Please Take A Step Out Of The Portrait

Chapter 3

After insisting on giving Vivian the room that she had used 200 years ago, Edmund acted like a person that went insane, spending all his money recklessly.

As all of his belongings were moved to another place, the large space that remained was filled with things that Vivian could use.

The spacious dressing room that was filled with Edmund’s clothes, was quickly emptied and filled in an instant.

Valerie, Reeding, Tom Jackson, Laurent Zuwitt, Sonnet, Morgan Summer, Alexandra Je… It was Vivian’s first time hearing about them, but many of those clothes looked high quality upon first glance, and various luxury goods, such as shoes, indoor clothes, watches, bracelets and necklaces filled the rest of the empty dressing room.

Vivian barely managed to dissuade him from calling in the owner of the workshop to change the furniture, but since the current study had become a dressing room, Edmund decided to refurbish an old room into a study.

“It’s amazing, really.”

“Thank you.”

This had all happened over the span of a week.

“It’s not a compliment.”

“Even so, thank you.”

He responded cheekily with his eyes curved.

If he was left like this, the room would be filled with jewels, so Vivian said that she wanted to leave the mansion and look around, wherever it may be.

She sat in the carriage and stared out the window dazedly.

It’s her first time going out after appearing here.

Edmund had immediately prepared a carriage, saying that he wanted to show her wherever that he found good.

“In fact, any of Sasha Summers’ paintings are deemed as one of the best collections in any art gallery. Particularly, portraits she had drawn are the representative works of each gallery.”

As soon as Vivian turned her head, she made eye contact with Edmund. It seemed that he kept looking at her while she was staring out of the window.

“Is that the case with the place that we’re going to now?”

“Yes. It actually houses one of the most famous paintings in the world.”

“…The people here don’t even know that Sister was a mage.”

When Vivian blurted that out, Edmund laughed softly, before putting leaning his chin on his hand and following her line of vision outside the window.

“Also, what we’re about to see is really famous.”

Vivian inadvertently wondered how expensive the painting was for him to speak so profoundly.

When she asked why was her sister so famous, only at the very end of the week, Edmund told her how much the most recently bided painting by Sasha Summers was auctioned for.

He smiled faintly as he muttered, “It’s a pity that I had to use such a shallow standard to introduce Sasha,” in response to Vivian’s wide-opened mouth.

Ever since then, whenever she heard that it was famous, her first thought would be that it was expensive.

“How many mansions is it worth?”

“…It’s more accurate to say that this particular painting’s price can’t be fixed.”

He sat comfortably as he undid the topmost button of his shirt.

“We are heading towards the Deer. The painting that I want to show you is termed the goddess of the Deer. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that tens of thousands of people from all over the world come to see her every year.”

From the way Edmund used ‘her’, it seems that it was a portrait drawn by her sister.

Vivian tried to recall any portraits within her memories, but she couldn’t think of anything. It was to be expected. Her sister hated it when she showed interest in her paintings, and so ever since then, Vivian deliberately stopped paying attention.

More than that, what caught her attention was their destination, the art gallery’s name.

‘The Deer’.

The art gallery’s name contained Edmund’s surname ‘Deer’.

“Is it your family’s art gallery?”

Then again, wealthy and distinguished families also owned galleries or art museums 200 years ago. In the Summers’ case, they had an orchestra.

“Yes.”

“What painting is it about?

“If you don’t remember this too, it will be a little sad.”

“Why? It seems like it’s a painting of me?”

Vivian had casually said that, but Edmund’s eyes were wide open with an expression that asked how she knew about it.

“It’s the painting of you that I liked the most. This painting was also the first time I saw you.”

“…It’s a painting that you liked?”

Their first meeting had only taken place a week ago, so hearing him say that their first meeting wasn’t a week ago felt weird.

As he folded his arms, he tilted his head downwards slightly. Languid eyes and curved corners of his mouth. It seemed like just thinking about that painting made him feel better. He nodded slowly.

“I like you.”

His low voice made Vivian’s heart race for no reason at all.

She felt that he was mystifying.

The person in the picture wasn’t living but merely frozen at that moment. Yet how does he make eyes that conveyed deep affection?

“Sasha is…”

Edmund talked about the portrait that he remembers. His quiet voice had a unique echo and was pleasant to hear.

“It was the first time that I had seen you, and without realising, I was entranced. What were you thinking, why were you making such an expression, what had happened? As those questions kept circling in my mind, I fell in love.”

“…Is that so?”

His blond hair shone resplendently underneath the rays streaming in through the window. He looked like a character of a renowned painting due to the sunlight shining on his face in deep thought.

“That’s why.”

Vivian looked at him quietly and closed her eyes at the dazzling scene.

Underneath the still afternoon sunshine, the carriage arrived at the art gallery.

As Vivian held his hand, she exited the carriage and before her feet had touched the ground, she quietly inhaled at the sight of the scenery before her eyes

The first thing that she saw was a noble family’s mansion.

“I know this mansion”.

The location where the garden should be was sprucely like a park, and the wide road leading towards the mansion had two bronze statues decorating each side. There were more statues than she had expected, and it seemed like they were added afterwards.

Although the mansion was still beautiful, the traces of time added an antique appeal.

“This is the art gallery.”

It was surprising that this mansion had remained the same even after 200 years had passed.

It was surprising that this mansion, which for a long time had only been open to aristocrats, was open to everyone. There were people freely wandering around the mansion’s park, people that were obviously not aristocrats.

“What about those people?”

“While some people came for the art gallery, others just came for a walk.”

“…It seems like too much has changed.”

Vivian retracted her persistent gaze and look around her surroundings.

“So it was like this here.”

Franzit was the central city in the Summers’ territory, and although it’s said to be the busiest city in the vicinity, it was only a city in the Southeast.

Of course, it couldn’t be compared with the extremely developed capital.

However, it now was as bustling as Toyo, the capital of the Empire, once was.

Whenever the eye could reach, it was dazzling and filled with laughter. Everywhere was filled with vitality, like droplets being sprayed everywhere from a fountain. It was as if all the world’s sunlight had gathered to shine here.

Vivian would be willing to believe it if someone had said that this was a completely different city.

“…It’s amazing.”

She stood at the center of the street and looked around blankly. The area around the large mansion, which was called an art museum, was crowded, making it unimaginable.

In order to not lose its dignified appearance, the noise level around a noble’s mansion was maintained as low as possible. As such, the nearby yellow coloured lodging house and the cafe located on its first floor with green awning were wholly unfamiliar to Vivian.

But, even so.

“I have lived in this city for twenty years.”

It was numbing to her that even after undergoing 200 years of changes, everything remained in its place like in the past.

“Yes.”

“It’s changed incredibly, but there’s something that hasn’t changed even after 200 years.”

Streetlights that would light up at night from this mansion to that intersection, the buildings that were covered in green vines in that alley. The things that Vivian remembers.

Yes, remember.

As she didn’t have friends when she was young, she used to escape the mansion surreptitiously.

The city where she grew up in remained even after 200 years. The people that she knew and the ones that knew her had left, but the city still remained here.

“You’ve said that this is now the capital.”

“Yeah. The capital was moved once.”

“I’m surprised that this city has changed this much.”

As the vibrant city she was looking at for the first time mingled with the city from her memories, a uniformed person approached Edmund.

He seemed to be the gallery’s security guard.

After looking at the city for a long while, Vivian looked at Edmund chatting with another a little distance away.

If his appearance was described as having the genteel elegance of a young noble when within the mansion, in the city’s mysterious streets, he exuded a sophisticated bearing that’s unique to a young nobleman.

A lightly coloured cotton pants and a matching shirt perfect for spring, combined with a casual trench coat. Of course, the thing that attracted the most attention was that shiny face.

“Am I that weak to appearances…?”

Well, she would fall for a ridiculous suggestion such as staying in the mansion because of his handsome appearance. As Vivian was muttering to herself, Edmund approached with wide strides.

“Vivi, shall we get going?”

She couldn’t help but laugh at the way he bowed gracefully with the Imperial etiquette from a few centuries past that he perhaps had researched on separately.

She placed her hand atop of his, and he held her fingertips.

“You’re quite handsome.”

“Thank you. As such, you should hurry and fall for me too.”

Vivian chuckled. When he had first started this, she felt burdened and took a step backwards, but after listening to it for a week, she became used to it.

“It’s regrettable that you’re not to my taste.”

“What’s your preference?”

“Someone with a cool impression…?”

As she recalled the only man that was by her side, Vivian added another condition.

“Yeah, just like that guy over there.”

As they stood in front of the imposing main entrance, a black-haired man passed behind Edmund’s back.

‘Hm?’

She had only pointed at someone she saw, but her gaze inadvertently followed him, as if she was captivated.

“Yuriel…”

But that man had already moved a far distance away, and only his black hair entered her vision.

“Vivi?”

Perhaps out of jealousy, Edmund called her with a grumpy face, before sensing the odd atmosphere.

“…It’s nothing. It’s just that I thought I saw someone that I knew.”

“All of the people you knew existed 200 years ago.”

‘That’s true.’

He’s right. Yuriel Jewell was Vivian’s fiance, so he obviously wouldn’t be here.

At the thought of his chilly face, a bitter taste entered her mouth.

As it was only an engagement symbolistic of the friendship between their families, rather than the title of fiancé, he was more like the young master of another noble family that she’d occasionally met.

“I guess it was just someone that looked similar.”

Out of lingering attachment, Vivian turned her head just before entering the mansion, and couldn’t even find a trace of him.