Damn Academy chapter 130

130 – Ghost of the Guardian Tree (9)

I don’t know if it’s because it’s still the beginning of the semester, but during the daytime in Eternia, I could hear students laughing everywhere.

I don’t usually laugh a lot, but the atmosphere was amazing and sometimes I felt envious.

Eternia is not a place full of happiness just like in a fairy tale, just because there are a lot of laughs. If you take a closer look at each person, each of them had their own anguish and pain, such as family pressure, grades, difficulties in interpersonal relationships, and so on.

I also had concerns. It’s my position that I can’t be proud of taking the top spot. As long as he is labeled as Silverin’s disciple, he will be harshly judged if he fails to meet expectations.

I shouldn’t have wasted my time. Even though the schedule digestion was a bit heavy, I had to spend the day efficiently.

I woke up early in the morning, baked cookies according to the recipe I had prepared in advance, and packed them in boxes. This was a kind of compensation to keep Trisha like a wild horse.

Early in the morning, I headed to the Ministry of Pensions greenhouse. I went through easels placed without owners as if avoiding obstacles and headed for my painting in the farthest corner.

Sylverin’s portrait remains as it was placed before the circulatory system training class. There was still a lot of work to be done before completion.

Just looking at this picture makes me feel better. Silverin sitting in front of the lake of oblivion. It was the most beautiful of Silverine’s appearances that I can remember.

My work notes lay on the chair next to it. And I don’t know who put it, but it also came with a handful of candy.

Thank you for liking it, but I didn’t eat anything given to me by people I didn’t know.

I put the candy in my pocket and sat down.

And the work continued. The overall sketching stage is over, but there is still a long way to go before the completion stage.

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After working for a couple of hours, I suddenly remembered what happened yesterday and got up. It was because I thought that the masked man I met at Suhomok might be the art club.

I checked the irregularly placed easels one by one as I walked with my hands behind my back.

And not long after, I was able to find a sketch containing the guardian tree’s appearance. As expected, the man was a member of the art department. Looking back, he was suspicious, but it seems that he had no intention of hiding that he was an art lady.

In the painting, a girl is sitting on a guardian tree and looking somewhere. Only a rough shape remains, but a considerable amount of internal energy can be felt from the line.

It seems that he is sincere towards the ghost of the guardian tree. Well, I had no intention of putting down a person who burns passion for his work. I can fully understand his feelings.

I went back to my seat and while I was working, the art club members entered one after another.

Soon after, the head of the art department and the deputy director. Hailey and Xenia also kicked down the door and came inside proudly. His gait was like that of bandits.

“Newbie!”

Haley, the general manager, with blonde hair tied back as if she had just finished training, passed by with a grin as she rubbed my shoulder.

Xenia then dragged her chair and sat down next to me.

“Hey, newcomer. Who is ‘S’?”

“… Yes?”

Why are you suddenly asking for those initials? In an instant, my heart sinks. There was nothing related to those initials other than Sylverine’s Stitch.

“Whose underwear is ‘S’ on the bed in your room? Uh? What kind of pig b*tch is bothering you again?”

Aren’t you too calm about confessing that you broke into my room? And what is the meaning of ‘S’ underwear?

“…… I do not know.”

In the meantime, Haley screamed.

“Hey! Stop harassing newcomers!”

“Ugh, see you later. No, wait….”

Xenia stares at her reddish hair in my painting.

“Come to think of it, you….”

As if realizing something about her, Xenia’s eyes gradually widened.

“Yes?”

“Oh, no. Pretend you haven’t heard this story.”

***

When it was time for club activity, Professor Georgia entered the greenhouse humming her song.

When the students stood up and greeted her, she gestured as if it was okay.

“Sit, sit, relax.”

She walked to the center of the conservatory, clapped her hands, and focused her attention.

“Come on, busy kids keep doing what they’re doing and listen. Today I bring you good news. This is what happens in the small art department in the outskirts.”

Students’ ears perked up at the word good news.

Giorgia looked around her students happily and said.

“The first thing is that a fresh new member came in. Due to the circulatory system practice, the introduction has been delayed a lot. Now, come in.”

Two women and a man walked in from the back.

One of them was someone I knew. Lilith right away.

The new recruits greeted each other in turn.

“My name is Dorothy. I look forward to.”

“This is Lilith Izelius.”

“This is Ivan. I am truly honored to be in the art department.”

And for a moment, I felt as if Lilith’s eyes were on me.

Am I being a bit sensitive? When she took off her mask, she didn’t even have a one-on-one relationship with Lilith. You won’t recognize me

“Now, go to your seat.”

After sending the new recruits like that, I delivered the second news.

“Next is the news that a substantial amount of money has been received from our art department.”

It was quiet for a while, and then a student spoke up.

“… How much?”

“If I get decent results in the intramural competition, can I go to the Claridium and have fun?”

Soon after, the greenhouse is noisy. People around me are making a fuss about the city of sorcery, but I have no idea what they are talking about.

“A blessing has come to our art department.”

Moreover, Giorgia grins happily when she sees me. Did the activity support fund have anything to do with me?

I’m starting to get confused whether I’m reacting sensitively to other people’s eyes.

In the meantime, someone tapped my collar with their fingertips.

Behind me stood Favela, neatly dressed.

“I need to take care of chairs and easels for newcomers… Could you lend me a hand?”

Yes, this is what I, the relatively youngest, have to do.

“… All right.”

I put down my brush, got up quietly, and followed the favela out of the conservatory.

Her awkward silence followed as she led the way and followed her on her way.

She kept her hands together and her head slightly bowed. Then he slowed down a little and walked beside me.

Then she hesitated for a moment before asking me.

“… I saw the picture you were drawing. Are you Professor Silverin?”

“Yes.”

“Good workmanship. Just like I’ve been learning for a long time…. Where is the background?”

“This is Wiesel.”

“Ah, I heard that the professor’s mansion is in Wiesel, but that must have been true……. You seem to have a special relationship with Professor Silverin.”

“Yes.”

I did not add any further explanation.

We went into a building’s storage room and got the things we needed.

I stacked three easels and picked them up with one arm while Favela grabbed her extra chair.

On her way back, she spoke again as if she had been paying attention the whole time.

“Hey… How did you meet Professor Silverin at Wiesel? And… How long have you been?”

“… Are you interrogating me?”

Then Favela said embarrassedly.

“No, it’s not like that…. Sorry, I asked a stupid question.”

After that, the conversation stopped and only awkward silence followed.

At the entrance to the greenhouse, I saw the back of a person I hadn’t seen before. We also stopped for a moment in front of it.

It was a girl wearing a long, round hat and a beige, modest dress. As you can see, I wasn’t a member of the art club.

She was standing at her entrance, holding her toes and squinting at her interior.

A strange familiarity was felt from the back and gestures. So I could feel it intuitively.

“Tricia… ?”

She looked back in surprise. Truly Trisha was right.

Her eyes met mine and her eyes curved into half moon shapes.

And as if proud, she shouted with her dimples floating.

“Damian!”

Tricia was really dressed up like an aristocratic lady going out on a picnic.

She ran right in front of me, saw Favela, and greeted her lightly.

“Hello. You are a senior in the art department. I am Damian’s friend.”

Favela asked coldly.

“… Friend?”

“Yes, Damien’s first friend.”

“….”

Then she spread her skirt all the way down her side and told me.

“Look! Did you dress up very nicely?”

“Yes, I almost didn’t recognize you.”

Then I spoke to Favela in a businesslike tone.

“We will go in first.”

***

In accordance with the task of ‘drawing friends’, each invited person entered the greenhouse.

There were suddenly a lot of people, so it was a mess for a while.

Lilith must have no friends. She squatted on a decorative stone in the corner and scribbled her notebook.

Favela thought she was calling her fiancé, but she didn’t greet anyone.

Professor Georgia was not one to criticize for not bringing her friend. She instructed me to draw as if there were none, and gave necessary advice while looking around one by one.

Trisha and I settled under a small flowering tree in the greenhouse.

“Like this?”

Trisha sat in her chair and assumed an awkward posture as she was not used to being a model.

“No. Then it’s hard to stay. Relax your body and relax.”

“Like this?”

“I will relax my arms, and then I will get cramped.”

“Hey Damian….”

“Why?”

“The gaze is burdensome….”

“Why are you like this every day?”

“Not that…. You’re not the only one watching….”

Actually, my back hurts too. In the art department, there were only three or four people, including me, of the opposite s*x who brought me as friends.

The greenhouse itself was not very wide, so I was not free from the surrounding gaze. It’s not that her members didn’t hate Trisha herself, but she didn’t seem to be very welcoming to the members of the theater department either.

I took a table and put the cookies I had prepared ahead of time next to her.

“Eat this when you feel like it, and relax.”

“After… okay. It’s my first time, so it’s a bit difficult!”

Then he picked up a cookie and gnawed at it like a hungry rabbit.

“Yes. Only the arms move like that, and the rest is fixed.”

After about 10 minutes, the cluttered atmosphere calmed down, as if everyone had started working in earnest. The greenhouse was filled with only the rustling of collars and the rustling of brushes.

And I also heard Trisha crunching her cookies.

“Delicious.”

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Trisha gnawed at her cookies once every five minutes.

“You made it? Quite right!”

Yes. I just had to be satisfied.

“By the way, shake that off.”

“What?”

Trisha was unaware that she was so preoccupied with her eating that she smeared cookie crumbs in her mouth.

“That on the corner of your mouth.”

Tricia didn’t want to put her hand to her mouth, but she rolled her eyes as if thinking for a moment. And she let go of the crumbs and lowered her arm.

She said playfully, tilting her upper body towards me.

“Where?”

I sighed and said.

“Stay still.”

I reached over and rubbed my thumb to remove the crumbs from Trisha’s mouth.

She tightened her mouth as if she was trying to control her expression, but she couldn’t hide her eye smile.

And that moment.

There was a loud sound of things falling from behind.

Me and Tricia turned our heads to where the sound came from.

Everyone made a startled expression at the loud noise.

There was a favela in its place.

And palettes and paints were spilling out on the floor.