In the evening, Sherlock Hermes was in his room, confirming the advanced ritual materials to be used tonight.
Wearing a monocle, he tried to confirm the words he had scrawled on the labels of bottles and jars.
Sherlock murmured lowly, running his fingers over the bottles and jars on the shelf: "Consecrated silver powder, blessed holy water. A bunch of dried black sage, unused white crystal,
Six new red candles..."
On the other side, in the Palace of Silver and Tin.
Princess Isabel also paced nervously in her room.
She kept reciting the names of the materials needed for the promotion ceremony, and she was visibly restless.
"There are also clove essential oil, cinnamon essential oil, cypress essential oil, benzoin essential oil... and helichrysum essential oil, chamomile essential oil... and... and..."
Sitting aside, the elf artist Yanis, who was humming and writing songs, put down her pen helplessly when she saw this.
"——There are also ginger, fragrant dill, and white bread. Let me tell you...little Isa, what are you nervous about? You have to trust your palace ritualist. They can arrange the ceremony more reliably than you can prepare it yourself.
Already."
"Yes, I know……"
Isabel murmured, no longer even emphasizing the words "Call me Isabel instead of little Isa."
She felt a little breathless, and gently held the collar of her white gauze skirt, as if she wanted to lift the collar to fan some air in and relieve her tension - but she did not dare to go outside because of the image and dignity of the royal family.
Doing such vulgar behavior in front of people.
"It's very easy to advance for the first time, don't be nervous."
Yanis said calmly: "You have to believe in yourself, you are very strong, and your foundation is more solid than most people. It is the first time to advance, it is a full moon advancement... there should be about six or seven people who can advance."
, then what are you afraid of?"
"...This is what I'm afraid of."
Isabel looked worried: "If six of the nine people can advance, but I can't advance - then if this spreads out, it will lose the face of the royal family.
"Moreover, there will be people who gossip about you, teacher, and there will be people who will say bad things about you. They will spread terrible rumors..."
She can embark on the path of beauty purely because of Queen Sofia's doting on her. Because the royal family of Avalon, the "Du Lac" family, can normally only choose the path of authoritarianism.
But among the Queen's six grandchildren, Her Majesty's favorite is the second youngest Isabel.
Even younger than Isabel, there is only her brother who is only two years old.
Isabel showed her outstanding artistic talent at a very young age.
When she was only four years old, she accompanied the Queen to listen to the opera "Lulu's Magic Flute". Even though she didn't understand Starbible, she could sing the arias directly after listening to it once.
Queen Sofia was very happy because before she became queen, she dreamed of becoming an opera master. Even after inheriting the throne, she even wrote several operas in her free time. She did not publish them because of her identity.
.
Among her many children, only Isabel inherited her opera talent.
Because of this, she defies everyone's opinions.
This directly set a precedent for Isabel, allowing her to enter the path of beauty and formally study "art".
The path of beauty is the path of harmony and art, flow and eternity.
The key skill on the road to beauty is "art".
Including opera, music, painting, sculpture, drama, dance, and poetry, they all belong to the mysterious skills of the path of beauty.
Art itself is mysterious. Great art masters, without exception, are all pioneers on the path of beauty.
Just as the key skill of the authoritarian path is the "skill of leadership" - the king's art of commanding his subordinates, the skill of commanding others to obey him, is also mysterious.
If you want to improve the depth of your path, specializing in one skill is definitely not enough.
Perhaps because of her one-quarter elf blood, Isabel's talent lies in singing and dancing.
And since you are going to embark on the road, you must go on firmly.
Once extraordinary people step onto the path, they will be troubled by the desire to rise higher - they will be obsessed with drilling deeper and rising higher. The longer they stay in the same place, the easier it is to become crazy.
It's like outstanding young people in a certain industry who have a little talent, but can't be called geniuses. They often feel desperate for their real talents - people outside this industry can't feel it.
It is a mind-shaking natural chasm that can only be understood after in-depth study of this industry.
This sense of powerlessness and shock, if it occurs on the extraordinary path, can make a person go crazy.
The path of beauty emphasizes perceiving the beauty of the world and realizing the harmony and eternity of the world... which makes it easier to become crazy.
Those masters of art who specialize in one art are almost without exception crazy.
Therefore, the Queen specially invited Master Yanis for Isabel to teach her the skills of painting, sculpture and arrangement.
Because this is the safest promotion route.
Anyway, it's not Isabel's turn to succeed to the throne. Since the queen is happy, let the children play.
That's what other people thought at the time.
However, the good times did not last long.
Starting more than ten years ago, the Avalon royal family suddenly began to fall ill one after another.
At first, it was suspected that someone was poisoning, but later it was determined that someone was carrying out a powerful curse of annihilation - a continuous and powerful curse that even the church's illumination technique could not completely dispel, and the holy bones of past sages could not protect it.
What cannot be dispelled and resisted by the power of one country can only be a curse issued by another country.
Who else could it be?
It can only be the Kingdom of Star Antimony.
Although there is no evidence in Avalon, we know from common sense that... ritualists who can use this level of strength can only be in the Kingdom of Star Antimony.
Therefore, starting a few years ago - with the first royal being dragged to death by an incurable curse, Avalon and Star Antimony officially entered a state of hostility.
To this day, among Isabel's father's generation, only her father is still alive.
And in her lifetime, half of them have died of illness.
Only Isabel's eldest brother, Isabel, and her two-year-old brother were left.
She did nothing and somehow became the third heir to the Kingdom of Avalon.
——If she really inherits the throne, then a big problem will arise.
Avalon, where the whole country advocates the path of authoritarianism, has a new queen who has no aptitude for the path of authoritarianism at all.
Now she is the third heir, but no one knows whether she will suddenly become the first. Because "third" is already a very dangerous position.
Isabel has done nothing wrong, especially Master Yanis. However, due to changes in the situation, there are even rumors among the kingdom's senior officials that the purpose of the Star Antimony Kingdom is to put Isabel on the throne - in this way, she can
The interior plunged Avalon into chaos.
The privileged class of the entire kingdom, all the extraordinary people in the government departments, and even most of the soldiers come from the path of authoritarianism. How can the queen of the path of beauty get their 100% loyalty?
So Isabel was under a lot of pressure.
Any mistakes she makes will be constantly magnified, criticized and blamed.
But she didn't want to blame them either.
Because she could sense that they were under a lot of pressure and worried about the future.
She could also understand that their worries were correct - if she really became queen in the future, Avalon might be in chaos for a long time. But she did not have the adaptability to authoritarianism... She tried hard
It happened many times, but she really couldn't learn it.
All she could pray for was that her brothers would not die again.
But she couldn't do anything. She didn't even say that.
She can only do everything according to the rules, silently, and do her best - without giving others the opportunity to find fault.
Because of this, she did not use her privileges. Instead, she entered the university and lived with other students.
She only became a transcendent through formal channels after passing the comprehensive assessment for the three semesters of her freshman year. Before that, she strictly restricted her study scope and only studied the marginal part of "art" skills.
The part that can be touched by humans... and then it is to constantly hone the basic skills, but never learn about extraordinary power.
She endured it and practiced basic skills for thirteen years.
It was boring, meaningless, and painful enough to make people want to vomit. But she persisted.
Because she wanted to show that she would not use royal privileges at will.
She hoped that this would make those dissatisfied voices disappear.
She tried hard to downplay her impression as a "princess" and hoped that people would only see her as an ordinary person, rather than the third heir to the kingdom.
Only now did she suddenly realize——
Maybe I have never become an "ordinary person" in the true sense.
She is still being served, pampered and helped by others.
While other extraordinary beings were preparing their own rituals, she could only sit aside and drink tea. The royal ritual master would help her handle everything, and she didn't have to do anything - she didn't have to worry about drawing the wrong ritual array, or
There is no need to worry about buying inferior or fake materials that will invalidate the ceremony.
"...I'd better do it myself."
Isabel made up her mind.
She bowed deeply to the ritual master: "Master Osborne, I'm very sorry... It's not that I don't trust you. I just thought... maybe it wouldn't be good if I watched from the sidelines."
Isabel didn't know how to describe the tension and anxiety in her heart.
But when she saw the white-haired ritual master preparing the ceremony for her, she always felt uneasy.
It's like it was your own fault, but someone else took the blame.
Her brothers and sisters used to love her very much. If she accidentally broke something, they would be the first to admit it.
Although Isabel was not reprimanded at that time, she always felt restless.
——Just like now.
It's like something is tormenting my heart.
"Please let me prepare for the promotion ceremony myself."
Princess Isabel repeated.
Her voice became clearer and less timid than before: "You can help me from the side, Master Osborne."
The white-haired ritual master on the side happily touched his beard and nodded with a smile.
"Okay, my little princess. It's true that this kind of thing... you really have to do it yourself to have a sense of ceremony.
"Remember this feeling well, Your Highness Princess. Entering the dream world for the first time, contacting the other eight paths for the first time. Truly breaking away from the status of 'trainee' and becoming a true transcendent——"
The other side.
In Moriarty Manor, Aiwass climbed up from the bed holding his forehead.
In fact, he hasn't had enough sleep yet.
But his spiritual intuition told him that if he didn't wake up, things would be delayed - so he forced himself to wake up.
The sun is setting outside.
Aiwass rubbed the match with a trembling hand and repeated it several times before lighting it.
Shivering, he lit the white candle placed by his bedside - this was obviously the "healing medicine" prepared by Oswald.
Aiwass grasped the flame and felt the vitality pouring into his body from the candle flame, and then he slowly breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately...because Aiwass is interested in occultism, he has prepared various materials in his room. It will not delay things.
The so-called "poor students have too much stationery".
Although he didn't know how to use it, he bought everything he could buy.
...It’s just that he hasn’t eaten for a day and is so hungry that he feels flustered.
Think of ways to fill your stomach first, and then come back and quickly prepare for the promotion ceremony.
I have read 5,000 words, and Maomao is very happy - so today is an update of more than 8,000 words!!!
You won't be able to see this chapter when it is posted today, but I can see it in the background, so if you want to complain, or if you see typos or wrong sentences, you can still say it! If nothing else, it should be resumed tomorrow~
