Magic Academy Bans Harem

Chapter 257 The Mograine Art Appraisal

In the afternoon, Ritas arrived at the venue for the bathing seminar.

He had initially thought that being suddenly asked to participate in the judging session would result in widespread lamentation at the venue.

Surprisingly, the trainees seemed quite confident.

He first encountered Miriam, who mysteriously stated that her work was a secret from the professor before running off to the magic piano room. And that was one thing; after a flustered exchange, Melsie also said she would keep it a secret and then ran away.

When she was a little confused, she saw Noah trying to ask her if she also needed to keep it a secret, only to receive a reply like, "I won't let you see it!"

Since Noah was still in good spirits, there was no need to worry. What Ritas was really worried about was Tabasha.

Tabasha herself wasn't bothered, but he saw Serian studying something with her.
Hopefully, we won't see anything like "The Magic Particle Breeding Guide" at the judging session.

Finally, he found Xia Lu, who had dutifully come to the judging session to prepare her work, at least on the last day of the preliminary rounds.

"Good afternoon, Professor."

"Good afternoon, Xia Lu."

After a brief greeting, Ritas looked around the room and, finding that there were practically no other tools, only art supplies and a drawing board with their backs to him, asked,

"Xia Lu, are you planning to submit your artwork to the appraisal meeting?"

"Yes."

As he listened to Xia Lu's answer, Ritas's brows furrowed.

In his recollection, Xia Lu hadn't shown any signs of preparing any works beforehand. Therefore, the painting was probably only started in the last few days. And as he had previously considered, traditional works often require a certain amount of time to achieve their quality.

That is
With a sense of "what if," Ritas quickly walked around behind the easel and stared in disbelief at the artwork that Charlotte planned to submit the next day.

There are no "what ifs" or "miracles." In fact, it's worse than we imagined.

It was a painting composed of simple, haphazard lines, barely recognizable as a landscape. It lacked both beauty and depth, and was perhaps even inferior to a painting done with care by a child; it was simply a terrible painting.

"Xia Lu, are you really planning to use this painting to participate in the appraisal meeting?"

When asked the question, Xia Lu intended to answer "yes" with a smile as usual. However, when she turned her head slightly and saw Ritas's seemingly frozen expression, she couldn't help but hesitate for a moment.

"The path of art is more difficult than I imagined. So, could you please help me refine my work through a separate lesson?"

Even if you brought a wishing machine, it wouldn't work!

Ritas thought this to himself, but didn't say anything more.

After one night.

Early in the morning, Xia Lu, who hadn't slept well, arrived at the venue of the bathing seminar.

Entering the quiet venue, she went up to the second floor. In the room she had been using as her studio for the past few days, Charlotte saw Ritas standing in front of her paintings, deep in thought.

"Professor, didn't you go home last night?"

Memories of the previous night were stirred up, and Sharu felt as if Ritas was in this position before she was urged to leave because of the curfew, and she said with some surprise.

Ritas did not answer directly, but simply said calmly.

Good morning, Xia Lu.

"If it were a separate class, it should have been over by now."

Xia Lu herself was somewhat unsure why she had said those words. She just felt she had to say something.

"That's true."

Ritas's gaze remained fixed on the painting, which was essentially graffiti.
"Xia Lu, I've been thinking. Dividing this painting into several areas and coloring each area with a different color will yield better results. Of course, I won't interfere too much with your creation, so I'll just give general suggestions on the placement of a few areas. And you can also use your own intuition to apply the colors."

That's not what we're talking about.

Suddenly, Xia Lu felt inexplicably annoyed.

It wasn't out of guilt or anything like that. For adventurers, it was just another night's sleep deprivation. In those dangerous labyrinths, it was impossible for them to maintain a normal, healthy sleep schedule.

However, Ritas's unusually serious demeanor seemed to have stepped on her tail.
"That's what I'm talking about."

Ritas looked away from the painting, gazing at Charlotte as he held a paint can in his hands.

"Even if we start now, it's still not too late. As long as the result is better than the original one, even if it's just a little bit better, it's worth doing."

"."

Xia Lu frowned, stared at Ritas for a moment, and then, as expected, didn't glare at him.

With a sigh, Charlotte stepped forward and raised her arm to take the paint can from Ritas.

It was the ninth day of the Magic Academy Exchange Conference.

By the afternoon, the preliminary registration had already closed.

The old Great Hall of Earls College was then transformed into an art gallery.

However, since the works that passed the preliminary selection are to enter the formal judging, it is not appropriate to display them now. Therefore, what is being exhibited at this moment are not the best works, but the works that have been continuously eliminated by the judges in the adjacent room.

As a result, what was exhibited by a certain participant was not excitement or joy, but a strange scene of lamentation.

"Who is this 'Mo' from the art appraisal meeting? Is he a famous artist from your area?"

Since "Extraordinary Brilliance" was a specially invited judge for the official judging session, he did not need to participate in the preliminary selection. Therefore, Ritas and the Goddess of Bathing wandered around the exhibition hall.

“Mr. Mograine? He’s a shoemaker.”

"Huh?"

Seeing that the goddess of bathing was interested, Ritas began to explain.

As is well known, Spring City, bordering several countries, has historically maintained a relatively flexible stance. Basically, if a large army dared to come, Spring City would dare to surrender.

The most outrageous instance was when Spring City changed the flags of three different countries in a single day.

In modern times, after a long period of peace on the continent, the ownership of Spring City finally stabilized under the Holy Kingdom of Libera.

Then one day, the newly appointed lord of Spring City suddenly realized that Spring City's reputation for being spineless was really unpleasant and he needed to find a way to change it.

As a result, the lord's mansion, together with Erles Academy, searched diligently for a long time but could not find any praiseworthy heroes in the history of Spring City.

The only one that is recorded is that a shoemaker, enraged by a soldier who occupied Spring City at the time and refused to pay him after repairing his shoes, used his sewing tools to create a remarkable feat of killing one person and injuring three others.

Ever since.
"The Mograine Art Appraisal Committee was born? Is your city even up to par?!"

Even the goddess of bathing couldn't help but exclaim that it was outrageous.

“Please note the wording: Goddess of Bathing. ‘Your city’ is not true. I only have some fixed assets in Spring City; I am not a Springer. I am a Westerlander.”

Ritas solemnly severed ties with Spring City.

"Furthermore, the Mograine Art Appraisal Society has a long history. Initially, it was simply a lord issuing a bounty seeking works that praised or depicted Mr. Mograine, which would then be exhibited together. However, as the quality of those works turned out to be unexpectedly high, the lord also sensed the commercial value of the art exhibition. Subsequently, it gradually evolved into what it is today. Ironically, now that the Mograine Art Appraisal Society has grown larger and larger, we haven't seen any works that truly praise that shoemaker for a long time."

"Alright."

In a way, the art appraisal meeting, with its rather peculiar origins, was quite in line with the overall artistic style of Spring. During their conversation, Ritas saw one of the seminar members emerge from the pre-selection room. And shortly afterward, a work bearing the signature "High School Akagi Class, Noah Greenes" was hung in the exhibition hall.

Despite being eliminated, Noah showed no sign of resentment. He met Ritas's gaze from afar, looking rather smug.

"Noah's student."

"Hmph, I know all too well what you're thinking—trying to embarrass us. So, I won't let you succeed!"

Their first words after meeting were like this, and it's unlikely that outsiders could tell whether their relationship was good or bad.

Well, even Ritas himself doesn't quite understand it.

"Is this a painting you created on a 'fluorescent leaf'?"

"That's right!"

Ritas's gaze fell upon a leaf painting framed in a rather small frame. The painting itself could only be described as less than ideal. However, the leaf itself, used as the canvas for the leaf painting, was rather unusual; it was a palm-sized flower and leaf that emitted a soft, subtle glow.

"Once the fluorescent leaves are separated from the main body, they will dissipate into ash in about two days. By then, no one will know that I ever painted these things!"

Noah looked at his masterpiece with great satisfaction and said.

She couldn't understand why Ritas always had a problem with fairies. Fairies were so kind and simple, and all he asked for were a few baskets of berries and a few jars of nectar, yet he got this rare leaf that he could only collect by "risking his life and getting lucky".

As expected, even malicious people will be burned by the light of kindness and pure goodness!

"."

Even if Noah didn't say it aloud, he could probably guess that the other party had bought a piece of Ritas, a tattered leaf that was everywhere by the Fairy Lake, at a high price. After thinking for a moment, he went straight to the staff of the judging event.

After Ritas argued his case thoroughly, explaining the pros and cons,

Ritas, who had been inexplicably uneasy since leaving Noah, saw her leaf painting being taken down by the staff, and then they put a large frame with a magical device over the small frame.

"Now you can rest assured, Noah. Your work will remain for at least six months. Don't worry about anyone looking at an empty frame with your signature looking puzzled."

"What do you mean 'don't worry'?! How can you be like this!"

Looking at his mediocre Ye Hui, Noah clutched his head, wishing he could take Ritas down with him.

"Xiao Li, are you settling a personal score for someone else?"

"How could that be? There's no hatred between me and my students."

Ritas said sincerely.

While Ritas and Noah were interacting amicably, it was Melci's turn to present her work at the other preliminary stage.

The goddess of the bath, who had noticed Melsie, floated over and saw a scarf that Melsie had taken out.

It was a scarf that, though slightly rough in some places, clearly had been carefully knitted over a long period of time. The Goddess of Bath also vaguely recalled that during the days when Ritas was unconscious after returning from the World Tree Labyrinth, she had stayed at Melsie's place and seemed to have mentioned that "hand-knitted scarves are a classic gift for boys."

In other words, has been secretly knitting scarves ever since then?

The goddess of the bath lamented that Melsie, who didn't seem to have much of a presence, was actually quite "skilled." The preliminary judging of Melsie's work had also concluded.

Although the scarf itself was knitted reasonably well, and the judging panel for this student work was indeed very broad in scope, ...
It naturally failed to pass.

However, Melsie wasn't sad at all; in fact, she never expected her scarf to be a work of art.

But just as she reached out her hand expectantly, waiting for the staff to return her scarf...

The sharp-looking male staff member skillfully framed and labeled the scarves, and in the blink of an eye, they were hanging on the wall of the exhibition hall.

"?"

After following much slower, she stood by the wall, head tilted back, staring blankly at her scarf, which looked like a specimen. Melcy felt a little confused.

What's happening here?
The perfect plan to give the scarf to the professor while he was comforting her about her failure to be selected... How did it end up nailed to the wall before it even started?
For a moment, although the sky outside the exhibition hall was so clear, it seemed as if a storm was about to break out above Melsie's head.

"woo"

"."

The goddess of bathing silently shrank back.

So this girl never understood the rules of the judging panel from beginning to end?

It's normal, I suppose.
In short, let her have some peace and quiet for a while.

I suppose by the time this scarf is put out, winter will be just around the corner.

While the goddess of the bath sighed, Ritas was not idle either.

Keeping his distance from Noah, who looked like he wanted to kill himself, Ritas spotted Tabasha queuing at a qualifying station.

Holding a huge, slightly folded piece of white paper, Tabasha still looked dazed.

People kept cutting in line, and she just couldn't understand why the queue wasn't moving forward.

"Tabasha student, is this the work you plan to exhibit?"

Ritas, who felt that if they continued, it would get dark and Tabata would still be in the same queue, went up to talk to her.

"Oh, Professor, good afternoon. Yes~"

After giving a casual greeting, Tabasha responded.

"What on earth did you draw on such a large sheet of paper?"

Ritas asked with some curiosity.

"painting?"

Tabasha, on the other hand, displayed a disturbing confusion.

"May I ask how this artwork was completed?"

Tabasha nodded repeatedly and began to explain.

Tabasha, who had no idea what kind of works to submit for the competition, sought help from Serene, who happened to be at the symposium venue at the time.

Then Serenity suggested to her
"First, change into your swimsuit."

"Um"

"Then, apply the paint specially made by Teacher Seren."

"."

"Next, I just need to find out which positions I can lie in comfortably on the paper, and before I know it, the artwork is complete."

"Confiscated!"

"Ah~?"

Despite Tabasha's distressing voice and the protests of the returning Bath Goddess who kept shouting that it was "art," Ritas decisively took away the large canvas.

(End of this chapter)