Chapter 209: 209: Family Painting
Eden sighed. "I’m just looking around. Not sneaking. Besides, I have a name, you know? Not the wizard of EL," he said casually while turning his eyes back to the painting he was admiring.
Adrian walked and came to stand by his side. The two of them stared at the painting. The painting was a war scene. Horses, soldiers, weapons, all colliding in a war that was aesthetically painted.
"You do?" Adrian asked. "What is it?"
Eden hesitated. "It’s Eden. But you probably won’t remember. So forget about it." Eden had figured that this was probably the second time he was mentioning his name here.
It had become so rare for him to even mention or hear his name. The Wizard of EL was becoming a great part of him.
Adrian said nothing for a while.
"You know it’s prohibited to come in here. Right?" Adrian asked.
"Is that so? So are you going to kick me out or something?" Eden asked, his eyes still on the painting.
"I won’t. I’ll give you a special privilege to come in here. This once. Just because you saved me. And I want to get even with you," he said.
Eden scoffed. "That isn’t how paying back works though." He smiled. "You have to do something tangible."
Eden found it cute that Adrian was trying to pay back in ways that were rather silly and funny.
Adrian was silent.
And so was Eden. They only admired the painting.
"It must be brutal in war," Eden said. "I could never survive in it."
"You’re the wizard of EL. So you must already be used to it. It’s said that the wizard of EL had fought against thousands of soldiers in war and ended them all. Is that a fable?" Adrian said.
Eden sighed. "Probably a fable." He had also read that too.
Eden turned and walked towards the other painting. Adrian followed closely behind, both hands behind.
Eden strolled around. "Is this some sort of treasure room or something?"
"I don’t know," Adrian replied.
"How could you not know..." Eden muttered as they arrived at a painting. One which he could call a family painting.
With Adrian now standing at a distance from Eden, Eden stared at the painting which he could rarely recognise anyone.
"And who are these...?" Eden tried counting the people in it. There was a couple, two young boys, and then an older looking man standing at the side of the couple.
Adrian said nothing. He casually stared from where he stood.
Eden hesitated. "Is this you?" he pointed at the taller boy among the two boys.
Adrian said nothing and Eden could easily tell. "This is your parents.. this is Mr. Hugo and this is you and your brother.. right?"
Eden now turned to look at Adrian. Adrian had his eyes on the painting without saying anything. As though he was trying to survey the painting for some important information.
"So I’m correct," Eden said, his eyes back to the painting. "This is a family painting then..."
Eden surveyed it for a while. He stared at Adrian while smiling. "You actually looked adorable when you were young." He smiled. "So adorable."
He turned to stare at Adrian who now had his cold eyes on him. His red hair complemented those cold eyes.
"Maybe if you smile more, you would actually look adorable too." He smiled at Adrian who didn’t return the smile. "What a bummer."
He turned to the painting again. "And your younger brother..."
Eden kept forgetting that he had one.
The book had mentioned that he had one. A younger brother. But funny enough he wasn’t shown at all.
Eden could only guess that he wasn’t important to the plot anyway so they didn’t show him.
"Where is your younger brother?" he asked.
"What would you do with the information?" Adrian asked.
Eden glared at him. "You don’t have to be feisty, it’s not like I’m stealing him or something."
"You should go and have dinner. It’s already ready," Adrian said.
But Eden now had his eyes on Mr. Hugo. Staring at the man whom Adrian had trusted so much but had betrayed him.
"Are you okay seeing his face though after what happened?" he asked Adrian.
"No," Adrian said. "But I can’t throw away the last picture with my parents’ faces on it. Can I?"
"I guess," Eden said. "But why don’t you have many paintings of them...?" He stared at Adrian. "I mean, this seems like the only one you have. Even in your room, you don’t have paintings of them."
Adrian stared at him. "How do you know I don’t have any in my room?"
Eden blinked. When he was disguised as one of those prostitutes and sneaked into Adrian’s room back then, he hadn’t seen any paintings around. So it was easy to tell.
"That doesn’t matter. What matters is, you should at least have your family paintings around."
"I don’t need it," Adrian said. "I’m okay."
Eden stared at him. He didn’t know if he was really okay or pretending to be okay.
He casually sighed. "Okay then. If you say so." He stared at the paintings. "You must have really been close to him. Mr. Hugo."
"He was friends with my parents. And after they passed away, he raised us," Adrian said, to Eden’s surprise. He never expected him to spill such information to him.
Eden stared at him. "Why are you sharing that with me?"
Adrian looked down at him. "Didn’t you recommend I be more open with you?"
Eden blinked. "Does that mean you’re agreeing to my deal?"
"No," he turned to leave again.
"Huh? How is that possible?" Eden ran after him. His shorter legs giving him a disadvantage against Adrian’s long legs.
"Why won’t you accept the deal? I mean, it benefits the both of us," Eden said, following him out of the room now. "You live, I live, everyone is happy."
Adrian wasn’t stopping. He was still walking while Eden struggled to catch up behind.
"Hey, you really should consider because it’s a great..." Before Eden could finish his sentence, he tripped.