Chapter 122: Leonardo Da Vinci

Florence, Italy

October, 1480

–

Erik had transported himself to Rome and from there he flew to the city of Florence, where a genius painter and sculptor named Leonardo Da Vinci was supposed to have his workshop. He walked through the city and entered various stores to talk with the vendors while buying some random things, doing the same for street stalls. Not surprisingly, the street stalls had more information available and were more eager to please a buying customer. With that, Erik quickly had the place of work of Leonardo Da Vinci, just like some gossip about his family.

Leonardo Da Vinci was born out of wedlock, something that for the time was not very accepted by society. It was common, but not frowned upon. The funny thing was that more than one street stall owner commented that Da Vinci's family was having difficulties in finding a husband candidate for their daughter. When Erik asked more about it while discretely passing some coins to the stall owner, he said that the girl was frightening all of her pretenders.

Well, that was new for Erik. Apparently, Leonardo Da Vinci had a sister. A twin sister to be more exact about it. In his past world, Erik had never found any indication that the man had a twin sister. Other family members? Sure. But not a twin. Erik started to think if that was another divergence about the world as a result of one universe leaking into another, or if she had just been 'erased' from history, something that sadly could be the reality.

Following the instructions that he got from the stall owners, Erik walked through the streets of Florence and soon arrived at Leonardo Da Vinci's workshop. Erik looked at the building and let out a sigh of relief.

*sigh*

Apparently, the man that he was looking for was inside the workshop together with a woman. Erik approached the door of the workshop and pushed a button by the side of the door with some curiosity. A second later, he heard a bell being hit some times on the inside of the building. Erik analyzed the 'button' with his senses and saw that connected with it was a series of gears and thin cords that ended in a mechanism to activate the bell.

'Ingenious. A rudimentary doorbell.'

Erik thought. Immediately he could sense the people inside the workshop moving about. The man, who he assumed was Leonardo, started to slowly move to the door while giving the woman some orders.

"Leona, get out of the desk. I have someone at the door."

Erik heard the man saying to the woman, Leona.

*sigh*

The woman let out a sigh and moved from the place where she was. To the other side of the workshop. It was then that the door opened and Erik saw for the first time the possible legendary polymath. He was a normal-looking man with blue eyes, blonde hair, and a short beard.

"Yes? How can I help you?"

The man asked while looking at Erik.

"Good afternoon. I'm searching for Leonardo Da Vinci."

Erik said to the man that he assumed was Leonardo Da Vinci just to confirm his identity.

"That would be me, how can I help you, sir…?

Leonardo Da Vinci replied to Erik, who smiled.

"That is great! My name is Erik Ravenclaw and I would like to hire your services as a painter."

Erik said to the man, who nodded his head.

"Come on inside then, let us talk."

Leonardo Da Vinci said and gestured for Erik to enter the workshop. Erik followed Leonardo Da Vinci inside the workshop while looking around the place. Everywhere he looked at in the place had some piece of art or the prototype of some invention being displayed. Leonardo Da Vinci brought Erik to a small lounge area. On the way there, he saw who the woman, Leona, was. She had blonde hair and blue eyes just like Leonardo Da Vinci. The clothes that she was wearing, a dress, had some black ink blots on the sleeves, just like her hands had black ink spots on them too, which she quickly hid after noticing that Erik's eyes were on her. Discreetly, Erik looked in the direction where the woman was before and saw that it was a work desk. On top of it, a lot of pages were scattered about with an inkpot and a quill resting at the side. Erik could see with his enhanced senses that the ink was still wet in some of the pages but what surprised him was the content written and drawing on it. Human anatomy. The pages had some detailed descriptions and drawings of the human body and some muscles of it.

'So she must be the twin sister. Now it makes sense.'

Erik thought while he took his seat in a chair offered to him by Leonardo Da Vinci. At that time, in human society, it was frowned upon that women would have any desire to pursue any field of sciences. Now it made sense why her family was having problems in marrying her out. She was probably scaring the men away with her brain. Erik chuckled at that idea internally.

"So, what kind of painting are we talking about?"

Leonardo Da Vinci asked Erik, who focused back on the discussion at hand.

"I want to have a portrait of my family painted."

Erik said. He had decided when he heard about the polymath that he would have a painting painted by Leonardo. And what better subject to it than his family? Leonardo Da Vinci nodded his head in understanding.

"And how many people are we talking about here?"

He asked Erik. While people asking for portraits were common, the more people to be painted in a portrait, the more time it took.

"Not many. My family is just me, my sister, and my four wives."

Erik replied nonchalantly.

"You, your sister, and four wiv-... Did you just say four wives?"

Leonardo Da Vinci started saying but stopped mid-sentence when the realization of what Erik had just said hit him. His eyes went wide with the question. Erik chuckled at the man's reaction.

"Yes, four wives. Can you paint us?"

Erik replied while guiding the conversation back to the subject at hand.

"Oh, right, sorry. That would be six people in the painting. It will take some time to do but I can. We will have to do some meetings with everyone."

Leonardo Da Vinci said after returning his mind to the request.

"No problem at all, we just need to be told when you want the meeting to occur and we will be all together for it."

Erik said back to Leonardo Da Vinci, who nodded his head.

"I think that we will need a minimum of three meetings. The first one will be a sketch of you all together, the ones after the first will be so I can add details to the initial painting."

Leonardo Da Vinci explained and Erik nodded his head in understanding.

"No problem at all, Mr. Da Vinci. Already said to you, just ask when and we will all be there. Just be sure to give us some days of warning so we can arrange everything."

Erik said to Leonardo Da Vinci.

"Now about the price…"

Leonardo Da Vinci started but was interrupted by Erik.

"Price is not a problem at all, Mr. Da Vinci."

Erik said and took a heavy-looking coin bag from inside his vest and put it on top of a small table in front of Leonardo Da Vinci. The man visible gulped down at the sight of the bag. With shaky hands, he took the bag and opened it. Inside were gold coins. Only gold coins. With wide eyes, Leonardo Da Vinci looked at Erik.

"Sir, how much there is here?"

Leonardo Da Vinci asked.

"A hundred and fifty coins."

Erik replied. He had prepared that bag with that sole purpose.

"Will that be enough for a painting containing six people?"

Erik asked Leonardo Da Vinci, who quickly nodded his head.

"Yes, more than enough."

Leonardo Da Vinci replied while still looking at the gold coins.

"Good. Now if you excuse me, I have to go back. When you decide on the first meeting, sent a letter addressed to me to the local office of the Ravens' Merchantile Group with the date and time. It will get back to me and we will be there for the meeting."

Erik said to Leonardo Da Vinci and got up from his seat. Leonardo Da Vinci was still looking with wide eyes at the bag of gold in front of him and showed no reaction to Erik getting up. It was then that the woman who Erik supposed was his sister, Leona, got up from the place where she was 'hiding'.

"I will guide you to the door, sir."

She said to Erik, who nodded his head in agreement. While walking, he decided to dig about her a little.

"So, why were you hiding?"

Erik asked the woman.

"Hiding? I don't know what you are talking about, sir."

She replied to Erik.

"The blots of ink in your dress sleeve and the ink droplets on your hands say that you were working on something before I arrived. So I ask you again, why are you hiding?"

Erik stated and asked again making the woman try to hide her hands with her dress. She stood in silence for the rest of the walking and felt some relief when Erik didn't push her for an answer. When they arrived at the door of the workshop, Erik turned to face her.

"You know, my four wives are all intelligent and powerful women on their own. One is a diplomat for her country, the other has her own business that dominates the market in that area, the other is a warrior of such strength and skill that very few men could ever dream to match, and the last one is a researcher. You don't need to be afraid of telling me your skills."

Erik said to the silent blonde woman. When no answer came, he continued talking.

"If you ever want to work, go to one of our offices and sent me a message through them."

Erik said again and turned to leave.

"Wait…"

Erik stopped when he heard the blond woman calling him out. He then turned to look at her.

"What is your link to the Ravens' Merchantile Group?"

She asked Erik, who smiled at her. It was not what he was expecting, but it didn't matter.

"I'm the owner."

He said simply and continued to walk, letting the blond woman gawk at him. One had to know that at this age, the Ravens' Merchantile Group was the hegemony of trading power in the seas. No country in Europe didn't have at least one office of the trading group with every big harbor city having one office of them.

–

A week later, Erik received a package from the office in Florence that contained a letter from Leonardo Da Vinci with the date and time for the first meeting. It would occur in one week for the first time in the afternoon. Erik smiled while reading it. On his desk, by the side, were piles of copies of all of Leonardo's publications in the academic world until the moment. And in none of them, the caligraphy matched with the one in the letter. At this moment, Serafall walked inside his office.

"You wanted to talk with me, darling?"

She said while smiling. Erik had asked to talk with her when she was available and here she was now. She had just arrived from the underworld and was a little tired from all the shenanigans that the Devils could come up with. Serafall walked to Erik's side and was immediately pulled to his lap and hugged. She quickly melted in his arms.

"Remember that you asked me to help you find good peerage members?"

Erik asked Serafall, who nodded her head in confirmation. Of all the Satans she was the one that had the smallest number of peerage members. It was very difficult to find someone that 'clicked' with her.

"Well, I found you a candidate."

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