After a few seconds of silence, another painter spoke as if struck by a good idea.
“Ah, that’s right! Louisa. I’ll tell you something good.”
“Huh? What is it?”
“When you hear this, even you will definitely be able to wake up on time.”
The painter chuckled as if plotting something. Ellen leaned toward him with interest, gesturing for him to continue. The painter built suspense for a moment before speaking.
“For this newcomer exhibition, I heard Count Bruno will be attending.”
“Really? That Count Bruno?”
Other artists expressed surprise before Ellen could. Of course, Ellen was also shocked and gaped.
“Count Bruno as in ‘Bruno of Delmerkan’? He’s coming to the newcomer exhibition?”
“Yes. Oh, you look like you don’t believe me. Don’t be like that. It’s reliable information.”
“Is it really true?”
When Ellen asked with a hint of doubt, the painter nodded.
“Yes, among my neighbors is someone who enjoys painting. They’re quite skilled, so I introduced them to Larisa, and they’ve been selected to exhibit at the newcomer exhibition.”
“That’s impressive, but what’s their connection to Count Bruno?”
“Ah, listen to the end. Before retiring, they were a knight in the Royal First Knight Order. That’s the same order where Count Roberto Bruno serves. They were quite close before retirement, and apparently they happened to meet recently and formally invited him to the exhibition.”
“Could that be true?”
“They’re not the type to make things up.”
The painter answered firmly and then playfully addressed Ellen.
“What do you think, Louisa? Does that pique your interest? That famous war hero? You like heroic epics, don’t you?”
That was true, but Ellen would have been interested even if Roberto wasn’t a war hero. He was Natasha’s guardian, after all.
Ellen restrained her urge to clap her hands and feigned nonchalance.
“It certainly does interest me…… but as I said, I always want to wake up early, but inspiration comes when it wants to, and there’s nothing I can do about that. You all understand that well, don’t you? But since you’ve gone to the trouble of telling me, I’ll try a bit harder.”
Ellen calmly replied and sipped her tea. However, her mind was filled with jubilant cheers.
‘Robbie is coming to the exhibition? To the exhibition where I’m submitting work?’
This was an opportunity she couldn’t let slip by.
Moreover, Ellen’s painting was the biggest attraction of this exhibition. This meant she had the perfect conversation starter to approach Robbie.
Ellen felt like dancing.
‘How can I be this lucky? This must be fate. It’s a divine revelation to make Natasha Bruno my muse. Thank you. Thank you, God!’
In the carriage on the way home, Ellen continuously offered prayers of gratitude to God. She had never been so devout as she was these days. It was all thanks to encountering the sacred existence that was her muse.
The opportunity was perfect. All that remained was to sleep enough and wake up on time on the day of the exhibition.
‘To do that, first—’
Upon arriving home, Ellen first put a lock on her atelier.
She thought she kept staying up all night because she had an atelier in her house where she could focus on painting.
In fact, during her teens when she couldn’t afford to just paint, she had managed to sleep at night and wake up roughly in the morning.
‘It’s regrettable not to be able to hold a brush…… but I have sketchbooks and conte crayons.’
She just needed to endure for four days. Just four days of making do with sketchbooks and conte crayons instead of canvas and paint, and the path to her muse would open.
She couldn’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
‘Alright. For the next four days, four nights! I’ll sleep early and wake up early to meet Robbie!’
Ellen jumped into bed with enthusiasm. Pulling the blanket over her head, she reaffirmed her commitment.
‘The goal is to become the Bruno family’s portrait painter!’
Become close with Roberto Bruno and become the Bruno family’s dedicated portrait painter. Then she could freely paint Natasha as her model.
For that, Ellen could endure anything. Even abstaining from her beloved painting for three days was nothing.
To meet the great muse who truly inspired her, whom her brush called for.
At this point, Ellen still believed she could do it.
⁕⁕⁕
And on the day of the exhibition. Dawn.
“……Ah.”
After blinking a couple of times, light gradually returned to Ellen’s eyes. Outside the window, the sun was slowly emerging from the edge of the dark blue sky.
Ellen muttered blankly, looking out the window.
“I’m doomed.”
The conte crayon Ellen had been holding fell to the floor and rolled away. Belated self-loathing welled up in her chest.
Last night’s mistake was starting to read another book that Robbie had once lent her while thinking about him.
The book, despite being a fairy tale, was quite interesting when read after so long, and she felt an itch to draw one of the scenes.
So she opened her sketchbook to draw “just for a moment,” but at some point she became absorbed and ended up staying up all night.
‘Staying up all night on such an important day. I’m doomed. This is hopeless.’
Ellen buried her face in her hands and slumped to the floor. A sleep-drenched sigh escaped her lips.
“Ugh, I don’t know……”
When she covered her eyes with the back of her hand, blocking the light, her eyes gradually closed. Soon, steady breathing sounds came from Ellen’s mouth. It was the same outcome as always.
And six hours later.
“Huh?”
Waking from sleep, Ellen shakily raised her upper body. Looking around with a dazed mind, she remembered that she had fallen asleep on the reception room floor while drawing.
Soon after, the memory of what day it was also surfaced in her mind. A scream echoed.
“Aaaaargh! Crazy Eleonora! What time is it now!”
Looking at the clock, Ellen screamed again. 11:27. The exhibition would have started more than an hour ago.
Ellen jumped up from her spot, tearing at her hair as she circled the reception room once.
“Food! No, no time to eat!”
Ellen quickly washed her face in the bathroom, then changed clothes at the fastest speed of her life and left the house. Of course, she was only dressed decently enough not to be scolded in public.
“Oh, please. Please. Please. Don’t leave, Robbie. Please!”
With no time to brush her hair, she combed it with her hands while running. Fortunately, since her hair wasn’t straight, it looked roughly the same whether she brushed it thoroughly or hastily.
Soon, the familiar Royal Art Museum building came into view. Entering the museum, Ellen headed straight for the exhibition area.
“Your invitation or ticket—”
“Here! My entrance pass!”
When she showed her VIP pass proving she was an invited artist at the exhibition entrance, the staff member gave her a dubious look. It was a natural reaction. After all, a young person with disheveled hair, dark circles under their eyes, and wrinkled clothes was claiming to be a VIP.
Only after checking Ellen’s face twice did the staff member let her in.
“Where is he, where is he, where is he. It’s not time for him to have left yet.”
Entering the exhibition hall, Ellen quickened her pace.
Normally, she would have taken her time to look at other paintings since she was at an exhibition, but now she had no time for that. She needed to find Roberto before he went home.
Ellen searched with burning eyes for Roberto’s face, which she had learned from portraits and newspaper illustrations.
But she couldn’t find anyone who looked promising. Everyone either had different hair colors, different eye colors, was too short, or had too frail a build.
‘Did he really go home?! Or was that information wrong?’
Ellen soon erased the latter possibility from her mind. That left only the possibility that Roberto had already gone home.
As time passed without any sign of someone resembling Roberto, Ellen grew increasingly anxious.
‘This isn’t working. Just wandering around aimlessly looking for him clearly has its limits.’
With that thought, Ellen decided to head toward where her painting was displayed, figuring she had nothing to lose.
As an invited artist, her painting was installed on the highest platform in the hall. Standing on the platform would also make it easier to search for someone.
‘They say when you’re looking for something, you should climb to a high place.’
Ellen walked briskly, following the “Invited Artists Exhibition” sign. Soon, a familiar painting came into view. It was “Eloise Who Kept Her Promise,” the painting Ellen had submitted for this exhibition.
‘Huh?’
Just as she was about to climb onto the platform, Ellen suddenly stopped in her tracks when she saw the person standing in front of the painting.
‘That person…… could it be.’
It was a large-built man. Since he was facing the painting, she couldn’t see his facial features or eye color, but his neat black hair and well-built physique visible through his clothes exactly matched Roberto’s description.
Ellen approached the side of the platform and carefully observed him.
‘It’s Robbie. Yes, it’s definitely Robbie.’
As the distance closed, she found she could recognize him more easily than expected. Of course, his once chubby cheeks and chin had lost their baby fat and become sharp, and his once round, clear eyes had become profound as if painted with ink, but his overall features clearly retained traces of ‘Robbie.’
Ellen’s eyes sparkled.
‘Thank goodness. The timing is perfect too.’
Ellen silently rejoiced as she hurriedly tidied her appearance. She wanted to make a somewhat better first impression.
After combing her hair with her hands, she worried it might be too disheveled, so she tied it at the side of her neck and tightened her shawl. Then, after taking a deep breath, she climbed onto the platform and spoke.
“Do you like the painting?”
- dorothea
feeling burnt out. updates for some novels will be slow please understand(ㅅ•́ ₃•̀)