#19. I Found the Woman
Klein was fully focused on his translation.
Even so, he continued to emit a fragrant, intoxicating body scent without any restraint.
He was concentrating so hard that it seemed he didn’t even realize Hugh Grey had been watching him for the past hour.
By now, Hugh Grey had become accustomed to Klein’s condition—the aftereffects of the imprint that made him act like he was half-mad and flailing around.
The dizzying, almost suffocating body scent that made him feel intoxicated… he had started to accept it as just a temporary chaos that would last until Joyce found the woman.
Thinking of it as something fleeting made it easier to enjoy it now, unlike before.
The sweetness soaking into his entire body made him feel languid—so much so that it bordered on helplessness—but it was so pleasant that it had become addictive.
And sometimes, at certain moments, it even felt like his whole body was waking up. The drowsiness would vanish, and every cell in his body would begin to pulse.
Still, even then, there was no real sense of danger. Whenever his body felt overheated, he could just open a window to cool down.
Klein, however, kept refusing to show his face properly. Hugh had tried to get a better look while drinking tea, but Klein said he wouldn’t drink.
What an annoying fellow. His bangs already covered most of his face, making it hard to see.
On top of that, he wore those ridiculous glasses—how could he even see properly through them?
Did he really need to hide his face that much? Hugh found himself curious about what his bare face looked like after removing everything.
I want to see it.
The more he thought that, the more he wanted to see it. That was why he had said it.
“Try taking them off.”
“Duke!”
Klein shot up from his seat, pale as a sheet.
“Mm?”
“Why are you saying things like that?”
“What?”
“Please don’t say such strange things.”
“What did I say?”
“I… I clearly told you I like you, Your Grace. And then you say things like ‘try taking them off’—of course I’d feel strange!”
So asking him to take off his glasses was something that strange?
“Hmm… why is that strange? If someone you like is curious about your face, shouldn’t that make you happy? I’m just curious about what your face looks like without all that covering it.”
“……”
Klein’s face turned red. Why was he blushing?
“You said you fell in love with me at first sight, didn’t you?”
“W-when did I ever…! Yes. I did.”
A lie.
“Who did you fall for, then?”
He was genuinely curious.
“Well, of course, Your Grace’s face… and…”
“And what else?”
“…your body?”
Ridiculous. And yet, why did he want to believe it?
It didn’t sound like a lie—maybe that was just his own wishful thinking. Still, if this man said he liked his body…
“I can show you everything, you know.”
“Eeek! Hic!”
Klein started hiccuping.
Cute. Really cute. Even his hiccups were cute.
“So why don’t you show me just your forehead and eyes at least? You say you like me. If the man you like asks, shouldn’t you be able to do at least that much?”
“Your Grace! What on earth is wrong with you? You’re supposed to be looking for a woman. You can’t do this to me.”
Right. He shouldn’t.
But he didn’t like men anyway.
So this was just a temporary mental illness—whatever he did was fine.
“Take off your glasses.”
“Your Grace, I suddenly feel like I’d like some tea. I’ll go prepare it.”
Klein shamelessly ignored the order completely and left the room.
And that attitude made Hugh like him even more. His condition was worsening day by day.
But it was only temporary, so everything was fine.
Cloy returned to her room and slapped her own face a few times. Her face was definitely red, and the Duke had clearly lost his mind.
In truth, she had known he was watching her the entire hour—but she had pretended not to notice.
He had been like that every day lately.
The Duke called her in every day to have her do translation work, and during that time, he would openly stare at her. It was an obvious gaze that couldn’t be ignored.
To endure it, she had to focus all her attention on the book. Maybe the Duke was her master who could afford to leisurely watch her face, but she was still just a servant who had to do her job.
Why was he acting like this?
It had started that day.
The day he had grabbed her hand while they were eating in the garden.
Ever since that day, Hugh Grey—the supposedly perfect, flawless Duke—had turned into someone completely unhinged.
And she seemed to be the target of that madness.
A man searching desperately for the woman he had slept with, yet casting obsessive looks at a male attendant—what was he?
A pervert? Or bisexual? Had that night awakened something in him?
“Uwaaaah!”
She let out a small scream.
Sir Joyce, please hurry up! And information guild, do your job faster! The Duke has gone crazy!
When they arrived, she would definitely escape this house.
Cloy was sitting across from the Duke, drinking tea.
At first, she had tried to refuse, but the Duke—through a mix of threats and persuasion—had always forced her to sit across from him and drink tea. Eventually, she gave up resisting and just accepted it as normal.
“A pair of twins?”
By now, everything about her personal background had been revealed, except for the fact that Klein and Cloy had switched identities. He kept interrogating her day after day.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“And you’re the older one?”
“Yes, I was born just a little earlier.”
Just a few minutes earlier, so she was considered the older sibling.
For something so small, Klein had insisted on being called the younger brother’s older sibling and would throw tantrums if she didn’t. Even though he had been smaller than her all his life and only slightly taller after growing up.
He was even physically weaker than her.
And yet he insisted on being treated as the older brother—it was irritating. They had fought a lot over it. She should have called him “Klein” more often back then.
<Kloy, you ugly thing, you’re only strong.>
Even now, she could vividly remember him glaring while bleeding from his nose, furious and unable to beat her.
Had he become stronger after growing up? She didn’t know—they hadn’t fought after that.
To think that her once-weak brother had been brutally killed…
Why…!
“Klein?”
The Duke’s voice pulled her back to the present.
“Ah, yes!”
Cloy steadied her expression.
“Did you and your sister look alike?”
Fortunately, the Duke hadn’t noticed she had almost cried.
“Oh! Since we’re fraternal twins, we don’t look that similar. My—no, I mean… my sister takes after our mother, and I take after our father.”
“Father?”
Ah—using “mom” and “dad” might sound too childish.
Maybe that was something adult men didn’t say often.
“Mother and father.”
“Hmph. Speak the way you usually do. You already look like a child anyway—like a girl who stopped growing.”
“……”
“Ah! No, I should say a boy who stopped growing.”
Cloy snapped back to attention at his correction.
So he had said she looked like a girl.
She hadn’t even noticed because it hadn’t felt strange while hearing it. That realization sharpened her awareness again.
Why did he make that slip? Did something about her look feminine to him?
“About your father… the documents only had records of your mother.”
Fortunately, the Duke seemed to move on without suspecting anything.
“My father passed away when I was very young. I don’t remember him.”
“I see.”
The Duke gave a brief sound of acknowledgment and said no more. Cloy was relieved he didn’t offer empty condolences.
For a moment, silence filled the room.
Then—
Flap, flap, flap.
The sound of wings from outside the window broke the stillness.
Why is that bird acting like that?
It had been circling outside the window repeatedly.
“It’s here.”
Muttering something unclear, the Duke walked to the window and raised his arm. A bird landed on his forearm.
Ah, a messenger bird.
He skillfully removed the paper tied to its leg.
Cloy couldn’t see what was written at first.
But she soon found out, as the Duke spoke to her.
“We’ve found a woman named Cloy!”
“…!”
So Sir Joyce had finally found another Cloy matching the criteria. The real Cloy was right here.
“They found her?”
Her lips moved almost on their own.
“There are five women matching the information.”
The Duke rolled up the paper as he replied.
“Five?”
That many?
“Joyce should be returning tomorrow.”
Whether the letter contained only that much, or whether he simply didn’t want to say more, the Duke stopped speaking about the woman named Cloy and walked back to his desk.
His face was tense, his eyes fixed on the desk as if deep in thought. He looked like someone who had forgotten even the tea he was drinking.
And of course, he had also forgotten the servant sitting across from him.
Cloy carefully lowered her gaze and began tidying the tea set.
Tea time for the master was over, which meant tea time for the servant was also over.
Soon, her role as attendant would be completely finished.
Once Sir Joyce returned, she would leave this house.
Cloy slowly left the Duke’s room. Even as she exited, his gaze remained fixed on the desk, as if he hadn’t even noticed her leaving.
Now, her task was clear.
Packing.
No matter what results Sir Joyce brought tomorrow, she would leave this house immediately.
