Fortunately, the letter contained no scolding about Ellen neglecting food and focusing solely on painting. It only asked how much progress she had made on her exhibition for next weekend, along with a brief reminder not to skip meals.
Ellen placed a hand on her chest in relief as she took out bread, cheese, and milk.
Even though she hadn’t been caught, she still felt somewhat guilty for disobeying Larisa’s instructions. She decided to finish her exhibition right after her meal.
‘Right. I need to take the book.’
After cleaning up her dishes, Ellen stopped by the library before heading to the atelier. She needed to get reference materials. Since her exhibition submission depicted a scene from a folktale, she had been referring to a book that compiled that tale.
“Huh? Where did it go, ‘Le Trois’s Promise,’ Blanc Publishing, 3rd edition……”
Ellen frowned as she scanned the bookshelf. But no matter how many times she looked, the reference book she had been using was nowhere to be found.
She must have tossed it somewhere while working on her submission last time. She spent a while going back and forth between bookshelves looking for the book, but it didn’t appear.
Ellen soon gave up and returned to the first bookshelf.
‘This is annoying. The Arben Publishing version has almost the same content, so I’ll just use that.’
With that thought, Ellen pulled out a book from right next to the empty space on the shelf. That book was also “Le Trois’s Promise.” It differed from the missing book only in the publisher.
In fact, an entire row of the bookshelf was filled with “Le Trois’s Promise” books published by various publishers throughout different eras. She had originally chosen the Blanc edition because she liked its cover the best.
Since the work was now in its final stages, changing publishers wouldn’t cause any problems.
Ellen quickly flipped through the Arben version of “Le Trois’s Promise.” While doing so, a certain fact suddenly came to mind.
‘Come to think of it, the first time I read Le Trois’s Promise was also the Arben edition. That was probably when I was six or seven years old…… Ah.’
A soft exclamation escaped Ellen’s lips as she traced her memories. She had realized the source of the déjà vu she had felt before her meal.
Ellen blinked blankly before muttering the realization aloud:
“If it’s the Bruno family…… that’s Robbie’s house, isn’t it?”
The name of the neighbor boy who had lent the Arben edition of Le Trois’s Promise to young Ellen was also “Roberto Bruno.”
⁕⁕⁕
About 20 years ago.
Young Robbie was a pretty boy with black curly hair and vivid blue eyes. Whenever Ellen was drawing in her sketchbook, he would invariably approach and strike up a conversation.
‘Ellen, what are you drawing now?’
‘……’
‘Is it a bear? Oh, a bear…… doing a handstand?’
‘……’
‘Or maybe a dog? Oh, a dog bringing a bone? If not that, hmm……’
‘……’
‘……Here’s some chocolate. Eat it and answer me, Ellen.’
Ellen typically didn’t bother answering questions about what she was drawing. If she answered every time, she’d have to respond several times a day.
But when Robbie put a snack in her mouth, she would at least give him a courteous reply.
‘It’s Tony flopping around while practicing swordsmanship.’
‘Huh? Sir Antonio…? So this is a sword?’
‘Yeah. And the ones smirking half-heartedly on the side are Sir Fran and Sir Nicol. They both felt sorry for Tony because he was so bad at swordsmanship.’
‘So this actually happened?’
‘Yeah. In our garden yesterday. Tony seemed to think he did well and was so proud of himself that I felt embarrassed for him.’
‘Pfft, pfft, ahahahaha!’
Young Robbie laughed so easily. When he did, the boy’s white cheeks would turn as red as if they’d been smeared with raspberry juice.
Ellen always wondered why Robbie laughed, but she rarely bothered to ask. It was much more fun to draw one more flower in that time.
‘Ellen, want to read this? It’s a fairy tale book. It’s fun. This is the rabbit doll from the book.’
Sometimes Robbie would lend her books or toys instead of food.
The Arben Publishing edition of “Le Trois’s Promise” that Ellen adored was first borrowed and read at that time.
“Le Trois’s Promise” had content that was rather difficult for a six or seven-year-old child to read.
But Ellen was a somewhat special child, so she could understand most of it. She quickly became immersed in its contents.
The fact that she now owned more than ten copies of “Le Trois’s Promise” and loved it so much could be traced back to that beginning.
“My goodness. Wow, my goodness. Oh my. What a coincidence.”
Ellen, recalling Robbie, hugged the book to her chest and marveled. To think that the guardian of the muse whose name and surname she hadn’t known turned out to be a childhood friend.
It was truly an amazing coincidence and stroke of luck. Now she could see a path to approaching Natasha Bruno.
Although Ellen’s connection with Robbie ended when she was nine due to moving away, they had maintained a fairly good relationship until they parted.
In other words, if she had the opportunity to reunite with Robbie somewhere, she might easily become close again by relying on old memories.
Then she could naturally be introduced to his daughter, Natasha.
‘Great, let’s find an opportunity to meet Robbie. And somehow become close…… to become the Bruno family’s dedicated portrait painter!’
Ellen’s eyes sparkled with determination. A dedicated portrait painter for a noble family sometimes follows family members around all day just to paint them.
If that happened, Ellen could see and paint her muse Natasha to her heart’s content. It would truly be a dream job where her passion aligned with her work.
Envisioning this rosy future, Ellen decided to focus on finding a way to meet Robbie for the time being.
‘Ah, I should finish my submission first.’
But before that, she needed to complete her exhibition submission.
If Larisa caught her looking for ways to approach the Bruno family without finishing the paintings she needed to complete, she might be fundamentally blocked from approaching them.
Ellen tucked the Arben edition of “Le Trois’s Promise” under her arm and obediently headed to her atelier.
⁕⁕⁕
After handing over her exhibition submission to Larisa, Ellen earnestly began exploring opportunities to reunite with Robbie.
However, she couldn’t think of an appropriate method. Time passed, and the exhibition was now just four days away.
‘There’s no way. How can I naturally meet Robbie?’
After pondering for over a week, her head was starting to ache. In desperation, Ellen attended an artists’ gathering after a long absence.
This was a regular meeting of artists sponsored by Larisa, and since all the participants were peculiar individuals, they occasionally came up with surprisingly novel ideas.
So she thought she might get some ideas about how to appropriately meet Robbie.
“It’s been a while, Louisa! What brings you up so early today?”
“Louisa Pavel” was Ellen’s name as a painter. Despite her long absence, the artists welcomed her warmly.
“Yes. I thought I should show my face occasionally so you all don’t forget about me.”
“That’s very thoughtful. Come sit over here.”
“Hello, Miss Louisa. I wish you could come more often.”
“I’m sorry. I’d like to come more frequently if possible, but my body won’t allow it.”
Everyone knew about Ellen’s irregular lifestyle, so they didn’t criticize her high absence rate. After playful greetings, quite a lively conversation followed.
During this, one painter asked Ellen:
“By the way, Louisa, I heard you’re submitting work as an invited artist for this newcomer exhibition?”
“Is that true, Miss Louisa? The Royal Art Museum hit the jackpot.”
“Yes. Larisa told me to do it.”
With the exhibition mentioned, Ellen nodded. This exhibition was the regular newcomer exhibition hosted by the Royal Art Museum. Ellen, an established painter, was submitting to a newcomer exhibition purely because of the museum’s convention.
Despite being called a newcomer exhibition, if it only featured works by true newcomers, attendance would clearly be low.
So the museum always invites one or two famous painters to serve as crowd-pullers. Ellen had been selected for this crowd-pulling role this time.
“The young duke? That’s unusual. She usually doesn’t let Louisa’s works go just anywhere.”
A sculptor tilted his head. Larisa, being a born businesswoman, didn’t give away or sell Ellen’s paintings carelessly. She only decided to provide them after clearly calculating financial and relational gains and losses.
There was a specific reason why such a Larisa had Ellen submit a painting to a mere newcomer exhibition.
“Actually, originally someone else was invited, but I heard they couldn’t submit their work due to unavoidable circumstances. I’m known for painting quickly, right? So I think that’s why they approached me.”
The artists seemed reasonably satisfied with Ellen’s explanation. One sculptor giggled and teased Ellen.
“By the way, Louisa, will you actually be able to make it to the exhibition hall? I mean, will you even manage to wake up in the morning for at least one of the three days?”
It was a joke about Ellen’s notorious inability to wake up in the morning. Ellen playfully retorted:
“I’m not sure myself, but if I can’t wake up in the morning, I’ll let you know in advance, so please hold my place for me. Hehe.”
“Ahaha, don’t be like that, Louisa. You should start thinking about your health.”
“That’s right, Miss Louisa. Please go to bed early and wake up early to mind your booth. I’ll make time to drop by too, okay?”
Some people made quite serious requests. Ellen responded with a groan.
“The thing is, you know. It’s not like I can fall asleep early just because I want to.”
“Hmm.”
At those words, the artists all wore complicated expressions.
Irregular living habits were certainly not good, but they couldn’t bring themselves to actively discourage her. After all, Ellen was creating jaw-dropping works through those irregular habits.
