The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

LEO

As soon as I woke up, I was excited about the day ahead. It had been a long wait, but the first day of the festival had finally arrived!

I was up earlier than the others, with Briant and Dimitri still sleeping soundly. Even the dining hall kitchen wasn’t open yet—only tea was available while they were getting breakfast prepared. And that’s when I saw Mario, already sitting at a table drinking his morning tea.

"Good morning, Mario!"

I walked over to greet him.

"Good morning. Aren’t you up a little early?" he asked.

"Heh, I could ask the same."

"I still have a lot of preparation to do before the festival opens."

"I hope all goes well for you today! You’ve been working hard for it."

"You too, Skylark. I’m looking forward to seeing your picture," Mario said.

He did come to the art room a few times leading up to the festival, as he was—with great difficulty—convinced to model for Liesel and her portrait of the ’Perfect Knight.’ He was initially very humble about it, insisting that he did not deserve to be a model ’yet.’ Liesel managed to convince him by saying, ’Get your perfect knight portrait done first, then aspire to live up to it.’ Once Mario took it as a challenge (’Challenge accepted,’ he said), he did brilliantly, somehow managing to make the expression that Liesel demanded: "Carry the memories of the past while you gaze into the future."

I withheld from showing him my picture, though, as I only wanted to show it to him when it was fully finished. I wanted his—and everyone’s—experience of my finished picture to be at the exhibition, not in the art room (Blanche’s suggestion) while it was still a work in progress.

"Mario, will you be busy for the whole day?" I asked him.

"It will be a very hectic day," he said, but with no complaint.

"Aw, I thought it’d be fun for us to go around and check out the festival too."

"I suppose you are less busy because all your work is already done—your picture will be hanging at the exhibition, and you can go around by yourself."

"But I don’t want to go around by myself..."

"You can go with your friends."

"But I also want to go around with you, heh."

Mario then made that determined look he had demonstrated while modelling and said, "I will find a way to do it," before taking a sip from his mug.

After that, breakfast finally started. We ate quickly, and by the time the other guys had woken up and come down for breakfast, we were already done and ready to go to the main building.

Along the way, we talked about what we thought would be the highlight of the festival.

"I’m really looking forward to the choir performance, and oh—the drama play as well," I said first.

"For me, I’d say it’s the debate club. I’m rather interested in the theme they have chosen and what kind of ideas they will have come up with," Mario said after pondering for a few seconds.

"Eh... so it’s not my exhibition?" I asked, jokingly.

"Oh—of course, it is the exhibition that I’m looking forward to the most. I just... thought that was a given," he said, looking away, gazing at—nothing in particular.

"Thanks, hah. I wish there was some kind of student council activity or event that I could attend and see as well," I said.

"Well, we are involved with every aspect of the festival. We will be everywhere throughout—that is our work."

When he put it that way, I realized Mario really was doing an impressive job. It wasn’t easy for me to produce just a single picture for the art exhibition, but somehow he had been involved with every club in one form or another. When I was thinking about all sorts of other clubs out there, though, I remembered one thing.

"Oh, did you hear that there was going to be no pork pie at this festival?"

Mario nodded after a little pause.

"I heard it used to be a tradition, but somehow this year it was going to be different. The rumor I heard is that it was because... someone visiting didn’t like pork?"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that," Mario said, his voice firm.

"I wonder who that visitor is. They must be really special, right? Do you know who it is?"

"What I can say for now is that it’s going to make the occasion wonderful. But you will find out soon enough. The ’visitor’ will be there at the opening ceremony scheduled for nine. Don’t miss it."

"Sure!"

With that, we arrived at the main building and parted ways. Mario had to attend the morning meeting of the student council, and as for me, I wanted to check out the exhibition room again, which we had set up the night before.

When I walked in, thinking that I would be the first one there, though, I saw Blanche already in the room.

"Good morning, Blanche!"

"Oh, you are early, Cheese Boy."

"I woke up early and I was too excited to go back to sleep, heh."

"It is your first festival at the Academy, after all," Blanche said.

"Indeed, indeed. Why are you here so early too? Were you also not able to sleep?"

"I’m not a child," she said, deadpan.

"I think the exhibition is going to be great," I said to her.

"Do you think people will like our pictures?" Blanche looked amused.

"Yeah, especially yours. It’s a bit strange, but the picture’s so big and impressive."

"It’s not meant to be ’nice.’ It wasn’t a pleasant dream."

"Neither is mine, but you said it was great," I argued back.

That made Blanche smile, and she looked around the room.

"We have quite a weird selection of works here, don’t we?" she asked me.

"Yeah, a monster, a portrait, a memory, and a dream," I said.

"They sound like they fit together when you put it like that," Blanche said with a smile, then continued, "That makes me wonder whether we should have a title for our exhibition and put it up outside."

"That would be cool!"

"What would be a fitting name that captures all our work, though?"

I didn’t have to think—the name just rolled off my tongue.

"Heroes and Villains!"

Blanche seemed to sink deep into her own mind, smiled slowly, and said,

"I like it. Let’s go with that. I will quickly make a banner."

The festival was going to start soon, and I couldn’t wait for it.

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