It felt a little lonely being the only one inside the carriage but well… It’s not that big of a deal because we barely went ten minutes before we stopped and Atherva got us to disembark as well.

Our carriage drivers didn’t seem too bothered and just parked by the side of the road and all of us got off.

Unlike the roads deeper inside the Kingdom, the area out here was less forested and had more open plains.

Atherva ran towards the side and I was wondering what she was going to do when a full wooden easel appeared in front of her complete with a large canvas.

Wait… Does she have an upgraded Pack of Folding like I do?

Hold on…

I tried to use [Screened] on her and…

Huh…

What I got was a whole bunch of errors appearing in front of me…

Wait a minute… Does this mean she might be an Off-Worlder who got the boon to hide her stats? Should I ask her directly?

I looked up just as she materialised an entire table full of art supplies before she waved at me.

“Miss Aster!! Right here, right here! Can I please trouble you to stand over there?” She asked, pointing at the spot next to a tree.

Ok…

I went over to her and cleared my throat, “Ahem… I have to warn you first, Ather, I have no experience in modelling…”

She gasped, “Oh my god! Does that mean I’m your first?! Oh no, oh no… I need to do a good job of this then! Alright, alright… Can you stand right here? Yes, right there!”

I went over to the spot she pointed out and stood there facing towards her a little awkwardly.

She nodded excitedly, “Yes! Right there! Now turn a little to your right!”

I did as she asked and turned, still feeling a little awkward.

“Just a little more… A little more… Perfect! Now raise your hand up and prop it under your chin… Yes! Just like that! Then move your left foot a little back… Yes! Right there! And if you could just lower yourself a little bit more… Perfect!! Now please hold still!”

She ran back to where she had set up her painting stuff and turned towards my girls.

“Make sure nothing disturbs us. Anything that even gets close to Miss Aster, kill it.”

Really? Is there a need to go to that extreme lengths?

I couldn’t even ask that since that would have made me move and I was too worried that I may ruin this pose she set me up for so I just stayed where I was.

She then started to paint and I couldn’t really see her from where I was standing so I just kept as still as I could.

I was really worried that I would not be able to stay still long enough for her to complete her painting and I felt a little stressed out that maybe an itch might appear and I would just lose my composure or something.

But I didn’t even have time to worry about that because the sound of goblins shouting could be heard coming from somewhere in the plains.

I was already facing in that direction so I didn’t even need to move to be able to see a small group of goblins riding on wolves were in the midst of charging towards me.

Tsk… So trouble actually appeared after all…

Thankfully, I didn’t need to worry about them because my girls immediately leapt past me to cut down the goblins and the wolves before they could even get close.

I’m not sure if I was imagining it but they seem more motivated than usual.

They then started patrolling around to keep watch in case of more disturbances and I was a little surprised by how seriously they were taking this.

Just as the worry of being unable to hold the pose appeared again, Ather’s voice came from the side.

“Miss Aster! You can relax now!”

Eh? Wait… She’s done? It’s only been a few minutes though?

Since she gave me the green light, I relaxed myself and turned towards her, only to realise that she was still busy painting on her canvas.

Wait… Didn’t you tell me to relax? Aren’t you still not done yet?

Curiosity got the better of me so I went over to where she was to take a peek at her canvas.

The reason why she told me I could move became clear as I realised she had basically painted the rough outline of the entire scenery and concentrated on painting me first.

Obviously she wasn’t done yet as it was still missing the details but she had the base colour down so she no longer needed me to maintain the pose.

I also noticed that despite wearing a pair of white gloves on her, there was not a single blotch of paint on them nor anywhere else on her.

“This will take me about another thirty minutes or so, Miss Aster, please feel free to go ahead and rest,” She told me without looking.

Well… Since she says so…

I went over to the carriages where Katsuki had already brought out a chair for me to sit on while she prepared some tea for me.

The rest of my girls still kept watch and I joined them after having the tea Katsuki made for me.

Nothing else happened and just as thirty minutes passed, Ather took a few steps back from her canvas before placing her tools down, indicating she was done.

However, instead of being happy, she was looking at the painting with a dissatisfied expression and I got worried that I may have screwed it up for her somehow so I went over to check it out.

The others also joined me and the moment I set my sight on the painting… A gasp escaped from my lips before I could stop myself.

I could not find the words to describe it but the emotions I felt when I gazed upon the painting was pretty much the same as what I would feel when Delmare was singing to me.

The painting was beautiful, and yet it felt that this word was not doing it justice.

When she had posed me under that tree, I didn’t even feel that pose was that special. Yet here, she painted it to make me look like some ethereal goddess standing under the shade of the tree in the middle of the plain while the morning sun shone through the gaps in the leaves.

A soft wind seemed to be blowing in the painting and my hair and dress were frozen in mid billow, making the entire scene look like it was frozen in time and not just something that was painted on a piece of canvas.

It almost felt like the me in the painting would turn around to look at us at any moment.

It truly was a beauti–

“I’m such a failure,” Ather sighed.

Eh?

It wasn’t just me who was surprised by her words as my girls all turned to look at her in surprise and even the coachmen of our carriages were also looking at her in disbelief.

She let out another sigh at the painting, “It seems my skills are still lacking… To think I had believed I would be able to capture your full beauty, Miss Aster… How could I have been so arrogant?”

I blinked at her before pointing at the painting, “This is a failure?”

“Of course it is… I only managed to capture a small percentage of your perfection, Miss Aster… That is not even remotely good enough! I need to be better… Better than I already am so that I can fully capture your perfection!”

“I… Think it’s really good though? It’s really beautiful. And I think you painted it way more beautiful than it is in reality,” I pointed out.

She spun to me and gave me a look of confusion, “More beautiful than reality? This…”

I turned to my girls, “It’s a beautiful painting isn’t it?”

All of them nodded, even the coachmen behind them.

Unexpectedly, Ather shook her head to disagree, “It’s still not good enough… I can still be better than this… No matter, I will continue to practice until I am able to perfectly capture it. There’s no need to worry, Miss Aster, I will still properly pay you for this.”

“The payment isn’t the issue here… I’m wondering what you’re planning to do with the painting?”

She turned back to sigh at the painting once more, “For a failure like this… Of course I can’t allow it to exist, I’ll just have to destroy it.”

“Eh?! Wait, wait. No, no, no! If you don’t want it then sell it to us or something!” Lisa rejected the idea immediately.

Ather frowned at her, “How can I sell such a failure like this? If you want it, you can just take it.”

The girls immediately rushed forward and picked up the canvas before they started oohing and aahing over the painting while Ather dematerialised her painting tools before turning towards the carriage.

“Let’s continue… Perhaps if we find a better spot, I might be able to paint something better.”

I see now… So this woman is a perfectionist… I should have guessed…

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