#22. They Said She Was a Beastfolk?
“Understood.”
“But are you certain the other commoner women weren’t thin?”
The fact that the woman from that night had supposedly been a noblewoman was strange.
The clothes he had removed from her that night—the material, the type, the number of layers—none of it seemed like something a noblewoman would wear.
Even if his heat had clouded his senses, he didn’t believe he could have forgotten the texture and memory of what he had touched with his own hands.
No.
Perhaps he couldn’t claim to be knowledgeable about women’s clothing. His senses were reliable, but his knowledge might have been lacking.
Even so…
It was still strange.
It had been a shabby inn they had been forced to enter while traveling to the villa during the spring mating season. An unexpected early onset of heat had forced them to take shelter there.
It was the kind of place he would never normally stay.
And yet a noblewoman was staying alone in such an inn?
“Yes. Except for Chloe Riden, the other two are quite plump. They are definitely not thin at all.”
“…I see. But that woman from Kinden… no, never mind. You may leave.”
Hugh Gray stopped himself mid-sentence and changed his mind. If the woman he had marked truly was that woman, he no longer wished to discuss another man or woman’s body with his subordinate. Not even with Joyce, who was as close to him as an extension of his own will.
From the beginning, he had already disliked the way Joyce described the woman’s physical features.
He needed to find the woman, so he had no choice but to listen—but even so, there should have been more explanation about clothing and the condition of the inn rather than… that.
“Yes, then I will take my leave.”
Watching Joyce’s retreating figure, Hugh Gray recalled that night.
Specifically, the image of a woman who was far from what one would call “voluptuous.”
Of course, Joyce’s standards and his own could differ.
But by his standards, she would not be described that way. To him, she had simply been perfect. As everything else about her had been.
So going to see the woman from Kinden was the right decision.
The duke and Sir Joyce left for Kinden at dawn.
At best, they would return late tonight. Or perhaps tomorrow.
But if the duke’s eyes were functioning properly, he would likely return tonight.
He would be able to recognize that the noblewoman from Kinden was not the woman from that night.
In any case, it had nothing to do with Chloe.
The duke had left, and Chloe had gained a rare day of freedom.
Thinking back on how relentlessly he had called for her work before Joyce’s final messenger arrived, it felt like a dreamlike rest.
Of course, after learning that the duke had saved her mother, she felt she could endure even more than before.
She had to admit she had been wrong about him—wondering if his personality had changed, if he had become different.
After all, she was just one servant among many, yet he had spent money equivalent to her entire annual salary—perhaps even more—to help a servant’s family.
At this point, if he would only stop searching for the woman he had spent a night with, she felt she could serve him not just for the rest of her life, but for at least ten more years.
Knock knock.
As she was lost in thoughts of gratitude toward the duke, a knock sounded at the door. Chloe quickly went to unlock it.
Ever since returning to the duke’s residence, she always locked her door when she was inside. After remembering how the duke had searched for the blond hair, she could not afford to be careless.
On the other side stood the butler.
“Clain, someone from the Information Guild has come. Go and meet them briefly.”
“Me?”
“They said they want to report directly to the person who made the request.”
“But the request was made by the duke. I only ran the errand.”
“It seems you’ll have to at least inform them that the duke is absent. They said they want confirmation of that from you as well. That’s how those people from the Information Guild operate.”
“I see. Understood.”
She roughly understood what he meant.
If the requester was not present, they refused to speak at all. For the Information Guild, information was money, and they only trusted what they saw and heard directly.
Even the fact that the duke, who paid for the request, was absent was not something they would accept lightly.
The guild member who had handled the previous request was waiting in the garden.
“You’ve arrived. I came to deliver a progress report, but I heard the duke is not here.”
“Yes, that’s correct. The duke is currently away, so you may need to return tomorrow or the day after.”
“So I’ll have to make another trip. Well, now that I’ve confirmed it, that’s fine. I’ll return tomorrow.”
The guild member muttered to himself.
“Or… if you tell me, I can pass on the information instead.”
Chloe asked with a hint of self-interest. It would not hurt her to hear the results first.
“We don’t care. The one who commissioned us was that side. Of course, once the information is delivered, responsibility lies with them.”
“Oh! I see. Then please tell me.”
The guild member immediately began reporting what he had found.
It was either impressive—or disappointing—because it was exactly the same information Sir Joyce had gathered.
Five people matched the conditions, and one of them was a noblewoman from Kinden.
But this man also knew about Chloe Riden. How had he found out about her?
She had not dared ask Joyce because the duke was present, but she considered asking this guild member.
“How did you find all five of them? It couldn’t have been easy.”
“There are ways. Noble ladies are well-known, and commoners are harder to trace. That’s why we get paid.”
“Ah, I see. So did you personally meet all five of them?”
“No. The Chloe living in Bergen was only heard about through rumors. They say she’s the younger of a blond-haired, blue-eyed pair of twins. The conditions match, but I haven’t seen her. Even the villagers haven’t seen them much lately.”
“Villagers?”
The people from the mountain village?
So they had known about her family?
“Well, they live in the mountains, so they don’t interact much with the village, but they used to come down occasionally to shop. The twins were so striking that anyone who saw them remembered them.”
“…!”
Oh no.
She had thought they lived without drawing attention, but the fact that her family had been remembered so clearly sent a chill down her spine.
“That’s why I think that Chloe twin is the one the duke is looking for.”
Chloe barely stopped herself from trembling.
The guild member continued speaking, giving reason after reason without being asked.
“The Duke of Ulfaz, right? He’s not an ordinary man. There are no rumors of him ever being involved with women. If such a man slept with a woman, she must have been extraordinarily beautiful. Birds of a feather, and all that.”
“W-What! You don’t even know her! How would you know she’s beautiful? And what do you mean ‘birds of a feather’?! Nothing like that happened!”
Chloe couldn’t hold back her protest.
Honestly, it was a relief the duke wasn’t here. This man just said whatever came to his mind.
“Really? You’re saying Duke Ulfaz didn’t sleep with that Chloe woman? The inn, the man, the woman—it all fits, doesn’t it?”
“N-No, that’s not true!”
“If not, then so be it. Why are you so worked up?”
“I’m not worked up… Anyway, is there any other information?”
She forced herself to calm down and changed the subject.
“Not really. Ah! Except for some ridiculous claims from old villagers.”
“Old villagers?”
“You know, the owners of the inn called ‘Night of the Dog and Cat.’”
“…?”
“This isn’t even worth mentioning.”
The guild member scratched his head.
“No, please tell me everything you know.”
What on earth had the old people said?
Chloe became tense, wondering if she had done something embarrassing while drunk.
“Oh. Well, according to those old men, the woman who stayed there that night—Chloe—was apparently a beastfolk.”
“P-Pardon?!”
What?
The woman from that night was her—and now they were saying she was a beastfolk?
“See? I told you it made no sense. Beastfolk? In this day and age? They’ve been gone for over 200 years. There are rumors they might be hiding, but still.”
“Exactly. It’s nonsense. Why would those old men say something like that?”
She was genuinely curious. What on earth had made them think that?
“I don’t know. Someone else came asking about that woman too, and they asked why everyone was looking for her. The previous visitor didn’t explain why.”
That would have been Sir Joyce.
“And?”
“And what else would there be? They just said a nobleman was looking for the woman he slept with.”
“…What?”
Chloe’s voice rose sharply.
