Chapter 11
For a moment, I was so flustered that I felt numb to reality.
He let me into his room even though he had a guest?
I made eye contact with her.
“Uh, hey…”
How should I react?
Should I say hello?
Or should I just turn my head away?
For a while, in an awkward silence, only suffocating glances were exchanged.
It was only when I noticed the vine-shaped frame surrounding her that I realized something was strange.
“Ah, what the! It’s a painting!”
The tension drained from my legs, and I almost collapsed.
It really felt like I was facing a living person.
“Just how famous must the artist be for him to enshrine a painting on his bed like this?”
But the painting looked vaguely familiar.
However, from here, it was obscured by obstacles, so I couldn’t see the entire picture.
I knew it was rude, but I gently pushed the door open and stepped into the bedroom.
Then, I lifted the cloth covering the slanted frame.
I gasped at the image of the youthful girl in the painting.
“Why is this painting here…”
The corners of my mouth curled up awkwardly, tickled by the feeling of being a model for the first time in my life. My cheeks were rosy, tinged with the excitement of having my own portrait.
It felt as vivid as yesterday, how I had brushed my hair down just before sitting in the chair.
That’s right. This was my portrait.
The shiny ruby necklace around my neck was the final confirmation. The artist’s seal stamped at the bottom right was also exactly as I remembered.
“Eeeek!”
A scream instantly echoed through the room. It was Blake.
I’d already confirmed he was fast, but I didn’t think he’d be back this quickly.
“O-oh, it’s a misunderstanding!”
He rushed over without hesitation, forcing himself between me and the painting.
He seemed terribly flustered; his face was so red it blurred the line with his hair.
“A misunderstanding? Of what?”
“This painting isn’t one I imagined and painted of you as a child!”
Blake waved his arms up and down wildly, trying to cover the painting. As if that wasn’t enough, he even grabbed the blanket and threw it over the painting.
Is this what a son looks like when he doesn’t want his mother to find out his secret?
Anyway, what could there possibly be to misunderstand?
There was no reason for him to paint a portrait of someone he’d only met a few days ago, let alone of their childhood appearance.
“I saw the corpse of the Princess hanging on the castle wall, and it made me feel strange.”
Moreover, Blake was someone who perceived Princess Lacey and me as separate entities. There was no room for doubt.
“Calm down. There’s no such thing as a misunderstanding…”
But I abruptly closed my mouth. A thunderous intuition struck the crown of my head.
I need to extract as many clues as possible.
“…That depends on what you mean. Why do you have a painting that looks exactly like me when I was a child?”
“Th-that’s…”
I narrowed my eyes and lowered my voice, making Blake visibly flustered.
But even so, he wasn’t readily opening his mouth.
“Ah, then perhaps… your preference is for little children?!”
I widened my eyes and covered my mouth. Then, I glanced alternately at Blake and the bed and subtly took a step back.
“Huh? Huh?”
Blake, reading the message that I didn’t want to be near something unclean, shouted.
“Don’t misunderstand! I don’t have any perverted hobbies like that!”
He immediately started tearing at his hair with a confused expression.
As I slowly backed away towards the door, he raised his hands in surrender.
“This is a portrait of the dead Princess of Euphorian. I bought it at an auction in the black market.”
“What? A royal portrait in the black market?”
The Kingdom of Euphorian is still standing. Yet, something that should only happen if the kingdom had fallen was occurring.
And that wasn’t the only strange thing.
I was a traitor who had been sentenced to death in a trial.
According to Euphorian’s royal law, no traces of a traitor are left behind. Everything from the name recorded in the genealogy to portraits depicting their appearance is eradicated.
“Yes. Rumors spread that royal collections were being put up for auction.”
But this portrait was an exception.
The creator of this painting was Edwin Grass Euphorian.
My father, and the former king of Euphorian.
I had a jinx where I would catch a feverish cold every day I sat for a portrait. Because of that, we had to repeatedly send away popular painters we had summoned in advance.
For my sulking self, my father rolled up his sleeves himself. He did so despite his busy royal duties.
Moreover, this painting was finished with the royal seal and hung in the gallery of the king’s quarters.
According to the law, this painting, which should have been preserved as my father’s relic, had appeared on the black market…
“When the dead Princess’s portrait came on stage, it was a shock, but with the missing royal seal stamped on it, the winning bid price skyrocketed endlessly, oh no—”
Blake covered his mouth as if he had misspoken.
“The royal seal is missing?”
My father tended to state affairs even on the day he passed away.
He ignored the doctor’s advice to rest properly and sat propped up in bed, signing documents.
With the same seal that was stamped on the portrait.
Could it be that the culprit’s target was the royal seal?
To disrupt the governance of the Kingdom of Euphorian?
“Ah, it’s nothing. Pretend you didn’t hear that.”
How could I just ignore that and let it slide?
“Explain it properly!”
I stomped over and closed the distance. This time, Blake stepped back.
“Please forget it.”
“Then try hitting me on the back of the head to give me amnesia or something!”
I grabbed his arm to prevent him from escaping and pressed him, but—
“How dare I hit you… uh, ugh!”
Whether he missed his step or something, his center of gravity suddenly shifted completely. In the blink of an eye, I felt a pain like my nose bridge was breaking.
“Ouch, ouch, ouch.”
What has he been doing to have such a hard body?
“Lacey, could you get off?”
As I rubbed my nose and tried to get up, I heard a voice as small as a mosquito’s. I squinted my eyes open.
Blake was covering his face with both hands as much as possible, but his burning red ears were fully visible.
“I think this is a bit too soon for our relationship.”
“……”
I wordlessly got off of Blake, and then off the bed. The ride was oddly uncomfortable, so I hurried my movements.
I fled the room to escape the abruptly awkward atmosphere.
“What should I do now?”
It wasn’t the time to loiter around pretending to be a maid. I needed to return to Euphorian as soon as possible.
But the plan to become Ash Canis’s dance teacher had gone down the drain.
Then, what remained was…
*Bam!*
Before I knew it, Blake had come out to the living room. He spread his arms out to the sides as if the bedroom was a forbidden zone.
“B-by the way, why did you enter my bedroom?”
This is bad. The situation has reversed.
“Umm, well, you see…”
My eyes rolled around looking for an excuse.
Then, a painting caught my eye.
That one.
“I was drawn in by the excellence of the artwork and before I knew it, I had entered.”
“Huh?”
“The works here in the living room are so superb, aren’t they? Even though it’s for business expansion, to think you went all the way to the Jermen Duchy…!”
“How do you know I went to the Jermen Duchy?”
The smile instantly vanished from Blake’s expression.
So this is the face of the Taweila Trading Company head.
I pointed to a nearby landscape painting.
“The painting style of contrasting the boundaries of light and shadow with blue paint is the exclusive domain of the painter Cosmo.”
“Cosmo is from the Neophia Kingdom.”
The questions came at me like an interrogation.
Did he think I’d be flustered by this?
I innocently scratched my cheek with my index finger.
“Didn’t he secretly defect to the Jermen Duchy about five years ago? Then of course you could get his new works in the Duchy, right?”
Before my answer even finished, Blake’s gaze changed.
It became like that of an explorer who had found a gem they were desperately searching for.
* * *
“Master of the house, I’ve been giving it some thought.”
The tone Fritz used to lead into his speech gave me a sense of déjà vu.
“First, how about we have Miss Lacey teach you simple dance movements step by step?”
As expected, it was a pointless story.
He was even speaking under the premise that the proposal to hire a dance teacher had been approved.
“Do you want to be thrown out along with Blake Taweila?”
“Hey, such harsh language…”
Fritz, who had been retorting playfully, closed his mouth.
A murderous intent mixed into the air, making my skin tingle. He was reminded that this was actually the norm.
It had become commonplace for the Master’s mood to sour whenever an outsider, especially Blake Taweila, visited.
The Canis family and the Taweila Trading Company had secretly maintained transactions for generations. Their relationship had grown as solid as the time they had spent together.
But that was only until the previous generation.
Seven years ago, a reversal hit their relationship as the heads of both families changed.
In a less than desirable direction.
“Ahem, *I* am not acceptable, but please let the Company Head stay for a few days before sending him away.”
“I suppose so. That sly fellow arranged for the weapons and food carriages to arrive last.”
To put it bluntly, it was close to the worst-case scenario. That’s why his worry was no small matter.
“Please, whatever you do, do not run into the Company Head. Don’t even see his shadow. If we fall short of supplies this quarter as well…”
*Bam!*
“Ash Canis!”
Speak of the devil.
When Fritz saw Blake’s intense red hair, he covered his eyes as if he’d been burned.
“I have something to say!”
Had he been sprinting? The way his heaving shoulders, spread wide, moved was extremely irritating.
“Company Head, step back!”
“Let go of this! I told you I don’t have business with you guys!”
“You cannot enter without permission!”
What benefit could a merchant, whose marrow seemed filled with nothing but a sense for money, possibly seek, going so far as to waste even his sweat beads by visiting at this late hour?
“Enough.”
Ash gestured for the knights to leave.
“For you to barge in so late at night, it must be important business, Blake Taweila.”
“Yeeep. Very important.”
Blake, who had closed the distance to the desk in one breath, raised the corners of his mouth.
His fiery gaze once again grated on Ash’s nerves.
“Give Lacey to me!”
