Chapter 22
A few days before the blizzard struck, the shop owner visited Adrian’s house. Startled by the sudden visit, Adrian watched as the man set down a sack filled with money in front of him. When Adrian repeatedly refused, saying he could not accept the money, the owner explained the whole story.
“Who would’ve thought your item would catch the attention of the Greenwood young lady? I know. You know it and I know it too. This isn’t the true value of your item.”
Even a single gold coin inside the sack was excessive for the price of such a crude teacup.
“It’s the price of the luck that caught the Greenwood young lady’s interest. This is a good outcome for all of us. If not for her, the Duke of Angel would never have bought your teacup at such a ridiculous price, nor would the Duke have visited my shop in the first place. As you know, I like clean transactions. I don’t want to be misunderstood as someone who pocketed the Duke of Angel’s money midway.”
As though he did not even want to imagine such a thing, the shop owner shuddered violently. In truth, aside from a few coins he had originally set as the teacup’s price, he had thoroughly placed every bit of the money paid by the Angel Ducal House into the sack and brought it over.
“But……”
“Hey, Adrian. Let’s just happily accept this little bit of fortune that’s fallen into our lives. Hmm? Or are you planning to go return the money to the Angel family yourself?”
When the shop owner indirectly told him not to act proud despite having nothing to his name, Adrian ultimately had no choice but to accept the sack of money.
“Thank you.”
At the words Adrian barely managed to force out after moving his lips for a while, the shop owner let out a hollow laugh.
“I’m not the one you should be thanking. I only came to deliver the money as instructed. The person you should really be grateful to is the Greenwood young lady.”
As he escorted the shop owner out, Adrian quietly nodded.
In truth, when the shop owner had come to hand him the money, Adrian had practically been on the verge of starving to death. Forget heating his home—he did not even have bread to eat and had been starving for several days. Just as the shop owner had said, he was in no position to refuse the sack of money.
Afterward, Adrian immediately bought bread and milk to fill his starving stomach. To Adrian, who had instinctively felt he would not survive this especially brutal winter, it was a miracle no different from God’s blessing.
“I should have come to thank you sooner, but the blizzard delayed me a little.”
“You didn’t need to come all the way here with such difficulty.”
“No. I absolutely had to come. I wanted to say it while looking at you directly. That I’m truly grateful. Thank you, truly……. Truly. You are my benefactor, Miss.”
At Adrian’s passionate words of gratitude, Ines awkwardly avoided his gaze.
Because in truth, she had not done it to help him.
Rather, it had been the opposite. It was something she had chosen because it looked shabby.
The fact that the person before her had no idea she had selected it because she wanted to be mocked for having poor taste pricked sharply at her conscience.
“You don’t need to be that thankful. The item……. Um, the item was good, that’s all.”
Ines was poor at lying. Adrian realized it was a lie told out of goodwill and smiled faintly.
“It’s alright, Miss. I know very well that item was terrible.”
“Ah…….”
At Adrian speaking aloud the words she herself could not bring herself to say, Ines widened her eyes. She did not know how to respond.
Then Adrian’s voice reached her once more.
“I am actually a painter who draws pictures.”
“A painter?”
Hearing that he was not a potter but a painter was quite unexpected.
People born as commoners had very few choices regarding their future.
Tenant farmers or merchants—at best, that was usually the extent of it.
Art belonged to nobles.
And among commoners, only those with money could become painters.
The Adrian before her was neither a noble nor someone who looked wealthy.
“Yes. Though all I did was study for a few years at Master Claymer’s studio.”
Passion for art. His mother had been someone who understood that.
That was why she had allowed him to learn painting despite their difficult circumstances.
His teacher had told him he had talent. Though that teacher himself was also a painter far removed from fame.
He had simply liked hearing that praise. Back then, he did not yet realize that the world of art was not decided by skill alone.
“If you’re not a potter, then how did you make the teacup?”
New artists unable to receive support from nobles were the perfect kind of people to starve to death. Paintings, which served no practical purpose and possessed only aesthetic value, were not bought by anyone except nobles.
However, because commoners also used teacups, some painters whose artwork failed to sell chose the path of becoming potters instead.
The teacup Ines had discovered was a failed piece Adrian had made while helping at a workshop for a day.
“If my circumstances had been even slightly better, I probably wouldn’t have sold such a crude item…….”
After all the work was finished, he had been given permission to use the leftover clay. Since he gathered together small scraps remaining here and there, and because he had no money to buy paints and instead used an old, filthy palette as it was, the final result that came out of the kiln had muddier colors and looked dirtier.
It was an obvious failure.
As an artist, his pride could not tolerate displaying such an object, but the hunger of having no bread to eat immediately was even harder to endure.
Since he had to sell something, he sold the teacup intending only to receive a few coins. Rather than truly purchasing the item, the owner had paid out of pity for the young man.
“Today, I came to give you this. It’s insignificant, but it’s the only thing I have worthy of giving you……. Please accept it as a token of gratitude.”
Adrian handed the small bundle he had been carrying to Ines.
Something square-shaped was tightly wrapped in worn cloth.
Since he had said he was a painter, it was not difficult to guess what the item was.
“It seems to be a painting.”
“That’s right. The price paid for that teacup was far too generous, so I truly wanted to give you at least this painting.”
“I’ve heard paint is expensive.”
“With the payment I received this time, I was able to buy new paints. And canvas as well.”
At Adrian’s embarrassed reaction, Ines gave a troubled smile and brushed her fingers over the edge of the canvas.
He said he had no money, yet he went and bought paint again. Whether his yearning for art was great, or whether he lacked practical sense. However, separate from that awkwardness, she did not dislike the strange artist before her.
Ines unwrapped the bundle and checked the painting.
“This is…….”
At that moment, her words caught in her throat. Unable to continue speaking, Ines simply stared fixedly at the painting.
It was far too famous a painting for her not to recognize it.
Seeing Ines unable to take her eyes off his painting in shock, Adrian suddenly became flustered.
Could it be that he had done something wrong?
‘Did I bring too small of a painting?’
From Adrian’s perspective, the payment for the teacup had been unimaginably large. Even after buying food and firewood right away, there was still enough left for him to eat meat and fruit throughout the winter.
But instead of meat or fruit, what Adrian purchased after finally relieving his hunger were canvas and paints. And not just any supplies, but expensive ones he normally could never afford. However, perhaps because it had been so long since he last faced a canvas, no matter how many times he painted, he could not feel satisfied.
One more time, just one more time.
He threw away ruined paintings and repeatedly bought new canvas and paint. The pouch once heavy with gold coins gradually became lighter, until eventually he only had enough money left to buy the cheapest canvas available. In the end, the only thing Adrian had left now was this one small artwork.
The painting he completed at the very end was, to Adrian, a piece he was rather proud of. However, Ines’s reaction began to make his confidence shrink.
Perhaps it would have been better to use the money he unexpectedly obtained to eat well and spend the winter warmly.
However, the image that burned so intensely within his mind could not have been completed at any time other than now. Fortune like this would never come to him again in his life.
“It’s a painting I’ve thought about for a long time. I originally envisioned it on a much larger scale, but……. I’m satisfied just to have been able to paint it.”
Even thinking about it again, it was a masterpiece he had completed by pushing himself to his limits. Although Adrian thought there was nothing he could do if the other party did not like it, he still ended up anxiously rambling out excuses.
The moment Adrian finished speaking, Ines immediately asked him,
“What did you say your name was?”
At that question, Adrian answered with a flustered expression, stammering as he spoke.
“M-My name is Adrian.”
Adrian.
Ines repeated his name to herself.
In her previous life, he had been someone more famous than anyone else, yet whose true identity remained unknown.
The world inside the small canvas depicted a view of a place anyone in this country would recognize.
“It’s Lake Verota.”
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