Circle of Inevitability

The figure he saw was a boy of about seven or eight, dressed like a young gentleman with yellow hair, brown eyes, and chubby cheeks. He had an honest and innocent aura, and Lumian immediately recognized him as Baron Brignais's godson, the peculiar boy, Ludwig.

Ludwig stood in front of a wall painting adorned with doughnuts, his young eyes fixated on the artwork. Sensing someone watching him, he turned around and spotted Lumian.

Lumian smiled and playfully teased, "Running away from home again?"

Ludwig, this time with more composure, replied, "No. I told my godfather that learning can't be limited to textbook knowledge. It's equally important to read more, hear more, and interact with other things."

Lumian inquired, "And he brought you here to see the art exhibition?" However, he couldn't spot Baron Brignais in the vicinity.

He noticed that Ludwig's intelligence and knowledge seemed to have improved a bit, allowing him to come up with an excuse he had used before.

It appeared that learning was having a positive impact on him!

Ludwig nodded and added, "Yes. It's important for a child to cultivate an appreciation for art from a young age."

Lumian clicked his tongue and continued, "So, no textbooks, homework, or exams today?"

Ludwig responded, a joyful smile unknowingly plastered across his face, "It's incidental."

Internally, Lumian noted, There's been some growth, but not much…

At that moment, Baron Brignais, donning a silk top hat and a black suit, approached from the other side of the exhibition hall.

Lumian couldn't help but make a mocking remark, "Aren't you worried he'll get lost?"

As a Conspirer, Lumian picked up on something unusual about this situation.

Given Brignais's past anxiety when Ludwig ran away, he shouldn't have left the child alone in the exhibition hall!

Brignais smiled and said, "Ludwig has been doing well recently and hasn't tried to run away from home. He was engrossed in admiring the paintings, so I didn't want to disrupt him when I went to the washroom."

Sounds like something an irresponsible parent would do, but Baron, you weren't like this before. I suspect you did it on purpose… You deliberately left Ludwig alone in the exhibition hall to see what this strange child would do? Heh heh, you don't have to worry about him. You have to worry about the surrounding visitors. If this guy gets hungry and you don't provide food in time, I'm afraid someone will be eaten, Lumian criticized as he made a guess.

He sensed that Baron Brignais had an ulterior motive for arranging this visit to the exhibition. It was akin to leading an experienced hound to a specific occasion, releasing its ropes to see if it would track down certain prey.

After answering Lumian's question, Baron Brignais, clutching his bulging briefcase, looked at Ludwig.

"When you get back, write an essay regarding the art exhibition, detailing your feelings and the work that left the deepest impression."

Ludwig's expression crumbled.

Lumian was not surprised. He had plenty of experience being thrown into such a situation.

Instead of conversing with Baron Brignais and Ludwig, he chose to continue his observation of the paintings. His attention fixated on the presence of any motel-like structures within the corresponding pieces, the existence of a human model resembling Séraphine, and the potential impact on the visitors' perceptions and their surroundings.

Regrettably, Lumian's exploration of the three small exhibition halls yielded no significant findings. Instead, Mullen's "Café" drawing, which he had created with his buttocks, drew the attention of numerous tourists, sparking both admiration and criticism.

Standing in the final exhibition hall, Lumian contemplated his next move. Retrieving his brown, gold-rimmed glasses, he decided to give them a try.

Since his unaided vision and Spirit Vision revealed no discernible issues, he opted to test the Mystery Prying Glasses from the same pathway!

Carefully positioning the glasses on his nose bridge, Lumian braced himself as the world around him seemed to spin and whirl. His focus remained on the scenes unfolding within his "vision."

Each painting took on a life of its own, breaking free from the confines of the walls.

Some of the paintings seemed to regard Lumian with a chilling, penetrating gaze.

Initially taken aback, Lumian feared that something extraordinary was afoot with all the portraits, potentially placing him in a dire situation. However, he soon realized that he wasn't under attack.

The figures within the portraits merely stared at him with silent and cold intensity.

It was as if they had attained a degree of consciousness and a sense of being, yet they hadn't fully emerged from their canvas confines to walk among the living.

A revelation dawned upon Lumian.

Through the lens of the Mystery Prying Glasses, he was witnessing another reality.

Perhaps, in some parallel aspect of the world, each painting held a semblance of reality. However, they remained two-dimensional, flat, and lacking in depth, incapable of significantly impacting the human realm or the spirit world. There might be exceptions, moments where extended contemplation of certain works induced feelings of delirium or anxiety.

It occurred to Lumian that Painters could potentially amplify the limited, flat nature of these objects, opening a pathway to the realm of the real.

In essence, the characters within ordinary paintings might possess an incomplete, condensed, and spiritually deficient existence in this two-dimensional, flat world. With the aid of the Mystery Prying Glasses, they were unveiled in their true form.

Likewise, Lumian's perception unveiled deeper truths—the artist's most profound creative intentions.

One painting depicted the future of Trier, a divided realm. On the surface, men and women reveled in lavish banquets, adorned in opulent attire. Beneath the surface, ragged individuals dwelled in dark tunnels, subsisting on earthworms, rats, and moss. Yet, through the Mystery Prying Glasses, Lumian glimpsed fat, glutinous pigs with oil oozing from their mouths on the surface. Below, grotesque, contorted visages and decaying hands reached upwards.

This was the true message the artist sought to convey.

In the next instant, Lumian spotted Baron Brignais and his godson Ludwig.

The former appeared unremarkable when viewed through the Mystery Prying Glasses, but there was a faint, brassy aura emanating from his form. As for the latter, something chilling unfolded as he abruptly turned his head, seemingly locking eyes with Lumian across two exhibition halls.

Ludwig's chubby face took on an unsettling transformation; his skin seemed to writhe, as if it were on the verge of shedding, and something from beneath the surface attempted to burrow out.

Lumian's heart tightened, and he instinctively removed the Mystery Prying Glasses,

instantly restoring the scene to its normal state.

There's indeed something amiss with Ludwig… Thankfully, I reacted quickly. Otherwise, I might have seen something I shouldn't have… Lumian's head spun, and his feet felt like they were stepping on cotton.

He had always sensed that Ludwig was far from ordinary, but this encounter had sent his danger instincts into overdrive.

The true nature of the innocent-seeming human skin concealing the boy beneath remained an ominous mystery.

Ugh… Lumian had worn the Mystery Prying Glasses for an extended period this time, and his discomfort was overwhelming. Despite the diminishing dizziness, he felt profoundly nauseous, with a painful ache in his stomach, a pressing need to vomit and tend to other bodily functions.

Even a Conspirer's constitution couldn't withstand this.

Taking a deep breath, Lumian made his way to the washroom adjacent to the three exhibition halls.

It was situated at the end of a long corridor adorned with statues and paintings, perfectly in line with the Trier Arts Center's ambiance.

Once inside the washroom, Lumian attended to his urgent needs, and after washing his face with cold water, he gradually regained his composure, with the discomfort dissipating.

Exiting the washroom, Lumian's gaze naturally drifted toward the opposite wall, where a series of paintings were on display.

One particular painting drew his attention, a macabre and enigmatic piece that gripped his senses.

It was an oil painting set against a vividly layered background, with a focal point on a naked woman.

Her face remained blurred, as if the painter had intentionally left it blank. On her body, distinct faces emerged, each bearing a different emotion—anger, hatred, malice, joy. Some of these faces resembled those of cats, others of dogs, and some appeared to exist solely in the realm of fantasy. What united them was their eerie, translucent yet lifelike quality.

As Lumian stared at this unsettling painting, a thought dawned on him.

During Gabriel's visit to the art exhibition, he had seemed perfectly normal, at least as per the accounts of the authors. But they couldn't have monitored his every move, especially during mundane activities like visiting the washroom!

…

Avenue du Marché, Thtre de l'Ancienne Cage à Pigeons.

Jenna had just stepped out when she spotted a familiar figure standing beneath a gas street lamp on the opposite side of the road.

It was a young boy, dressed in a white shirt, silver vest, black coat, and a mercury bow tie, his light-yellow hair neatly combed.

The child who brought me good luck last time… that formidable Beyonder! Jenna exclaimed inwardly, taken aback. She instinctively crossed the street and approached the boy.

With a slight bow, she greeted him with a smile, "Were you waiting for me?"

The boy glanced at her and muttered, "I wasn't waiting for you. You were waiting for me. You met me earlier than any other choice."

What's the matter this time? Are you offering me good luck for the impending catastrophe and getting me to discover something? Jenna's thoughts raced as she casually asked, "Didn't you say that this direction was a little dangerous last time? Why are you here this time?"

The boy's response was measured and earnest, "That day was that day, and today is today. Just because it was a little dangerous that day doesn't mean it's dangerous today." n./01n

"Alright…" Jenna probed with a probing smile. "Do you need my help to buy you an ice-cream?"

The boy, however, responded with a long, almost adult-like sigh.

"It's something else; I'll pay you."

Pay? Giving me good luck? Jenna had a vague idea, but she didn't inquire about the reward. She decided to cut to the chase, asking, "What's the favor?"

The boy reached into his pocket and retrieved a gleaming golden coin, sidestepping her question.

"This will be your reward—a lucky gold coin."

 

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