Portrait of An Arrogant Master - Chapter 215

“Don’t ask where she went. I really don’t know—I was just allowed into the Bayatten estate.”

“So there’s someone else who helped her escape? Who is it? You know, don’t you?”

“Do I look like I know? You look ridiculous. Were you really sincere with that painter?”

Rubens closed the distance in an instant, his eyes blazing fiercely. Isabella sneered quietly and taunted him.

“But how could you think of locking her underground? No wonder she ran away like this.”

“Answer me!”

His loud shout shattered the cold air. His bloodshot eyes grabbed her slender throat, threatening fiercely.

“Tell me who Macy went with and where. Where did you hide her?”

He exuded a raw, savage aura unlike anything she had ever felt from him before. The Duke’s usual noble composure was gone from the man who had lost his composure.

Isabella took in Rubens’s fierce expression and spoke again, seemingly drained.

“So Macy was right, wasn’t she?”

Rubens’s pupils dilated sharply.

“She said you might not be the person I thought you were. That she was repaying a favor from me who helped her. That I should stay away from the Duke.”

“…”

“Who are you?”

Without a word, Rubens released Isabella and headed toward the secret passage. The passage had been unused for a long time and was filled with a nauseating stagnant air.

Why? How did she escape? How could she abandon him and leave—taking his child to a distant unknown place…?

The tangled mass of lost emotions wandered aimlessly inside him.

* * *

“Anna quit?”

Nicholas learned by chance that Anna had stopped working as a maid. He asked the head maid again with a feigned look of surprise.

“Yes. Not long ago, she quit because there’s a hospital in another territory that can cure her mother’s illness.”

“So she left Laden altogether?”

“That’s what I assume. Did you assign her any special tasks?”

“No, nothing like that… Alright, you can go now.”

The Baron’s head maid tilted her head in slight puzzlement and then left. Nicholas felt uneasy.

Anna had even infiltrated the Duke’s mansion recently to find Macy’s whereabouts, but suddenly quit because of her mother’s hospital situation…?

‘Could it be she left because of something related to Macy?’

A suspicious thought rose, but Nicholas didn’t report it to Rubens.

He secretly hoped the frustrating situation would resolve somehow. The first step would likely be freeing Macy from confinement.

As he watched the situation unfold, one day during a fencing match, Nicholas jabbed Rubens’s left shoulder.

“Your Grace, are you alright?”

Rubens stepped back slightly. Of course, the practice saber had a blunt tip, so the jab was harmless.

But Rubens’s sudden freeze, as if malfunctioning, made Nicholas’s heart drop.

“Alright, let’s start again.”

“Wait a moment. Are you feeling unwell? You’re getting proper Name treatment, right?”

No servants were present at the training ground, but Nicholas lowered his voice and whispered discreetly after removing his mask.

He knew stiffness would come without Name treatment for a long time. He wondered if Rubens was already stiffening because Macy had left.

Rubens glanced at Nicholas with a knowing look and replied calmly.

“So you knew Macy had left.”

“Eh? No. Did she really leave? Really?! I only recently learned a maid I worked with suddenly quit, so I thought maybe…”

“Yes. Anna Rose. She and Dia rescued Macy fifteen days ago and left together.”

“Really? Even Dia?”

Nicholas raised his voice briefly but quickly covered his mouth. Rubens put on his mask and said,

“Because of that, I haven’t received Name treatment. But what just happened was a momentary lapse—nothing to do with the treatment. Stiffness wouldn’t begin in just fifteen days.”

“Ah, that’s true… Then are there no other discomforts?”

“I still get frequent headaches.”