Chapter 46

Getting a drawing teacher was harder than I would have thought. I thought I would only have to send out an announcement and wait. In my imagination people would rush from all around the world to teach the daughter of a Duke and I would only have to pick the one that looked the nicest. I really thought that everything would be done and over with in five minutes. Therefore I decided to put my investigation on hold until then. However, I didn't expect there to be a problem the second I talked about it with Eulisses.

"You should talk about it with His Majesty the Duke, Mister Sliske.

-Why?"

I couldn't possibly understand why Eulisses would say that. There were two problems with my plan according to him: Ephraim froze my money after "my" lavish spending throughout the years and mostly because he was a control freak. Eulisses didn't say that second part but I added it. Thus I had to get Ephraim's approval if I wanted to hire someone in the mansion. That thought alone angered me:

"Why would I need his approval? He doesn't care about Arora at all."

I quickly looked around me to make sure that she couldn't hear it. Seeing how much I liked her drawings, Arora spent hours in her room, drawing for me. Once satisfied, she would run up to my room and give me another of her drawings before running away, her cheeks bright red.

I looked at the door and waited a bit. Hearing no one behind the door made me sight:

"Anyway... That's stupid.

-I apologize.

-You don't have to. You're not the one who came up with this."

I thought about it for a bit:

"Don't I have any money that's my own?"

Eulisses hesitated a second before saying:

"You spent your money in the days following your arrival to the Dukedom, Mister Sliske."

I grunted. That stupid Sliske. How could he just go and spend all his money, leaving me with nothing left? I had to weigh my options there. How much did I hate seeing Ephraim? Enough not to get Arora a teacher? I hated being such a good person. I would rather die than go to Ephraim on my own accord but I would feel way too guilty if I didn't.

"Fu-"

I almost swore before looking back at the door. I did well holding back because what I heard next was knocks. Arora waited for me to let her in before handing me a piece of paper that she was holding with both hands. She didn't dare look at me as I took the paper but she did stay there, waiting to hear my compliments.

"Arora..."

I looked down at the butterfly she had drawn and had no idea what to say for a second. That second was enough to make Arora panic:

"It's bad! I know... I'm sorry. Their wings look fake. One of them is way too big! I knew it!"

I quickly cut her off before she tore her drawing to pieces:

"No! I love it, really. I was just... Flabbergasted.

-You don't have to lie for my sake...

-I am not. Look."

I put the drawing down, starting to look for a frame:

"I am going to frame it.

-You don't have to!

-I want to. I will frame all of your drawings and expose them in my Museum.

-Do you plan to open a Museum papa?

-Yes! Once we get out of here I-"

I suddenly bit my lip, realizing what I was talking about in front of them.

"I... I mean..."

I looked at Bob but I could swear he looked away when our eyes met, seeming to say that he wouldn't help me. He immediately turned around and laid down on the bed, immediately snoring. Ungrateful bastard.

"Once I am finally healed and I am able to get out of this room I will open a Museum. And I will expose all of your work chronologically. Or maybe we could do it by theme..."

I was getting way too caught up in my imagination once again and forced myself to stop. Arora seemed to like the idea and she helped me look for a frame. There weren't any frames in my room therefore we followed Eulisses downstairs.

"We should get a blue frame to match the Macchaon's wings.

-That's a great idea dad!"

Arora skipped next to me, excited to see me frame her work. What I didn't expect however was to have lost the drawing all together. My entire room was filled with paper. I was never very tidy to begin with and I stopped Eulisses from helping because I didn't want him to find out my plan. Therefore my notes just started colonizing the room. Arora's work was getting mixed with my research and I felt stupid for putting the drawing face down. It just looked like all the other papers now. I flipped a thousand of them over, having no idea where the butterfly was. I felt ashamed and didn't dare look at Arora, my shame growing with each passing second.

"Dad... Is there something wrong?

-Nope. Everything is fine. Finer than a knight."

Eulisses felt my stress because he started looking for the drawing as well, discreetly. He didn't get any luckier than me unfortunately.

"Dad... It's okay! I can draw you another one!

-I... I will find it. It's somewhere here I'm sure of it."

Seeing me made Arora laugh:

"You really have to tidy your room, father."

I knew that she was right but I just couldn't have Arora think that I lost the precious gift she spent hours on making me just because my stuff was all over the place. I suddenly got a genius idea and turned towards Bob:

"I knew it! He must have eaten it."

Bob looked up from his slumber, visibly hurt about the sudden allegations. A long silence followed before both Arora and Eulisses looked at me with a frown:

"Dad... It's okay, I told you I would make you another one."

I quickly shook my head:

"I swear it was Bob. He keeps stealing my things and tearing them to shreds."

Arora must have taken pity on me because she tried to quickly end the awkward moment:

"I think I have to go, I have a... An etiquette class soon! I will come back as soon as possible, dad! I will bring you another drawing then and we could frame it together for your Museum."

Arora didn't give me time to answer and ran away. I could feel Eulisses staring at me silently:

"Don't say anything."

Eulisses immediately turned around and pretended to be busy. Bob on the other hand decided that it was the perfect moment to grab my research paper closest to him and start tearing it apart. I felt like a crazy person when I turned to Eulisses:

"See? He does do it!"

I turned back to Bob with a frown:

"Couldn't you do this a few seconds ago?"

Bob didn't care at all and continued destroying everything. Eulisses must have felt that I was crazy as well because he slowly nodded before stepping away and pretending to clean my jewelry. Seeing him do so gave me an idea.