Please Take A Step Out Of The Portrait

Chapter 14

═══∘°❈°∘═══

Vivian’s POV

Chervanni was famous for their art and jewellery auctions.

The Chervanni family was a prestigious family with a long history, but from the lack of impression in my memories, it seems that they weren’t a mainstream family 200 years ago.

The Chervanni Auctions was first established 170 years ago by introducing a completely different system from the existing auctions then, which mainly traded items such as magic weapons and enchantments.

“1500.”

The main items they auctioned were art and jewellery.

They would hold small auctions ordinarily and sell goods, but the ones that underwent meticulous preparations were the art auction in May and the jewellery auction in November. 

Jewellery auctions are held for only one day, and the winter party would commence afterwards, while the art auctions will take place over seven days, where only prominent works are placed on the auction block. 

“1600.”

And the last day out of those seven days was called the finale.

“1600, 1600. Is there anyone else that would like to call out?”

The day was bright on the finale of the art auction in May. 

“2000.”

On the center stage of a huge party hall, a man dressed smartly in a tuxedo and a gray mask was proceeding with the auction. I had heard that the last day would be different from the auction I was familiar with, but this was really unexpected.

Everyone was dressed splendidly, browsing while wearing masks that expressed their individuality.

I seem to understand why the word ‘party’ was more appropriate to describe this than ‘auction’.

Edmund didn’t seem that interested in this painting, so he just stopped there watching its price continue to rise leisurely. 

When we arrived at the ballroom, Edmund placed a deer mask onto my face while we were in the carriage. The deer mask that instantly let others know I was Edmund’s partner, was surprisingly decorated with diamonds.

“It’s going up a lot.”

“Right, it’s not just me that thinks it’s expensive, right?”

“It’s because it’s the work of an artist that’s getting popular these days. Well, perhaps it’s suitable for investment purposes, but it’s not to my tastes.”

Edmund sipped on his alcohol lightly, gazing at the painting on the stage, before turning towards me completely. His extravagant deer mask covers his cheekbones, nose and forehead, leaving his chin and cheeks exposed.

He was wearing a mask, but in fact, everyone already knows each other’s identity. 

In the first place, it was neither a secret auction, nor were masks worn to conceal one’s identity, but only for the sake of entertainment. In addition, Edmund was said to have worn a deer mask every time he attended an auction ever since his childhood.

When I appeared in the ballroom with Edmund escorting me, everyone’s gazes were directed towards me. And those gazes remained, even though the auction had progressed to a certain extent.

Unlike me, who kept shrinking into myself, Edmund was nonchalant, seemingly familiar with the attention he was given. 

He spoke to me, “Pretty.”

“Hm? Yeah. Right? I didn’t think that it would be to such an extent, but I really like it.”

I bowed my head and looked downwards at the dress that I was currently wearing.

The lining was made of pink silk in the shade of white cotton candy scattered on my hair, and extremely thin white gauze was layered above multiple times to form the dress. Finally, small jewels were inlaid on the dress like a flower garden. 

When I touched the jewels with my fingers, they sparkled brightly according to the light.

“I guess she wasn’t called a genius for no reason.”

“I wasn’t saying that the dress was pretty.”

Huh? I could feel heat rushing to my cheeks. When I touched my face to no avail, Edmund asked, “Did you know that this dress was inspired by Sasha’s painting?”

“No, I didn’t know.”

I didn’t even know what had my sister painted, so how would I know that?

With a shrug of his shoulders, Edmund nodded while saying that that could be the case. 

I felt quite tired as I had suffered throughout the day at the hands of Deer’s maids, since morning until just before I left for the party. It seemed like all of the employees in the mansion were attached to me, while I was washed, groomed from head to toe and dolled up, from my dress, hair and makeup. 

They helped me to dress up excitedly, saying that they were bored as there were only two young masters in the house. My dishevelled hair was detangled and set into curls while they babbled on. 

“It’s a painting in the Halika Gallery in the old capital Toyo, and while it’s not Sasha’s representative work, the people here should be able to recognise it in a glance.”

“Aha.”

Morgan Summer’s designed had explained that starting from a line above her waist, the upper body consisted of rose vines creeping upwards attractively, while the embroidery of red petals and white gypsophila consisted of jewels that were deliberately shattered with a hammer, to depict an unorganised wild garden. 

When Edmund heard my explanation, he burst into laughter, saying that there isn’t anyone that would dare to shatter jewels. As I pretended not to hear the price, I didn’t know the exact value of the dress. 

Edmund straightened out the slightly wrinkled train and spoke jokingly, “You’re probably the star of today’s party. Thank you for giving me the honour of escorting the main character in advance.”

I looked away from Edmund and looked around, the conversations of the people next to me entered my ears.

“He’s the rumoured…”

“Yes.”

“I can only say that it’s really surprising.”

“…Maybe they’re distant relatives?”

It was awkward to see gazes full of curiosity without hostility.

“I heard that that dress was made by Morgan Summer’s chief designer.”

“I heard that she was offered to be her muse.”

“But don’t you know why she did that? Didn’t that designer also like Sasha?

“She’s famous for that.”

I awkwardly raised the corners of my mouth, before turning around. The white hem of the dress wrapped around my legs. 

To match me, Edmund was dressed in a black tuxedo accented with red jewels. With hair neatly slicked back, his handsome face could be found underneath. Although more than half of his face was covered by the mask, it gave him a mysterious atmosphere. 

Edmund placed his glass on a passing waiter’s tray and lifted a new glass.

“Then, aren’t you here in Deer’s name? Speaking of the price, do you not do things like that normally?” 

[T/N: ‘that’ referring to calling out bids for the work being auctioned.]

“There are times where I would, but I usually leave it to another expert.”

“Then what do you do?”

Edmund pointed to the employee of Deer that was working hard at a distance, speaking. 

“This isn’t just a matter of one or two pennies, and in such auctions, you wouldn’t know what kind of works would appear beforehand, right? Even if a budget was made in advance, the occurrence of mistakes is a situation that occurs oftenly.”

“Uhm.”

“So, if the bid is going to exceed the set budget, the final decision on whether to continue calling or to give up on the work rests on me.”

Edmund had much more authority than I expected. It seems that he really was an amazing person. Even if his actions were no different from a loafer. 

Edmund looked like he was stabbed when I gazed at him with suspicious eyes. 

“…Of course, I’m in charge of representing Deer too.”

As I was chatting with Edmund, a new work appeared.

“Oh, we’re getting that work.”

It’s a painting of the Imperial Family during the Empire’s golden age. Apparently, the painting of the blonde princess and her fiance had surprisingly fallen into the hands of an unheard of family and eventually appeared in today’s auction.

Unlike the work that was first auctioned, the figures being called out gradually increased.

As the bids grew steeper at a faster rate, the number of people participating in the auction conceding soon increased. 

Edmund watched the entire situation silently.

“……”

The sight of his mouth closed tightly underneath his silver mask showed that he was uncomfortable.

While it was the same deer mask, the person wearing a much simpler mask than Edmund’s and mine approached us. 

“Mr. Deer. The price range is increasing faster than we‘d anticipated.”

“Right.”

“While I’m going according to the budget, I think that you should make the final decision.”

It seems that now was the time to make a decision. 

After this, the finale is all that’s left. If he was planning to obtain the finale at an exorbitant price, wouldn’t it be better to just give up on this painting? If that’s not the case, he’d have to spend more to obtain the painting. 

Making such decisions was what Edmund had to do at the auction today. 

Magic brushed past the surroundings of Edmund and him, as well as me. From how soundproofing magic had been activated, it seems that he was going to say something important. 

“Let’s go all the way to 80 million Zulang.”

“I’ll pass it along.”

Even while they were conversing, the bids continued to rise steadily. There was still a long way to reach the price Edmund had just mentioned, but from the looks of this trend, it seemed like it would reach in an instant.

“It’s rising a lot more than I’d thought.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Edmund gave a regretful smile.

“I knew that painting would be appearing, but I didn’t expect that the competition would be this fierce.”

“Who’s your opponent? Are they representing an art museum like yours? Or is it individually?”

At my words, a slightly irritated smile appeared on Eddie’s face. 

The gaze that was on the stage slowly moved towards a blond man standing quietly in a distance from the stage. It seems that that person was Edmund’s opponent. 

“… The Crown Prince.”

“Huh?”

The Crown Prince?

Isn’t he an important figure?

Is it alright to impede a member of the Imperial Family’s bidding?

“…Are you sure that it’s okay?”

“It doesn’t matter. Don’t worry.”

No, while the Summers were a family that the Imperial Family couldn’t do anything about, my sister didn’t react like that towards the Imperial Family.

Edmund treated the Crown Prince like he was insignificant. Rather, he said that the finale of the art auction was more problematic than that.

“The last work is definitely Sasha’s work. That’s because there were only two paintings during these seven days, a bouquet of sunflowers and the scenery of Riverry’s wheat fields.”

“I think I know the sunflower one.”

“Really?”

Nervously holding the cup in his mouth, he turned his head. My eyebrows went up and down in line with the words, “Really?”

“The opening was a sunflower. I’d bidded for it successfully on the first day, so let’s go and see it later.”

“Yes.”

“Of course, the competition for that painting was fierce. Even so, for the amount required to obtain it, it’s much simpler than it was rumoured to be.”

Edmund paid attention to the auction as he brushed against his chin. 

“7,800!”

“80 million.”

The person wearing the mask of the Deer family threw out the final amount, and caused the whole area to quieten down. Everyone looked curious about how long the price would go up.

“We have reached 80 million. Is there anyone else? I shall start counting. Three… two…. one.”

“Haah, finally.”

“Vellota Caruni’s has been sold for 80 million Zulang. Thank you.”

Edmund placed his glass down and other people in our surroundings offered him words of congratulations. He smiled faintly and nodded at them, before a frown appeared on his face and he shook his head. 

While I was engaging in idle chatter with Edmund, the auctioneer who went inside walked out of the stage with good timing. Edmund asked me, “Are you very tired?”

“I think I understand why you would return like you’re half dead.”

“But there’s a party after this, so let’s stay for a little and return.”

“Okay.”

I didn’t do much, but I felt tired. Up till morning today I was a little excited due to my curiosity towards the auction and a party that I haven’t been to in a while, but now I wasn’t sure. First of all, I didn’t know anyone, and there wasn’t much to converse about. 

No, that’s not a big problem as conversing can be done even if you’re not close to the other person.

However, everyone paid attention to the works on display during the auction, so it was not easy to make conversation. And while Edmund pretended not to be, he became sensitive and everything caught his eyes, so even leaving him behind was the same.  

I headed to the couch right beside me as my legs hurt and I wanted to sit for a moment, Edmund followed behind me.

We continued our meaningless idle chatter. After a short back and forth, an object covered in a dark red cloth, presumably the next work, appeared beside the auctioneer. 

The buzzing sounds suddenly increased in volume. The auctioneer looked around at their reactions with satisfaction as he came forward looking. 

“You’d been waiting for a long time. The Finale for this year’s Chervanni art auction.”

He slowly pulled down the cloth, saying that there was no need for him to elaborate what a great painting this was. 

The attention of all within the party hall were focused on the painting covered in cloth. Even those that did not intend to bid for this painting showed signs of nervousness. I was also like that. While I wasn’t interested in the slightest, I swallowed dryly as I watched the cloth fall slowly.

And the moment the fabric fell to the floor,

My heart rate sped up.

“Ah, oh my god.”

“So that painting was in Merci.”

There were exclamations everywhere.

The canvas was quite large.

There was a woman seated gracefully within.

I was seated gracefully with my legs crossed on an old and crude wooden chair, and not an expensive sofa with rose embroidery. The hem of the luxurious navy blue dress hung downwards, subtly showing my leg line.

“Oh.”

With a wooden palette in one hand and a brush in another. 

Perhaps it was because of the window directly in front of that person, light shone directly over her. The sunset coloured light fell onto the faded wheat-colored hair. The parts where the light touched her were all scarlet coloured.

I stared dazedly at the painting, feeling like crying a little. 

“Sister.”

Within the painting was my older sister in red coloured light.

═══∘°❈°∘═══