93.
Jaka’s expression turned crooked when he found me already settled in the room.
At first, he seemed a little surprised, but the way he quickly grew sullen was funny.
‘Is not having a gift really that shocking?’
Thinking that even if his body was fully grown, he was still unmistakably a child inside, I grinned.
Even knowing I was staring right at him, he deliberately turned his back and walked off to pick up the pitcher. It was just like him.
I patiently followed him with my gaze, exactly as Jaka wanted.
Before long, Jaka returned after filling even my cup with water.
I accepted the cup with a smile.
“So, are you over being angry?”
“I wasn’t angry.”
As he said that and sat beside me, Jaka’s gaze suddenly fixed on the desk.
On it lay the leather notebook I had found on the bed.
Pretending not to notice, I picked it up and opened it on my lap.
“I found this on the bed yesterday.”
“…….”
“I don’t know who drew these, but they seem incredibly skilled.”
Leaning slightly so Jaka could see well too, I fluttered through the pages.
Marks left behind as if they had been doodled with whatever was at hand—sometimes graphite, sometimes leftover ink.
Sometimes they were landscapes, and sometimes parts of someone.
A cloudy night sky, a mountain ridge faintly visible beyond the window at dawn, a sunset sinking past the mansion roof, and…….
Someone’s half-curled hand, hair like a tangled skein rising in the wind, cutlery left on a plate someone had abandoned mid-use, a silver necklace so badly tangled its owner had given up on undoing it, rumpled bedding still bearing the traces of sleep, a forehead dotted with beads of sweat,
and clear golden eyes.
The last was a beautiful eye, drawn carefully down to each and every eyelash.
After needlessly poking the slightly curved corner of the eye in the drawing with my fingertip, I turned my head toward Jaka.
“It’s pretty. Isn’t it?”
“…….”
Jaka had been keeping his eyes lowered the whole time, as if trying to avoid my gaze.
Pretending not to notice the hand resting on his knee quietly clenching into a fist, I asked,
“Did you draw these?”
“I didn’t just take the mansion’s supplies and use them however I wanted. I just… drew with what was left over.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.”
“……I’m sorry for drawing you without permission.”
“Jaka, do I look angry to you?”
He slowly moved his eyes and looked at me.
“……I know. I know you don’t get angry at me.”
“…….”
“But whether you were angry or not, I knew this behavior of mine wasn’t something I could be proud of.”
At those words, I was left speechless and unable to bring out what I had prepared to say.
It seemed Jaka had deliberately kept hidden the fact that he had been drawing me all this time.
He had thought of it as a secret shameful to be caught with.
Of course, I had been a little surprised when I first found it too.
But the reason I had been able to brush it off as nothing was…….
‘Because it didn’t have much meaning to me.’
Jaka placed his hand over mine, which rested atop the notebook.
His hand completely covered mine as he gently held it.
“Even knowing that… I just kept doing it. I’m always like that.”
There was even a faint hint of misery in his self-mocking voice.
“You don’t need to think of it that way.”
“You saw it before too, didn’t you, Baron? The hair tie you told me to throw away—the one I kept.”
“…….”
His gaze sank.
“I have no idea how I’m supposed to love someone. That’s why I’m like this.”
“…….”
“Maybe it’s because I’ve never properly learned anything. I keep……”
“Jaka.”
I closed the notebook and turned fully toward him.
“Why are you running ahead all by yourself?”
Then I firmly pinched and stretched one of his cheeks between my fingers.
His face, squashed by the grip on his cheek, somehow looked foolish.
“…….”
“Was it this mouth that said such ugly nonsense?”
And when Jaka was suddenly struck on the lips on top of that, he instinctively frowned.
“You can say things like that so easily, but you feel wronged when your lips get hit?”
“……Well, it’s not like I said anything wrong.”
Jaka grumbled and turned his gaze away.
I said seriously,
“I didn’t know you’d react like this. I was only going to tease you lightly.”
Then I sighed and stroked the cover of the notebook with my fingertips.
“I said this before, but I really think you have talent.”
“……Well, I suppose.”
“That’s not something to react to so indifferently. There’s the painter Mack Bonatz, who’s wildly popular in the imperial capital these days, and a few years ago, a painting done in the past by an artist who had remained unknown for a long time was sold for an astonishing three million gold, causing quite the sensation……”
As I poured out the topic I had prepared in an impassioned tone, Jaka quickly put on a bored expression and replied,
“I’m not interested in things like that. The only thing I want to draw is you, Baron.”
I cried out as if frustrated.
“Exactly, then you should draw!”
“Pardon?”
“You draw me, and then we sell it off for six million gold. What do you think of my idea?”
A crease formed between Jaka’s brows.
“……Didn’t I just say something very romantic? And your response is that we should sell it?”
“It helps the household finances, which is good for me, and you get to draw what you want, which is good for you. This is what they call mutual benefit. Do you understand?”
Only then did Jaka seem to completely relax, sighing as he leaned fully back against the sofa.
“Besides, if skill like this goes to waste, it won’t just be a loss for our mansion’s finances.”
When I tugged at his sleeve pleadingly, Jaka crossed his arms as if sulking for no reason and kept turning away to the other side.
“I guarantee it’ll be a loss for the entire imperial capital—no, definitely for the entire continent.”
The louder I insisted, the more deliberately cold Jaka acted, and just then,
someone knocked on the door.
“I’m not expecting anyone.”
Jaka muttered that, then immediately looked at me.
While smiling diligently with my whole face, I darted my eyes away.
“……What is it? Tell me before that door opens.”
“Well, I wanted to surprise you… so I prepared a gift.”
One corner of Jaka’s mouth rose. But his eyes were not smiling yet.
“What is it?”
There was another knock.
Then the door flew open.
“I can clearly hear people’s voices, so why is no one telling me to come in?”
A middle-aged woman with streaks of gray in her hair, twisted up tightly, and a stern expression that seemed as if not even a needle could slip through it, spoke as she calmly looked around the room.
The woman was the person I had successfully managed to invite by scraping together all the pocket money I had saved here and there, my salary left after buying antidote ingredients, and even the small amount allotted as an allowance for maintaining dignity…….
She was none other than the famous painter who, “after a long life in obscurity, had sold off a masterpiece for an astonishing three million gold.”
The woman looked back and forth between my face and Jaka’s, then came to stand in front of Jaka.
Her eyes were cool, yet shining.
“Is this the student I’ll be teaching from now on?”
“That’s right, it’s him.”
“Baron, speak comfortably.”
After replying so, the woman gave me a nod.
“Then shall I?”
Though I thought that a baron like me in name only and the daughter of a noble family that had fallen into ruin over a decade ago were, in truth, in similar positions.
The line drawn between having a title and not having one was distinct, so I did not refuse.
"This is Anna Peril. Going forward, she will be visiting the mansion twice a week to teach you painting."
While Jaka glared at me, the woman picked up the notebook strewn across the sofa and began examining it.
"She's quite skilled, isn't she?"
Because I immediately went to his side, eyes sparkling, Jaka let out a sigh and rubbed the corners of his eyes, but
"Well, he seems to have some promise. Unlike wealthy young masters who do nothing but fuss over paper and paints, he looks worth teaching."
That was precisely it.
It could be said that my success in inviting Anna Peril to our mansion was the result of various such coincidences that had followed one after another.
Anna Peril, who had stormed out of the mansion leaving behind the famous words that her job was to teach painting, not to wipe the 'backsides' of nobles,
could, in a way, be said to be in a similar situation to me when it came to reputation.
"Then, shall we start right away tomorrow? Are you all prepared?"
"I bought them beforehand as you instructed, but would you like to check them yourself?"
"That would be good."
Anna gave a small nod.
"More importantly, what's your name? Have you had any previous training in painting?"
I quickly signaled to Jaka with my eyes.
He looked back and forth between my face, the drawing inside the notebook, and Anna Peril's strict expression.
"You may call me Jaka."
He replied politely.
"I have never had any previous training."
"Is that so?"
While Anna was checking the materials I had prepared in advance, Jaka silently approached my side.
"Who hires a painting teacher for a servant? Are you trying to go bankrupt?"
He spoke in a low voice, so I too replied seriously in a hushed tone.
"I do."
"..."
"And I'll just work hard enough that we don't go bankrupt. Don't you worry about such things. You only need to focus on drawing a piece worth six million gold. Got it?"
Jaka, who had been staring at my expression, unable to tell whether I was serious or jesting, let out a laugh mixed with a sigh and said,
"Understood."
The anticipation that still lingered on his smiling face, unable to be hidden in time—I gazed at it intently as though I were beholding a beautiful landscape.
"And... I have a gift originally prepared for you as well."
"..."
"If you learn obediently, I'll give that to you later too."
I broke into a grin, yet a stinging gaze fell upon me.
Before I knew it, Anna was staring holes into Jaka and me.
I quickly took a large step away from Jaka's side.
"...Could he be a child the baron keeps as a lover?"
In that flustered moment, I had to break into a cold sweat and spend a long time explaining to Anna, who now suspected that she had taken on the job of wiping a noble lover's ass this time.
There was no special reason I had hired a painting teacher for Jaka.
I had known for a long time that he had a talent for painting, and it wouldn't be long before he drank the potion to dissolve his contract and left the mansion.
Rather than simply continuing his service in a different place, I wanted to take this opportunity to give him a chance to try something else.
To be honest, he only acted as if being a servant was his calling when in front of me, but judging by Jaka's personality, such work did not seem to suit him very well.
I didn't ask outright, but it was easy enough to guess that he had not fared well at the imperial palace.
Surely it would be better for Jaka to have at least one more way to make a living when he eventually left the mansion, wouldn't it?
It was a benefit for me as well, as I would be able to leave behind a respectable portrait before it was too late.
That was simply all.