—Moderation.
Just by hearing the comments on the first painting, Janice immediately understood Aiwass's aesthetic tendencies.
Moderation is not a derogatory term. It is the way of beauty that she pursues.
The path of beauty will affect oneself from a material level, making one's image and temperament gradually approach the "perfect beauty" of one's ideal. Janice is not too tall among humans, nor too short among elves; her figure also blurs the characteristics of men and women, and her face and temperament are neither mature nor immature.
Because the "aesthetics of moderation" is the most popular aesthetic.
This is Janice's personal understanding of the "path of beauty" and the reason why she walks on the path of balance.
Unlike those professional critics of Iris who are sharp-tongued and discerning, they can always find some points that even Janice herself can't think of, some details that she herself doesn't care about, and they are immersed in the void and talk about something to themselves.
When creators transform their inspiration into works, there will inevitably be losses.
After all, viewers cannot truly enter the world of the painting, and cannot truly put themselves in the shoes of the painter and feel his or her thoughts and emotions when creating the painting.
They can only appreciate it based on their own knowledge and understanding.
True beauty is universal and can move people of different races, genders, backgrounds, ages, and cultures. But when it comes to "the reason for feeling beauty", everyone's answer will be different.
Because rather than feeling the beauty in the artwork, it would be more accurate to say that they saw their own reflection in the artwork.
Your own life, your own fantasies, your own fears, your own dreams.
Therefore, the answers given by viewers will be more or less biased.
Janice likes to ask other people what they think of her paintings, because she is a creator herself and of course knows what the standard answer is as a "benchmark".
By asking questions, she can find out whether the other party has real skills, level and talent. She can also reversely analyze her own personality, experience and even path inclination from the other party's evaluation.
She seemed to see the results of life condensed in these comments. This was also a kind of psychological test, and she never tired of it.
—But the answer given by Aiwass surprised her a little.
His comments were not tinged with his own personal colour.
She is objective and fair enough, but not lacking in sensibility. She speaks frankly about the shortcomings caused by her immature skills, and also appropriately praises those proud points that she has carefully laid out but are not valued by others.
It’s like another me… a summary answer given by my more mature self from the future.
There is no doubt that Aiwass is his soulmate.
“…Are you interested in embarking on the path of beauty?”
Janice couldn't help but ask, "I think you might be the human being who has gone the furthest on the path of beauty."
"Huh?"
Isabel on the side was startled and looked at her teacher in surprise.
She had never seen a teacher give such high praise to someone!
The teacher's evaluation of himself can even be considered low!
Janice's original words at the time were: "With your talent, it is impossible for any branch of the path of beauty to reach its limit, even the 'singer'. It is a wise choice for you to choose 'all-rounder'. If you pursue the pinnacle of singing skills, you will only go crazy before reaching it."
But for some reason, seeing that the teacher recognized Aiwass so much, she didn't feel jealous at all.
There was only a sense of happiness and a subtle sense of pride.
It’s like finding a friend with great difficulty, and when you bring him home, his parents give him high praise.
—And I raised this child!
Isabel whispered in her heart.
She didn't dare to say it because she was afraid of being scolded - she knew that Aiwass was raised by Professor Moriarty, and she also knew that she only played the role of Aiwass's mother in a dream. But she still couldn't completely "get out of the play" and still couldn't forget the memories of that dream.
So, this is just what she said to herself.
It is not so much about deceiving oneself as it is about not forgetting.
On the other hand, Janice's mood was also very delicate.
She accepted Isabel as her disciple, partly because she felt the "beauty" from Isabel and thought she was cute enough; another part was because she and Queen Sofia were close friends.
They first met sixty years ago, when Queen Sofia had just ascended the throne.
She was a lively teenager then, younger than Isabel is today.
But Sofia's personality was completely different from Isabel's, even the opposite. When she was young, she was full of energy, very outgoing and friendly. She would often sneak out of the palace after dressing up and putting on makeup to go to the theater to watch a play, or enter the school in schoolgirl clothes and ask other students about their opinions on various decrees as a junior.
It was Janice's first time to hold an art exhibition in Avalon. At her own exhibition, she met the young Queen Sofia. She was amazed by the beauty and vitality of this lovely girl and wanted to paint a picture of her on the spot.
They were painting and chatting at the same time. When Janice was halfway through her painting, the Queen's guards rushed over.
It was then that Janice realized that this girl who looked younger than herself was the new queen of the country.
Sophia is extremely outgoing and not bound by tradition.
She disdained many rules, carried out a lot of reforms, and resolutely abolished many traditions that now seemed outdated - such as tortures that were more severe than the death penalty, the convention that women could not become knights, and the old law that knight families could only be imprisoned but not executed... and also the teaching and learning of some "forbidden techniques" for the prosperity of the kingdom.
The development of Avalon's alchemy, art, preservation, medicine, as well as translation and detective professions in the path of wisdom all began with Queen Sophia.
Janice stayed with the enlightened and young queen for twenty years before leaving her and continuing her own travels around the world.
Now she returns to Avalon and accepts Isabel as her student, just because she sees the shadow of her former best friend in Isabel. But in fact, she does not think that Isabel can inherit her mantle.
Art requires a lot of time to accumulate. The difference of five times in lifespan between humans and elves is an insurmountable chasm in the field of art.
But Aiwass is different.
Janice keenly sensed in him a beauty similar to her own.
He is handsome and calm, which is undoubtedly a masculine beauty, but at the same time he has a feminine sensitivity and delicacy; his temperament is mature and his behavior is steady, but he also has the vitality of a young man; as a pastor, he walks on the path of dedication, but Janice keenly captures his invisible arrogance towards the world.
This feeling of contradiction and balance made Janice feel as if she saw another self.
Similar to oneself but different—
When Aiwas heard this, he was speechless.
Isn't this a coincidence
Guess what, Sherlock just said yesterday that I am more suitable for the path of wisdom. Master, today you said that I am more suitable for the path of beauty... How about you two fight
Forget it. I’m afraid Sherlock will be beaten to death.
After Aiwass declined, Janice recommended another round of beauty path. After Aiwass refused for the second time, she did not force it.
After all, walking on the road requires not only corresponding talents but also some obsession.
If you don't want to, you can't force it.
If you force yourself to walk on a path that you do not approve of or like, you will eventually deviate from the path, and everything will be in vain.
Janice just felt sorry.
Aiwas obviously has the talent for the path of beauty, but he has no desire to pursue beauty. If he can enter the path of beauty, his future will definitely be much brighter than the path of dedication. There is a high probability that he can reach the fifth energy level like her, close to the limit of mortals.
And considering the short human lifespan, his talents may be even better than mine.
Thinking of this, she made a decision.
"Since you like my paintings so much," Janice said lightly, "then I will give you the Golden Dawn."
Hearing this, Aiwass suddenly opened his eyes wide and felt his scalp tingling.
Even Princess Isabel couldn't help but gasp and didn't dare to say a word.
Aiwass knew how much Janice liked this painting. Among the three paintings, “Visit to the Temple of Acropolis” was Janice’s first magic painting. It was her encouragement to herself who was determined to walk the extraordinary path, and it also concealed her youthful ambition of “comparing herself to the apostle Hippocrates”. And “Crystal Sea” was the scene of the end of the world that she saw. It was a gift to her best friend Sophia who could not leave the Glass Island and would never have the chance to see how beautiful that scene was... It was the summary of her journey around the world and the crystallization of her friendship.
And Golden Dawn is the pinnacle of her pure craft.
It was a painting she had drawn when she saw people worshipping the sun in the Horus Empire and was shocked by the spectacle of sunrise. It was the best painting she could draw without involving the "Power of the Path".
From this painting onwards, her paintings have mysterious powers that can change reality. This is the last painting that can flow and be viewed by all mortals, and it is also the most highly praised painting of all Janice's paintings.
It is undoubtedly a masterpiece that will be passed down from generation to generation. Its value is inestimable.
—How can you give something like this to someone when you first meet them?!
"Of course, it can't be considered completely free..."
Only when Janice said the next sentence did Aiwass finally breathe a sigh of relief.
It's OK, as long as there are requirements. The worst thing is that there are no requirements - favors are the hardest to repay, especially those that are troublesome and hard to say how much they are worth.
But when he heard Janice's request, Aiwas's expression became more subtle.
“You are a genius, Aiwass. I believe you will be able to develop well on the path of dedication… Even though you have just entered the extraordinary realm, your promotion speed will surely be very fast.
"As you can see, my student Isabel is a somewhat fragile girl. I am not very confident about her advancement ceremony.
"When you are doing the second or third advancement ceremony, if you have already caught up with Isabel... can you wait for her for a while and advance with her? Of course, the Full Moon Ceremony can..."
This requirement is almost equivalent to no requirement.
It is basically a common practice in the supernatural world to bring friends along during the full moon ceremony and to stop enemies during the new moon ceremony.
This can only be said to be a matter of convenience.
Friends who have the same progress and are on other paths will have a considerable advantage on the path to transcendence... Although Janice said that she would only help Isabel once, as long as her advancement speed is not much slower than Aiwass, this is basically the parent personally making an appointment for a fixed team.
After all, the chances of winning when playing together are higher than when playing alone, and having someone you can trust absolutely is a huge advantage. Therefore, Aiwass had no reason to refuse.
But when it comes to Aiwass, there is a small problem.
"… Should I find an opportunity to confront Her Royal Highness the Princess first?" he thought to himself.
If she enters the book and finds out that I am her "Mr. Fox"... will it have a bad impact on the girl's psychology
Aiwass fell into deep thought.