/5/ Painting You

"...Lady?"

I quickly contemplate what I should do. Why is there someone from the Imperial family here to meet me? Not even Father, but me?

"You didn't answer my question, mister," I release my hand from his hold and fix my posture to stand straighter, "Who are you?" I notice how curt I might have sounded just now, but I can't focus on polishing the words now.

He must have noticed it too. Uttering a low guttural rumble, he shifts his stance and says, "You are quite quick-witted than I thought, my Lady. Orion wasn't lying when he said so."

Is he trying to compliment or rather insult me?

I rest my hands folded above my chest and cock an eyebrow, waiting for his answer.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I, Rivenfel Cornelius, stand forth Lady Ishelyn, the honorable daughter of the Sylvanus household. It's been a pleasure to meet you today."

Rivenfel Cornelius? Why does his name sound familiar?

He didn't include his title, simply stated his name. Does that mean I am supposed to know who he is? Or does he deem that he is someone everyone, including I, should be known of?

Although Father works quite close to the Imperial family, I am not all so familiar with all their members. I have met with the emperor and the empress. Ivanfel Cornelius, the first son and the crown prince, is around Isnian's age, probably older by a year or so. He was away for his training at the time when I still could see and used to go around the palace oftentimes with Isnian and sometimes Father too. So, I never saw or met him face to face. The emperor has a second son, and a third, birthed by his mistress. Albeit I never met the crown prince face to face, we did share talks later in the days I remember after I lost my eyesight. I don't know how he looks, but I can identify him from his voice quite all right.

Aside from Ivanfel, I never crossed paths with the second and third son before. The second prince was said to be away from the empire for his training at a foreign academy. I don't have any information about the third son. He is likely to be entrusted with the title Duke and perhaps already is a Duke if he's come of age. Everyone seems to know a lot about the crown prince, but when it comes to the rest two, it seems like a topic shunned by all. Why? Did no one like them? What's wrong with them?

If he says his name is Rivenfel, and considering the age of his voice, he must be around my age or a little older, he can be the second prince or the third one. Or maybe he's none. Is there any other member of the Imperial family around my age that I don't know of?

"It's been nice meeting you too, sir Rivenfel." I wait for his reply so as to perceive his reaction after addressing him sir. He has that arrogant tone in his way of talking. If my sir offends him, he is about to go ahead and correct me about his position, or confront me for lacking manners.

However, to my surprise, none of that happens, "If it's all right now, shall we take a seat?"

I nod. Both of us settle next to the lobelias lining up.

"To what do I owe the pleasure, sir Rivenfel?"

"I hope I'm not taking too much of your precious time, my Lady. You must have been very busy."

"No. It's all right." I patiently wait for him to stop beating around the bush and spill what he is here for, but he is surely taking his sweet time. Finally, he speaks up.

"Does my Lady work on evolving her mana?"

"...Sometimes, yes. I am about to reach my fourth circle, so it is right for me to practice harder."

"That sounds incredible. You must work really hard."

"..."

"There's something that recently caught my attention. One of my...subordinates relayed to me as they witnessed something on their patrol."

"And that is?"

"'Devil stands close to your place' - does this sound familiar to you somehow?"

My heart drops to a low beat.

"Serve your fate...we shall seek, the ones who believe - there was something more like this. If the verses are from any poem that's been on trend, I don't know if I can recall of as such. Could you please share me with the source, my Lady?"

"...Where did you hear these all from?"

"Oh? You said the verses yourself, didn't you?"

"I did?" I vehemently dive into the past memories, back when I was in the grassland. Was someone there in my unaware state and happen to hear what I said? Unless they stood too close to me, that would be impossible. And why wouldn't I realize if someone was standing close to me?

Then is this man bluffing?

No. That can't be. He repeated every word, bit to bit, from the vision. There's no way he would be able to say it out of a simple guess without prior knowledge. And I have not written down the lines anywhere, the words only rest implanted in my head.

Is he a mind reader?

Ugh. No. Mind readers went extinct 7000 years ago. Not even a single disciple exists in this century.

Then?

"Lady Ishelyn? Are you wandering off again?"

I snap back to reality, "W-what? Oh..."

No matter how he heard all about it, he probably doesn't know about my divine power yet. I can still make attempts to dodge this.

I let out a pretentious scoff, "Do you come across every incoherent word and take them to be valuable to their core all the time, sir? That must mean the slurs I speak of when I sleep at night must hold significant value to you too."

He doesn't reply, so I continue, "Whoever that subordinate of yours who relayed those unintelligible words I spoke of during my meditation should be more mindful of their other tasks. They seem to have a lot of time to follow a blind noble lady to a grassland, meditating alone, and continue stalking them." He can be a royal, should I include a subtle warning? Maybe it should come out as a sniding chirp of a mockingbird. But Father isn't less powerful either. He should be aware of that, no matter who he is, "I wonder what Father's reaction will be if he hears about this."

I hear him scoff this time, making me feel somewhat content.

"I see. He must have been wrong then. I apologize on his behalf. I will make sure to put in a word for him so that he becomes more careful of his words and actions in the future."

There's a rustling sound, the table softly vibrates due to the weight put on it from the other side. I hear his voice coming closer than its previous place, "How about we talk about something else? Tell me more about your painting habit."

Why would I need to share about that with a stranger on my first encounter? I hide my frown, "It's nothing interesting. I am not that great of a painter. I stroke my brushes around the way I want. The more I talk, the more it's going to bore you."

"I think otherwise. I think you're quite interesting, my Lady." He says, "No one sharing a word with you will ever fall in boredom, I can strongly put that statement in."

Why is he trying to flatter me now? Is it my turn to compliment him in return? I think of an idea, "You flatter me, sir. I know it's not much, but I like to draw portraits. Will it be alright if I draw a portrait of you, sir, in my free time?" As soon as I say that, I notice how direct it must have sounded. There's no way a woman asking a man if she can draw a portrait of him would be taken in the right way.

I make ways to tone down the interest, "I drew a recent one of Mariqua, the maid who assists me. She said I'm getting better. I think if I keep on working on more portraits, I'm going to get better." I realize what I said wrong again. In order to tone it down, I simply made it worse. How? He's from royalty, and I just now indirectly compared him with my maid and evened their status.

I bite my tongue. Perhaps I will just stop talking first now. I draw a sheepish smile. Of course, it's not going to help anyway.

"Portrait sounds nice. It's the first time someone has requested to draw a portrait of me." He says, "How do you usually make the portraits?"

"Hmm...usually when I don't know how the person looks, I just imagine how they may look in my head and draw on that. If I draw a real portrait of them, I need to touch and feel their features to draw them down afterward." I pause. What am I doing?!

I stammer through to rectify my words, flailing my hand as if to erase the misunderstanding that I might have caused just now, "I-I usually do the first. It helps me with my imagination, so..."

This conversation is going nowhere. He should take the hint and end it here now. Why isn't he doing that? Don't tell me, he's enjoying seeing me flustered.

"In that case, how do you envision me, my Lady?"

"Umm...that's difficult to say. I am not really good at describing how I envision someone's looks. Maybe if I say -" I drown into my world to bring out a picture of the person sitting in front of me. What do I think he looks like? He has a mixture of manly and boyish tones in the way he sounds. He's tall. But what about his face?

"You don't have to give out all details. Just the generic ones, like - the hair color, eye color, the shape of my nose, these things, maybe?" He says.

My ears turn to heat up. Why does he need to hear me say all that about him?

"Umm..."

Finally, taking the hint, he laughs it off, fanning the air, "I am just messing with you, my Lady. You don't have to describe how I look. I'll look forward to the portrait you draw of me out of your imagination." Do I hear a faint smile? He adds, "May I be the best-looking man in your eyes."

I turn my face to hide the blush arriving on my cheeks.

"It's getting late. Maybe I should take my leave now. I took too much time of my Lady." I get up too after him.

So, all that he came here for is to check what his subordinate heard from me back in the grassland? The conversation didn't proceed much after I denied his words. What was with barging into my chamber like that silently and then leaving without any further action after that? What was with all these talks about my painting? His motive for coming here to visit me isn't quite clear.

I hear footsteps approaching. I was expecting Mariqua to arrive but the gait of this person is unfamiliar. It's heavy, like of a man. Who is this?

"My Lady, let me escort you to your room." The person says.

"...Who?" I ask in confusion.

"It's Ellinoise, my Lady."

"Oh...where's Mariqua?" Did I mishear? It's Ellinoise's voice after all, but why couldn't I recognize his footsteps just now?

"Mariqua has gone to the market for some purchase. Let me be in your service until she returns."

"I see. Okay."

I hear faint ruffling noises of papers. I turn around to the door to go back to my room and call, "Ellinoise? Are you there?"

"Y-yes, my Lady. This way." His voice comes in unexpectedly off guard. What was he doing just now? What was that sound?

"I shall see you soon then, Lady Ishelyn." Rivenfel says, "It's been a wonderful day with you. Please look forward to our next meeting."

Why would he need to meet me again? Isn't what he was here for got resolved? I certainly made sure he made no sense of the verses he heard of.

"Likewise, sir Rivenfel. I might be busy in the meanwhile with some of my own tasks. I hope our next encounter awaits after all these unworthy hours at its perfect moment of arrival." Simply put, I don't want to meet you again, sir Rivenfel. He must not be dim-witted to realize the meaning of my words.

Despite, he says, "Surely so, my Lady. I will make sure our next meeting is above any tasks at an unworthy hour."

I grit my teeth and hear the departing footsteps at the exit gate. Mariqua's ones come in no sooner.

"Mariqua. You're here." I dismiss Ellinoise and turn to her, "Can you come with me to my chamber?"

She says yes and follows me from behind.

"Did that man who came to meet me look any familiar to you?"

I don't expect her to give me any valuable information, but at least I should ask.

"Not really, my Lady. I might be wrong, but I think he looks drastically similar to the Emperor."

I nod fervently. She must have got this right so far. I ask further, "Can you tell me what he looked like? His face, especially.."

Although I didn't tell him, I did already have a picture of him drawn in my mind as we talked. I imagine him to be owning rosy red hair and equally red eyes. Colors are associated with emotions. His haughty way of talking, his way of leading a conversation - it all made me think of the color red. He had a sharp nose of a hawk, and his chin was sharp and came together to a v-shape. His cheekbones are high. If he was a girl, some blush tint on top of those would have made him look enticing.

I am taken aback by my own thoughts, immediately shaking my head. Why am I focusing so much on how he looks? Does it matter?

Or maybe it does.

That person from my vision - I did think I need to assess every man's looks that I encounter. And Rivenfel fits the criteria of age.

"It's really difficult to say, my Lady."

"What does that mean?"

"I clearly remember him in dark brown hair and hazel eyes in the morning. But when I was returning...I must be wrong... the color of his hair, and his eyes..."

"What did you see?"

"His hair appeared red, like a deep merlot shade. Maybe it appeared that way because of the evening light. But I can't tell the same about his eyes. The hazel eyes I saw in the morning were no more of that color. I saw them in red."