As Eisen followed the maid into the room, he handed the bag of meat to the maid, who took it and passed it to other colleagues.
The maid with a deep voice brought Eisen a cup of black tea with lemon juice and a small bag of coins, then closed the door and went out. She gently rang a handbell in front of a small separate room in the hall. She rang it three times in total, which meant that a guest was visiting.
"I understand." Viscount Freya responded with simple words.
Now Aisen only had to wait for the hostess to receive him.
Viscount Freya's residence is still as cold and quiet as ever. Completely different from the exquisite and luxurious living style of other nobles, Viscount Freya's residence adopts a relatively simple style.
The decoration in the side hall is only a creepy oil painting on the wall, and some necessary tables and chairs, nothing else;
This makes the entire side hall look particularly empty and deserted.
Fortunately, each room has relatively open windows, otherwise the whole environment would look gloomy.
The afterglow of dusk shone through the window and onto the oil painting hanging on the wall. It was a work with a strange style.
Its painting style is neither the popular Rococo style nor the traditional classical or academic style.
①
This is a Baroque oil painting.
Baroque oil paintings became popular in the 17th century. Exaggeration, incompleteness, and strong color contrast are the characteristics of Baroque.
Generally speaking, Baroque paintings use people as the protagonists. The characters in the paintings often use vivid and bold postures to present a sense of picture, and the use of bright color contrast can highlight the three-dimensional effect of light and shadow, making the characters in a highlighted position to grab the viewer's attention.
Most Baroque paintings were influenced by Renaissance humanism, resulting in many works being closely related to characters, religion and mythology.
In the early seventeenth century, Baroque paintings received strong support from the Society of the Holy Light, and a large number of works praising the Holy Light flowed into the market and were accepted by the public.
The most representative painter among them is Peter Paul Rubens, who was born in the Holy Roman Empire. His work "The Immaculate Conception" was once compared with "The Sistine Madonna" created by the great Italian painter Raphael.
Although the painting on the wall is in Baroque style, its content makes people feel uneasy.
The painting depicts a church-like background with a sacred and solemn atmosphere. A man kneels before the crucifixion statue of the Son of God and prays. However, a dark shadow resembling a mouse can be vaguely seen in the shadow at the lower left corner of the picture.
It is very similar to an ordinary mouse. If you look at it from a distance, it is difficult to tell the difference between it and an ordinary mouse, which can easily confuse people.
It has messy black hair on its body and a long pale tail, but this tail looks more like a keel with the meat shaved off.
If you look closely, you will find that it has a distorted human face. The expression on that face is lifelike, as if it has been tortured but cannot be relieved.
Its claws are very similar to human hands, and like ordinary rodents it has four large teeth, but the human-faced rat in the painting has a mouth full of sharp teeth, just like a shark.
The appearance of such an evil and strange creature in a sacred place like a church makes the whole painting present a contradictory but distinct sense of conflict. On one hand, the atmosphere is solemn, and on the other hand, it is weird and terrifying. If such a painting were leaked and discovered by the people of the Holy Light Society, it would probably be regarded as an act of heresy. However, it was hung in the side hall by Viscount Freya in a dignified manner.
Because this is a work created by Viscount Freya herself.
Painting is the Lady Viscount's hobby. She often spends a lot of time in the studio. She is addicted to the feeling of creating a world on the canvas. Her studio is in a corner of the hall.
Earlier, the maid asked Eisen to go through the small door so as not to disturb Viscount Freya who was immersed in painting.
Painting allows Viscount Freya to present all kinds of strange fantasies in her mind in the real world. Sometimes Viscount Freya even thinks that her mission is to complete a stunning painting.
Eisen stood in front of the painting holding a teacup, and looked carefully at the exquisitely painted painting.
As he watched, Eisen suddenly had a strange idea.
“Isn’t this person kneeling in the church me?”
Eisen remembered everything that had happened to him in the slaughterhouse before, the squeaking sound from the rats and the dark shadows in his dream. He couldn't help but put himself into the scene in the painting.
But after a while, Eisen shook his head and denied his absurd idea in his heart. He was convinced that the scenes in the painting were impossible to happen and that they were just coincidences.
"There aren't so many coincidences in the world."
Aisen whispered to himself softly.
"Do you like it? If you like it, this painting is for you. Anyway, I drew it the day before yesterday."
Viscount Freya appeared silently behind Eisen and said.
Eisen was startled by Freya's sudden appearance. He almost couldn't hold the tea in his hand and even spilled some on his clothes.
He turned around and saw Freya, whose face was still as pale as ever.
She was wearing simple cloth with some stains of oil paint on her body and a little red paint on her pale face. It was obvious that she had been painting in the studio before.
Aisen said in surprise,
"Ah, when did you come in?"
"When you were concentrating on looking at the painting, I pushed the door open and came in. I have been standing behind you for a long time."
Viscount Freya said.
"Okay, okay, I must have been too absorbed in looking at it. Did you draw this?"
Eisen asked.
Viscount Freya played with her long brown hair with her fingers, lowered her head and said "hmm" softly.
Eisen asked suddenly.
“Can you tell me about the inspiration for your painting?”
Before this, Aisen only regarded Freya as one of the objects of entertainment. Every time he came and left in a hurry, he didn't pay any attention to the painting on the wall.
He considered himself a rough man and did not know how to appreciate the works of art that were sought after by the aristocracy or the upper class. In his view, the so-called works of art were at most a tool for publicity, and even those works of art sold at high prices by auction houses were nothing more than a boring commercial behavior.
For Eisen, sex was just an equal exchange in which both parties got what they wanted, but the painting in the side hall made Eisen curious about Freya and her paintings.
"Okay, then come with me."