"Sulfur, salt, and mercury."
In the evening, Sherlock Hermes was in his room, confirming the materials for the advanced ritual to be used tonight.
He wore a monocle and tried to make out the words he had scrawled on the labels of bottles and jars.
Sherlock murmured, his fingers running over the bottles and jars on the shelf: "Consecrated silver powder, blessed holy water. A bunch of dried black sage, unused rock crystal, six new red candles..."
On the other side, in the Hall of Silver and Tin.
Princess Isabel also paced nervously in her room.
She kept mumbling the names of the materials needed for the promotion ceremony, and she was visibly fidgeting.
“There are also clove essential oils, cinnamon essential oils, cypress essential oils, benzoin essential oils… there are also helichrysum essential oils, chamomile essential oils… and… and…”
Janis, the elf artist who was sitting nearby humming and writing music, put down her pen helplessly upon seeing this.
"—and ginger, fragrant dill, and white bread. I say... Little Isa, why are you so nervous? You have to trust your court ritualist. The ritual they set up is much more reliable than what you can prepare yourself."
"Yes, I know… "
Isabel murmured, not even emphasizing the "Call me Isabel instead of little Isa" thing.
She felt a little short of breathing, and gently grasped the collar of her white gauze dress, as if she wanted to lift the collar to fan some air in and relieve her nervousness - but considering the image and dignity of the royal family, she did not dare to do such a vulgar thing in front of outsiders.
"It's easy to advance for the first time, don't be nervous."
Janice patiently said, "You have to believe in yourself. You are very strong, and your foundation is more solid than most people. This is your first time advancing, and it's a full-moon advancement... There should be about six or seven people who can advance, so what are you afraid of?"
“… This is what I’m afraid of.”
Isabel looked worried: "If six out of nine people can advance, but I can't - if this gets out, it will be a loss of face for the royal family.
"Besides, someone will gossip about you, teacher. Someone will say bad things about you. They will make up terrible rumors..."
She was able to 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, normally can only choose the path of authoritarianism.
But among the Queen's six grandchildren, Her Majesty's favorite is the second-youngest Isabelle.
The only one younger than Isabel was her two-year-old brother.
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". Although she did not understand the Star Language, she could hum the aria directly after just one listening.
Queen Sofia was very happy because she had dreamed of becoming an opera master before she became queen. She even wrote a few operas after she inherited the throne. But she didn't publish them because of her status.
Among her many children, only Isabelle inherited her opera talent.
That's why she went against the majority.
This set a precedent for Isabel, allowing her to embark on 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 in the path of beauty is "art".
Opera, music, painting, sculpture, drama, dance, and poetry are all mysterious arts that belong to the path of beauty.
Art itself is mysterious. All great art masters are pioneers in the path of beauty.
Just as the key skill on the path to authority is "leadership" - the monarch's skill in controlling his subordinates and making others obey him is also mysterious.
If you want to increase the depth of your path, specializing in one skill is definitely not enough.
Perhaps because she is one-quarter elf, Isabel's talents lie in singing and dancing.
And now that you have embarked on this journey, you must keep going with determination.
Once a transcendent has embarked on the path, they are haunted by the desire to rise higher—they become obsessed with drilling deeper, rising higher. The longer they stay where they are, the more likely they are to go mad.
Just like in a certain industry, there are some excellent young people who are slightly talented but not geniuses. They often feel desperate for their real talent - that is a soul-shaking chasm that people outside the industry cannot feel and can only understand after going deep into the industry.
This feeling of powerlessness and shock, if it occurs on the path of transcendence, will drive a person crazy.
The path of beauty emphasizes perceiving the beauty of the world, and understanding the harmony and eternity of the world... and it is easier to become crazy.
Almost without exception, those masters of a particular art have gone mad.
So the Queen specially invited Master Janice to teach Isabel the skills of painting, sculpture and composing.
Because this is the safest route to promotion.
Isabel won't be the next in line to the throne anyway. Since the queen is happy, let the child play.
That's what other people thought at the time.
However, the good times did not last long.
Starting more than a decade ago, the royal family of Avalon suddenly began to fall ill one after another.
At first, it was suspected that someone had poisoned them, but later it was determined that someone was casting a powerful curse of extinction - a persistent and powerful curse that even the church's illumination magic could not completely dispel, and the holy bones of sages of all ages could not protect against.
What cannot be dispelled or resisted by the power of one country can only be a curse from another country.
Who else could it be
It can only be the Xingtan Kingdom.
Although Avalon did not have any evidence, common sense showed that a ritualist who could use such power could only be in the Star Antimony Kingdom.
Thus, a few years ago - as the first royal family was dragged to death by an incurable curse, Avalon and Star Antimony officially entered a state of hostility.
Today, Isabel's father is the only one still alive from her generation.
And half of her life has died of illness.
Only Isabel's eldest brother, Isabel, and her two-year-old brother were left.
She did nothing, but somehow she became the third heir to the Kingdom of Avalon.
—If she does inherit the throne, then there will be a big problem.
Avalon is a country that advocates authoritarianism, but its new queen has absolutely no affinity for authoritarianism.
Now she is the third heir, but no one knows if she will suddenly become the first, because "third" is already a very dangerous position.
Isabel did nothing wrong, and neither did Master Janice. However, due to the change in the situation, there were even rumors among the high-ranking officials of the kingdom that the Star Antimony Kingdom's goal was to let Isabel ascend the throne - so that Avalon could be thrown into chaos from within.
The entire kingdom's privileged class, all the extraordinary people in the government departments, and even most of the soldiers are from the authoritarian path. How can a queen from the path of beauty possibly gain their 100% loyalty
So Isabel was under a lot of pressure.
Any mistakes she made would be 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 were very worried about the future.
She could also understand that their worries were correct - if she really became the queen in the future, Avalon would probably be in long-term chaos. But she really didn't have the adaptability to the way of authority... She tried hard 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 had no say in this.
She can only do everything according to the rules, silently and to the best of her ability - not giving others the opportunity to find fault.
Because of this, she did not use her privileges, but went to college and lived with other students.
She became a supernatural person through formal channels after passing the comprehensive assessment of the first three semesters. Before that, she strictly restricted her learning scope, only learning the more marginal part of "art" skills, the part that ordinary people can touch... Then she continued to hone her basic skills, but never studied anything related to supernatural powers.
She endured her patience and practiced basic skills for thirteen years.
It was boring and meaningless, and painful enough to make her want to vomit. But she persisted.
Because she wanted to show that she would not use her royal privileges at will.
She hoped this would silence the voices of discontent.
She tried to downplay the impression of herself as a "princess", hoping that people would see her as an ordinary person rather than the third heir to the kingdom.
Until now, she suddenly realized—
Perhaps I have never truly become an "ordinary person".
She is still being served, pampered and helped.
While other extraordinary people prepared the rituals themselves, she could only sit aside and drink tea. The royal ritual master would take care of everything for her, and she didn't have to do anything - she didn't have to worry about making mistakes in her ritual array, or buying inferior or fake materials that would make the ritual ineffective.
“… I’d better do it myself.”
Isabel made up her mind.
She bowed deeply to the ritualist. "Master Osborn, I'm so sorry... It's not that I don't trust you. I just thought... maybe it wouldn't be good for me to just stand by and watch."
Isabel didn't know how to describe the tension and anxiety in her heart.
But she always felt uneasy as she watched the white-haired ritualist preparing the ceremony for her.
It feels like it was my own fault, but someone else took the blame for it.
Her brothers and sisters loved her very much. Whenever she broke something by accident, they were the first to admit their mistakes.
Although Isabel was not scolded at that time, she always felt uneasy.
—Just like now.
It was like something was tormenting my heart.
"Please let me prepare for the promotion ceremony myself."
Princess Isabel repeated.
Her voice became clearer, less timid than before: "You can assist me from the side, Master Osborn."
The white-haired ritualist at the side stroked his beard happily and nodded with a smile.
"Okay, my little princess. Indeed, this kind of thing... indeed, it is necessary to let myself do it, so that it has a sense of ritual.
"Remember this feeling, Princess. It's your first time entering the dream world, your first time coming into contact with the other eight great paths. You've truly left behind the identity of an 'apprentice' and become a true transcendent—"
The other side.
In Moriarty Manor, Aiwass climbed out of bed with his hands covering his forehead.
He actually hasn't gotten enough sleep yet.
But his spiritual intuition told him that if he didn't wake up, it would be too late - so he forced himself to wake up.
The sun is setting outside.
Aiwass struck the match with trembling hands and tried several times before he finally lit it.
Shivering, he lit the white candle placed by his bed - this was obviously the "remedy" prepared by Oswald.
Aiwass grasped the flame tightly, feeling the vitality flowing into his body from the candlelight, and then he slowly breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, because Aiwass is interested in the occult, he has prepared various materials in his room. It won't delay anything.
As the saying goes, “poor students have more stationery.”
Even though he didn't know how to use it, he bought everything he could.
… But he hadn’t eaten for a day and was very hungry.
Find a way to fill your stomach first, then come back and prepare for the promotion ceremony.