User blog:Thrycius/Zheiro and The Moonlight Sculptor: Chapter 2

'''Disclaimer: This is a crossover fanfic between Brave Fronter and The Legendary Moonlight Sculptor. I don't own either of those; they belong to their respective owners, namely Gumi/Alim and Nam-Hi-Sung (남희성) respectively.'''

Now, without further ado, hope you enjoy the story.

One week.

Zheiro thought that would be more than enough time to finish the sculpture. In all actuality, he could probably finish in a few hours!

But since he hated the idea of putting it off until the last minute, he wanted to begin working on it immediately.

After closing his stall he set about finding the perfect material to use. Since he was the most familiar with wood, that would be his best choice. He knew how to use the grain of the wood itself to further furnish the final outcome.

And finally, he got his favorite carving knife sharpened and polished, ready for the delicate work he had in mind.

Zheiro was used to carving small, cute animals. But flowers? That was a bit more difficult. The thin petals and the narrow stem of each individual flower were always going to be at risk of breaking with one single mistake.

However, even if the difficulty was higher, that didn't deter him at all. Even if it was his first time carving flowers, he should be able to do it with his current skills.

Setting various blocks of wood down around him, he began to carve a delicate flower out of each block.

It was only after he was done carving, however, when he realized that he had lacked foresight.

Putting wooden flowers together in a bouquet would be far more difficult due to the lack of flexibility that real flowers had.

In a sense, this was a failure. But he could sell the flowers individually; and try again later.

Zheiro wasn't off-put by this failure. He would just have to try again.

The days flew by as Zheiro kept carving, trying to get that perfect bouquet. And before he knew it, a week had passed.

While he did manage to earn a lot of zel over the past week selling wooden, hand-sculpted flowers, they were also all failures in terms of what he wanted the final product to be.

It wouldn't be long before the man who had originally asked for the wooden bouquet to show up, wondering what he had been doing the past week with not a single wooden bouquet to give.

There was no time.

He would have to make one now, without mistake.

The perfect bouquet, made of wood.

If he had to give this bouquet to the girl he loved, how would he want it to look? The girl he held dearly within his memories appeared within his mind.

A lovely, beautiful girl. Yes, only the most beautiful of bouquets would be suited for her.

Even if the gift was to be given to someone else, Zheiro finally decided to make the sculpture using her as his reference.

Now that he had an idea, it was time to begin.

He had learned his lesson before; carving a single flower at once would be of simple matter, but that would make it difficult to put them together into a bouquet. It would be better to carve it all at once.

Setting down a large block of his finest wood, Zheiro meticulously began carving, sitting in the usual place where he set up his stall.

Slowly but surely, the form of of a beautiful rose bouquet began to appear.

While Zheiro was carving, however, he noticed something was different today.

For once, people had begun gathering around his stall.

“What is he doing?” “This is amazing!” “Wow!”

Various passersby stopped to observe his work in awe, watching the art within his hands blossom.

Suddenly, Zheiro recalled the words that the strange man had said a week earlier.

“Even though the rabbit was well made despite the difficult material, the artistic value of this rabbit is practically zero.”

Clearly, the audience was interested in the bouquet he was carving now, rather than the various figurines he had carved out before.

But what made them different? They were both sculptures made of wood.

Perhaps it was because of the difficulty of creating this bouquet, when compared to the figurines?

Whatever the case was, it was not important. He had to concentrate fully on this project. Pouring his heart and soul into his work, Zheiro continued to cautiously carve into the wood.

Every time his carving knife trimmed a bit of the wood, or when he switched to a chisel and hammer to reach the more intricate parts within, the audience would hold their breath, because a single mistake could break the delicate petals or the fragile stem of the flowers.

Zheiro knew that this was a groundbreaking moment of his life. If he made a single mistake here, then his reputation would drop. And if that happened, people would be less willing to buy his sculptures.

Carefully, Zheiro continued carving away...

Many hours passed, when Zheiro finally finished.

Wiping the sweat off his brow, he sat back to observed the finished bouquet.

It held a beauty that was beyond even his own imagination. Zheiro had trouble believing that he had just been working on it earlier himself.

His thoughts were interrupted by shouts from the crowd.

“Sculptor! I'll buy that bouquet for 10 zel!” “Only 10 zel?!? Are you crazy? I'll pay 100 zel for that!” “500 zel!”

He hadn't even said anything, and people were already offering prices that were already rocketing far beyond his belief!

However, selling it now was the last thing he wanted to do. This piece of art was originally reserved for the man who had given him this commission a week ago, after all.

“Um, I'm sorry, but this is not for sale.” Zheiro said, trying to pacify the crowd.

However, the crowd wouldn't have it. They continued to endlessly raise the price, until suddenly, a voice boomed out over the rest.

“I see you have finally finished what I have requested, Sculptor Zheiro! What a magnificent piece of work!”

Zheiro recognized that voice, and couldn't be any more glad to hear it; it belonged to the same man who had request him to make this bouquet a week ago. Once he gave the wooden sculptor to the man for his reward, the troublesome crowd would stop bothering him about trying to buy that particular sculpture.

Of course, they might ask for other custom-made sculptures, but that was fine by Zheiro. It would just mean his popularity has finally risen, meaning he could take advantage of that to finally be able to make a living and do what he always wanted to do:

Get absolute mastery over the art of sculpting.

Once that was done, he could finally return and complete the promise he made with the girl in his memories.

“Zheiro?”

“Ah, sorry,” Zheiro quickly apologized, “I was lost in thought.”

“Ha ha! Lost in thought, are we? Have you found what it was that you were missing?”

“Eh?”

What he was missing? What did this man mean by that?

While contemplating that, the man continued.

“Last week, I said that one of your sculpted rabbits didn't have any value as a piece of art. Yet clearly, everyone present can appreciate the bouquet you just carved. Have you realized why?”

Zheiro didn't say anything in response, waiting for the man to go on. This man seemed to understand more about sculpting than he did; perhaps he could learn from him.

“The figurines earlier that you endlessly mass-produced for the sake of earning zel backfired on you. Their value dropped as you continued to repeat the process, and your skills deteriorated as time went on. Put simply, you were creating figurines not for the sake of art, but for money, and lost sight of your goal.”

Zheiro furrowed his brows. While this man was technically correct, what did this strange know of his goals? It was neither zel nor art that he chose to go down this path, but for that girl—!

“You understand, don't you?” The stranger continued. “Even if you don't like it, that's how it is. Look! It took you the entire week to finally produce this bouquet, didn't it? I bet you thought it would have taken only a few hours, and if you had, then you would have severely overestimated your diminished skills.”

Zheiro widened his eyes. The man before him was actually right about that! How could that be?

“In any case, you have recovered your skills in a week, so I am impressed. This bouquet is definitely a worthy gift for my friend. I do request that you engrave your own name on it, as the one who made it, though. That's something you can do, right?”

An easy task that was completed in a few moments without question.

“Thank you very much. Then, here is your reward.”

The man tossed another bag filled with zel towards Zheiro, at which Zheiro deftly caught. From weight alone, Zheiro could tell that it was heavier than the previous bag of 1,000 zel he had been given earlier!

“'That's not all. You have a lot of talent, but it's being wasted on these figurines. Later tonight, after I have delivered this sculpture, let us have a drink at the bar down the street here. There is something else I wish to speak to you about. And, as a warning, don't accept any more requests or commissions before we talk tonight, or what I will speak to you about will be considered null and void.”

A rather strange set of conditions. But Zheiro couldn't deny that this man knew what he was talking about.

Whatever this was about, it was an opportunity for Zheiro to improve his skill. Thus, Zheiro accepted.

However, what Zheiro didn't know was that this would be the turning point of his life, where a life full of danger, adventure, and suffering awaited.

In a distant land, a young, talented painter sat, brushing paint with bold strokes onto a piece of canvas.

While her paintings were beautiful, to the well-trained eye and connoisseur of paintings her strong personality could easily be seen. To them, her absolute refusal to use anything but strong, powerful strokes often left much to be desired, but to everyone else her paintings just radiated with brightness and beauty.

Of course, she never listened to those experts. She brushed off their words without a single thought, believing they had poor taste in art.

“When expressing anything, whether it be art or even yourself, you should hold nothing back!” she would say. “Those without the confidence to do so don't deserve to judge my work.”

Still, despite her self-imposed limitations, one could not deny her talent. For every painting competition she had participated in, she had still managed received 1st place- an amazing feat.

Thus, the painter lived a satisfied life with her overblown ego, believing herself to be the best.

However, that was only until recently, where she heard the news of a breathtakingly beautiful sculpture that was made in the Imperial City of Randall.

A sculpture of a bouquet that, when finished, caused the crowd to immediately clamor over who was to buy it.

She was impressed. It was the first time she had heard of someone creating a piece of art that instantly caused such a commotion.

“Zheiro, was it? A familiar name.” She said to herself, even while she continued to paint. “But even if it's someone I know, I won't hold back. Zheiro, prepare yourself. I'm coming to challenge you to see who is the best artist in the land of El Gaia!”

''A/N:Guess what, 2 chapters at the same time! Yeah, the first chapter probably wasn't so interesting by itelf, I bet. Actually, I bet I already lost most of my readers by now, lol. It's a boring story about a guy who wants to reunite with a girl he loved since childhood, after all. How cliche!

Anyway, I don't really have much to say yet. Still building up the setting before things get going.

Please leave a comment even if you didn't like it; constructive critism is always helpful. Thanks!

''

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