Am I the Villainess of this Story?

Chapter 33: Tournament Results: Liam

The individual tournament is more than halfway over now. All that's left is the artistry competition. That means only Rei and I are left. My situation right now is quite difficult. Although I'm not that bad when it comes to visual arts, my forte really lies in the musical arts. 

Anyway, the rules of the visual arts portion was simple. Every contestant is given fifteen minutes to showcase their talents. One cannot present a prepared piece so everyone could have a fair chance to win. Of course, the organizers are also responsible for producing the materials we could use. Provided, that the contestants have submitted a list of what they plan to use in the tournament within the required period of submission. This way no one could claim that their items have been tampered with prior the competition. After all the school procured materials sufficient for use by all the competitors regardless of their planned piece.

Some of the students who joined complained about the restriction of presenting a completed piece. They also complained about the time limit saying that fifteen minutes is not enough to produce something worthy to be called a masterpiece. However, these naysayers were rebuffed by this reason:

1. The restriction was to avoid others from either plagiarizing the work of other competitors or from tempting them to have someone do the work for them. This does not mean that the organizers don't trust us. But, it is better to avoid trouble before it truly becomes a problem. This way the harmony between the students would not be disturbed simply because of issues like cheating.

2. The time limit is to determine how well a student can use magic to assist them in making their artwork. After all, the purpose of the tournament was to see the students' progress. Further, the students have enough time to prepare. Surely, they could manage to discover ways to shorten the time it would take them to do their work.

Upon hearing these reasons, any other complaints were silenced. Since the goal of the tournament was to show off one's skill in magic, more focus would obviously be given on how a piece was crafted rather than on what was produced. That's why, I'm less worried about this aspect of the competition. I had more difficulty thinking of what to do.

xxxxx

I had spent the whole preparation period brainstorming on what piece I could do that would showcase both my aesthetic sense and my magical versatility at the same time. The contest, after all, is about how good one can apply magic in the production of artworks. 

At first, I wanted to make a painting. However, when I tried to do one, I realized that I have no sense of proportion when it comes to two-dimensional art. My work, as it turned out, would look way too abstract. It was actually disheartening when Sean complimented me on my snake painting, when what I was trying to draw was a majestic dragon.

Then, I tried to create a sculpture. This time, my technical skills are not the ones in question. It was my imagination that was not up to par. I was successful when I tried to make a unicorn sculpture. But, when I tried to make a phoenix, I ended up making something in between a peacock and a chicken. This made me realize that I need to have a clear image if I want to create an art piece. Which is highly different whenever I play or sing a song. With music, it is easy for me to either play or sing because I could easily grasp the emotion being conveyed by the piece I was using. However, when it comes to the visual arts, I can't produce anything worthwhile unless I have a clear image of what I want to present.

This make things very difficult for me. Having developed my empathy to the point that I can easily determine a person's mood just from a single look, I find it difficult to turn a concept from a simple feeling into a clear picture. So, two weeks prior to the competition, I was at a loss on what to present. It would be very embarrassing if I appear on stage without anything to show. And, as much as I'm willing to admit that I'm not the best when it comes to the visual arts, I'd rather not become the school's laughingstock by simply failing. Losing because someone is better than me is acceptable. But, losing because of my own incapability to produce something is not.

In the end, my dilemma was resolved by a careless comment by Leon's attache, Keiran-san. I was told to simply make something that is emotionally important to me. So, I decided to create a three-dimensional sculpture of my family. It would be difficult to pull off. But, should I manage to do so, I believe that it would be enough to impress the judges of both my artistic sense as well as my magical ability.

So, I requested for a large quantity of clay and varnish to use to preserve the sculpture. I want to be able to capture the image of my family as I think of them in my heart. Of course, even if I was confident that I could do it, I still practiced to see whether I could make good work within the prescribed time limit. After all, I am very much a perfectionist, which according to my friends could be a very annoying yet useful trait.

As I practiced, I realized that the more I recreate the image I wish to convey, the more refined my out put became. My control also improved to the point that I could actually finish my piece within ten minutes. I could have reduced the time I spent more but I don't think that doing so would be in my favor. This is because the whole purpose of the competition is to showoff. Sure, it would be impressive to see a student produce a piece within a short period of time. But it would be more impressive if the judges and the audience could get a feel on how complicated the magic use to do it was. So, I maintained the time it took me to complete my piece within the 10-minute to 12-minute range.

xxxxx

It's now time for the competition. It was scheduled in the afternoon of the second day of the tournament. The visual arts competition would take place first before the musical competition since there are more competitors for this section compared to the other one. There are twelve contestants in total. So, based on my estimate, it would take more than three hours for this portion of the tournament to end. The individual tournaments will probably finish by this evening as opposed to the expected before dinner schedule.

Each contestants were made to draw lots to determine the order of presentation. I ended up being the last to present. As such, I have to really impress the judges to win this thing. However, it seems that everything doesn't really happen as one may expect. Here I was expecting to be wowed by the skills of my competitors. After all, some of them were young ladies from noble families, who, unlike my dear cousin, had been obviously taught the four tenets of what it takes to be a lady, which includes an ability to make art.

Being the sole male participant, the rest of the student body expected that I'd be the worse of the lot. They think that as a boy, a teenage boy at that, I don't have a good concept of what is considered beautiful. The either expected to see me produce something of my territory's culture, given my established persona of a shy and timid country-boy, or something so masculine that it'd end up tasteless.

However, I didn't think that my ending up last would become a blessing in disguise. One by one, the ladies presented they artwork. All of them chose to make a painting. And, much to my surprise, they all based their paintings on a floral theme. Further, the only magical aspect they applied in their work is in moving the paintbrush and in quickly drying the canvass. There was no originality. None at all. It was very disappointing.

In then end, I won because I used magic to mold the clay for my sculpture before delicately applying the varnish to preserve the image. The judges also appreciated the fact that my theme is different from the previous eleven participants. So, once I stepped down from the stage after the announcement of my win, my schoolmates congratulated me before commenting that they didn't expect me to be quite good. I can't really say that I was good, though. It's just that my opponents are not up to standard. I shouldn't have placed such high expectations on my competitors because I ended up being so disappointed that I couldn't even rejoice at my win. Sigh, so troublesome. Those girls even cried so loudly when I was announced as the winner. I am so tired right now. I hope that Rei would be in a better condition than me...