A large, ornate framed family portrait.

It was a symbol of a harmonious family that seemed to be hanging in every home as if by agreement.

However, it was an exception for Edward, who was poor. He was in a position where even that was considered a luxury for a pauper like him.

The only thing he could barely find in his situation was an unnamed local artist who drew portraits cheaply.

On his wife’s birthday during their newlywed days, all he could give her was a small portrait left on canvas with rough brush strokes by an unknown artist.

After that, Edward came to dislike photographs.

Even after time passed and he gained enough wealth to hold exhibitions if he wanted to, whenever he saw someone’s family photo, he was reminded of those times.

That’s why he refused his wife’s request.

Naturally, when their circumstances improved, his wife brought up the idea of taking a family photo.

But Edward avoided his wife’s plea with words like next time, next year, after this work is done.

He had his reasons.

He thought that taking a photo now would be admitting that they ‘couldn’t’ take photos before, rather than ‘didn’t’.

Looking back now, it was nothing more than a needless inferiority complex.

But that’s how it was then. With that unnecessary pride, he always postponed the promise, saying they’d take it next time. As this repeated, his wife became cautious and eventually stopped bringing up the topic of photos, saying it was fine.

Back then, he thought his wife would be by his side forever.

He foolishly thought their time together was eternal, so it would be okay to postpone it just this once.

Edward opened his lips heavily.

“Agatha. If you go to the outer shed, there’s a large canvas covered with lambskin.”

Mrs. Johnson raised her head at the familiar topic she had heard before.

“Ah… You mean the canvas that Madam wanted to hang in the reception room?”

“You remember. Yes, that’s the one.”

Edward said while finishing his hair, the last step of his preparations to go out.

“Bring that and hang it in my room, in front of the sofa.”

The portrait of themselves that he had avoided to the end due to his pride.

Now it was the only image of his wife he had left.

Mrs. Johnson asked in response to Edward’s order.

“You said to hang it? Here in this room, right now?”

“Yes. Is there a problem?”

Mrs. Johnson shook her head with a very strange expression at Edward’s question.

“There’s no problem, but…”

“Then why are you acting like that? Tell me.”

He asked again. Somehow, Mrs. Johnson’s reaction was unsettling.

Now he couldn’t carelessly overlook anything related to his wife. He felt he had to hear the reason from Mrs. Johnson no matter what.

Mrs. Johnson bowed her head very apologetically and said.

“I thought you would surely tell me to throw it away… I’m sorry, Master.”

“Throw it away? Me?”

Edward asked incredulously.

Mrs. Johnson then clasped her hands, not knowing what to do.

Seeing this, Edward took a deep breath and slowly, in a measured pace, continued speaking.

“If you have a reason for thinking that, please tell me. I promise there will be no punishment.”

“Well…”

She looked at Edward’s expression and stammered out her story.

“You had fiercely rejected it when Madam wanted to hang it…”

Indeed, such a thing had happened. Edward nodded once as if to say continue.

“Madam also asked me that if you ever ordered to throw this canvas away, instead of putting it in the trash, to burn it like a photograph.”

“Louisa did?”

“Yes. So I thought for sure you would tell me to throw it away…”

Mrs. Johnson kept looking at Edward’s expression as she spoke. She had told the story, but she couldn’t tell if this was really okay.

“Why on earth would Louisa think such a thing…?”

Edward fell into thought.

He was pondering the cause of the problem rather than reprimanding. Mrs. Johnson, relieved, shared her thoughts.

“Well, because your relationship wasn’t good, and you angrily said not to hang the portrait of you two, I thought you naturally hated it.”

She had blurted out her assumption, thinking it must be wrong. However, Edward nodded and said,

“That’s right. I really hate that portrait.”

It was an utterly contradictory answer. Mrs. Johnson asked in confusion,

“You hate it? Then why do you want to hang it?”

“Because Louisa is in it.”

“…Pardon?”

Mrs. Johnson, unable to follow his thought process, questioned.

Edward, finding his gloves instead of Mrs. Johnson who had stopped moving, said,

“I hate that portrait. Of course, I hate photos too. When everyone else was taking and hanging their photos, I had to look at them because I had no money.”

He put on the glove on his right hand.

“That painting is terrible to look at every time because it was drawn then. But Louisa is in it. How could I throw that away? How could I burn it?”

With gloves on both hands, he finally picked up his coat. As he slipped his arms into the coat sleeves, he said,

“…Of course, what’s the use of saying all this now.”

He laughed self-deprecatingly.

“There’s nothing to gain by talking more about this, so let’s end this conversation here.”

Mrs. Johnson felt deeply sorry for this young master.

Edward, adjusting his coat, looked at the wall in front of the sofa and said,

“Anyway, when I come back, I want to see my wife. So please find that and hang it up.”

He moved his steps, deliberately ignoring his wife’s presence that filled every corner.

How much I love you, how could I carelessly handle things you’ve drawn, things your hands have touched.

“You said you didn’t know me. You really didn’t, did you.”

Edward muttered bitterly to himself as he descended the landing.

As Edward opened the door to the laboratory, it was naturally Jeffrey who greeted him most enthusiastically.

“Boss!”

Jeffrey ran over in one breath, as if he had discovered a hero coming to rescue him.

Edward scanned the interior of the laboratory without even glancing at Jeffrey who was welcoming him.

The employees’ desks were quite clean. Except for the playing cards scattered on one side as if they had been playing poker, word puzzle games rolling around on the other side, and things like Jenga.

As he scrutinized the frozen faces of the employees, Jeffrey quietly approached him and whispered,

“It’s not good to play at work, but it’s also not good to just leave them idle with nothing to do. You know what I mean, right?”

His words, if interpreted, meant that neither side had done well, so let’s just pretend it never happened.

Edward heaved a deep sigh.

“Fine. I don’t intend to say anything about this incident.”

At Edward’s words, the employees’ faces lit up with joy.

He had proudly declared with his own mouth that the next project would be a magic stone energy amplifier, but he had disappeared before the actual project could even begin.

With the absence of the person who should have been the main axis of development, there were no work instructions, so everything had to come to a halt.

But now he didn’t want to try as hard as before. Not only was there no need to try now that his wife had left his side, but his efforts only ate away at everyone.

All that was needed was to maintain the appearance that the company was running adequately.

He would now stop managing the work of all teams as he had done before.

“If anyone has ideas for things they want to do besides the amplifier, write them down and bring them to me. I’ll set up separate teams for ideas that can be developed that way, so everyone think about it for a while.”

Edward sat at his desk in the laboratory for the first time in a very long time.

He watched the excited employees chattering away as if he were an audience member watching a play.

Before, he had kept a close eye on each and every one of them, but now he was observing from a step back, as if watching falling rain.

“Boss. Here.”

Jeffrey held out a mug filled with coffee. Edward, taking the cup offered to him, said,

“The color looks unusual.”

“It’s three shots.”

“…This too, it’s been a while.”

Edward furrowed his brow at the coffee aroma that seemed like it would make his head spin just from smelling it.

“It’s been so long since you’ve been here. Caffeine for a stiff head.”

Jeffrey made a gesture as if toasting, raising the coffee cup he was holding towards the sky. He downed the strong coffee in one gulp and said,

“Now that you’re here, Boss, I’ll head over to the exhibition hall. Actually, there was an issue yesterday with either the train rails or wheels, but I’ve only received a report and haven’t been able to go check it out yet.”

Because there was no one in charge at the laboratory.

Jeffrey added, as if for Edward to hear.

Although Edward found him disagreeable, he had nothing more to say and cynically replied,

“Do as you please.”

Jeffrey, who had been standing there watching Edward even after emptying his cup, quietly called out.

“Boss.”

“What.”

“You’re planning to stop dedicating your entire life to the company like before, aren’t you?”

He seemed to have already noticed Edward’s intention to assign individual projects to employees, instead of trying to control everything as he used to.

Edward pondered for a moment before answering.

“…Yes.”

“You’ve made a good decision. Although it’s late.”

Jeffrey placed his cup squarely on Edward’s desk and said,

“Then I’ll be going now.”

“Do as you please.”

At the curt reply, Jeffrey grumbled that some things really don’t change even when a person changes.

But as Jeffrey was leaving, something caught his eye.

There was an unfamiliar metal case in a corner of Edward’s desk. He picked it up and said,

“Oh? Boss, what’s this?”

Edward narrowed his eyes and looked at what Jeffrey had picked up.

“I don’t know.”

Jeffrey, who always opened unknown things first, immediately opened the lid.

Inside was something of an unknown deep pink color. There were marks on the inside as if it had been swept with something like a small brush. He showed the inside of the case and said,

“This looks like that thing… you know, that thing women put on their lips. Lipstick.”

“Why would something like that be on my desk.”

“I don’t know? Is it your wife’s?”

“Are you blind? Louisa hardly wears makeup. She doesn’t use such intense colors.”

“Then where on earth did this come from to end up here…”

Jeffrey tilted his head. After pondering for a moment, he clapped his hands and said,

“Ah, isn’t this from that time? When Earl Ernst visited with his daughter?”

At Jeffrey’s words, Edward finally recalled that day.