Chapter 3
“Oh! I’m so sorry!”
As Eden wove through the crowd into the market, he bumped into a middle-aged man walking toward him.
“Are you all right?”
“Oh, I’m fine. You must’ve gotten the worst of it, bumping into me!”
The man let out a chuckle and patted Eden’s arm. Eden silently groaned to himself.
“You don’t need to rush so much. You’ll still get to see it. I’m just coming back from having a look myself,” explained the man.
The man scooped up a few items that had spilled from his bag.
“See what?”
Eden didn’t know what the man was talking about.
“Aren’t you heading to the town square to see the monster? Heavens, in all my fifty years, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen one with its horns grown out.”
When the word monster fell from the man’s mouth, the color drained from Eden’s face. A monster…? Eden’s heart began to pound violently, like a child caught stealing.
“I take it this is your first time seeing a horned monster in the flesh too. Well, in our town, the two the landlord keeps are about all we’ve got. But those two have no horns, so they look far too human to call monsters… Anyway, go look as much as you want. It’s just a corpse, but a monster with horns grown out is a rare sight.”
Eden glared at the man, making no effort to hide his disgust. To think the winter market was crowded because of a monster’s corpse. He slammed his shoulder hard into the man on purpose and hurried away.
“H-hey! You little bastard!”
The man shouted after him. Eden gritted his teeth as the crowd grew denser the deeper he went into the market. His plan to hurry straight home had long since vanished. His legs were already carrying him toward the square.
When he reached the square, Eden had to swallow down a surge of fury. A young boy covered in bruises lay collapsed before the plaza fountain. He had barely outgrown childhood. Atop his bloodied head, two small horns were visible. Eden pressed his fingernail into the tip of his thumb, fighting back the tears welling in his eyes.
“Dear, have you ever seen a horned monster before?”
“I saw them now and then back when I lived in the capital. Must be your first time?”
Behind Eden, a married couple stood talking. The way they treated the dead child before them like meat displayed at a market stall made his stomach churn.
“I only know the ones the landlord keeps. And even then, I’m working at the market all day, so I rarely see them anyway. They say that one couldn’t take it and died the first day his name was called.”
“Really? Growing horns must be agonizing…”
“They were planning to take him along once the horns sprouted, but he couldn’t bear the pain and died, so they just dumped him here. Still, seeing as they didn’t even saw off the horns that grew in, they must’ve been quite a wealthy noble.”
“A baron, at least? Or maybe a viscount? If they weren’t going to use them, they could’ve handed them over to us instead of dumping him like trash.”
Eden couldn’t bear to listen any longer. He tore himself away from the square and retched violently in the corner of an alley.
“Urgh… haah…!”
The image of the boy lying cold and motionless kept coming back to him. But what truly churned Eden’s stomach was not the dead boy himself, but the people who looked at his body without batting an eye, speaking with sheer derision. The boy’s body was covered in the marks of a beating, his head and hands caked in blood. He had clawed at his own head, unable to bear the agony of horns breaking through.
His uncle had described the agony of having one’s true name spoken as worse than having one’s skull split open alive, and Nathan had called it the pain of being gouged with a massive awl. Neither his uncle nor Nathan nor Eden had ever truly experienced it, yet they all instinctively knew. The moment one’s name was called, the pain of horns erupting from the bumps that hid them was like being cast alive into hell.
To suffer such agony every single time one’s name was spoken was utterly unjust. It was nothing short of an unfair curse inflicted by the gods. Such a curse should have been a punishment for the humans who hunted and slaughtered them like trophies and kept them as slaves, never their own lot to bear. Eden shook from the fury welling within him.
That night, Eden had a nightmare about his name being called.
* * *
“Eden! Good heavens… Are you all right?”
Three months that felt like three years had passed before Nathan returned. During those three months of waiting, Eden had barely eaten a proper meal and lacked the strength even to hold a brush. And ever since that day at the market, he had been haunted by nightmares.
Eden forced a smile, bringing his blurring vision back into focus. He only wanted Nathan to pay quickly and leave. Dealing with anyone at all took far too much effort.
“I’m fine.”
“Eden…”
“Winter is almost over anyway. It’ll get better.”
Eden answered Nathan, and himself.
“Let me help you move the paintings. Thank you as always.”
As Eden picked up several paintings, his uncle gathered the rest from behind him. Nathan caught his uncle by the shoulder and shook his head.
“You don’t look well, either. I’ll sort out the paintings with Eden, so go inside and get some rest.”
“Please do, Uncle. You didn’t sleep well last night either.”
Eden avoided looking at his uncle’s face, unwilling to see that gaunt, haggard appearance again, and quickly took the paintings his uncle was holding. Their bony hands brushed against each other. His uncle weakly let go of the paintings. Even that irritated Eden.
While Eden loaded the paintings onto the cart, Nathan came over to him, making no attempt to hide the pity in his gaze. A testament to how terrible Eden looked. Nathan let out a quiet sigh and spoke.
“Eden. When I went to sell the paintings last time… there was someone who took a great liking to your garden piece.”
Eden stopped sorting the paintings and looked up at him.
“My garden painting?”
“Yes. A noble serving as an official.”
Thanks to Nathan’s merchant guild being based in the capital, Eden’s paintings occasionally fetched generous prices from nobles, but that only happened when luck was on their side. Which also meant it had been a very long time since it last happened.
“So the thing is, Eden. Would you be interested in working for the imperial court?”
“The… imperial court?”
Eden fully turned toward Nathan. Curiosity showed in his dull, lifeless eyes as he looked up at him.
“The nobles are gathering paintings to hang throughout the imperial palace right now. His Majesty the Emperor is quite fond of art, so they likely want to present them as gifts before the summer banquet. At any rate, one of them took a great liking to your work and recommended you as a court painter.”
“How could someone like me, with neither lineage nor family name, become a court painter? And that isn’t the only problem, Nathan…”
A court painter? Him? The recommendation system for palace officials required lineage, family backing, or substantial wealth just to have one’s name put forward as a candidate. Knowing how things worked in the palace thanks to his uncle, Eden turned back to the paintings in sheer disbelief. And the true problem was neither his lineage nor his family.
“Forgive me. Er, of course it wouldn’t be an official court painter post.”
Nathan, who had been choosing his words carefully as he read Eden’s mood, caught himself and hastily added more.
“The palace is commissioning a grand series of paintings depicting the grounds across the four seasons, and they want you to take on the landscapes of a small garden. It’s a temporary position, so you would have to leave once you’ve painted all four seasons of the garden, but the pay will be generous. And with that money, hiring a caregiver won’t be an issue at all.”
A caregiver? Eden fidgeted with his fingers, tempted for a fleeting moment. But he soon thought of his uncle, who loathed anything to do with the imperial court.
“Uncle might kill me if he finds out I’m working in the imperial palace.”
“Of course your uncle will object, but can’t you just tell him you’re working somewhere else? Look at yourself right now. You and your uncle are barely hanging on, and this… You call this living, Eden?”