The Reborn Genius of an Arts High School - Chapter 64

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 64.
Kobayashi Ai.
A fairly renowned contemporary painter from Japan.
Two years Ye Ji’s senior.
And if her surname is Kobayashi…….
‘That’s right.’
A more thorough search yielded results easily.
It turned out she came from an old aristocratic family in Japan, which meant her backing was formidable.
While Hyun Min was looking up information on Kobayashi Ai.
Da Hye seemed to have replied first—the notifications kept chiming.
[Da Hye: I have no idea]
[Da Hye: Why? Who is she? Is she good?]
[Ye Ji: No]
[Ye Ji: She’s good enough but that’s not it]
[Ye Ji: She’s been talking badly about me behind my back]
…What did she just say?
Hyun Min, who had been watching only the newest alerts, finally picked up his phone.
[What are you talking about?]
[Ye Ji: It’s a long story to explain everything, but apparently that’s what she’s doing]
What followed was Da Hye’s colorful string of curses.
She was a hothead through and through.
Though Hyun Min had to admit he wasn’t much different.
What kind of person goes overseas and gossips about competitors from other countries?
Even as Da Hye heated up, Ye Ji seemed to remain composed.
[Ye Ji: I just asked to see if she’d give herself away]
Of course, she was composed only in appearance.
She had no intention of simply letting it go.
That was Ye Ji for you.
With that thought, Hyun Min immediately began digging up more information on Kobayashi Ai.
Being fairly well-known, there was plenty of information available.
Local Japanese newspapers.
Posts she herself had uploaded to social media.
Eyewitness accounts and reviews from unspecified sources.
Japanese translation worked well on the translator too, so there was nothing difficult about it.
While scrolling through Kobayashi’s social media follows, Hyun Min spotted one particular fact among the various information.
[Hey, wait.]
[I think I found something.]
***
The next day.
The Judging venue, where the work was in its final stages, had a rather tense atmosphere.
Nearly half a year had passed since the First Round Judgment of the Art Competition.
Tomorrow marked the end of that journey.
Everyone wore expressions soured by the pressure to complete their work by tomorrow.
‘Too much pressure won’t help anything.’
Ye Ji’s eyes suddenly met Elisa’s.
Elisa at least seemed to have settled her mind from yesterday’s conversation; her expression wasn’t bad.
Ye Ji had exchanged sufficient messages with Ethan late last night.
Apparently, Kobayashi had also tried to speak ill of Ye Ji to Ethan.
‘(That girl’s not much.)’
‘(So I blocked her.)’
Ethan had responded to the attempt quite drastically.
But blocking a fellow competition participant wasn’t good for Ethan either.
Kobayashi seemed like the type who could subtly deceive others while playing the victim herself.
‘(You’re not letting it get to you, right?)’
‘(I’m looking forward to your work.)’
But he seemed unconcerned with such things, showing interest only in Ye Ji’s work that would soon be completed.
Ye Ji might have reacted similarly if only she had been the target of gossip.
Either way, Kobayashi’s scheming aimed to shake the morale of all participants.
That was something Ye Ji found deeply disagreeable.
“…….”
With over twenty people—participants and judges combined—gathered in the hall.
Yet the surroundings were filled with a profound silence.
Even the slightest tremor of the hand was now an irreversible mistake.
Early in the work, the judges’ voices and footsteps could be heard faintly from upstairs, but now it was quiet.
Everyone was being careful—even breath, footsteps, and pen strokes—out of consideration for the sensitive artists.
‘Pointless scheming in a competition where everyone is sincere.’
Again today, Kobayashi smiled brightly at Ye Ji.
For Ye Ji, who had already glimpsed her true nature, that smile was contemptible.
She was in the finishing stages of her own work.
There was no way she could leave Kobayashi at ease.
After composing her thoughts, she stood and approached her.
***
Kobayashi’s nerves were on edge.
She had shaken the other participants, hoping her words would ripple outward.
If someone of that caliber was in the same competition, anxiety was natural.
And this was the perfect moment for jealousy and envy to take root.
The negative rumors about Ye Ji she had steadily spread were enough to make all participants see her unfavorably.
Thanks to that, the other participants had been consistently creating friction with Ye Ji.
But still…
‘How is she maintaining such composure?’
Since Ye Ji had brought an abundance of fine-hair brushes, Kobayashi was confident her psychological strategy would work.
Ye Ji’s work was an extremely intricate Hyperrealism painting.
Even the slightest loss of concentration or composure would affect the work’s completion quality.
But Ye Ji remained unshaken.
Irritatingly so.
‘I thought maybe she was too stupid to even grasp the situation.’
But watching Ethan’s reaction—someone who had prior dealings with Ye Ji—proved otherwise.
Ethan had even gone so far as to block her outright.
Clearly, Ye Ji knew that Kobayashi was talking about her behind her back.
“…….”
Time slipped away without any progress.
Tomorrow, the work would be done.
But it isn’t over until it’s over.
As Kobayashi thought this and her gaze met Ye Ji’s, she smiled even more brightly.
At this point, any mistake would leave insufficient time not just to finish but even to repair the damage.
So Kobayashi hoped Ye Ji would falter.
“…?”
Though she hoped for that, what was this?
Ye Ji suddenly rose from her seat and approached her.
Up until now, Ye Ji had shown remarkable concentration.
Getting up suddenly to do something else for the first time in nine days was unprecedented.
“(What’s going on?)”
This wasn’t the reaction she’d been hoping for.
Faced with such a direct approach, Kobayashi found herself caught off guard instead.
She maintained her composure, responding with a practiced smile.
Then Ye Ji smiled as well and spoke.
“(I just learned about a restaurant called L’Assiette d’Or. The food there is pretty good, isn’t it?)”
Ye Ji’s question was as sudden as her approach.
“(That’s… what…)”
Kobayashi, reflexively smiling to respond, froze.
The restaurant name was strangely familiar.
That restaurant was where she’d met Julien about a month ago to receive advance notice of the Judging theme.
“(…I… don’t really… know…)”
Kobayashi felt the hand holding her brush trembling of its own accord and lowered it.
What does she know?
Or if she doesn’t know, why would she suddenly ask such a thing?
Does she have evidence?
Is she probing?
How did she find out?
Kobayashi’s insides became a tangled mess.
Ye Ji showed no particular change of expression, simply nodding lightly.
“(I see. You don’t seem to remember the taste.)”
That was all.
Barely two sentences.
It was a very brief exchange, and Ye Ji returned to her seat.
A mere handful of seconds containing not the slightest substance.
To others, it would have seemed like idle chat—an oddly irrelevant question and answer.
But the fingertips holding Kobayashi’s brush had gone white.
‘What exactly does she know……?’
***
Ye Ji, who had subtly needled Kobayashi, let a slight smile play at her lips.
The information Hyun Min had dug up seemed to have hit exactly the mark.
He was far more adept at finding information online and on the internet than Ye Ji was.
Especially in art circles, his existing knowledge was so vast that he could uncover most things easily.
Finding several judges among Kobayashi’s social media follows was trivial for him.
Based on them, when Hyun Min searched further, he found a few peculiarities.
What he discovered was a photo taken by an employee of a luxury restaurant called L’Assiette d’Or, who had recognized Julien.
Among the part-time workers in Paris, there were many who worked odd jobs to support themselves while pursuing art.
Julien was a fairly prominent artist in Paris, so being recognized by someone wasn’t unusual.
If Kobayashi hadn’t happened to be in the photo taken when someone recognized him and tagged it on social media.
It would have been just an ordinary photograph.
[Hyun Min: It’s not even a direct shot. She just happened to be at the same table.]
[Hyun Min: The timestamp is a month ago.]
[Hyun Min: Before the first group work even started.]
[Hyun Min: Isn’t that suspicious?]
By his account, it was very suspicious.
What they discussed there was impossible to know, but it was absolutely not a natural situation.
The moment after First Round Judgment results were released and everyone was waiting for the Second Round Judgment.
A private meal with a judge at precisely that time?
Even if there was prior acquaintance, it was a situation one would avoid—sufficient to invite misunderstanding.
But misunderstanding didn’t matter.
After all, exploiting misunderstanding through shallow schemes was Kobayashi’s style.
Naturally, she would twist her own words in multiple ways to suit her level and construct complicated interpretations all on her own.
‘I don’t need to worry about it anymore.’
There was nothing more to do.
She would second-guess herself and cause herself anguish on her own.
Now Ye Ji just needed to sink back into calm and focus on her work.
With her fine-hair brush, Ye Ji carefully moved her hand, capturing the texture of each feather’s soft strands.
Expressing the flutter of down clinging to the feather tips, one strand at a time, was nearly akin to spiritual discipline.
‘Wings.’
Flight through the sky leaves traces.
The wind from wingbeats changes the world—it was a perspective so well-known that there was even a term for it: the Butterfly Effect.
But Ye Ji fixed her gaze on the trace left by a single feather fallen from the wingbeat.
Ripples born when the feather lands on clear water.
A crystalline sky reflected in the water, rippling vividly along the brush strokes.
Billowing clouds tremble with the water’s movement, and in the gaps, the silhouette of a small white bird hides.
Like the serpent that swallowed an elephant from Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince.
The wavering white shape looked sometimes like a bird, sometimes like a mere cloud.
A painting where the form of the wings could not be certain.
But due to the feather that fell below, it could be inferred.
That somewhere in the azure sky, a bird beats its wings.
That a being has soared forth into the vast world.
All the details she had poured her utmost effort into.
A canvas glittering with light splintering across the water’s surface was radiant enough to evoke the sense that the future of those wingbeats would be bright and hopeful.
Though it was nearly complete even now, Ye Ji’s eyes found many corners where she wanted to add more.
If she continued to refine it over the remaining time until tomorrow, raising the completion quality, she would likely achieve a satisfying finish.
Having wrapped up the day’s work in such a straightforward manner, that evening.
Ye Ji went to that very L’Assiette d’Or for dinner with her father.
The restaurant was exceptionally expensive, but the food was exquisite.
After finishing a substantial meal to commemorate the final work, Ye Ji uploaded the photo to social media.
A simple, happy evening between father and daughter—nothing problematic about it.
But Ye Ji knew.
For those with a guilty conscience, it would be received differently.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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