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40.
At Rebecca's nod, Kanna quietly opened the door.
Rebecca greeted ‌‌‌‌her visitor with a chilling smile playing at the corners of her lips.
"Welcome, Rodrigo."
Candlelight cast a soft glow through the darkened room.
In the ‌‌dim atmosphere, Rodrigo stared at Rebecca in a daze. ‌‌‌‌
She wore a seductive black dress that revealed her skin in tantalizing glimpses, her shackled hands gesturing ‌‌‌gracefully—a far cry from the saintly demeanor she had displayed during daylight.
Her decadent, dangerous presence made Rodrigo flinch.
The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.
"So, have you decided whom you will swear your loyalty to?"
"I..."
The sound of the Hounds' leashes rattling reached her ears.
* * *
Barinika's secret studio was one of the Emperor's Villas nestled deep within ‌a remote forest.
It was a grand estate with lush greenery and beautiful vistas, yet situated in such a desolate location that one had to travel by carriage ‌‌‌‌for quite some time before reaching even a small village.
Zeppelin watched Barinika paint for a while before deciding to take a stroll through the Garden.
The moment he stepped outside, three well-built guards fell into step behind him.
"I'm merely taking a ‌‌‌‌walk. Don't ‌‌‌bother following me."
Despite the threatening glint in Zeppelin's eyes, the guards didn't so much as blink, repeating the same words mechanically.
"It is the Emperor's order."
'Damn it.'
They were guards in name only—nothing more than surveillance.
They followed him even when he ate, even when he went to the privy.
There was nothing here that afforded him any peace of mind.
I had thought I was sent to monitor the painter, yet somehow I ‌‌‌had become ‌the prisoner.
'Have ‌‌I done something to ‌‌‍displease the Emperor?'
I retraced every imperial order I had secretly evaded thus far.
There was nothing incriminating, nothing that would cause serious trouble even if discovered.
To me, Emperor Zahidra was a benevolent figure—an old man in the back rooms who avoided troublesome matters ‌‌even at a loss.
This image aligned with what the world knew of Zahidra.
It was a façade he had deliberately constructed to allay the Church's suspicions. ‌
Yet the elderly nobles who remembered Zahidra's days as a prince understood his true intentions and kept their distance.
I had little interest in anyone but myself.
My weakness, if ‍‌it could be called that, was assessing people at first glance and ‌‌‌moving on.
Jakim understood me well.
He had planned to gradually educate me about the ‌‌‌‌‌dark intentions of the high nobility alongside Emperor Zahidra once I married and obtained the rank of minor count.
But before that could happen, I had driven Jakim to his doom.
That I could never truly understand Zahidra's nature was, in a sense, a consequence of my own making.
I could not fathom the Emperor's intentions toward me and grumbled inwardly.
"This is hardly different from exile."
Faced with the stern gazes of the security detail, Zeppelin eventually returned ‌to the Estate and lay down in the room adjoining Barinika's Studio.
He repeatedly opened and closed the locket containing Rebecca's photograph, when suddenly a wave of longing crashed over him and he squeezed his ‌‌‌‌eyes shut.
Even though Rebecca had recovered, he had never once held her.
He needed to father a daughter with her before he grew ‌‌any older.
Only then would the perfect ‌kingdom he had envisioned be complete.
Zeppelin sat with an anguished expression, then ‌‌‌selected an appropriately sized spare canvas and placed it on the easel.
And he waited for time to pass quickly.
He moved his hand without hesitation and began to sketch.
He possessed considerable talent for painting, but his pursuit of perfection meant every work he created was destined for the incinerator.
"You're painting your wife, I see."
As Zeppelin filled in Rebecca's eyes with ‌‌‌‌a deep blue, a measured voice reached his ears.
Barinika, wearing an apron ‌‌‌splattered with paint, rubbed his rough beard while observing Zeppelin's painting.
The sharp, evaluative ‌gleam in his eyes made Zeppelin feel inexplicably ashamed, and he hastily put the canvas away.
"I ‌‌‌wasn't painting it to show anyone."
"A painting without someone to view it is as good as dead. Hmm... It seems you have considerable talent in this field, Earl."
"Compared to your ‌‌‌work, it's nothing but garbage. I'm not one to be easily flattered, but your pieces have always left a favorable impression on me. I even own several of them."
"That's very kind of you to say. But don't call a painting filled with such affection garbage. Even a child's scribble can become art."
"You felt affection in my painting... But how did you know I was painting Rebecca?"
Barinika laughed at the wariness evident in his eyes, as if amused by something pitiful.
"There are artists who don't know the wife of the Earl of Devonshire. Do you ‌‌have any idea how many painters have wanted to make her their muse since childhood? Now that I think about it..."
Barinika ‌suddenly thrust his face close to Zeppelin's and examined his features carefully from every angle.
Zeppelin, startled, stepped back hastily.
"What, what are you doing?"
"You and your wife bear a remarkable resemblance. You have the kind of beautiful features that an artist like myself would covet." ‌‌‌‌
While there were those who looked at him with admiration, few spoke so bluntly, ‌‌‌and Zeppelin frowned slightly in embarrassment.
"The furrow between your brows is in perfect proportion. And your eyes are as clear and transparent as a summer sea. Your nose—let me see—it's perfectly straight without a single curve..."
"Stop it!"
Zeppelin swatted away Barinika's hand as it touched his face as though examining a magnificent sculpture, clearly disgusted.
Barinika tilted his head as if finding his reaction strange and spoke.
"Aren't you someone who loves ‌‌art, Earl? The desire to touch and examine beauty is an artist's instinct—why do you react with such alarm?"
"I'm not a work of art! ‌‌What kind of rudeness is this!"
Zeppelin's anger seemed formidable, so Barinika took a step back.
"I understand. In exchange, please grant me one request. Since I've agreed to be confined here and paint, I should at least obtain what I desire."
Still seething, Zeppelin's jaw clenched.
If not for the Emperor's command, someone like that would simply... disappear without a trace.
"Become my muse."
"What did ‌‌you say?"
"Don't you wish to become the protagonist of a masterpiece ‌for the ages?"
"Are you asking me to model for some sacrilegious painting? Do I ‌‌‌look like a fool to you?"
"How many people do you think would recognize that the painting's subject ‌‌‌is you, ‌Earl? Besides, I don't particularly care for painting things exactly as I see them."
"Quite right. That peculiar way you twist reality is precisely what makes your work so captivating."
"Then you're agreeing?" ‌
Watching Barinika's grin, Zeppelin found himself caught in deliberation.
To be honest, I was tempted by his proposal.
Barinika was a painter I ‌‌had long admired.
I caught a glimpse of the work he was currently creating.
Even accounting for the radical message the piece conveyed, I instinctively sensed it was a masterwork of extraordinary magnitude.
What he was painting now was a work of such beauty that generations would speak of it for ages to come.
To ‌‌‌‌be immortalized in a masterpiece of the ages?
I had always been desperate to showcase my beauty ‌‌‌to the world by any means ‌‌necessary.
Barinika's proposal was intoxicatingly sweet to me.
After a brief moment of hesitation, I ultimately surrendered to my desire.
The Emperor had mentioned the work would be unveiled anonymously.
So even if someone said the figure in the painting resembled me, I could simply deny it.
"If it only requires a brief ‌‌‌amount of time..."
I reluctantly followed Barinika into his studio.
Barinika laughed with ease, as though ‌‌‌‌‌he had anticipated this from the start.
* * *
"Even when I did the same thing, he felt nothing. That bastard."
Julian ‌‌‌folded Barinika's letter carefully as he muttered.
"Well, it won't change anything even if he ‌‌regrets it now."
He picked up his quill and began writing a letter to send to Barinika.
The contents promised that once the matter was settled, he would have Barinika's fiancée live with him ‌‌‌abroad.
Julian had told Barinika only a fraction of what Zeppelin had done and instructed him to act similarly.
Barinika said he would do anything if only he could reclaim his fiancée.
I hoped this opportunity ‌‌‌‌‌would confine Zeppelin and make him feel even a portion of the suffering Rebecca had endured.
If he showed even a shred of remorse, perhaps Rebecca could act more freely.
But it seemed Zeppelin had raged furiously instead, showing no remorse ‌‌‌whatsoever.
And he had greedily accepted Barinika's request to become his muse.
'He wasn't even worth recycling.'
Julian melted sealing wax over the finished letter, and crimson drops fell like blood.
He pressed a plain signet ring into the wax, then summoned Croa. ‌‌‌
"You called for me."
"Deliver this to Barinika. And I think it would be wise to assign more people to watch Zeppelin. Make it so that even breathing in that place becomes abhorrent to him."
"Understood."
Croa left quietly.
Julian approached the ‌‌‌window, holding a cold wine glass.
The wind's momentum was ominous, as though a tempest would soon descend. The curtains billowed violently in the fierce gusts.
"What could Rebecca be ‌‌doing..."
Julian murmured, gazing out at the darkening forest.
He mentally pictured Rebecca's room, which ‌‌‌he had visited before.
Was she seated before that ornate vanity, combing her silken golden hair?
Or perhaps she lay buried ‌‌‌in that plush bed, surrendering to an early evening's slumber.
If not, she might be leaning against the ‌‌‌‌window frame at an angle, gazing up at the same sky as I.
Rebecca's melancholic eyes, deep and sorrowful, stared directly at him within his imagination.
'Julian.'
Rebecca's eyes curved beautifully, and her clear, resonant voice called out his name.
Once more, a tingling ache bloomed across his chest.
The Countess who fled had returned.
E-book Publication.

January 12, 2022
Author.

Long Night Sky
Publisher.

Desert Fox
Published by.

Woongjin ThinkBig Co., Ltd.
Submission Received.

naver.me/54VzzLSn
Blog.

blog.naver.com/wj_fennecfox
Twitter.

@wjt_fennecfox

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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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