The Master Painter and the Forbidden Room – Part 05
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Translator: Kell
“Treason?! Us?! That’s ridiculous!”
I glanced at the pale, screaming poet.
“I can see why they think that,” I said, frowning. “The painter didn’t paint anything despite the governor requesting it over and over, but you just gave one immediately to a troupe. Of course he’d be furious.”
“Oh, come on… The one we gave away was like a scribbling made in three days!”
“They don’t care about that. Troupers perform in front of a lot of people. If people learned that they had a work of a famous painter, rumor would spread. You should have thought things through.”
That said, I couldn’t just watch while the knights raided the house and kidnapped the painter. There was also the chance of the bard snitching on Zero being a witch out of spite. I would have to fight the knights, which could result in a bounty being put on my head. I wasn’t sure which was better.
“What to do…”
While I was puzzling over the matter, the knights smashed the front door. Combatants who had jumped in with swords at the ready yelped at the sight of me and backed away.
“A-A Beastfallen?! What’s it doing here?!”
“Things happened,” I said. “We’re staying here for the night. Relax. I’m not gonna kill you all or anything.”
No one asked, but I told them anyway. I had not decided yet if I was going to annihilate them all or not, but saying that should get their guards down just in case.
I raised my hands to show I meant no harm, but they couldn’t just ignore me. Several knights surrounded me with swords in their hands. They showed no signs of attacking, so I guessed they were just being cautious.
A man who looked to be the captain cast me a sidelong glance. “Take all the paintings!” he shouted. “Find the painter and tie them up!”
Following the order, the knights immediately began ransacking the house. They opened every door, searched every room. Of course that included the Forbidden Room.
“Please stop!” the bard protested! “We didn’t mean to insult His Grace! The painter… My sister just happened to be in good shape when the troupers came. She really can’t paint anything! You can take her away and lock her up, but it won’t change anything!”
“What if your life was on the line?”
“What?”
“His Grace says that if the painter knows that his brother will be executed if she doesn’t paint, she will be inspired to create. The painter’s in that room! Drag her out!”
“Stop!” the bard lunged forward, but a knight pinned him to the floor.
The knights burst through the door of the Forbidden Room and rushed inside.
A scream rose—the throaty scream of a man.
“What the… What’s going on here?!” one of the knights yelled, confused.
Zero and I looked at each other. There was something wrong. When the person inside was dragged out of the room, the knights’ confusion suddenly made sense.
“No, please! Please don’t kill me!”
It was clearly a man—a middle-aged man with the body of a manual laborer. He looked like a manservant.
“Bard,” Zero said. “Is your sister a man?”
“No,” the bard mumbled.
“What he said!” the man cried. “I’m not the painter! I’m just a servant who comes here to bring food and fire from town.”
Right. The bard did mention something like that. But why was he in the Forbidden Room? Him punching the wall in response to the bard meant he was impersonating the painter.
“What’s going on?!” the knight shouted. “Where’s the painter?!”
A moment of confusion flashed across the bard’s face. The manservant was about to open his mouth, but before he could say anything, the bard cut him off.
“She’s dead,” he said in a clear voice.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but I was sure the knights’ surprise was nothing compared to mine.
“Dead, you say? Better drop the stupid lies, or you’ll regret it!”
“I’m not lying. The painter is dead. I killed her after she finished the painting that she gave to the troupers!”
“What?!”
“That’s why the painter never leaves her room, and why she can’t offer any painting to His Grace. You’ll never find her, and you’ll never get a new painting again!” His shoulders shook as he chuckled. His beautiful face twisted in pain, and he let out a shrill laugh.
“Can you blame me?” he said, still pinned down by a knight. “No matter how many poems I write, if there’s no painting, there’s no money. But she doesn’t paint, and when she finally did, she gave it to some troupers without even consulting me. As if she didn’t need me at all! So I killed her! Killed her in cold blood! Too bad for you, huh? Just take all the paintings and go!”
The knights looked at the captain for instructions. They couldn’t find the painter anywhere, and they couldn’t arrest someone who wasn’t around.
A knight came running from outside. “Captain! There’s something I’d like you to see.” He cast a glance outside.
The captain nodded, took one look at the poet, and turned on his heel. “If the painter is not here, then we have no business in this house. Take all the paintings! Since we don’t have the painter, we’ll take the bard’s head instead as a gift to His Grace.”
One of the knights grabbed the poet by the hair and made him lie down. A swing of a sword would cut his head off clean. It took a lot of skill to do that, but before my gruesome expectations turned to reality, I cleared my throat and gently put a hand on my sword.
Wary knights pointed their swords at me. The captain of the knights stopped to shoot me a glare, but unfortunately I wasn’t the least bit scared.
“If I may say something,” I began, “so far I’ve just been watching from the sidelines, but if you’re gonna kill him, I’m gonna have to draw my sword. It’s not like we have a contractual relationship, but this is his house, and he’s letting us stay here as guests.”
What are you gonna do? Do you wanna fight me? The knight who was about to kill the bard lowered his sword and stepped back without waiting for the captain’s command.
A single Beastfallen versus a bunch of knights. The odds were 50-50, but there was no doubt that several of them would die just to kill me. The question was: do you want the bard’s head that bad?
With a grimace, the captain ordered the knights to stand down. He knew that fighting me would only result in a loss for them.
After taking all the paintings, even the rough sketches, the knights left, overturning household items and breaking vases as they went.
All that was left was me, Zero, the bard, and the manservant. I waited for the sound of hooves to completely vanish before glancing at Zero, and said, “Now what? Where and why did the painter disappear?”
The bard looked up. His face was filled with anger and sorrow a while ago, but while he looked haggard now, he wasn’t in despair. Anyone could tell by the way he doted on his sister and the expression on his face when the servant came out of the Forbidden Room that he didn’t actually kill her.
“That’s right… Where’s the painter?! Where’s Kiara?!” The bard pressed the manservant. “Why were you in that room, and why were you even pretending to be her?!”
“It’s not my fault!” the man screamed back. “The painter asked me to stay in her room! Sometimes she feels like going outside, but she doesn’t want you to know, so she asks me to take her place!”
“And you expect me to believe that?!” His tone was accusatory. “Why would she be sneaking around behind my back?! There’s no need for that!”
“How should I know?!” His voice held a harsh tone. “We’ve been doing this for a year now, yet you didn’t even notice. I doubt you’d know what goes on in her mind.”
“What?” The bard was aghast.
The manservant pushed the bard away. He staggered, before sinking to the floor.
“I don’t deserve any of this!” the manservant said. “Knights tried to kill me, and my employer is criticizing me. I didn’t even do anything wrong. What’s this Beastfallen doing here anyway?! You’re insane for bringing this suspicious bastard into your home. Maybe that’s why the painter is avoiding you. I’m outta here!”
The man stormed out of the house. Thinking about it, the biggest victim was the servant. I couldn’t blame him for snapping when he was criticized. I didn’t mind a bit that he called me a suspicious bastard.
“Kiara is avoiding me?” The one who suffered the greatest psychological trauma was definitely the bard.
For two years, he tried to get his sister out of her room, without knowing that she went in and out freely. Anyone in his shoes would feel down.
“Is it better if I leave?” he mumbled, still sitting on the floor. “Is it because of me that she can’t leave her room?”
I should probably say something, but I couldn’t find the right words to say. “Yeah, I don’t know about this. It’s not even about the subject at this point.”
“I was looking forward to it,” Zero said.
“You want your image painted? Heh. I guess beautiful women think differently.” I frowned.
Given how hideous I was, I would never want to be the subject of a painting.
“I would love your portrait if there was one,” Zero added casually.
Whenever Zero said something like that to me, I didn’t know what to say. At first I thought she was merely teasing me, but after Iearning that she was serious, the more I couldn’t respond.
As I struggled to find the words, I heard the screams of the manservant from outside.
He came running back to the house. “We got trouble!” he shouted. “I-I found horse tracks on the animal path. They’re headed for the hut where the painter is!”
“What?! Wait, you knew where she was all along?!”
“Well, yeah. I’ve been pretending to be her for a year. She doesn’t tell me anything, but I can guess where she goes. There’s an animal path behind the house that leads to the village, which I use when bringing stuff. There’s a hut along the way, and the painter goes there regularly.”
“So that’s what the knight was referring to earlier!”
“Oh, no.” The bard stood up. “You’re saying those guys went to Kiara?! We have to go after them right away. She’s in danger!”
“Oh, dear.” Zero heaved a sigh. “I did not expect to be invited to a home that invites trouble. Let us go, Mercenary. You can catch up with the horses.” Without waiting for an answer, she climbed up on my shoulder.
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