Chapter 136 Just a Large Room Again

LEO

After finding Mario for Mathias, I didn’t really know what to do. Mathias had told me to go back and help my friend at the exhibition hall, so I supposed that was exactly what I should do.

It was a little strange, though.

Usually, when Mathias appeared, he wanted something from me.

Come with me, Leo.

Sit down, Leo.

Look into the mirror, Leo.

Try again, Leo.

This time, he had barely looked at me after I brought Mario over. He just thanked me and sent me away.

I felt relieved, to be honest, which made me feel a little guilty.

Mathias had always been kind to me. He helped me with my magic, praised me when I did well, and always seemed to know what to say when I was confused. Still, I didn’t enjoy the dark room with the mirror.

On the way back to the exhibition hall, I reached into my pocket and felt the little wooden bird whistle I had won earlier. I pulled it out and looked at it. The bird had a round body, two tiny wings carved into its sides, and a hole in its tail where I was supposed to blow.

It looked much nicer than it sounded.

I put it to my lips and blew very gently.

“PEEEEEEEEEE!”

I nearly dropped it. A woman walking nearby turned around and frowned at me.

“Sorry,” I said.

But I had to laugh inside at how hilariously horrible it sounded. Mario said so too.

I put the whistle back in my pocket, thinking that maybe I’d blow it inside the exhibition hall to prank Liesel too.

When I returned, the place looked a little sad. There were no more visitors, and all the paintings had already been moved now, except mine. The decorations had come down too. The hall had felt like a very special place during the festival, but it was slowly becoming just a large room again.

Liesel was standing by one of the walls, folding a long piece of decorative cloth, still wearing Blanche’s dress. The black really didn’t suit her. Not because it looked bad, but because it just looked wrong.

Like someone had put Dimitri’s boots on Alexis.

“Hey,” I said.

Liesel turned around so quickly that she almost dropped the cloth.

“Oh. Leo.”

“You okay?”

“Yes.”

She said it a little too quickly.

I looked around.

“Where’s everyone?”

“They haven’t come back yet. I suppose that nine-headed dragon is really troublesome. It’s going to take up so much space in our art room too.”

After a bit of a pause, Liesel asked quietly,

“Did the gentleman find Blanche?”

“Nah.”

She looked at me.

“But you ran after him. What did you talk about?”

“I don’t know. He asked me to find Mario, and when I did, Mathias just wanted to talk to him and sent me away.”

“I see.”

I wondered what Liesel knew about Blanche and Mathias. They were good enough friends that Liesel might know a lot about her, but then again, Blanche wasn’t exactly like Blabber Becky, who’d talk about anything for the whole day, every day. And Blanche did tell me to keep what I overheard in the special room—her room…—a secret.

On the opposite wall, my drawing was still hanging.

The one from Hoffberg.

The hooded man.

The Royal Knights.

The crowd.

I had almost forgotten about it.

“Should I take mine down too?” I asked.

Liesel followed my gaze.

“Yes. Everything has to come down before evening.”

I walked over to the picture.

It looked different now.

Maybe because there were no people standing in front of it.

During the festival, people had stopped to look. Some leaned closer, while some whispered to each other. Some moved on quickly, much to my disappointment.

The Second Consort had looked at it for a long time. I was flattered. She had asked me how it made me feel. I answered honestly, and she gave me a smile and called me kind.

Being kind was something my parents told me I should be, so I took that as a compliment.

Then again, when Mathias had looked at it, he had shaken his head. He told me I did well, but never asked me any questions about it.

Mario had also looked at it.

I didn’t draw him in the picture. If anybody asked me why he wasn’t in it, I would have struggled to answer. All I could probably say was that it just felt wrong to put him in it when I was drawing it.

I reached up and pulled one corner loose.

Then another.

The paper came away from the wall.

It felt much larger in my hands than it had when it was hanging there.

Maybe pictures were supposed to stay on walls.

“What are you going to do with it?” Liesel asked behind me.

“I don’t know.”

“You can leave it with the art club.”

“Do you keep everything?”

“Yes. And that’s always a bit of a problem. We obviously don’t want to throw away anything we worked hard to make, but we can’t keep them forever either. I suppose after we graduate, new members would eventually get rid of them. I can accept it if that happens while I’m no longer around myself.”

I looked at the picture again.

The man in the hood was still being led away, and everyone around him was watching in horror. The festival square, which had been filled with laughter and singing, went eerily quiet, which made things worse because the man’s muffled scream was the only thing that rang through the air.

I thought about the scene a lot during the time I spent drawing this picture.

At first, I started drawing it because I almost felt like I had to. Blanche told me once that sometimes artists paint because they have to, not because someone else is forcing them, but because not painting when an idea is stuck in your head can feel like holding your breath—you only get to feel relieved after you put that idea onto canvas.

As I was drawing the picture, I was initially angry at the Royal Knights, which made me sad, because I liked Royal Knights. After all, I was trying to become one myself.

But then I remembered—how could it have slipped my mind for so long?—that the reason I decided I’d become a Royal Knight was because they got paid well.

Then I remembered this one time when I was being stubborn about not doing something I was told to do—I forgot what that was—and Mom scolded me, saying, ‘Your Dad works every day for the family whether he feels like it or not, Leo.’

Yeah.

Sometimes we just have to do things because that’s what we have to do.

And that’s when I realized that I shouldn’t be mad at those Royal Knights.

They probably didn’t enjoy dragging a man away from the festival either. They probably knew the way they were treating him was mean.

But, like my Dad—who normally enjoyed his work—sometimes had to do his work even when he wasn’t feeling well, these knights probably did what they were told to do because it was their job too.

“You don’t like it?” Liesel asked me as I was thinking this.

“I don’t know.”

“That means you don’t.”

“No. It just feels…”

I searched for the word.

“…bad.”

Liesel didn’t say anything after that.

Then I rolled the picture carefully.

At least I tried to.

The first attempt came out crooked, and Liesel took it from me, saying,

“Give me that.”

“I can do it.”

She ignored what I said, rolled it neatly, and handed it back.

“Don’t crush it,” she said.

“I won’t.”

I tucked the roll under my arm.

Then I caught something moving outside the tall window from the corner of my eye.

A bird—a sparrow.

It landed on the outside ledge and stared into the hall. I stared back, approached it, and greeted it.

“Hello.”

The bird tilted its head.

I remembered the five eagles going up into the sky after Mathias left. They had spread out in different directions. Maybe they were hunting, so I hoped the squirrel was still hiding well.

Then I got an idea.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the wooden whistle.

The little carved bird looked nothing like the real one. The sparrow by the window looked intrigued, staring at it closely.

Then I felt a little mischievous.

I held it up toward the window.

“Look. Friend.”

The real bird didn’t seem impressed.

I blew into the whistle.

“PEEEEEEEE!”

I had no idea birds could wince, but I could have sworn it did.

The bird then immediately flew away.

“Leo!” Liesel ran over to me and slapped my back.

“Sorry!”

“What in the world is that?”

“A bird whistle.”

“That does not sound like a bird.”

“I know.”

“It sounds like someone stepping on a dying pig.”

I laughed.

Some more time passed after that, but Blanche didn’t come back.

I stood in the middle of the room that was now empty, with my rolled drawing under one arm. Liesel was by the door now.

She had been waiting there the whole time, still wearing Blanche’s black dress, looking increasingly nervous as each minute passed.

I started to worry too—worried that Mathias might scold Blanche when she came back.

I’d never been scolded by him yet, but I was starting to feel that Mathias, too, could be a little strict and stiff at times.

A bit like Mario, then.