Chapter 221
As expected, somewhere near the center stood a woman with chestnut hair wearing a hat.
Though her facial features were painted too small to see clearly, the atmosphere she gave off made it immediately clear she was Macy.
The moment Rubens recognized this, a faint smile curled on his lips. Benedict didn’t miss the expression and kept watching him.
Rubens’s smile soon stiffened as his gaze lingered warmly for a moment on the painting around Macy.
Next to Macy stood a tall man, pressed close so that his face was half hidden behind hers.
He had his arm wrapped around her waist and his head tilted as if they were kissing.
‘Since it’s a festival, it wasn’t unusual for couples to kiss openly in the streets…’
But the pose and the vibe between the two seemed familiar, not just some random couple.
The black hair and sharp features looked like Rubens himself. Yet, his appearance wasn’t that of Duke Krygen.
He was dressed plainly and loosely, like a commoner passing by on the street.
It looked as if it was Eren, not Duke Krygen, who met Macy at the Spring Festival and shared a love.
“Do you recognize them?”
Benedict spoke, noticing Rubens’s changed expression. Rubens simply looked at him without answering.
“That’s a painting of you and Macy. If she liked me, do you think she’d paint something like that and show it to me?”
“…”
“Macy said that painting was her happiest memory recently. Or rather, a happy fantasy.”
“So what do you want me to do about it?”
Rubens’s cold reply was blunt. Macy had already left him.
If she was so happy and liked Rubens that much, why did she do what she did?
Why deceive him? Why hide it? Why betray him? Why leave him, risking death?
The anger he had kept buried began to surface. His face hardened coldly.
“If you’re still keeping Macy, please forgive me. I beg you. It’s all my fault. I was foolish and got deceived. I had my doubts but the Elder Madam said if I did as she said, I’d get Macy…”
“You’re saying the Elder Madam ordered this?”
Rubens’s eyebrows rose skeptically.
“Yes. Now that I think about it, Elder Madam Ottilie Krygen seemed to have driven a wedge between you two, expecting that if the Duke lost affection for Macy, she’d come to me. If I’d known this would end like this, I would never have listened. Macy always kept her distance from me!”
Benedict argued passionately, as if speaking on Macy’s behalf.
“Macy never openly said she liked the Duke, but it showed in her paintings and actions. Didn’t you feel it too?”
“How could I believe that?”
Rubens’s trust in Macy had already bottomed out. He had locked her away, but she had deceived him again and ran away.
If he still believed her after all that, he must be some fool. Just thinking about what he’d done to Macy made him sick.
“You kept Macy so close, yet you don’t know her at all.”
“Beasts like her aren’t to be trusted, Your Highness.”
Rubens spoke as if Macy was not even human.
“And she’s truly no longer by my side. She’s gone from my hands. Confessing to me like this is useless.”
“So you’re still looking for her?”
“Why would I look for someone who left of her own will?”
Despite the scandal that had rocked the court over Macy, Rubens’s attitude was indifferent to the extreme.
“I’m not going to look for Macy.”
Rubens said firmly.
If unaware listeners heard, they’d think their relationship was already over, but Benedict knew Rubens’s obsession with Macy well.
There was no way he’d let her go that easily.
“I guess Duke Krygen still hasn’t let go of Macy.”
Beneath that calm face lay arrogance. Benedict could search high and low but wouldn’t find Macy.
Rubens was confident she would return on her own.
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