The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

LEO

After the botany and music clubs, we went through a few more clubs that I found interesting, but ultimately they weren’t for me.

The debate club felt too serious, and the language they were using just felt unnecessarily complex. It felt as if people were competing over who was smarter instead of who was right. The cooking club looked fun, and I really gave it serious thought, but the club leader was so strict about keeping the kitchen clean that I didn’t think I would survive there. We did not audition for or speak to anyone at the choir club, but watched them practice for a few minutes (Janice was there, and Marius said we should hide behind a pillar so we could surprise her, but we left in the end without her even noticing us). We didn’t check out the kick-ball club. It was something I was familiar with anyway, and although I do enjoy playing kick-ball, I couldn’t picture myself running around chasing a ball between twenty other Dimitris.

Then there was the literature club, that had a friendly group of people who were all quiet and just sat in the library and read (which made me think—what was the point? Couldn’t I just read by myself if I wanted to?). The horse-riding club also seemed exciting, and Marius gave a demonstration where he proved himself to be an amazing horseman, but I realized I preferred donkeys to horses, so that was that.

All the while, I was grateful that Marius didn’t get mad or even annoyed that I kept rejecting every club. He was always up for checking out one more club, remaining enthusiastic and helpful all the way through.

"This is probably the last club we can check out today, but don’t worry. We still have a few more days before the application deadline," Marius said as we entered the arts room.

Inside, there were only four seniors, three of whom were painting something, and one of them was working on a sculpture. None of them stopped what they were doing to come greet us, and only one of them threw us a glance (at least it wasn’t a hostile glare).

"Good afternoon. We wanted to check out the arts club. Would it be okay for us to look around?" Marius spoke first as no one else did, which finally brought a response from a black-haired girl who was painting on a large canvas.

"Sure."

We then walked toward the student working on the sculpture. He was using a chisel and a hammer to carefully shape the jawline of a man’s face.

"May I ask who this is?" Marius asked, attempting small talk.

"It’s my father. His birthday is coming up, and I wanted to surprise him," the senior said.

"Wow, that’s super cool. My Dad would be so impressed if I did that!" I said.

Then I looked at Marius to see what he thought, but he seemed stiffer than usual, slightly biting his lip.

"Do you make things for your family and friends often?" I asked this time, seeing that Marius didn’t seem to be in the mood for talking, all of a sudden.

"Yeah, it’s just something I do. Usually people like it," the senior said.

"Marius, do you think your dad would also like—"

I stopped myself mid-sentence as Marius looked away.

Odd.

To make it less awkward, I moved along to check out a drawing another girl was sketching with charcoal.

"Oh, it’s a raven! The feathers really look real!" I said as soon as I saw the full picture.

"Thanks," she said, her eyes still fixed on her work.

"Do you like birds?" I asked.

"Not particularly," she said.

"Er—then why are you drawing one?" I asked again.

"Well, as you said—feathers are difficult to get right, so I just wanted to practice."

That made me remember the time I tried to learn how to spin a spinning top that my Dad got for me. It was frustratingly difficult, and I couldn’t make it spin at all at first, but I was so eager to learn how to do it that I spent the entire morning and afternoon practicing, until I eventually got the hang of it. Later, I became pretty good at it, even better than Dad, and that felt great. So I could somewhat relate to the girl saying she was drawing a raven exactly because it was hard to do.

Then we moved along to the next girl (the black-haired one), who was painting something with a paintbrush on a big canvas (it was almost as tall as Marius). As soon as I saw the picture, I felt my heart thump harder and faster.

It was a picture of a bedroom, but it wasn’t an ordinary bedroom at all. There was a rainbow arching above the bed where a girl lay sleeping. The sun, moon, and stars were hanging from the ceiling with golden threads, and a fish with arms was playing a big harp, sitting on a chair next to the girl’s bed. The floor wasn’t the usual wooden boards, either, but was covered in tall green grass.

"This looks amazing..." I blurted out, unable to stop myself.

The girl stopped, turned to look at me, and asked,

"You don’t think it’s weird?"

"It is a very strange picture, indeed," Marius replied instead.

"Yeah, that’s what people always say," the black-haired girl said, shrugging.

"But I think it’s beautiful," I said.

"Yeah, it is strange, but beautiful."

"It is?" Marius asked.

"I’m just painting what I saw in my dream," she said.

Then it hit me—I didn’t draw much as a child anyway (because paper wasn’t cheap), but more than that, I had never thought to draw anything from my dreams before. I always thought a good drawing was something that looked real, like the raven picture the other girl was drawing, but this picture was so strange yet beautiful, and it was amazing that something she saw in her dream was now on the canvas, visible to everyone.

"That is... really special," I said, almost involuntarily.

She looked at me, smiled, then stood up to walk to the shelf by the wall, and brought me a sheet of paper and a pencil.

"Why don’t you try drawing a dream you’ve had recently?"

"Sure! I’d love to!"

The girl then gestured for me to sit at the nearby desk.

"How about you?" she asked Marius.

Marius was quiet for a moment, then said flatly,

"I don’t dream."

Poor Marius.

"Then come sit with me and watch me draw," I told him, trying to cheer him up a little.

"Sure," he said.

And with that, we sat side by side at a desk, and I began to draw.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!