The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

LEO

As I walked into the room, Liesel saw me first and waved to me with a cheerful smile. Fabian saw me next and said,

"There you are!"

"Hi, sorry I’m late!"

I looked over at Blanche, who sat doing—unusually—nothing. She wasn’t working on her painting, just sitting there staring at me with a face like a book that had too many difficult words for me to read.

Then she surprised me with a sudden clap—just once—of her hands.

"Right. Now we are all here," Blanche said.

"So what is it that you wanted to say?" Fabian asked, taking a step away from the sculpture he was making. Liesel put down her charcoal as well and put her hands on her hips.

"We are going to do an exhibition at the Autumn Festival," Blanche announced, her voice emotionless, like it was the most boring thing she said only because she had to say it.

"Really?! Marius convinced you?! So you get sweet-talked by a good-looking boy after all!" Liesel squealed, running over to Blanche and hugging her, rubbing her face against her back.

"Shut up," Blanche said with a groan.

"That’s fantastic! What made you change your mind?" Fabian asked.

"I said yes on a whim. I’m already regretting it," Blanche said. I swear she meant it.

"Oh, dear Blanche—you are finally maturing from a bratty child," Liesel giggled.

"Shut up," Blanche just repeated herself.

"What does... doing an exhibition at the festival mean?" I asked. This wasn’t something I had ever heard of.

"It means we will display our artwork during the festival, Leo. People will come and look at your pictures, sculptures—whatever," Fabian explained to me.

"So it’s like... showing off?" I was starting to understand a bit, I thought.

"Something like that, yes," Fabian said with a nod.

It was exciting. I remembered how everyone gathered around my cheese dream drawing and laughed, and Mario was there too. I knew my drawings weren’t that good, but if they could make people laugh—

"I only said yes on the condition that we have full control," Blanche said.

"What do you mean?" Liesel asked, finally letting Blanche go from her embrace.

"It means we will make whatever the hell we want and shove it in their faces," Blanche spelled it out for us.

"Oh dear... and the student council went along with that?" Liesel asked, surprised.

"Marius is a fool," Blanche said, letting out a chuckle.

"What do you have in mind?" Fabian asked with an amused look on his face.

"I don’t want to force you guys to do what I want to do. You two are free to do what you want. I will do what I want to do," Blanche said with a shrug.

"Could I use my... cheese picture?" I asked, thinking back again on how it made people laugh.

"You could if you wish. But have some fun experimenting. Try to make some new drawings too."

Blanche could be quite encouraging at times.

Then she noticed I was holding a book in my hand.

"What’s that?" she asked, pointing at my book with her chin.

"It’s a book called The Definitive History of Magic in the Aurelian Empire: Official Chronicle."

"Sounds like the most boring book ever," Blanche said.

"I think it sounds great. Ma—the ’old man’ gave it to me."

I felt a little bad about calling Mathias an old man, but I thought I shouldn’t say his name aloud in front of Liesel and Fabian.

"Go figure," Blanche said, rolling her eyes.

Then we heard a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Fabian answered.

The door opened, and to my surprise, it was Beatrice.

"Beatrice!" I greeted her. I felt like it’d been a while since we last did anything together.

"Hi, Leo. And I’m sorry to intrude, everyone. I’m Beatrice, a first-year, and I came here on behalf of the drama club."

"The answer is no," Blanche shut her down immediately.

"I’m sorry, but I haven’t asked anything," Beatrice answered, keeping her friendly smile.

"I can see where this is going," Liesel said.

"We were wondering if the art club could help us with making stage backdrops and props," Beatrice asked politely.

"I already said no," Blanche said again.

Liesel and Fabian then looked at each other, and then at me.

I felt like they wanted me to say something, but Blanche was being kind of scary to talk to at the moment, so I spoke to Beatrice instead.

"What are backdrops?"

"Oh, you know, Leo. Like those pictures they painted on fabric and hung on stage behind the performers at the circus."

"I WANT TO DO IT!"

Liesel and Fabian laughed—Blanche covered her face with a palm.

"Well, Blanche?" Liesel called out to her in a teasing voice.

"Do whatever you guys want. But I’m just going to focus on my paintings. You guys better not let this get in the way of your work if you are going to do this," Blanche said with tired resignation.

"Please provide us with the things you need, Beatrice. We will see what we can do," Liesel said.

"Thank you so much," Beatrice said and bowed deeply.

Once she lifted her head again, she asked Blanche,

"Would it be okay if I looked around a bit?"

"As you wish," Blanche said, and just got back to working on her painting.

"Do you want to see my picture?" I offered to Beatrice first.

"Sure, Leo."

With that, I guided her over to my desk and showed her my cheese picture. Then I asked her,

"Guess where I am in this picture!"

Beatrice squinted her eyes a little, looking very concentrated as she studied my picture.

"The man is too old to be you. The woman—I suppose that’s not you..."

She looked at it for a few more seconds, then said,

"Don’t tell me you are the cheese, Leo..."

"How did you know?!"

"Because you can’t be anything else here," she said.

I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t surprise Beatrice and that I didn’t get a laugh out of her.

"How about this one, then?" I pulled out the picture of everyone waiting for Marius to come as Judy the canary was getting ready to sing.

"Where’s Marius?" she asked.

"You are no fun..." I said, disappointed again.

"Oh, I’m sorry, Leo. But your pictures are really good. I can tell immediately which one is which."

"Really?"

"Yeah, that’s how I knew Marius wasn’t there."

"Heh, I guess my picture isn’t that bad then."

Beatrice just smiled, then said,

"You have a lot of imagination, Leo. That’s a gift."

"Thank you!"

Then I noticed Blanche staring at me, her mouth slightly open, her hand stopped mid-air holding the paintbrush.

A single drop of black paint dripped down to the floor.

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