Portrait of An Arrogant Master - Chapter 188

It was a level of conversation she could no longer tolerate.

It was not something she should say to a grandson; it sounded more like something a wife with a case of paranoia would say to her husband.

Ottilie Krygen might have sounded sympathetic, but deep down, she was likely pleased by the news. It was an opportunity to separate Rubens from his low-born mistress.

She might have even exaggerated the rumors she had heard. That’s why Rubens chose to take Ottilie’s words with a grain of salt. He never intended to fully believe them from the start.

“I need to confirm something. I’ll give you an answer after I return.”

But it was enough to eat away at Rubens’ patience. He stood up and buttoned his jacket without saying anything more.

* * *

“Welcome, Duke.”

After arriving at the cabin, Dia greeted Rubens. Without responding, he brushed past her and headed down the hallway.

“Macy has gone out for a short while—”

“I know.”

Rubens stopped just as he was about to open the studio door and ordered her.

“Dia, gather what you need and head back to the Duke’s residence.”

“Pardon?”

Dia looked a bit startled as she asked.

“I’m telling you to move your post back to the Duke’s residence.”

“But what about Macy…?”

Bam.

Rubens didn’t let her finish and entered the studio. He was irritated by the unnecessary comments. He would’ve preferred she nodded and left without saying anything extra.

Kronen followed behind him. The more time passed with Macy and Benedict together, the more anxious Kronen became.

‘This person Macy, that person Macy.’

Rubens couldn’t understand how all of his competent subordinates had suddenly become so incompetent. Rubens looked around the studio. It reminded him of the time he first brought Macy to the cabin.

He thought it would be nice to watch her walk out of this sunlit studio, having finished her painting. But now, all he saw were scraps of leftover bread, a palette with still-wet oil paint, and a knife that had been used to mix the paint.

There were remnants of a person who had been here not long ago, but Macy was nowhere to be found.

The canvas that should have been on the easel was missing, and only paintings packed in boxes, ready to be sent to Ciseina, were visible.

“Heh.”

Now that he thought about it, the biggest fool in all of this was Rubens himself.

He had trusted the woman he had always considered weak and pathetic, spilling his secrets, only to be left alone in an empty room.

His mouth felt dry. He pulled a cigar from his pocket and lit it, watching the smoke rise.

Looking back, bringing Macy into this cabin had been completely unlike Rubens. In fact, nearly every action he’d taken involving Macy had been out of character for him.

So, while it might not have been love, he certainly had to admit that he was definitely losing his mind.

If she just quietly stayed in the place he had arranged for her and painted her favorite pictures, Rubens was prepared to shower Macy with all the things she deserved in turn. Some said that everything Rubens had built was for Macy.

He thought that, if she was by his side, even if he knew who she truly was, it would make life a bit more enjoyable.

Even though he mocked himself with self-deprecating words like ‘madman,’ ‘insane bastard,’ and other curses, his attraction to her continued to creep up despite all his efforts to suppress it. It was impossible to resist.

‘Yeah. I guess I’ve been crazy since I first saw her.’

The behavior that became impossible to control started after the Name treatment in the cabin.

“It should have been around here… can you see it?”

“…”

When he saw that damn Name, a name that had almost faded inside him, clearly written on her chest, it felt strange. After that, every night in the cabin, Macy would call out his name as though reminding him of who he was, and in front of Macy, he could become Eren Wood, the man who once roamed the streets.

“You weren’t really that late… Why did you say you might not be able to come?”

Still, she didn’t seem pitiful. She was excited and full of anticipation whenever they met. Her face flushed with a peachy pink hue, and her lips would twitch with every word, almost as if she was afraid to speak.

“I didn’t like you because of fate.”

“How do you know that?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

Her earnest and pure heart was both trivial and beautiful. Despite thinking she was of low status and insignificant, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

It was pitiful, but he only wanted to keep her by his side. He wanted to tuck her away in a pocket where only he could see her and take her out whenever he missed her.

“I feel like I’m suffocating. No, I’d rather someone choke me to death. Why did you save me just to make me suffer like this? What did I do so wrong…”

That kind of longing suffocated her. So, he understood why she wanted to escape from him. It was only natural for her to be drawn to Benedict, who could secure her place as both a wife and a renowned artist.

In her situation, anyone else would have waited until Rubens exposed his weaknesses and would have fled to another country.

She would likely have considered it her last chance and hidden away her true feelings with all her might. But…

‘Even if the whole world is like that, you can’t be like them. You’re the woman with my Name on you.’