To My Arrogant Master - Chapter 13

“Where is Flora?”

Claude, who had entered without hesitation, looked around the room. Then he turned his gaze to the wardrobe the maids had been talking to earlier.

Finally, seeing the padlock on the tightly closed wardrobe door, his expression turned grim.

Claude pushed aside the maid standing in front, ignoring her groan as she fell, and forcefully struck the padlock with his large hand. The metal lock shattered under the man’s rough touch and fell to the floor with a thud.

At last, Claude flung open the wardrobe door and immediately fell silent.

In the cramped space filled with stifling heat, he saw a small-framed woman curled up tightly. Unaware that the door had been opened, Flora kept her head bowed low.

“Flora.”

Instinctively placing his hand on Flora’s shoulder, he sensed something was wrong. Her body, drenched in sweat, was extremely hot. He shook her shoulder, but there was no response, as if she had lost consciousness.

Claude carefully turned Flora’s head, which was leaning against the corner, towards him. As expected, her eyes were tightly shut behind the hair clinging to her cheeks.

He first examined her pale complexion. Her breathing was extremely faint.

Without further thought, Claude lifted Flora into his arms. Feeling her small frame fitting perfectly in his arms, he felt something surge in his throat at how unbelievably tiny she was.

“M-Master.”

Until then, the head maid had been anxiously rolling her eyes by the doorway. He gave her a chillingly cold look.

“Mrs Melady. You dared to do such a thing in my mansion?”

The fidgeting head maid flinched, her knees weakening. Claude, glaring at the pale old woman whose mouth seemed sewn shut, immediately called for his aide in a loud voice.

“Harriet!”

Harriet, who came running from afar at the voice that shook the mansion, was shocked to see Flora in the duke’s arms.

“Your Grace… why is that woman… Is she dead?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. Call a doctor immediately.”

After giving the firm order, Claude moved his legs. The pale head maid and maids anxiously shuffled their feet as they watched the duke’s retreating back.

* * *

At the duke’s command, the doctor rushed over. He gave a clear diagnosis to the duke, who showed an ominous expression by his side.

“She’s just sleeping.”

“Are you sure you examined her properly? She didn’t even stir when I carried her.”

“Yes. She’s in a deep sleep.”

“…But her body was hot.”

The duke, who was certain she had fainted, asked again and then quietly looked at Flora lying on the bed.

Despite clearly knowing she had been a soldier, seeing her like this, she looked every bit a fragile woman. The impression of holding her limp body earlier was still strong.

Nevertheless, the doctor expressed that it wasn’t a big deal.

“She was locked in a wardrobe, so her body temperature rose due to the heat, but it’s not something to worry about greatly.”

Having rushed over because Lord Harriet said it was urgent, he was bewildered at being asked to examine a mere maid. It was the first time he had examined a maid in this ducal household.

Thinking something serious had happened, he had hurried to examine her, but there was nothing that required treatment.

“But she is indeed weakened. Her malnutrition is severe, and she shows signs of dehydration.”

“…Malnutrition and dehydration.”

“Yes. I don’t know for sure, but it seems she hasn’t eaten properly for days, nor had enough water to drink.”

“Hah… So they even starved her. Gave her nothing at all.”

The duke, who had been muttering ominously, suddenly burst into a hollow laugh. In fact, the female body he had held was so light it was hard to believe it was a person’s weight. It didn’t feel like a living being at all.

In Claude’s eyes, the image of his first meeting with Flora, when she was skinny and emaciated, overlapped.

The woman who had been strong-willed and gutsy like a man despite her small frame now looked no different from an orphan girl collapsed on the street, thin as a rail.

The doctor was at a loss for words at the duke’s sudden change in attitude. Puzzled as to what there was to laugh about in this situation, the doctor caught a glimpse of the duke’s eyes that weren’t laughing at all.

Having served as the resident physician of this ducal mansion since the time of the previous duke, he could tell just by looking at the duke’s expression. How angry he was right now.

It was a cruel smile, as if the ruthless previous duke had come back to life. Feeling as if the temperature around had dropped, the doctor flinched.

No, what on earth was this maid? He muttered inwardly that he couldn’t understand at all, and as he hesitantly stood up, he added an explanation.

“But it’s not just because of that reason. Since she came from the battlefield, the effects of her not eating properly there are likely to be greater.”

Suddenly, a strange focus appeared in Claude’s eyes as he mulled over the doctor’s words.

“How did you know that? I never mentioned where that woman came from.”

“Pardon? Everyone knows that…”

The doctor’s expression became even more puzzled when the duke asked about a fact known to everyone registered in the ducal household, from the servants to the ducal knights.

Rumors about Flora had already spread far and wide, and had long since reached the ears of Enoch, the resident physician.

But what followed was news even to him.

“Everyone knows Flora was a soldier?”

“Pardon? A soldier? From what I’ve heard…”

“It would be best to tell me right now what rumors are circulating.”

“Well… they say she was a maid who served as a camp follower on the battlefield…”

Before he could finish speaking, a slight crack appeared in Claude’s expressionless face.

Thinking he might have said something wrong, Enoch went ahead and told the duke everything he had heard.

That the duke had brought in some camp follower who served soldiers as a maid, and because of this, all the servants, maids and footmen alike, would openly whisper whenever they saw Flora.

The old doctor, being generally uninterested in gossip, was able to objectively convey Flora’s current treatment.

“Ha, a camp follower… So that’s the rumor going around.”

Claude was dumbfounded. Having discovered that there was subtle ostracism within the mansion, he clicked his tongue, finding himself pathetic for not knowing anything.

He recalled that Flora had often been involved in frequent and major disputes.

“They were the ones who harmed me first.”

To think that statement was true.

The head maid had said Flora attacked others for no reason, but if such incidents were commonplace, it was rather remarkable that Flora had ended things at that level when feeling insulted.

He had been about to mock her as a foolish woman who didn’t even think to argue her innocence, but then it occurred to him that he wouldn’t have believed her even if she had given a proper explanation.

After all, his prejudice against women had resurfaced the moment he saw the sword.

“That strict Mrs Melady isn’t the type to stand by such a scandal… Does the head maid not know?”

“He probably… does know. It’s been nearly a few weeks since people started talking about this maid whenever they gathered.”

Was that so? He laughed self-deprecatingly.

Claude felt a great sense of betrayal at the fact that even the head maid, who should have been disciplining the servants, had participated. Claude, who had never been interested in the affairs of the mansion until now, assumed Mrs Melady would manage things well on her own.

In fact, she had done so during the 8 years he was absent, and even before that, she had never been negligent in her duties or overstepped her bounds.

Although it bothered him that she was someone the previous duke had fully trusted, this was why he thought there was no need to replace her.

But judging by today’s events, it became clear that he had misjudged.

So she must have brazenly carried out what he had forbidden, attaching the nonsensical excuse of discipline.

The conclusion was easily reached.

* * *

Originally, it should have been a time when smoke was billowing from the chimney in preparation for dinner, with everyone bustling about.

However, the Heinst ducal mansion was now like thin ice, where anyone could die at any moment.

This was because the head maid had been summoned by the duke just earlier, and when several maids were called in one after another, the remaining servants who didn’t know the situation couldn’t help but be cautious.

The servants called to the reception room could barely swallow their breath under the cold gaze of their master staring intently at them.

The setting sun coming through the large window dyed the reception room red. It was when the outside was growing dim that the duke, who had been keeping his eyes closed, opened his mouth.

“Head maid, explain yourself.”

“I only confined her for a short while. When maids commit wrongdoings, this kind of discipline is very effective… even the previous duke…”

The head maid continued her excuses steadfastly. Not anticipating that it would further incur the duke’s wrath.

“It seems I’ve been quite lenient until now, haven’t I? I’m sure I forbade the practice of locking people in wardrobes.”

“Pardon…?”

It was the first time the duke had reprimanded her in such a sharp tone. Ah. The old woman belatedly recalled one fact.

What had been the reason for why the disciplinary method that used to occur almost daily during the time of the previous duke disappeared?

‘To forget that, what a blunder…’

Her old mind, dulled by time, only now remembered this, but it was already too late.

“I must have been quite a generous master. Seeing as you dared to think of going against my orders.”

“I misspoke.”

“Locking a person in a wardrobe for four days without giving a drop of water… Ah, were you thinking of starving her to death on this occasion? Because this time the subject was just an insignificant maid?”

Their master, who was usually relaxed and generous, is the only son of that cruel previous duke. Even while smiling kindly, very occasionally his temperament changes like the former duke.

They had momentarily forgotten that fact.