My Disfigured Duke Husband Helps Me Plot My Revenge
Chapter 235: More than Meets the Eye

Chapter 235: More than Meets the Eye

While Quinn always had a good relationship with his mother, something about Leonor’s personality made her mother him a lot of the time.

There were a few instances in the Academy when Quinn was in a pit of studying and she was the one who forced him to eat or sleep. Moments like that made him believe she would be a good mother one day if she ever let anyone get that close to her.

Knowing exactly how she would take his living space, Quinn dreaded it when Leonor gestured for him to go first. Yet he was the one who brought such a curious mage there in the first place.

He relented with a sigh, wondering what sort of damage he had left that morning. His cleaning efforts certainly didn’t extend to that space and, while maids were allowed in this building, he asked them not to bother with his personal areas.

The mage made it to the top and adjusted his pale brown robes with a huff. As he looked around, he was undecided if it was worse or better than he was expecting. It wasn’t dirty, but it was chaotic

Leonor finally made her way up the ladder even though her fluffy dress made it difficult to do things that required much physical activity.

When she lifted her head to peer around, she wasn’t entirely sure what she was expecting.

The space took up the only tower in that entire building and, if someone was tall enough or had a stepstool, they probably had a beautiful panoramic view of the place through the thin windows. Regardless, it gave wonderful natural light that could reach inside at all times of the day.

However, that was probably the best part of the room. Everything went steeply downhill from there, in Leonor’s opinion.

What could hardly be considered a mattress and more of a strange nest was laid out on the ground. It made her worried that his back probably hurt considering the lumpy nature of where he seemed to sleep relatively often.

Next to the bed were low shelves containing more magical artifacts. The bookshelves weren’t as stuffed as the shelves on the level below but that was because there was a giant stack of books next to the bed that Quinn had likely been reading himself to sleep. It was a fair conclusion to draw considering there were melted candles all over the place.

The last thing she noticed was a small stove with a cooking pot on top of it. Where he got the ingredients to make things, she wasn’t entirely sure, but it lacked convenience. It seemed secluding himself in a place like that would hinder his productivity rather than support it.

Once she had taken a good look at his quarters, Leonor turned to Quinn with her arms crossed over her chest.

"I think you already know what I’m going to ask," Leonor admitted.

"I believe so," Quinn said.

"Why are you hiding yourself out here?" she asked. "I am certain the quarters that were offered to you in the palace are much better than this. You can have maids taking care of you and food will be much easier to come by when you don’t have to make it yourself."

Quinn was immediately stressed out by her words. These were all things he knew logically but he wasn’t ready to face reality. Living like a hermit in his own space was much more preferred than the stiffness of the palace despite it being Stephano’s palace, it was still a palace.

"If I work well into the night, which I often do, it’s much easier to climb one ladder than having to go down two sets of stairs and across a courtyard to go to bed," he explained. "There are always maids around the palace no matter what time of day. They cause such a fuss if I work well into the night and they report everything back to His Majesty."

"You?" she asked. "The one who naps and values sleep more than anyone else in the kingdom doesn’t care that he sleeps on a lumpy sack laid out on the floor each night... I don’t believe you. Nothing is worth hurting your back so badly."

He had to sigh. It was troublesome that she knew him so well. He couldn’t keep secrets from her if she continued pressing on.

"Nowadays don’t you pick your own schedule?" she asked. "I know you’re a night owl, but you don’t have to take all your work in the evening. I’m sure you could even bring some of this reading material with you into your proper room."

He seemed itchy and irritated and Leonor couldn’t help noticing his temperament change as if she had just scratched the surface of something.

"Why do my living arrangements bother you so much?" Quinn asked.

"I hate to see someone living so far below their means," she admitted. "Especially when that someone is a person who went to great lengths to make sure I was comfortable at the Academy even before we knew one another well."

All Quinn could do was shrug. He had no more excuses.

Perhaps being in her current stage of life was making her jump to conclusions, but she couldn’t help herself.

There was something he confessed to her years before that she promised to take to the grave with her. After he mentioned it, she knew it was serious enough never to bring it up first. Once the words were spoken, she never addressed them again.

However, the way her former partner was behaving, she needed to get to the bottom of things.

He was telling her excuses and not the full story.

"Quinn, can you be honest with me?" she asked. "I think this is the most private place you and I could talk to one another."

"I swear to be honest," he promised her even if he dreaded it.

"Do you still have feelings for Stephano?" she asked.

It was like a punch to the gut.

In only a few words, Quinn slumped as if he was defeated.