“Well, then. I’d like to talk to your wife more, but the purpose of coming here today is different. Will you sit over there? I’ll paint your portrait.”
“Let’s go, my wife.”
At Karl’s words, Noel led her. It was a pity that the conversation was over, but as he said, today’s purpose was a portrait, so she put my regrets aside for a while and sat down on the sofa with Noel.
It was her first time having a portrait drawn. Thus, she kept her posture rigid and looked straight ahead, but Noel talked to her from the side.
“Irene, you can come a little closer. And you don’t have to be nervous.”
“Ah yes….”
At his words, Irene tried to relax, and she stuck to him. She casually touched his shoulders. Then she found her comfort and security. Looking in front of her, Irene parted her lips.
“Noel, thank you.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s Karl. You know I like him right and went out of your way to find him?”
“I do, but I am going to regret it a little.”
“Why?”
At his unexpected reply, Irene looked up, puzzled. She then saw Noel’s face, which was slightly sulky. It was the first time she saw him like that, so Irene blinked.
Irene was puzzled by Noel’s expression, but she turned her head back so often when told to look ahead. Fortunately, as if her tension had been relieved, Irene relaxedly leaned on Noel’s shoulder and parted her lips.
“To invite Karl, you are also great.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. It wouldn’t have been easy to find him because nothing was known about him...”
Irene, a huge fan of Karl, knew better than anyone that it was not easy to find his identity.
At Irene’s words, Noel smiled quietly.
It wasn’t that he had Karl in mind from the beginning. While recognising a painter who was known to be a successful artist, Noel suddenly remembered that she knew very well about Karl, so if a portrait of just the two of them were to be painted, he wondered if it would be better for someone a little more special to paint them.
But, contrary to what he thought, it was not easy for him to find out about Karl. There was no known information, and even the name Karl was a pseudonym, so he could not find any clues about him. He was like a man who was determined to remain hidden. Finding Karl was even more difficult than preparing for the succession announcement ceremony. Just as he thought he could not find him in the end, a painting suddenly crossed Noel’s mind.
It was a painting drawn while missing a lover who had passed away ‘Four Seasons’. If one missed someone so much that they left it as a picture, he wondered if they would still be hovering around them.
It was not difficult to find the place in the landscape painting. As his paintings began to gain popularity, more and more people were looking for the places in them. With speculation about the site in the painting, Noel sent someone to the most likely place. It was a place where there were reports that the flowers had fallen, but the shape of the hill and the giant tree matched the picture. Noel hurriedly ordered to see if there were any regular visitors there, and it was soon discovered that an old man had gone up the hill every day, only touching the tree. Intuition told Noel that the man was Karl and immediately, he headed there with Tom. He waited blindly in front of the tree.
When it was lunchtime, an old man came up the hill and only touched the tree’s bark without doing anything special.
- It’s a lovely tree. Standing tall in the centre as if supporting this hill. I feel a sense of stability.
-Who are you...?
-Nice to meet you. My name is Noel Kristen. I have come to ask you something.
-...?
When he first offered to paint a portrait, Karl stubbornly declined. He said he would never paint a portrait of anyone again, and he did not want to set foot in the capital.
As if being chased by something, his attitude was strange. But Noel could not easily back down either. So he took a few days to convince him. In the end, the old man decided to accept Noel’s request on the condition that he would not let anyone know that he had come to the capital and that he would not show his paintings to the public.
... But why did he not want even to set foot in the capital city?
He was definitely suspicious. Perhaps he was a felon, but Noel decided not to ask any more questions. -Because it didn’t matter who he was. He wanted only one thing: for Irene to be happy. He didn’t know if his own thoughts were passed on to Karl, and he agreed to it, but he found Noel likeable.
♔♔♔