20
Eppie glanced around and found a large frame hanging on the wall, but no painting inside.
Instead, a small plaque said that the Imperial Court Painter was currently working on finishing the painting, and that it would be displayed in the fall, coinciding with the Emperor's birthday.
“I was wondering what His Majesty the current Emperor looks like.”
To her, the Emperor was a benefactor who chose her to be at the Institute of Geniuses, and she wanted to see him. But the absence of the painting caused her a feeling of regret.
Evie swallowed her disappointment and moved on to look at the other paintings.
There was one other person, besides the current Emperor, of whom no portrait had been painted.
It was the previous emperor, who had caused the war of succession.
Is it because he killed his father and brothers? Only his name was written, and the place where his painting was supposed to hang was left empty, without even a frame, as if it were a void telling a silent story.
Evie felt as if this place held the complexities of the adult world, so she left it behind and headed into a deeper room within the gallery.
“It seems that the paintings of the imperial family are displayed here.”
Evie let out a sigh of admiration as she saw the walls crowded with paintings.
The first thing that caught her attention were the paintings of empresses, shining with their luxurious crowns.
In the past, most rulers were male empresses, but over time, female empresses emerged, and their number increased.
Therefore, their paintings were interspersed with the paintings of male emperors.
Of course, their paintings were smaller in size compared to those of empresses.
Paintings were not limited to the spouses of empresses only. Underneath, there were smaller paintings of children.
Among the paintings of adults with serious faces, the paintings of children stood out with their spontaneous smiles.
Some held a favorite doll or toy, others hugged books in little arms.
In front of the paintings of children who looked her age, Evie felt even more amused as she examined the paintings.
“No names written underneath.”
As one of the workers told her, it seemed that the exhibition was not yet fully prepared, as many of the paintings were missing the names of their owners.
Then, when she stood in front of the last painting on the wall, Evie's steps suddenly stopped.
All the signs she had seen so far separated adults and children.
But this painting was different.
A young woman with red hair and green eyes, smiling happily, holding a little girl on her lap.
You may have been born only a few days ago.
The child was wrapped in a cloth, her face barely visible.
Evie looked at the painting in amazement for a long time.
The woman was a stranger to her. But, since the painting is here, it must be one of the empresses' companions.
Evie rushed to check next to the painting, but, as she expected, there was no name and no explanation.
“They haven't put a name in yet...”
Evie felt even more disappointed than she had ever felt when she had not seen a precious jewel. She returned to stand in front of the painting.
The woman's warm smile as she tenderly hugged her baby girl was supposed to make her feel happy.
But…
Suddenly, Evie felt her throat tighten.
“Who are you?”
She had never felt this feeling before any other painting she had seen.
It is true that this painting was unique, as it depicted a mother with her child, but in the end it is a strange character to her, like the others.
Unconsciously, Eihei took a step closer to the painting.
The smiling woman in the painting is now clearer.
Eihei kept looking at her in fascination, completely oblivious to the sound of the door closing in the distant painting room.
—
“…?”
“…?”
While the other students were resting and talking cheerfully, Arcel and Ruska were sitting silently on two chairs, looking out.
At first, some students tried to approach and talk to them to no avail.
But when they noticed their lack of response, they said, “Something seems to be bothering them.”
They gradually moved away.
After a long silence, Ruska was the first to speak.
“I heard that Lillian's painting has been completed and hung. Do you want to go see it?”
“…?”
Arcel hesitated for a moment, then shook his head.
“No, I will come back later. Today I don’t want to.”
On normal days, Ruska would have insisted, asked him when he would be back, and urged him to go now.
But today, Ruska just nodded and added nothing.
"Okay. I'll go first then."
“Are you going to see the painting?”
Arcel asked, and Ruska laughed.
“No, I won’t go today either. I feel like if I saw her now, I would cry like a little baby.”
Ruska smirked and got up.
He stuck his hands in his pockets and trudged out of the exhibition hall.
He wasn't joking when he talked to Arcel. Maybe it was because of a dream he had in the morning that made him feel depressed, but he was sure that if he saw Lillian's painting now, he would break down crying like a child.
“Besides, my father said that Princess Evbian was also depicted in the painting.”
Perhaps because no one had ever seen Princess Evbian's face before, he heard that her face had not been painted.
Since he decided not to go, it would have been better to wander somewhere else, but, strangely, he couldn't move his feet easily.
Ruska kept wandering around the exhibition aimlessly, as if he had nothing to see.
Perhaps because he had separated from Arcel, the students began to approach him again with caution.
“Ah, this is my annoying popularity.”
Ruska muttered, shaking his head.
It seemed that the absence of Arcel, who was difficult to talk to, made him seem more approachable in the eyes of others.
“I have to go somewhere else quickly.”
He feigned indifference and headed towards the entrance of the exhibition. If he went out completely, they wouldn't follow him.
At that moment, someone suddenly walked out of the corridor leading to the Painting Hall.
Boom!
The person hit Ruska with enough force to make a loud sound.
"Ah! What is this?"
The other person swayed and raised his eyebrows irritably, but when he saw Ruska, his eyes widened in surprise.
“Sorry, so sorry!”
Ruska didn't like that she didn't apologize until she knew who he was.
But he decided not to care. His feeling of annoyance was greater than his desire to argue.
"decent."
He expected her to pass by after that, but the student, smiling, bowed slightly and said:
"Um, I'm Lemora Icel. If you don't mind, I'd like to apologize later at the Genius Institute…"
“Huh...”
Ruska sighed at this very clear style.
He almost ignored her and left, but he remembered that she had left the painting hall.
“Maybe she saw Lillian’s painting.”
Out of curiosity, he asked her:
“By the way, you are coming from the Painting Hall, right? Have you seen inside...”
At that moment, Lemora's features froze, and she shook her head.
“Oh, no. I was going to go see, but I left. I'll go now...”
In contrast to her previous enthusiasm, Lemora left quickly after barely a quick greeting.
"What's going on? Why is she like this?"
She looked like someone running away after making a mistake.
Ruska looked at the corridor leading to the hall of paintings.
The hall, which only had a ceiling at the top to protect the paintings, seemed a bit dark.
What could go wrong in a place like this?
While he was looking at the quiet corridor, Ruska felt something unsettling and headed towards the hall of paintings.
At that moment, one of the workers at the entrance shouted:
“It's time to move! All students inside the hall please move out now!”
Ruska stopped walking.
He had spent a long time with Arcel abroad, but he did not expect the time to move on would come so quickly.
He looked into the corridor for a long time regretfully, then turned to leave.
Oddly, he felt like he had forgotten something behind him, a nagging feeling he couldn't explain.
—
Evie was looking at the painting calmly.
Suddenly, she woke up and looked around.
“How quiet.”
When she entered, the students' voices and footsteps could reach her from afar, but now she heard nothing.
Moreover, the hall seemed darker than when she entered.
“I have to go back.”
Evie rushed toward the door, but her eyes kept returning to the painting.
“If I ever come back here, I'll make sure I know the name.”
With this thought, she approached the door, only to find that the door, which had been open when she entered, was now closed.
“That's why it was quiet.”
Evie grabbed the handle and tried to turn it forcefully. It was supposed to open up and reveal the students outside...
“What?”
Evie's face showed astonishment.
The handle didn't move. She tried to push the door with her body, but the thick door would not budge.
It was locked from the outside.
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