Chapter 77

The next day, I started painting the requested picture.

First, I dressed the angels in angelic robes.

"Beautiful..."

"What the heck is this frilly thing?"

"It's what the angels in the encyclopedia wear."

The robes I put on the two of them were long, white T-shirts made of soft fabric, with golden embroidery on the collar, cuffs, and hem, and a decorative belt to hold them at the waist. The hem flutters, which seems to make Rian uneasy. But angels wear such clothes, so I hope he can bear with it.

Ange twirled around, her eyes shining as she watched the hem flutter. Rian, though uneasy, seemed to be fine with it.

"Next, this way."

I led the two, who had changed clothes, to the guest room... or rather, the guest house. It was a different house from the one where the two had started living. I had set up one of the rooms for painting.

The bed, which I guess would be king-sized, was large and fluffy, with pure white sheets. On top of that, there were plenty of white blankets and futons. In the center, there was a basket.

"...What's this?"

"The angels' nest."

The two of them were to stay here, in the nest.

"...Hey, is this okay?"

"Yeah. How's the comfort?"

"Fluffy..."

"Is that so? That's good."

I decided to paint the angels in their nest. I used the white futons and blankets as the material for the angels' nest, and placed the two angels in it. Then, I put a large fruit basket, like a baby bed, in the center of the nest, and asked the two angels to surround it freely.

When I left it to the angels, Ange happily pulled and stacked the angels' nest, remodeling it. The shape of the nest changed to be more comfortable, and eventually, Ange plopped down in it, seemingly satisfied.

Rian poked and looked at the baby bed, and began to gently cover it with a blanket. Of course, the baby bed was empty. To make it look like it wasn't, or even like a fruit basket, I had draped soft fabric over it.

...When I left the angels alone, Ange eventually started to fall asleep, surrounded by the fluffy futons and blankets. Good.

"Rian, stay still for a bit."

"Huh? Ah, okay..."

Rian, in a pose as if peering into the baby bed, only moved his face to look at me and stopped. I think it's good that his expression becomes a bit stiff when he stops moving, which somehow looks childlike.

"...How long?"

"About ten minutes."

"Seriously...?"

Yeah. Asking a child to stay still for ten minutes might be a bit much, but I'll have to ask him to bear with it.

I managed to paint Rian and, as promised, his stillness was released after ten minutes. Then, I started painting the sleeping Ange.

The shape of the baby bed was already partially painted with Rian, so it was easy to paint Ange, who was sleeping around it. Most importantly, since Ange was sleeping, she hardly moved, making her very easy to paint.

...After painting the two angels and the baby bed, I moved on to painting the angels' nest. Why are wrinkles in fabric so hard to paint? The shape is not fixed, it's fluffy, and there are few clear surfaces, just a series of curves, making it hard to figure out where the shadows should fall. And if there are no shadows at all, the shape lacks credibility...

I've drawn crumpled paper many times, but fabric is different because it needs to be soft, which is difficult. Yeah, but maybe that's why it's fun. I was able to enjoy advancing the underdrawing.

By the time I had roughly finished the underdrawing, Ange had woken up from her nap and seemed to have realized she had fallen asleep during the process. She turned red and panicked, but when I told her I had finished the underdrawing while she was sleeping and showed her the drawing paper, her face lit up as she looked at it. It seems this was the first time she had seen such a picture.

Then, while watching Ange's eyes sparkle as she looked at the drawing paper, I corrected Ange's face in the drawing.

She was lying down in a pose as if hugging the baby bed, looking at me with a smile. That's the kind of face.

On the other hand, Rian, in a pose as if peering into the baby bed, had a smile mixed with tension, caution, a bit of confusion, and plenty of happiness. The two of them together somehow turned out well.

Angels, after all, are supposed to be wary of humans. But young angels don't understand that well, so they smile without any caution. On the other hand, the slightly older angel is wary of humans and a bit tense... but still, they are angels who bless humans. That's why they have such faces.

"Ah, I forgot the wings."

"Hey! It's a picture of angels, right?! Don't forget!"

"Yeah, the two of you are angels even without wings, so I kind of forgot."

Then, I added the wings. I'm confident in drawing wings from the pegasi. I added wings to the two angels' backs, and then placed a halo above their heads. Good, angels.

"...They're angels."

"Yeah, they're angels."

Looking at the finished underdrawing, Rian had a slightly embarrassed look. It seems a bit embarrassing to be painted as an angel. But I'm satisfied with what I've painted, so this is good.

The next step is to stretch the paper and color it. I'll have to work hard.

When the stretched paper dried, I started coloring. By then, it was evening, but I wanted to do the underpainting with the colors I remembered.

Just like when I painted the nude by Cloa, I paid attention to the light. In this picture, the light source is behind the angels' nest. Light is coming in from a window behind the nest, so the angels are smiling in backlight.

In other words, I had to consider the darkness of the shadows falling in the foreground, the translucency of the hair in the light, and the brightness of the parts where the light hits. In watercolor, the white parts are left unpainted, so I had to decide the position of the light from the beginning. I managed to figure that out.

...With Cloa, I wanted to express strong sunlight, so I placed the shadows clearly and darkly. But this time, I wanted a softer atmosphere, so the light and shadows are weaker. In other words, there are fewer white parts left, and the boundary between light and shadow is more blurred.

Especially the fabric. The angels' nest. It needs to be soft, so the placement of colors is difficult. ...But it's fun.

"Wow."

When the underpainting was almost finished, Rian, who had been watching the painting, let out a voice, then realized he had spoken and covered his mouth in surprise.

Seeing his reaction, I lost my concentration and decided to take a break.

"Is this the first time you've seen a picture like this?"

"...Yeah."

Rian said, staring at the picture.

Even though it's still in the underpainting stage, the general colors are visible. Rian and Ange are also painted, so as the subjects, they might have mixed feelings.

"The eyes aren't painted yet, right?"

"Um... yeah."

And in the midst of that, Rian seemed to notice that their eyes were still white. Yeah, that's right. The eyes aren't painted yet.

"Are the eyes the last part?"

"Um... I don't have the right color."

I showed Rian the palette.

There are many paints on the palette... but there are still few blue ones.

The Robin's Egg Blue from the giant camphor tree's eggshell and the Ultramarine Blue from the lapis lazuli I got from the shop where Laocles' sword was. Only these two.

"Is this color not good?"

Rian pointed to the Robin's Egg Blue. But... um, for some reason, I can't be satisfied with it.

"It might be okay, but... I feel like a color with less green would be better..."

You can add colors, but you can't remove them. I want to use a pure blue for Rian's clear, sky-like eyes.

...The eggshell of the camphor tree and the lapis lazuli are both very beautiful and valuable, but they are not enough. Um, am I being picky?

"I want to cut out a piece of the sky..."

"Seriously, to that extent...?"

Yeah. Because it's the color of the angels' eyes. I absolutely, absolutely can't compromise.

There was no sky blue in the shops I looked at in the capital. The clear, transparent blue of the sky is not easy to find.

I even asked a phoenix to show me its feathers, but unfortunately, there was no sky blue. Instead, I found a vivid Ultramarine Blue feather. It's beautiful in its own way.

"...Mixing colors doesn't work well either."

"Huh? It's not much different from the sky color, is it?"

"Yeah, maybe... but..."

Rian looked at me with a curious, exasperated expression. Yeah, I understand how he feels.

"It doesn't matter anyway. No one would notice such a difference in color."

"That might be true, but I'm bothered by it."

"Then why don't you use that paint for my eyes? My eyes will be that color."

"Absolutely not. It's such a beautiful color."

"...Then, why don't you cut out the part of my eyes in the picture and decorate it under the blue sky? You can see the sky through the hole."

"Don't say such violent things."

Talking to Rian, I started to feel that maybe my concern wasn't worth worrying about. Rian is right; the difference between Robin's Egg Blue and the sky color is not significant, and being so particular about it might be silly.

...Um, but I can't help it. I don't want to compromise. I want to paint the most beautiful thing in the most satisfying way. But if I do, I'll have to start looking for blue paint again.

Um... maybe Rian is right. Maybe it's better to cut a hole in the picture and let the sky peek through. No, but...

"Alright. I'll cut a hole."

"Eh, really? I was just joking..."

I'll cut a hole. I'll make the sky color appear in the picture.

However, the hole will not be in the picture of the angels.

It will be in the picture of the paint tube.

I drew a picture of a paint tube and then cut out the color label.

The result was a perfect picture of a paint tube with a hole where the color label should be.

...Then I held it up to the sky...

It didn't materialize.

"Oh, right..."

"Eh? What are you doing?"

Right, this won't work. I was careful not to infuse magic to avoid materializing it before cutting it out, but as a result, it didn't materialize at all.

"Alright, one more time."

"...Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Rian, go play with Ange."

Rian looked at me as if questioning my sanity, but I drew the picture of the paint tube again. This time, I cut out the paper first, making a hole where the label would be, and then drew the paint tube from there.

Holding the paper up to the sky, I tried to draw with the pencil. Wow, this is really hard to draw.

But now, all I have to do is infuse all my magic while drawing. It's extremely difficult, but I'll try my best...

...As I was drawing, the picture on the paper suddenly started to tremble.

Then, it shrank on the paper... and plop.

A tube of sky-blue paint appeared.

And then I lost consciousness.

...When I woke up, it was night. But I'm used to it. Waking up from magic exhaustion doesn't always mean it's the same night.

When I sat up in the hammock, some of the split pipe foxes that had been on the hammock almost fell off. Sorry.

Then, a phoenix that had been perched on a branch holding the hammock chirped and rubbed against my cheek, and the horses that had been woken by its voice came over. Also, a bird. A giant bird came over and peered at me.

"What day is it today?"

Of course, there was no answer. They can't tell me the date. Yeah, I know.

No choice, I grabbed onto the phoenix and flew to Laocles' house. I know the forest, so I can tell who is where. It's convenient.

There was a light on in the house. So I peeked through the window. ...And I met Laocles' eyes.

"You're awake."

"Yeah. What day is it?"

"Three and a half days."

...Out!

Wow, what, what do I do? I didn't think I would sleep for more than three days just for one tube of paint. And I, as a spirit, should have more magic!

"Sorry. I didn't think I would end up like this for just one tube of paint."

"Paint... Oh, this one?"

Laocles showed me the sky-blue paint.

"...Why did it take more than three days of magic exhaustion for this?"

"I don't know. I didn't expect it either."

Why would a spirit be exhausted for more than three days just to materialize one tube of paint? ...Maybe it's because I tried to cut out a piece of the sky. It's... a bit shocking.

"Rian was very worried. Go see him in the morning."

"Yeah, I will..."

I don't know why it didn't work this time... but I won't try to make paint this way again.

"Anyway, go to bed. It's late."

"Yeah..."

I thought it was strange to go to bed again after just waking up, but there's no choice. It's better to paint in the morning, and it's better to see Rian in the morning. It's bedtime for children.

Also, maybe because of the magic exhaustion, I feel a bit lazy and heavy. I don't feel like holding a brush.

...But.

"...Well, it's good that I got the paint in the color I wanted."

Laocles said that.

I looked at the paint again.

...Yeah. It's really sky-blue paint. The color of the sky. The color of Rian and Ange's eyes. It's as beautiful as if I had cut out a piece of the sky.

"Yeah, it's good."

"Then go to sleep. Sleep and use it tomorrow."

Laocles smiled a little and said that. ...Yeah.

"Good night. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah."

Thanks to him, I became much more positive. Even though I became magic-exhausted for more than three days as a spirit, at least I got the paint in the color I wanted. Yeah. I want to paint quickly, so I'll go to sleep. When I sleep, tomorrow will surely come.

"What the hell, already! Why did you collapse?!"

"Sorry."

"When I was playing with Ange and looked back, you were gone! When I couldn't find you, you were just lying in the flower field! You didn't wake up even when I hit you!"

...I was hit. Yeah, that's right.

"Don't scare me like that!"

"Yeah."

Rian and Ange were seeing me for the first time in a magic-exhausted state, so I really feel bad. I should have explained better before collapsing.

"But at least I picked up the paint that fell."

"Thanks. That helped."

The paint Laocles had was picked up by Rian. Thanks to him, I was able to be excited about the paint last night. Thank you.

After petting Rian and Ange's heads and having Cloa pinch my cheek saying "Really, you!", it was breakfast time, and after breakfast, it was time to finish the painting.

The angels' eyes are the color of the sky. They are transparent and shining. They are the most beautiful part of the painting, so I put a lot of effort into painting them.

...Then I added colors to the shadows and balanced the colors of the fabric, angels, and baby bed to finish the painting.

The colors of the painting are somewhat unified in blue. When I made the shadows bluish, it harmonized the white futons and blankets in a blue world.

The baby bed is a bluish-gray color. The angels' eyes are sky blue, and the fabric draped over the baby bed is a light sky blue.

...In seven days, including the three and a half days of magic exhaustion, I finished painting the angels.

Three days after the painting was finished.

I was meeting Sapphire at the Redgard house.

"Here is the painting you requested."

This time, the painting was delivered by Laocles. It was a large size, so I think it was quite a task for Laocles. I'm sorry.

"...Oh."

When Laocles removed the cloth covering the frame, Sapphire looked at the painting in the frame and her eyes sparkled.

"It's soft."

...Soft?

"The atmosphere. The air, I suppose? The painting looks soft. It's blue, but it's not cold. And most of all... it looks happy."

Sapphire touched the frame happily.

"How interesting. The angels in the painting look so happy that looking at them makes me feel happy. Huh, the angels who bless are also the angels who make you want to bless, are they?"

Yeah