It Was Enough to Sabotage It

"Hello, Sir Schneider. I'm Bismarck, the painter, and this is my assistant, Oscar."

Frederick was preparing for his own small art exhibition when Schneider suddenly commissioned him to paint a family portrait of the whole family.

Schneider asked, "May I ask how long it would take at the shortest to paint this portrait?"

Frederick thought for a moment. "I'll sketch out the draft this morning, and it'll be finished in five days."

Schneider was a little surprised. Wasn't this sort of thing usually measured in months? And he was measuring it in days?

But it didn't matter. All that counted was letting people know he was having a family portrait painted.

Frederick sketched out the four members of Schneider's family, settled on the details of their clothes and the background, collected the deposit, and returned to the hotel where he was staying.

Bellberk leisurely sipped tea, with several of today's newspapers beside her, reading them carefully.

At half past five in the afternoon, Frederick finished his work for the day and covered the canvas with a damp cloth.

"They're trying to escape," Bellberk said with a smile. "The newspapers have been claiming these past two days that Grand Duke Wessen will definitely help. That must be putting immense pressure on Schneider—enough to drive someone to kill."

"If he doesn't want to kill himself, his only option is to run."

"Right now, he must be doing things to hint that everything is normal, while planning to flee before those two enormous debts come due."

Frederick came out after washing his hands and asked with interest, "Do you think he'll manage to get away?"

Bellberk answered seriously, "That depends on whether you want to let him escape."

Just then, someone knocked on the door. Bellberk opened it, but nobody was outside. There