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Chapter: 09
Chloe, the Same Scent
However, Chloe’s legs stopped just a few steps in.
Run away… What a crazy thought.
Of course, the phrase “Let’s go back to the duke’s residence for now” implicitly carried the command “Follow me immediately.”
The duke left her behind as if granting her freedom to choose her next action, but there was no way Chloe, who wasn’t a fool, could actually run away.
Not when he had even left a guarantor behind in plain sight.
This is why guarantors are so terrifying.
If she cut the leash around her neck and ran away, the leash she left behind would repeatedly be placed on Kalkus, who had helped her so many times.
Trudging along, step by step.
Unable to touch it, invisible to the eyes, yet undeniably present, the feeling of being dragged by an unyieldingly strong leash made Chloe take heavy steps toward the duke’s residence.
“So quick of you to arrive.”
The sharp voice greeted Chloe the moment she entered the duke’s office.
It was a scolding for arriving late after she had leisurely walked rather than taking a carriage, trailing behind the duke who had already ridden ahead on horseback.
Hello, master holding the leash.
No matter how you look at it, what cow would happily run to the slaughterhouse?
“I’m sorry.”
Yet contrary to her inner thoughts, Chloe lowered her head and apologized.
Walking slowly had been her minimum resistance.
But now was the time to crawl properly. The duke was holding documents.
The documents that had forced her to return here.
As expected, it was that.
The recruitment documents that Mr. Wilson had carried. This is exactly why documents that leave evidence are terrifying.
And they even included family information.
Her suspicions while walking here were correct. The duke had learned her lie because of those documents.
In fact, she hadn’t completely ruled out the possibility that family details were recorded in the documents.
But even if such details were included, she had assumed the duke wouldn’t bother looking at the recruitment records of a mere servant.
After all, she was just a personal attendant—there was no reason for the duke to take an interest.
Why, then, had the duke seen those documents? There must have been many servants whose names he didn’t even know. Why take interest in the records of a servant who had only worked three months and was about to leave?
Well, thinking about the past few days, the duke had indeed shown unusually personal interest in her.
Though at the same time, he would sometimes shoo her away as if she were an insect.
“Are you going to stand by the door all day?”
At the duke’s words, Chloe set down the items she was carrying and moved toward his desk.
But she stopped at a position farther than usual, hands neatly folded over her stomach. Getting closer might trigger comments like, “I smell you again,” or other frightening words.
“Chloe Riden.”
“……!”
Words more terrifying than hearing she smelled bad.
Chloe Riden.
She was so startled that she almost replied, “Yes!”
“That’s your sister’s name, isn’t it?”
“Ah… yes.”
He wasn’t calling her.
He was confirming the name of Klein Riden’s sister. Though in reality, it was her name.
So the documents even had the family names listed.
Her hands, now slick with sweat from a mix of surprise and embarrassment, gripped each other loosely.
After all, given that Lord Joyce had already discovered that the woman who spent the night with the duke was named “Chloe,” seeing the name “Chloe” in her documents was shocking.
The duke probably wasn’t interrogating her about the lie regarding her nonexistent sister, but rather was considering, “Could your sister Chloe be the woman I spent the night with?”
The matching name made the suspicion understandable.
This also explained why the duke had chased her all the way to the Information Guild alley, simply because the resigned attendant had lied. She had to stay sharp—one wrong word to the duke, who had pursued her so closely, could be disastrous.
“Chloe. The same scent.”
The duke muttered to himself.
Seeing him mutter like that, Chloe had a premonition.
The duke wasn’t asking whether the woman he had spent the night with was the attendant’s sister—he already seemed certain.
Same name, same scent—the duke was convinced that Klein Riden’s sister, Chloe Riden, was the woman.
A scent that could kill. What kind of human has such an overpowering scent?!
Did the duke alone smell it all night?
I smelled him too! But I don’t remember his scent at all!
Why only him…!?
“Uh…? What… is this?”
It was truly strange. Something she had never experienced before: she suddenly sensed the duke’s scent.
Was it a hallucination?
A nervous breakdown due to extreme stress?
She had never smelled another person’s scent from this distance. Moreover, she was even farther from the duke than usual.
So why was she suddenly sensing the duke’s scent?
Scent… scent.
The duke, singing endlessly about his scent, had somehow scrambled her mind and nose.
Unsure whether it was her sense of smell or a hallucination, Chloe bit the inside of her lip in disbelief.
“Why did you lie about having no sister? You must have known the woman I’m looking for is your sister.”
As expected… the duke was completely certain.
Absurdly, the basis for his certainty seemed less the name “Chloe” and more the “scent.”
And the even more absurd part—whether the basis was solid or not, it was the truth to him.
What should she do? Should she just confess that it was her that night? That she had hidden her gender for three months?
A new wave of anxious thoughts swept over her.
“I hate lies. Klein Riden.”
“…Yes.”
Who likes lies, after all? But the duke, looking her squarely in the eyes as he spoke, seemed to hate them even more.
It was as if he were warning: “If you break the employment rules, I will make sure to collect every penalty.”
Faced with that gaze, her courage to tell the truth melted away like snow under the summer sun.
“Of course, you might slip up occasionally. Say, a small lie like claiming your sister doesn’t exist when she actually does. But if that sister is the woman I spent the night with, that’s a very serious lie—one that’s life-threateningly dangerous. So it’s better to tell the truth, Klein Riden.”
“….”
Life-threateningly dangerous? She had to risk her life over one night? That’s too much!
Yet at that moment, she vividly recalled the duke’s desperate resistance that night.
<Who is it! Don’t do this! Go away! Stay away from me! Ah… don’t do this!>
Sigh…!
Despite resisting so fiercely, the man she disliked that night, she had forced herself onto him.
At the same time, Lord Joyce’s angry words flashed through her mind.
<Yes, how unfortunate it must have been to fall into the hands of such an unheard-of person…>
<The duke would never have willingly submitted himself to that woman! You know it. The duke is a man who would never do such a thing to a woman.>
She had taken the purity of a man who hated women.
<I would have loved to tear that woman apart… hmm! No, I cannot dispose of her like that.>
“Tear apart… dispose.”
Hearing just those words made her feel as though she had committed a grave sin.
Did she have to risk her life for one night with the duke?
Combining the duke’s and Lord Joyce’s words, the conclusion was clear: one night’s mistake wasn’t worth dying over.
“I apologize for not telling you in advance. Actually, my sister Chloe Riden died several months ago.”
“What?”
The duke frowned.
“Specifically, she died in an accident right before I moved into the duke’s residence.”
“Died… in an accident?”
“When the recruitment documents were sent to the duke’s residence by mail, my sister was still alive. So the documents list her as alive, but now she has passed away, which is why I said I had no sister.”
By swapping the deceased person from Klein to Chloe, everything aligned perfectly, and she hadn’t technically lied.
“I was also surprised that the woman who spent the night with the duke had the same name as my sister.”
By now, Chloe was calmly telling her lie.
Perhaps because she was only recounting the circumstances of Klein’s death, the lie flowed as naturally as stating a fact.
Of course, only the circumstances remained; the deceased person had been swapped.
Once someone is dead… what can you do?
In a way, this was fortunate.
Even if the duke didn’t believe her and sent someone to verify in her hometown, it would be difficult for anyone to realize that the dead person was her brother, not her.
Only her mother, herself, and Kalkus knew of her brother’s death.
Her house was deep in the forest, away from the village, and her family rarely visited the village.
So there would be no one who would specifically remember her family lived there.
Of course, Kalkus was the exception, but she didn’t need to worry about him.
Kalkus had opposed Chloe living in the duke’s residence while disguised as a man, but once it was decided, he became her most powerful ally.
He supplied her with suitable items for her male disguise, warning her to be extremely careful and never get caught.
“My sister has passed… that must be an unpleasant memory. I apologize for my unnecessary suspicion.”
The duke, looking slightly dazed, finally spoke again.
Apologized…?
Her conscience pricked slightly, but she felt confident that continuing the lie was the right choice.
Now she would be free from his suspicion.
Even if Lord Joyce or the Information Guild tried tracking Chloe by name, they would redirect the search, assuming that the Chloe of Borgen was deceased.
When she was young, she had complained to her mother about why their family lived so isolated in the forest.
Even when Klein died from an attack by unknown assailants, there was no one to seek help because they lived so deep in the forest.
Now, that same isolation had become an advantage.
No one in Borgen would know which of the twin siblings living in the forest was dead, or even that twins lived there at all.
Still, once she returned home, she would have to remain cautious in her male disguise for some time.
“It’s alright, Your Grace.”
Chloe accepted his apology with dignity, as if she had lost a brother rather than a sister. Though not her sister, she recalled the loss of a brother.
“Now that the misunderstanding is cleared, may I return to my hometown?”
The duke stared at her.
Without a word. For several seconds.
“Your Grace?”
A little anxious about his gaze, Chloe called out to him again.
“There’s one more question. Answer it, and then you may leave.”
Finally, the duke spoke again.
