Amelia
Amelia
"A message arrived saying the Saintess herself is coming to our territory. Why in the world...?"
"They say she was deeply moved by , Master Rupert. The sacred painting in the final scene was a work of art in its own right."
While receiving healing from Monk Manuel as usual, I was suddenly informed of the Saintess's visit.
'I did pour everything I had into that painting.'
Amelia Bluewell, the Imperial Chamberlain, Yustaf Heindel.
The list of illustrious visitors to the territory had been getting more impressive by the day, and now someone was coming who would top them all.
At least, unlike the others, this visit came with a sensible reason—a request to paint a sacred image while inspecting the church being built in Somerset Territory—so I felt reassured.
I'd heard that in this other world, painting hadn't developed much because of cameras, so the quality of sacred paintings wasn't particularly good. That made sense.
Considering that religion and painting are in fact inseparably close, I could understand the Saintess having such an intense reaction to a sacred painting.
Brilliant landscapes and portraits could be replaced by photographs, but things related to religion—things that couldn't actually be seen—could not be replaced by photographs.
Everyone who has seen 'The Last Supper,' the sacred painting that Leonardo da Vinci—a genius among geniuses—painted in a cathedral in Italy, says the same thing.
That before a great painting, a person naturally becomes solemn.
In a medieval era like this other world, when it comes to religious faith, the one thing better than a hundred words is a miracle—and the best means of showing that miracle to many people is a painting.
If a single well-drawn picture can strengthen people's faith, then from the Church's standpoint, there is no more efficient form of evangelism.
Besides, the Saintess was a character I'd wanted to meet at least once anyway.
The Saintess who appears in the latter half of the original work and, amid the fierce succession struggle for the imperial throne, sides with the protagonist, the Third Prince.
Because of that, she is a character who plays the important role of allowing the Third Prince, having gained the support of the Goddess Church, to ascend to the position of Crown Prince.
She had not even appeared yet in the webtoon adaptation I had produced, so I had only drawn an early character concept for her.
I was extremely curious what she actually looked like.
Even Rupert, whom I'd possessed, had a completely different face from the one I'd drawn.
It was fascinating that Amelia, the female lead, resembled my drawing to some degree.
Comparing the appearances I'd imagined with their real appearances was genuinely entertaining, so I looked forward to the Saintess's visit.
It was a polite request for a painting, so there was little pressure. Unlike the characters who were exhausting to become entangled with, the Saintess mostly stayed within the Church; getting on good terms with her would actually help me.
In this other world, the Church was the only institution with authority as strong as the imperial family's.
Unlike the imperial family, the Church rarely interfered in secular matters, and gaining a reputation as a devout believer in the Goddess Church could only help me.
'Though a mural would be impossible.'
Every type of painting demanded a different technique. I did want to try a mural someday, but under the current circumstances it was impossible.
The aforementioned “Last Supper” supposedly took five years to complete, and Michelangelo’s “Creation” took a similar amount of time.
No matter how extraordinary Rupert's talent was, it couldn't transcend the limits of time, so I would have to persuade her to settle for a large-scale painting rather than a mural.
There was still some time before the Saintess's visit, so now was the time to focus on my current work.
"No sooner do I finish the picture-book work than a commission for a sacred painting shows up."
After seeing off Monk Manuel, who had finished the healing, I immediately continued working on volume 4 of Iron-Blooded Alchemist.
During volume 3, I'd been short on time because I was drawing A Dog of Flanders, so I'd thought I'd be able to work on volume 4 at a more relaxed pace.
But with the sacred painting added to my workload, I felt I needed to finish quickly to avoid scheduling problems.
'Starting with volume 4, the story moves into the full-scale escalation of the conflict with the Artificial Humans.'
Lloyd Cavallo, after realizing that King Brandon is an Artificial Human, finally begins uncovering the conspiracy surrounding the empire.
And in that process, the scene where he loses a close comrade.
Then Skal, once their enemy, begins to discover that the tragedy inflicted on his people was actually the work of the Artificial Humans.
And then, at last, the true nature of the Gold Transmutation Stone is revealed.
The volume ends with the brothers falling into despair as they discover that the Gold Transmutation Stone is made by extracting souls from living people—the same brothers who had hoped to revive their mother and restore their bodies.
Volume 3 had tremendous impact, but volume 4's content was a succession of scenes no less shocking.
No wonder Sena had recoiled in horror when she saw my storyboards.
Especially at the scene where Lloyd Cavallo's soldier comrade and friend is murdered by an Artificial Human, she even shed tears, and I had a hard time calming her down.
This series was definitely too mature for children.
Of course, from what I heard, plenty of children secretly read it behind the adults’ backs anyway, so there was no real way to stop them.
That seems to be the same in this other world as on Earth.
I had secretly read manga with 19+ stickers when I was young too, so I was hardly in a position to lecture anyone.
'Should I make a work for all ages next time?'
Even though Iron-Blooded Alchemist still had a long way to go before completion, worrying about a follow-up felt too premature, so I dismissed the thought.
***
"My lady! You can leave this kind of work to us."
Baron Cellon, a vassal of the Bluewell Ducal House, was horrified and tried to stop Amelia's actions.
"It's fine. I'll be entering the Academy soon, and to uphold my dignity as a daughter of a ducal house there, I need to learn in advance."
Amelia had recently begun actively participating in family affairs, helping the Duke of Bluewell.
The vassals tried to stop her, insisting that a young lady should not be doing such work, but her firm answers and decisive manner defeated every objection.
She even announced that she wanted to try cooking and began appearing in the kitchen. For a while, the Bluewell family table was haunted by blackened objects of uncertain identity.
'I am full today.'
'Evelyn's full too because she ate snacks today!'
Naturally, the Duke of Bluewell and Evelyn, who had to eat that food, chose to flee quickly, but they were caught by Amelia's sharp gaze and could not leave the table until they had eaten every last bite.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the next day the Duke of Bluewell developed an upset stomach and missed the imperial council, while Evelyn locked herself in her room and declared a hunger strike. After that, Amelia was limited to practicing.
'It's edible, so why is everyone making such a fuss?'
The incident established two things: Amelia was catastrophically clumsy with her hands, and her sense of taste was unusual too.
In fact, there was a reason Amelia was suddenly behaving this way.
Iron-Blooded Alchemist, which she had naturally obtained and read because it was Rupert's new manga volume.
'Is that man's ideal type a woman like this?'
A charming female character who cheers on the protagonist brothers and always prepares a place for them to return to.
She was a strong woman who stayed by their side in hard times and happy times alike, supporting the protagonist like a sturdy pillar.
Amelia was so moved that part of her wanted to pick up a hammer and march straight to a smithy.
She imagined meeting Rupert at the Academy and cooking for him or helping him whenever his studies and creative work wore him out.
The image struck her as incredibly romantic and beautiful.
'Since his hometown is in the southern region, I wonder if he'd like dishes made with southern specialties?'
The south was a warm region famous for its fruit, so she felt like trying dishes made with fruit.
A warm stew with fruit in it, or bread served with fruit.
Pineapple, one of the south’s specialties, was famous for its sweet-and-tart flavor. Cut into pieces and scattered over freshly baked flatbread, it sounded surprisingly promising.
'I'm confident about this one, so I should let Father and Evelyn try it first.'
If the Duke and Evelyn had known, they would have fled immediately, but unfortunately, they could not know Amelia's inner thoughts.
***
"Damn it, how in the world did this happen?!"
The empire's wanted criminal 'Shylock' felt as if the current situation were a dream.
Originally a mercenary, at some point he had become unable to control his murderous impulses.
So while carrying out commissions he had slaughtered isolated households, taken part in human trafficking outlawed by the empire, and killed people for sport.
His crimes had eventually been uncovered and he had become a wanted man, but he had not worried much.
The empire was so vast that if he fled just a little to the outskirts, no one would recognize him, and if things got truly dangerous, he could escape to another country.
But a strange thing had begun happening a while ago.
'That person looks familiar somehow.'
Everywhere he went, people stared at him and whispered.
This wasn't his hometown, and it was a region far removed from where he'd committed his crimes.
Yet it was full of people who recognized him.
'Oh! That person's the Chimera Alchemist!'
What in the world did "Chimera Alchemist" mean?
It was bad enough that strangers kept calling him the “Chimera Alchemist”; then, while he was eating in a restaurant—
"Bring Nana back, you bastard!"
someone had even hurled a bone at him.
He wanted to kill the person who threw it, but since standing out would cause trouble, he had no choice but to hold back and leave the restaurant.
But this couldn't go on.
'I'll have to move to another country.'
He'd wanted to avoid leaving the empire where he was born and raised if possible, but to break out of this inexplicable situation, fleeing abroad seemed best.
Killing foreigners also held some interest for him.
'While I'm at it, I'd like to hunt some non-human races too.'
He decided he might as well turn the crisis into an opportunity and broaden his range of prey.
But his hopes could not be realized.
"I saw it clearly with my own two eyes!! Isn't that the world's worst villain right over there?"
His wish could not come true.
A farmer with a huge mole beside his nose arrived with the Imperial Guard, gleefully pointing Shylock out.