98 One Is One Too Many (1/2)

Valerius struggled with all his might. Day in and out, he sat down at the city's square and struggled to capture the essence of the location.

He was suffering. He was actually, legitimately, suffering. No matter how hard he drowned out the surroundings, or how carefully he put the brush to the canvas, the end result made him feel like tearing out his hair. How could he possibly be this bad at it?!

He swore that even if it was real life, he wouldn't be *this* bad, but alas, the work born from his hand could not be called anything but an abstract piece of work. Even Picasso back on Earth made more sense than his did.

Done with the first painting, he stepped back and squinted at the finished work. Valerius tilted his head, closing his eyes in silence and prayer before opening them again, but the end result remained unchanged.

He silently thought about the process he went through. He drew the outline, then he painted based on the colours he saw, but… what was this? How could this… this monstrosity possibly be born from his hands? It just didn't make any sense!

Hoping that it was just himself that was doubting his work, he grabbed a random passer-by, pointing at this painting.

”Sorry about this, but… tell me. What do you see?”

The startled woman calmed her beating heart at suddenly being grabbed off the streets, especially when everyone was still rather high-strung from the rising tensions in the air.

She looked at the canvas sitting on the easel before her before doing a doubletake. What was this? Was this some sort of new trend that she didn't understand? Was this what was 'artistic' nowadays?

She squinted harder, trying to make sense of the colours and random shapes, but for the life of her, she couldn't make anything out.

”Ah, it's rather… creative,” she said at last, unable to use any other description for it.

”Really?” Valerius said doubtfully. He looked at his painting again. Could she be seeing something that he wasn't seeing? Actually, that's right. Could it be that he was being too critical on himself? You know what they said about artists and their work, after all. There was always something they weren't satisfied with.

”Yes, yes,” the poor woman said, inwardly sending a prayer for lying so blatantly. But she didn't want to crush this poor young man's aspiring career/hobby so cruelly when he was just starting out.

”I see,” Valerius said. ”Thank you!”

The woman patted him on the shoulder. ”Work hard!” she cheered him on.

Valerius, quite literally, teared up at the encouragement. Maybe this wasn't so hard after all! What a kind lady. He would remember her and make sure to thank her later on.

With a grateful bow, Valerius cheerfully left the place to head for the mage tower – another one of the locations he was about to paint.

Behind him, a curious male onlooker sidled up to the lady. ”Hey, was his painting really that good? I looked at it, but I couldn't make heads or tails of it!”

The woman scoffed. ”Of course, I make out anything at all. But you have to be kind, you know? Don't be cruel! Don't ever crush someone's dreams. If they never work on it, they'll never get better at it!”

”True, true.”

What Valerius didn't know that this one interaction would cause a great change one day in Cosmos City, where people would be encouraged regardless of their passion. Far in the future, man grandmasters of their art would be born thanks to a simple interaction with a passer-by.

Valerius took four strenuous days to complete all twenty paintings as requested to him by Lucien, the strongest human back before he travelled back in time, and he had never felt as accomplished as he did when he finally finished.

Standing outside the mage academy, Valerius was clutching all twenty paintings to show his sincerity. He politely asked a student if they knew where to find Lucien.

”Oh, Lucien? Nine's student?” the student asked, his tone unusual.

Valerius looked at the person, puzzled. ”I'm not sure about that, but yes. I'm looking for Lucien.”