unless someone had lost their mind, that was impossible.
She couldn’t understand why the conversation had suddenly taken this direction.
“If that’s not the case, then there’s no other explanation.”
“That’s not true at all! I have never done anything like that. Why would I ever bring a woman into the Duke’s estate—!”
Chloe, practically protesting in disbelief at the sudden accusation, suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
She hadn’t brought in a woman—but she was a woman herself.
“The other day, I found a few strands of long blond hair in your room. I assumed it belonged to your younger sister. Though, now that I think about it, it would be strange for your sister’s hair to be in your room.”
“Hair…?”
“So whose hair is it? Explain.”
Haah…
This damned Duke. He should have started with the hair!
Though even if he had, she wasn’t sure she could have explained it properly.
When she slept, she locked her door and removed her uncomfortable wig. So the hair must have fallen onto the bedding.
This morning, when she hurried to leave while the Duke was away, she had checked only for obvious belongings—not stray hairs. That had been a mistake.
But how on earth had he even found that hair? Had he gone into her room?
Why?
Even if she had made a mistake, it was strange that the Duke himself would enter a servant’s room just to inspect it.
“There is one thing I despise above all else—lying.”
“…Yes.”
“Whose hair is it? Whom did you bring into my house?”
“I don’t know.”
There was nothing else she could say.
“I… don’t know…”
The Duke repeated her words slowly.
“I’m sorry. I truly don’t know.”
“I truly don’t know, you say…”
His gaze grew colder and colder.
“I’m sorry, Your Grace. I really—”
There was no way to explain the hair.
It wasn’t like hair had hooks to latch onto things and travel around on its own.
“I suppose, as a man, you could meet women as you please. Whether you meet them outside or not, that’s not something I can control.”
“….”
Chloe swallowed silently, unable to speak.
A man? Meeting women?
Was her disguise really that perfect?
Not only was she pretending to be a man—now she was being treated as one who was even dating women.
“But I can smell the scent of the woman I slept with on you. And I can still smell her scent from the hair in your bed.”
So what the Duke was saying was… that the woman he had slept with was now romantically involved with his servant?
Unbelievable. How did his thoughts even connect like that?
“Your Grace, that’s—”
“Whatever your relationship with that woman is, I will find her.”
“That’s not it.”
If there was one small relief in this chaos, it was that he still did not suspect she was a woman.
Everything else was a disaster.
And the Duke’s personality was also a disaster.
He was basically demanding that she hand over the woman he believed she was romantically involved with, simply because he had spent one night with her.
Seriously. What kind of self-centered logic was that?
Even if his claims were completely wrong, Chloe was still stunned.
Had the Duke eaten something strange that night? Some kind of personality-altering drug?
“I could never mistake that scent. I thought it was odd already—it was clearly on you. If you were meeting that woman, then everything makes sense. So tell me. Where is she?”
The Duke’s eyes burned with an intensity as strange as his logic.
Like a beast that had met its natural enemy.
Or like a rutting male animal fighting another over a female.
The problem was… the “female” they were fighting over was Chloe herself. And the rival male in this absurd contest was also Chloe.
No, seriously—was he actually trying to reclaim a woman’s “purity” or something?
At this point, she even wondered if his reason for searching for the woman was something else entirely.
Like claiming ownership over her.
Even though no one had ever given him such ownership.
“Your Grace!”
“Speak. Just tell me where she is. Whatever your relationship with her, it doesn’t matter. I only need to find her.”
He was not known as an irrational man.
In fact, he had been described as balanced, even reasonable.
But this behavior was completely different from everything she had heard about him.
Even if she was seeing someone else, he insisted on finding that woman anyway.
What about the woman herself? Her feelings? The other man involved?
His blind obsession was becoming frightening.
At this point, Chloe almost wanted to ask directly—what exactly did he plan to do once he found her?
Because something about this felt different from what she had initially feared.
Though whatever the truth was… it didn’t feel like it would be any less troublesome.
“Women? What woman would I possibly be meeting? When would I even have the time? I work at this estate twenty-four hours a day.”
Even Chloe, who normally held her tongue, found the Duke’s logic ridiculous—and began pushing back sharply.
“Why wouldn’t you? You leave the estate four days every month. And just recently, you took that leave. Since then, I’ve been able to smell her scent on you.”
It seemed the Duke had filled the gap in his reasoning with imagination instead of facts.
“That is not true! You are misunderstanding, Your Grace.”
“Misunderstanding… Then explain the hair. Explain it in a way I can accept. And as soon as you heard I was searching for that woman, you suddenly decided to quit your job. Without repaying your advance salary. Why is that?”
“That’s because—”
“Because you were meeting that woman.”
“That’s absurd.”
“If it’s absurd, then make it make sense.”
He was forcing every piece of evidence into a conclusion that already existed in his mind.
What was she supposed to do? How could she break through such blind conviction?
“Aren’t you a man? Yes, you are. A man. You can meet women if you want. That’s how it is.”
The Duke’s face twisted further as he spoke, his hostility now unmistakable.
Chloe felt a chill run down her spine. He was openly glaring at her now.
Dangerous.
He was definitely dangerous right now.
“….”
“….”
A heavy silence filled with killing intent and fear settled between them.
Chloe couldn’t think of anything to say.
No matter what she said, it wouldn’t reach that blinded gaze.
Still… she had to say something.
Anything.
Something that could fix this misunderstanding.
Ah…! Would this work? But this is too—
“You—!”
But there was no more time.
Before the Duke’s rage could boil over any further, she had to cut through his delusion.
“I like men!”
And without even enough time to fully think it through, the words that had been hovering at her lips burst out.
Her face burned even hotter than the words she had just spoken.
