Please Take A Step Out Of The Portrait - Chapter 0

The weather today was especially good.

Whether it was the chilly air that appeared at inopportune times during late spring subsiding, or the azure sky.

The air was cool, but the spots that the sun shone on were still warm. The cats took their places on the marble that was baked a light yellow in the sun, basking in the sunlight. It was a peaceful day.

Edmund Deer opened his eyes on the study’s sofa, annoyed.

He straightened up and collected a book that fell onto the floor. He seems to have fallen asleep in the study while reading a book at dawn. He dusted the book a few times and placed it on the table roughly, before staggering as he stretched himself.

The suit that was worn to last night’s social gathering was crumpled.

“I should’ve drunk less.”

‘I’ll go back to my room and change my clothes, and give a draft for the magazine column… What else did I need to do?’

It was not long after he had woken up, so he was still dazed. Edmund left the study and headed for his room while holding his head.

Whether it was for ventilation that all the windows were open, the curtains in the hallway fluttered wildly in the wind.

“Good morning, Young Master.”

“…Good morning.”

He greeted the servant who passed by with laundry, and climbed the stairs to head to his room.

As he put his hand on the door handle and was about to enter his room, a voice called for him from the other end of the hallway.

“Sir Deer.”

“Mr. Velloa.”

The man that was wild with joy was one of the family’s lawyers. Edmund inadvertently showed a face of disgust as he walked over with a happy expression. Whenever he had such an expression, Edmund’s work would usually pile up into mountains.

“Did you hear the news?”

“…I’m still on vacation.”

However, he continued to speak without regard for Edmund’s reaction.

“The Merci family has filed for bankruptcy.”

“That’s good news.”

“It was about time that the Young Master came back. Apparently the collections of the Merci family would be auctioned off.”

That’s very good news.

Apart from the good news, it also meant that the family and the museum would once again become short-staffed. If this happens, Edmund would have no choice but to give up on his long awaited vacation, and return to the family’s art gallery, ‘The Deer’.

“Right now, rumors are rife that a painting from Sasha Summers is coming out. Not only that, but there will definitely be a lot of undisclosed works by Impressionist artists. I think that you should get ready to return. The director is looking forward to it.”

Edmund waved his hand a few times in acknowledgment, and the lawyer greeted him lightly before disappearing. As he stared at the end of the hallway where his lawyer disappeared towards, he let out a groan as he opened the door.

“…!”

And he faced a woman that’s on his bed.

It was the first time he saw her.

However, Edmund stared at the woman in front of him as if he were bewitched, forgetting to call anyone and even to breathe.

He slowly stepped forward.

Behind his bed was a large portrait.

It was the portrait of a woman seated on a one-seater sofa that’s delicately embroidered with motifs of roses, raising her head to look at the other party in the midst of reading her book. For him, who has lived half-disconnected from the world, this painting was the first thing he showed interest in at the age of fourteen.

Edmund fell in love with the woman in the portrait when he was very young. That love continued to this day, and was even famous within the Empire.

“How is this, How is this possible?”

As Edmund whispered softly and took another step, the woman was still unable to grasp the situation, looking at Edmund with a flustered face.

Her dark green eyes were beautiful. Her pale pink hair swayed softly with her movements.

The person in front of him was both the woman in a portrait, and the painter of the portrait’s, Sasha Summers’, younger sister.

Her rosy hair was attractive, and her dark green eyes were dreamy, but that alone did not make him fall for her.

A painting that captures the moment when someone had just raised her head in response to another’s call, while reading a book.

Perhaps her eyes were directed towards the painter, but at the same time, it was also directed at the audience.

That gaze was captivating. He liked the atmosphere of the sole gaze from a painting made of warm colors. He seemed to hope for her gaze to be directed towards him only.

And Edmund’s obsessive collection of paintings began.

He was a world-famous collector of works by Sasha, and if there was any relation between her paintings and his first love ‘Vivian’, he would first request to view them.

His long-lasting first love.

Unrequited love.

<A Woman Reading a Book> by the artist Sasha Summers.

The woman’s gaze reached Edmund from within the portrait. At the same time, the gaze of the woman on the bed also reached Edmund.

Edmund had a large portrait of a woman with pink hair, and on the bed below was the same woman. He felt that all of this was like a masterpiece. It didn’t feel real.

“Excuse me, may I ask where am I?”

She spoke while sweeping the hair hanging in front of her face with a puzzled expression. Her eyes fluttered aimlessly between her hair. It was the voice of his imagination.

“So…”

Bang!

What he barely managed to do with what remained of his reason was to close the door quickly so that no one could look inside. The woman trembled in surprise.

Edmund approached the woman with a smile that was both dumbfounded and at the same time conveyed the joy that overflowed from deep within. Edmund’s tall height naturally caused the woman to crane her neck.

“Vivian–”

“Do you know me?”

“Summers.”

Edmund was already firmly convinced.

Just as the goddess of beauty accepted Pygmalion’s* plea and breathed life into Galatea, God responded to his wish and made her walk out of the portrait.

[T/N: The story of Pygmalion and Galatea is an enchanting myth about a Cypriot sculptor who fell in love with his own sculpture. He prays to goddess Aphrodite (aka Venus) to bring the sculpture to life, because he plans for it to be his wife.]

Even if she didn’t introduce herself, she was Vivian Summers.