Portrait of the Dead Prince

Chapter 1 I met Enrique, the first Prince of the Berton Kingdom when he was fifteen years old.

At the time, I was working as an apprentice under Rodrigo Raso, the most renowned painter in the kingdom.

Rodrigo Raso, Is there anyone who is from Berton and hasn’t heard his name?

In fact, Is there anyone throughout the neighbouring countries who don’t know about his best-known piece ‘God’s Catastro’?

Even if there was someone who didn’t know a line about art, they wouldn’t dare to raise their hand to reveal their ignorance.

Later, even when Rodrigo was fled from Berton his reputation was so high that his fame did not get tarnished.

But in reality, what stood out was his wicked personality.

To be honest, besides his achievements he was just an aged old man who would say things like ‘Female painters can’t capture the logic of the world.’

Ironically, the reason I was able to become his apprentice was because of such narrow-mindedness.

My father had a playful personality and occasionally enjoyed pranking others, for example, he would take his daughter’s painting to a gathering and would fool everyone by introducing it as a foreign piece.

It was at such a gathering that my father and Rodrigo met by chance.

At a dinner attended by Rodrigo, like any other time, my father displayed my painting and bragged about it being a precious piece.

As a famous painter, it was a common thing for Rodrigo to be asked what he thinks about someone else’s personal painting collection.

Out of the many paintings, I don’t know what was that moved him in my painting, but Rodrigo highly praised it calling it a rare and attractive style of painting.

One thing to be told here is the fact that Rodrigo is not the type of person to simply compliment something to escape a situation.

At the unexpected praise, my playful father said he knew the painter personally and offered to arrange a meeting.

And while he was at it, he hintfully asked what Rodrigo thought about making the painter his apprentice.

Even until he agreed with my father saying that’s a good idea, Rodrigo was imagining interviewing a young man.

As a result, the day I first met Rodrigo, I learned the extent of how red the face of the artist I admired could get.

Maybe he thought he was totally deceived by father but throughout the first month, Rodrigo didn’t look at me even once.

He already had eight apprentices.

For him, who no longer had the enthusiasm to train his young students, I was just added burden on his back.

There was no way a student who is ignored by the teacher would be welcomed by other students.

I was not visibly harassed but the days where I would kill time doing still-life painting kept continuing.

Even though I was ignored, I still managed to survive that place.

I cleaned the floors and organized Rodrigo’s paint set even when no one asked me to.

On a morning just like any other day, I entered the atelier but found Rodrigo standing in front of my easel with his arms folded.

Even though he must have felt my presence, Rodrigo didn’t look at me.

After staring at my half incomplete painting for a good amount of time, he roughly pointed his finger towards the window and said,

“You, from now on you sit in that place.”

On that day, I moved my seat from the end of the atelier. My new place was where Rodrigo could yell at me if he was bored.

And like that, I was accepted as Rodrigo’s ninth apprentice.

As he was called the best painter of that time, important commissions kept piling in Rodrigo’s atelier.

Out of which the most difficult work was mural paintings that involved a lot of people.After Rodrigo completed doing the frame and line art, his students helped finish the painting by adding details and colour.Even though the work was rigorously tiring, no one ever complained amidst doing the work breathlessly.The apprentices who studied from Rodrigo were famous in the art scene themselves.Seeing how they would look at their teacher proudly with sparkling eyes, I too used to feel overwhelmed with a sense of belonging.723 was the year when the Siella Cathedral, which had collapsed due to the trade war, was finally rebuilt after years of construction.After exactly 3 years since I started learning under Rodrigo, I thought my life was being painted in a decent manner after I successfully completed painting the ceiling of the Siella Cathedral.Not long after that, Rodrigo started acting very grumpy.He never opened the atelier door quietly, but that day he entered in a more ill-tempered way than usual.The door kicked by him hit the wall and created a loud bang. Everyone looked back at Rodrigo in surprise at the loud noise.Not minding his student’s gazes on him, he nervously took out and threw his gloves.And soon after that he violently cursed.“Those arrogant royal bastards.”The atmosphere turned tensed upon listening to such profanity.Rodrigo definitely visited the royal palace after being requested to do a portrait.It should be an honourable thing to serve the royal family, but then why is he so angry?If someone irked Rodrigo when he was in a bad mood then they would most likely be hit by a firestorm.When everyone was reading the air and being hesitant, Rodrigo’s cousin Alonso cautiously stepped forward.“Did something happen at the royal palace?”“Did something happen? Yes, it did.”Rodrigo, who was laughing in vain, couldn’t hold back his anger and started to grumble again.“Whose portrait do you think I was asked to do at the palace?All the apprentices, including me, simply made an odd expression and couldn’t answer his question directly.When the messenger from the royal palace visited, there was a petty bet among the apprentices about who the model would be.The first nominee was the soon-to-be Crown Prince, Prince Aaron and the second pick was Princess Isidora, who was born a month ago.Alonso, who betted on the former asked back,“Wasn’t it a portrait of Prince Aaron?”Rodrigo smirked and shook his head.Alonso’s expression turned pale.“Then……was it the portrait of Count Felipe’s wife?”Count Felipe’s wife was the King’s mistress.No matter how blind Bisbal I is in love, but, would he really use his royal authority to request a portrait of his mistress?If it’s true, then considering how the royal messenger visited in person, it truly would feel a shocking insult.However, Rodrigo only gave an ambiguous expression that was neither positive nor negative.Rodrigo furrowed his brows after thinking intently for a while.“Come to think of it, I’m glad it’s not that woman. I think I’m starting to feel a bit better about it.”“If it’s not her then is it….”“It’s Prince Enrique.”Rodrigo replied briefly, swallowing a sigh.At the same time, there was a heavy silence in the atelier.If one had to talk about him, Prince Enrique was more used to getting sympathy and being disregarded rather than being respected and honoured.His origin is somewhat complicated, but to be precise, he was not the biological son of the current King.The problem began with Former King Pantoja IV passing away at an early age along with his wife due to an unexpected accident.And instead of Prince Enrique who was only two years old at the time, the former King’s cousin Duke Bisbal took over the throne.Bisbal I adopted Prince Enrique who was the legitimate child of the royal family to continue the royal legitimacy, but after his own child Prince Aaron was born, his existence became a nuisance.As a result, the King raised his adopted son as if he was locked up to prevent him from being noticeable to the people.It was a royal secret that everyone knew.“The prince is soon to be fifteen, so he is old enough to marry. They asked me to draw his portrait in the most handsome way to send it over to another country for a marriage proposal.”Rodrigo snorted as if he was exhausted.The prince, who was used as a tool to maintain legitimacy, was to be sold to another country, regardless of his will once again.Rodrigo’s eyes showed a hint of compassion for the Prince who was just for namesake.“It’s a marriage in namesake, but it’s no different than a disposal.”Rodrigo who was sighing deeply took out and bit a cigar.White smoke started to spread out along with a slow breathing sound.Rodrigo, who was looking at his students with an unknown expression stopped his gaze at a certain point.I didn’t avoid Rodrigo’s gaze which was meant towards me.It kind of felt like the mouth corners of my ill-tempered twisted in a teasing manner.He spoke.“Inese, you go and draw that prince.”Everyone’s heads turned towards me.Most of the senior apprentices had a shocked look on their faces.It was common for a student to step in instead of the teacher when a painting was requested from the atelier bit this case was a little different.Unless you’re a brave person, you wouldn’t tell a twenty-two year old rookie to face the royal family. Because the royal family would view it as an insult.Alonso shouted with a pale shocked face.“Master! No matter what he still is a prince!”Rodrigo looked back at everyone with a cold expression.Then he asked fiercely.“Then who will go and paint that prince?”It was not a portrait that was commissioned by the royal family. It was the prince’s flyer and a type of for-sale poster.Rodrigo probably wanted to avoid doing it in disagreement.It was the same for the apprentices as no one readily raised their hands to take over this obnoxious request.“I’ll do it.”I said and quietly stood up from my seat.Even Rodrigo, who called on me himself, gave a look hinting how unexpected.Even if a lion raises its baby roughly, it wasn’t a task Rodrigo would necessarily pass on to his favourite student.I personally thought it was a great combination, the youngest apprentice at the atelier who is a nuisance and a prince persecuted by the royal family.I spoke again with a strong voice.“I will paint him.”Rodrigo seemed to be very hostile towards the idea of the prince being sold but me, well, not so much.Because, in the opposite case, such incidents have been witnessed countless times in the past.