🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter: 08
Klein Riden
Hughrey couldn’t get a proper night’s sleep.
It felt as if Klein Riden’s body scent, which had burned its way up to his nose, had penetrated his brain, giving him a splitting headache.
In the end, in the early dawn, having given up on sleeping, he headed to the Second Archive to see if there might be any unknown facts regarding the imprint’s side effects.
The Second Archive was a secret repository within the First Archive, a place that collected records about the Lupaz Duke family, who were wolf beastmen.
Originally, beastmen were extremely few in number, and over the long years, they had constantly interbred with humans, so now most of them had been wiped out except for the top predator lineages.
Humans only believed in the existence of beastmen emperors and kings through history or legends.
They still didn’t realize that the royal family, the nobility, and the highest aristocrats had been purely beastmen by blood.
If humans ever discovered that their rulers were actually a tiny number of beastmen, their backlash would be inevitable.
Thus, the remaining beastmen chose to let humans continue believing they had gone extinct and even went further, agreeing to reinforce that belief.
In all other matters, they never reached such consensus.
Accordingly, in the Lupaz family, records about beastmen were kept secret, and the Second Archive, where these records were stored, was strictly off-limits without the head of the family’s permission.
Even after searching through the documents of the Second Archive thoroughly, there was nothing new he hadn’t already known.
Specifically, there was no record at all that post-imprint, the body scent could cause confusion in someone who wasn’t the imprint target, especially a man.
Reading through the records only deepened his sense of self-reproach.
On his way back to his room in that state, he saw the source of the problem.
Even amidst the confusion caused by the imprint, there he was—Klein Riden—the very one who now poured gasoline on the fire of his troubled mind.
He had been watching from the end of the corridor.
His behavior was strange, so he observed him more carefully.
Carrying two large bags in his hands, he placed them down and then, astonishingly, took several seconds to close his room door.
He closed the door with such focus that it seemed as if he were praying while holding the doorknob.
Hughrey couldn’t even sense him approaching until he was right behind him.
And then what?
Leaving at such an early hour?
It was ridiculous and almost laughable, but there was no need for a servant to speak Tigrimese anymore, and the fact that he had kept him close due to lack of body scent was now meaningless.
This guy was radiating a stronger body scent than anyone else.
He had been kept as a servant because he lacked scent, but now he was giving off the strongest scent imaginable.
It was enough reason to kick him out immediately.
So it didn’t matter whether he left in the morning or the evening.
He should go. It was only proper.
The problem was…
Why had a scent that had never existed before become so unbearably strong?
And why, of all things, did he not dislike it?
That was the problem.
Not only did he not dislike it, he wanted to drink it in, intoxicated by the scent…!
Was he crazy? Drink it?
In truth, driven by a burning thirst, he was overwhelmed by the desire to bite Klein Riden’s neck, unable to look away.
He even had to step back in fear of himself.
He was insane.
The imprint’s side effects were obviously severe. To have such a crazed physical reaction to a man…
He needed to find the woman, and this man should be sent away from the house quickly.
So he let him go.
And Klein left.
Not once looking back until he was gone.
Truly gone.
Well, that was one weird side effect physically resolved.
The abnormal reaction only occurred with him.
To resolve the aching, split-like thirst in his throat, all that remained was to find the woman.
The problem had become very simple.
Lucky, really. Yes, lucky.
Hughrey stared blankly at the stairs where Klein had disappeared, nodded as if he had accepted his situation, and eventually turned back to his own room.
He paused.
But his feet returned to the spot, and his eyes went to the doorknob Klein had been holding.
Why had he closed that door as if handling a delicate glasswork?
Suddenly struck by the thought, he reached out and turned the doorknob Klein had so carefully held.
“Ha!”
The moment he opened the door, a powerful body scent flooded the room, almost dizzying.
It was an overwhelmingly strong scent.
Yet, strangely, instead of repelling him, his body was drawn like a magnet into Klein’s room.
The room was empty.
No luggage, only a bed, a nightstand, and a small wardrobe.
But…
His eyes landed on the bedding.
He walked toward the bed, entranced, and lifted the pillow.
An even stronger scent came from the pillow.
What was this strange feeling?
Was it thirst? Longing? Heat? He couldn’t tell.
“I’ve completely lost it.”
Muttering to himself, he clenched the pillow with a grip full of force.
To fall into such an incomprehensible state in the room of a male servant he had worked alongside for months…
It could only be explained as a side effect of the imprint.
The symptoms had appeared the day after the imprint.
So, once he found the imprint target, this insane state would resolve.
It had to.
The cursed arousal that came after imprinting occurred every month, and its intensity was far stronger than before the imprint.
If he didn’t find the imprint target before the next arousal, he could fall into a dangerously unstable state.
And yet, he reacted so strongly to the man’s body scent.
By now, the pillow in his hand had been completely crushed.
Its state mirrored his own physical and mental state.
“Damn it!”
He threw the pillow onto the bed.
“…!”
But the moment the pillow hit the bed, his previously fierce eyes widened.
“What… is this?”
He muttered instinctively.
He lifted the pillow again.
He hadn’t imagined it.
It was really there.
A few thin strands of golden hair.
No, he had thought they might be thread.
He carefully picked them up and brought them close to his eyes.
It wasn’t thread.
“Blonde hair.”
Long golden hair.
Hair that could never have come from Klein, with his short brown hair.
Klein Riden had stayed in this small room for three months.
There was no other servant cleaning this servant’s room.
So how had this hair appeared in this room?
He brought the golden strands to his nose.
It carried that scent.
So strong it penetrated from nose to brain, indistinguishable between the imprint target, Chloe, and Klein Riden.
Clutching the blonde hair tightly, he headed straight to the mansion’s steward, Wilson’s room.
Chloe left the duke’s mansion and went straight to the Information Guild.
“Chloe, long blonde hair, blue eyes, height 168, Arne, Night of Dogs and Cats.”
A guild member repeated the information she had given.
“Yes!”
“The client is Duke Hughrey Lupaz.”
“Yes!”
“Why is the duke looking for this woman?”
“Huh?”
Chloe was at a loss for words.
“You should explain exactly what happened. Did the duke sleep with the woman?”
“Huh?”
Surprised by the guild member’s precise guess, Chloe’s voice cracked.
“Why be surprised? A man looking for a woman—there are only two reasons: she’s either someone he slept with, or someone he wants to sleep with.”
“That’s not it!”
Chloe raised her voice in objection.
It was absurd to assume a man could have only those two reasons.
But her raised voice cracked because, frustratingly, the guild member’s guess was actually one of the two reasons the duke was looking for her.
“Hmph! ‘Not it,’ huh? Anyway, understood. Once we have results, we’ll visit the duke’s residence.”
The guild member snickered at Chloe’s flushed reaction.
It was as if he could see right through her: “You slept with the duke, didn’t you?”
She hurried out of the Information Guild building.
She could finally return home, away from the emergency caused by a single night’s mistake.
“…!”
If only Duke Hughrey Lupaz wasn’t standing outside the guild building, watching her.
As she turned her body after leaving the building, she saw the duke. Her legs stiffened like sticks.
So that was why he had let her go so easily.
He stood at the very entrance of the Information Guild alley.
Like a gatekeeper.
Challenging anyone to pass.
To leave the alley, she had to pass through that spot.
As long as he stood in the middle of the alley entrance, Chloe could not leave.
His intention was clear.
He was waiting for her.
Or more accurately, he had come to capture her.
But why?
A wave of fear ran through her body.
Why did he stand so terrifyingly, as if coming to catch a runaway?
“Your Grace…”
A voice squeaked out of her throat, faint as if a famished mosquito were speaking.
“Klein Riden.”
The duke only spoke her name.
It felt like the words, “Come to me immediately,” followed.
Was this how a cow feels when dragged to slaughter?
Chloe reluctantly took step after step toward the duke.
“Your Grace, why come all the way to the Information Guild alley?”
“Well, since it’s the Information Guild alley, I probably came to place a request. You tell me what it is.”
The duke cut her off, his voice icy cold.
The chill made her lips stick together, making it hard to speak.
“If you came for the woman you’re looking for, I just…”
“Woman? No, no. Not that.”
“….”
At her barely audible reply, the duke said ‘No’ three times.
Chloe swallowed hard.
“This time, I came to inquire about a man, not a woman.”
“A man…?”
Her head spun.
Had she been found out?
She had thought nothing would happen if she just went home, but was it already too late?
A few days ago, when the duke had said, “A woman has appeared I must find,” should she have run then?
The duke stared intently at Chloe.
Unable to meet his gaze, she looked away slightly.
But when he called her “Klein Riden,” she had no choice but to look at him again.
“Klein Riden. I need to place a request about a man with this name.”
“…!”
As expected, the man the duke mentioned was her.
The woman the duke was looking for was her, and the man he now inquired about was also her.
“You said you have no sisters, didn’t you? But you do. Why hide it? Will you speak yourself, or should I place a request with the Information Guild?”
“…!”
Ah! Her sister. That had been discovered.
At least it meant he hadn’t realized she was a woman yet. But he had caught her lying about her family.
“We’ll return to the duke’s residence for now.”
Leaving Chloe, overwhelmed, in the alley, the duke turned, mounted his horse, and rode off.
Should she just run away?
The impulse surged.
A completely irrational, reckless impulse, yet Chloe’s body was already moving in the direction opposite the duke.
