The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

LEO

When Isabelle left and I got my paper and sat in front of my desk, getting ready to draw and thinking about what dream I should pick, Blanche walked over to me and asked,

"Do you have anything in mind?"

Her voice was much kinder than how it sounded when she was talking to Beatrice earlier.

"No plan yet. I’m just thinking about what to draw, heh."

"Hm, then may I suggest something?"

"Sure!"

"How about," she said, continuing after a slight pause, "you draw something you want to see?"

"What do you mean?"

"When we draw dreams, we draw something we have already seen, right? And we don’t really control what we see in dreams. It can be fun, but there is also less intention from the artist," Blanche began to explain.

"I suppose...?"

"So why not use your imagination to think about something you WANT TO see, not something that is shown to you in your dreams?"

"You mean like my dream?"

"A different kind of dream, yes. Something you wish for."

That suddenly opened up my mind and gave me tons of ideas.

I could draw Davi and Abe coming over and me showing them around the Academy—how impressed they would be. I could draw myself eating a massive plate of Erdville potatoes. I could draw myself as a full Royal Knight. I could draw myself catching a fish that was even bigger than the biggest fish we had ever caught...the possibilities were endless.

"Thank you, Blanche. I think I have so many ideas now it’s going to be harder to choose which one to pick! But I certainly have no problem thinking of what to draw now."

"I’m glad I could help. I’ll be looking forward to it, then," Blanche said and went back to her canvas.

While I was talking to her, I already had a few more images in my mind, but then, after seeing the other pictures I had drawn before still on my desk, I had an idea—I was going to draw a picture where Mario was actually in it! That would make up for him being missing from my canary dream, I thought.

So I began to draw the hill just outside Erdville that looked down over the entire village, and the old tree on one side that provided shade to a flat rock where many travellers sat and rested. I could remember every house from that viewpoint. There was smoke coming out of the chimney of Boring Brad’s house, Big Sis Sally hanging laundry in her backyard, then me in the middle, on the path leading to the village, then Davi and Abe running toward me with smiles on their faces.

All that was left was Mario.

I was excited about how the picture was turning out. Anyone from Erdville who saw the picture would immediately be able to tell it was our village. Everything was in the right place.

All I needed was Mario in it, but I wanted to get it right, especially his face. So I tried to imagine how he would look as he saw Erdville from a distance for the first time. I could vaguely picture him smiling, but a simple smile wouldn’t do it. After a few minutes, I realized how hard it was to draw a face well, especially when the model was someone like Mario, who didn’t show his feelings very well.

Then, in my silliness, I thought maybe if he came into the room right now, saw the picture, then all I had to do would be to draw his expression as he was looking at the picture.

Yeah, that would be great. All I need now is Mario to turn up. If he did right now, for whatever reason, I’d hang on to him for a few minutes and then I’d be able to get this picture done.

"Oh, you are back again, Marius," Fabian startled me by suddenly raising his voice, speaking in the direction of the door.

I turned to see that Mario had come into the art room, smiling and waving to everyone in a friendly manner.

"Mario!" I was excited to see him.

Fabian and Liesel waved back, but Blanche didn’t acknowledge him, while Mario said nothing.

He walked over to my desk, then looked down at the picture I was drawing.

"Hold it there!" I said to him.

Although I was a little surprised that he had suddenly come in at the right time, this was just such a perfect moment for me to look at his face—the exact moment that Mario saw Erdville for the first time.

My eyes quickly switched between the paper and Mario’s face, then back and forth, as I hurriedly sketched out his expression. It wasn’t exactly like Mario, but I thought I had at least captured the joyous look on his face.

"Thanks for coming, Mario. But how did you know to come just now?"

Then, weirdly, Mario said nothing. He just turned around and headed back out, stopping only once to wave goodbye.

He then left the room.

"Well, that was a bit funny, wasn’t it?" Fabian said, shrugging.

"What did he even come for?" Liesel wondered.

Blanche, who had said nothing all along and just stared at Mario and me, came over and looked at my picture.

"Is this Marius?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"What is this picture about?"

"It’s me and Mario visiting Erdville for the first time together."

"That is your... wish?"

"Yeah, it’d make me happy, and it’d make him happy."

Blanche then smiled, a little like how Big Sis Sally smiled sometimes.

"Well done, Leo."

Then she was going to leave, but spotted something in my picture and suddenly stopped.

"Wait."

"Yeah?"

"Do you have a cloak like this?"

"Er... no."

"Then why are you wearing it?"

"I thought it’d make me look cool to my friends. You know, I’m returning home as a Royal Knight."

Blanche looked at my picture for a few more seconds, intensely, then closed her eyes, sighed, and shook her head, mumbling,

"Nah, that’s just too weird."

After that, she just turned and went back to her canvas.