Chapter 23
Lake Verota was a beautiful lake located near Eltra, and it was also a popular dating spot frequently visited by young lovers. Ines, too, had visited the place with Cedric in her previous life.
It was a painting with realistic yet mystical colors that brought back the memories of that day as though she were dreaming.
“Did you go there personally to paint it?”
After asking the question, Ines immediately regretted it. Because it was far too obvious a thing to ask. Every painter she knew would carry a canvas and easel outside to observe nature while painting. However, Adrian’s answer was unexpected.
“No. I couldn’t even afford to go that far……. Public carriages usually refuse to let people ride if there’s a chance paint might get inside the carriage, and even if they do allow it, they demand extra fare.”
“I see.”
“But the painting is exactly the same as the lake. I have a very good memory. I never forget anything I’ve seen once. It’s the only talent I possess.”
Afraid his words might sound like boasting, Adrian hurriedly added another explanation as though making excuses.
“I’m not lying. It’s true. Please believe me.”
The shop owner’s words had not been wrong. It truly was not the proper price for his skill, but rather the reward of the fortune of catching the Greenwood young lady’s attention.
Though he had lived a shabby life, there had always been one desire he treasured deeply in a corner of his heart. Someday leaving behind a painting of Lake Verota, which he had once seen with his mother. However, to Adrian, who could not even make a living, let alone paint, it was a wish close to impossible.
He had finally completed the painting he believed he would never even begin before dying. It was different from that terrible teacup. It was a masterpiece he had poured his entire life into.
Without even having time to think, Adrian had grabbed the painting and headed straight for the Greenwood estate the moment the blizzard ended. The fortune that had suddenly pierced into his dark life like a single ray of sunlight. Since this painting had been completed because of that fortune, there could be no other owner besides the Greenwood young lady.
If he were to be a little greedier, he at least wanted to show his lifesaver his very best skills and receive proper acknowledgment. To show that the painter she had chosen was not someone with talent as terrible as that teacup.
To the anxious Adrian, Ines nodded and answered.
“I believe you.”
“……Pardon?”
“I believe you. That even though you painted it without seeing it directly, it’s exactly the same as the real thing.”
There was no way she could fail to recognize it. In her previous life, this work by an unknown artist had been an incredibly famous masterpiece. Though it did not possess the overwhelming size it had when she saw it in her previous life, she was certain that the man before her was the painter who had created that masterpiece.
On the outskirts of the capital.
Among those outskirts was a small and shabby village where poor commoners lived.
People called that place the ‘graveyard.’
Because it was where those with nowhere left to go gathered at the very end.
And soon, just as the name implied, that place truly became a graveyard.
In the year 561 of the Continental Calendar, a plague broke out and every person in that village died.
The empty houses were left abandoned for a long time. It was because people feared the plague might still remain. Only after about a year passed did a city purification project begin, tearing down the empty homes and constructing new buildings. And that became the opportunity for the masterpiece to be revealed to the world.
The painting had not been painted on canvas.
A massive wall.
A massive, empty wall.
The white plastered wall became the greatest canvas in the world for the unknown painter. Standing before it made one feel as though they had truly arrived at Lake Verota.
However, since more than a year had passed after all the villagers died, no one knew who had painted the work with its bold yet delicate brushstrokes.
The painting caused a sensation, and eventually the entire wall was torn down and put up for auction. The artwork was then sold for the highest price in auction history.
That painting had now been transferred from the plaster wall onto a small canvas.
“I wonder if it’s really alright for me to accept such a painting…….”
Ines carefully stroked the edge of the canvas as she murmured.
She had also visited the auction house following Cedric. A painting created by an unfortunate genius burning away the last of his artistic soul. Though no one knew who had painted it, one thing was certain: the painter who completed that work must have died not long afterward.
Ines simply could not believe it.
That the name of that tragic painter was Adrian, and that he was alive and standing before her now.
Adrian was merely overwhelmed by the fact that Ines believed his words and nodded enthusiastically.
“Of course. Naturally. I painted it for you from the beginning, Miss.”
“Your painting skills are incredible. A work of this level could fetch a very high price.”
“No. It was never painted with the intention of selling it. I wanted to paint it for years, and I’m satisfied simply because I was finally able to complete it.”
Afterward, Ines stared at the painting silently for quite some time before standing from her seat.
Then she returned the painting to Adrian.
“Miss?”
To the puzzled Adrian, Ines spoke firmly.
“I can’t do that. I may have been the one who discovered your teacup, but the person who paid for it was Duke Angel.”
Looking at Adrian, Ines continued speaking.
“Go find Duke Angel, Adrian. And show him this painting.”
At her words, Adrian’s eyes trembled in confusion.
“Go find Duke Angel……?”
The Duke of Angel.
After arriving before the Greenwood estate, how much courage had it taken just to speak to the gatekeeper? And now she was telling him to do something like that again. Adrian’s vision darkened as he replied in a trembling voice.
“There’s no way someone like him would agree to meet me.”
“No. He will definitely meet you. I’ll write you a letter of introduction. Go and meet the Duke.”
Ines instructed Marie to bring writing paper and a pen.
She had never imagined she would be the one to contact Cedric first. But before her father saw this painting, she had to hurry and send Adrian away.
Her father possessed a sharp eye for aesthetics. Every painter her father sponsored eventually lost their heads under the charge of helping create propaganda for the rebellion.
‘If Adrian catches Father’s attention…….’
For now, he would receive enough support to live comfortably, but destruction would await him at the end.
For the sake of this young painter, who had met a miserable end in her previous life, she absolutely could not leave him here.
‘If only I knew more people.’
Within her painfully narrow circle of acquaintances, the only people powerful enough to support a painter were her father, her aunt, and Cedric.
If she left him beside her father or aunt, he would become another victim caught up in treason. That left only one answer.
At this point, regretting her unsociable past self was already too late.
‘No.’
Lost in thought, Ines changed her mind.
Even if there were other alternatives, she still believed introducing Adrian to Cedric was the best option.
Adrian was a talented painter, so the prestige of the Angel family would rise by obtaining an excellent artist, while Adrian himself could receive the Angel family’s support. It was beneficial for both Cedric and Adrian.
Thinking that way made Ines feel somewhat lighter about the situation of sending Cedric a letter first.
“Miss, I brought them.”
Receiving the pen and paper from Marie, Ines immediately began writing the letter.
Ines’s letter of recommendation began with a brief introduction of Adrian.
She wrote that he was the rising painter who had created the teacup Cedric had purchased, and that she hoped he would buy Adrian’s painting as well. She also wrote that he was a painter talented enough to deserve the support of the Angel Ducal House, which was why she recommended him.
As Ines tried to place the letter directly into the white envelope, Marie gasped in horror and rushed over.
“Miss, this is your first letter to Duke Angel. You should at least spray some perfume on it.”
Then, like the capable maid she was, Marie sprayed the perfume Ines frequently used into the air and waved the letter through it a few times.
Apparently satisfied with the faint scent absorbed into the paper, Marie smiled brightly and handed over the letter.
“Just in case. I heard everyone does it this way these days.”
It was not as though Ines was unaware of the sophisticated method of letting letter paper absorb perfume scent, but because the letter was for Cedric, she had deliberately refrained from doing it.
However, it was difficult to ignore Marie’s caring intentions toward her, so Ines said nothing.
“Marie, go and tell them to prepare a carriage.”
“Yes. I’ll tell the coachman we’re going to the Angel Ducal House.”
“N-No! I can just walk there.”
At Marie’s words, Adrian waved both hands frantically in horror. Riding in the count family’s carriage despite his status was an absurd luxury for someone like him. Marie glared at Adrian and scolded him.
“When the Miss shows kindness, just accept it. Do you even know how far the Angel Ducal House is from here? If you walk there, it’ll take the entire day.”
Marie swept her gaze over Adrian from head to toe before adding,
“To begin with, do you know how shocking it was for you to come visit the Miss dressed in such shabby clothes? You’d be lucky if you weren’t thrown out from the front gates of the Angel Ducal Estate.”
“But……”
“Honestly. Listen here, unless you ride in the Greenwood Count family’s carriage, meeting Duke Angel is impossible in this lifetime. Stop arguing and just say thank you.”
Her lady was so kindhearted that she was even providing both a recommendation letter and a carriage, yet that innocent painter did not seem to understand just how extraordinary this was.
After hearing Marie’s words, Ines once again looked over Adrian’s appearance.
“She’s right.”
She could not send him to meet Cedric looking like that. Since she had already decided to help him, she intended to do it properly.
“Marie, go and call the butler.”
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