This Three-Year-Old Is A Villainess - Chapter 142
The scent of white winter wood, which humans can’t smell, feels like the pheromone of a cub to monsters.
However, it didn’t work on all monsters.
“So, the monster that attacked us when the white winter tree fell in Mt. Hadix last time…”
“Did you think we were attacking your cub? These humans are sorry…”
As Han Ji-hyuk and I got teary, Michelan furrowed his brow.
“Are you talking about the flying monster that was in Mt. Hadix? That’s Karuathon.”
“Karuathon?”
“It eats weaker beings. It came to eat because it smelled the scent of a cub.”
I had to choose carefully.
‘I can tame this one.’
The needledog is commonly kept as a guard beast. It shouldn’t be too hard to manage.
Patting the needledog that lay down at the sound of the flute, I murmured, “That’s right. Good boy.”
From a distance, I heard footsteps.
I could tell who it was just by the sound of the steps, so I didn’t even look back and just kept petting the needledog.
“Ah!”
It was Han Ji-hyuk.
Grrrrrrr!
The lying needledog suddenly got up and glared at Han Ji-hyuk, growling.
“Heck, that scared me.”
“Why’a yew so big now…”
“Why are you here?”
“What about the Empwess Dowagow’s painting?”
Han Ji-hyuk said he had met with the holder of the Empress Dowager’s painting while I was down.
Using the excuse of making copies, he sent two forgeries and hid the original.
“Well, I guess yew did a good job.”
“…You would have nagged if you were up, why.”
It seems he was worried I wouldn’t do anything.
Worried about what might really happen to me.
Han Ji-hyuk was pouting, staring at the ground.
I smirked.
“Did yew bwing thwe painting?”
“I’ve put it in your room.”
Together with Han Ji-hyuk, I went back to the room. There, the painting Han Ji-hyuk had brought was nicely wrapped and standing in the room.
“Why’s thwe painting so yuge…?”
“The painting itself is small, but the frame is huge.”
Han Ji-hyuk carefully tore open the wrapping paper to show it.
The real frame was incredibly unique.
‘This…’
“It’s a fwame used by smuggwuhs.”
“Smugglers?”
This place is a crime city, so crimes happen insanely often.
A long time ago, I learned in class that they used to smuggle drugs in such frames.
I immediately called Conrad to the room.
“Did you call for me?”
The summoned Conrad looked at me puzzled.
Flipping the painting, I told Han Ji-hyuk and Conrad,
“Pwess down on all fouw conuhs at once! If you’we even swightwy off, it won’t wuhk!” (Press down on all four corners at once! If you’re even slightly off, it won’t work!)
One, two, three!
Click!
Thump!
The painting dropped down, and a box appeared.
“Ack! The painting!”
While Han Ji-hyuk hurriedly caught the falling painting, I sneakily opened the box.
And…
“Wow─.”
There was another painting inside.
The condition of the painting was also good.
It made sense why—the box had a protection stone embedded inside.
“What a painting this is.”
A painting of a young girl hanging by a window with a view of the ocean, her back turned.
She had brown hair, and there was a small scar on her neck.
There was a signature on the back of the painting.
[Ordiachel K. Murellis]
As soon as I saw it, I shouted.
“Thwis is it!”
“Yes?”
“What?”
“The painting thwe Empwess Dowagow has been wooking fuh, it’s thwis one!” (The painting the Empress Dowager has been looking for, it’s this one!)
Ordiachel was the late mother of the Empress Dowager.
That’s why the Empress Dowager named the art museum after Ordiachel!
It wasn’t just a painting passed down by her mother.
“So she was searching for a painting her mother made…”
“The Empress Dowager’s mother was of such high status, why hide it?”
Conrad replied,
“Back then, paintings by female artists were believed to bring misfortune, so they were burned.”
That must be why the imperial palace couldn’t have a painting made by a woman.
“What will you do? Will you give it to the Empress Dowager right away?”
“Change of pwan.”
“What?”
If this painting is so precious, it can be a trump card.
Can’t use it just yet.
I laughed devilishly.
