Super Righteous Player
Chapter 956 - 14: The Imprisoned Light

Chapter 956: Chapter 14: The Imprisoned Light

"Another world?"

Annand immediately became somewhat interested, "Can you tell me more?"

Nigel substituted tea for wine and took a small sip.

He then sighed and began to recount to Annan the story of his journey from the beginning:

"At first, I received a letter from an old friend. He helped me out a lot when I had just returned to the world of art... He is a wizard and a well-known artist within the industry, a student of the legendary ’Eye of Lag.’

"When I came back to the art world, I was sorely lacking in fame. I had considerable confidence in my paintings at that time—after all, they were ones that Yawen had deemed ’acceptable.’

"But in the end, they were only ’acceptable,’ not ’very good’ or ’nice.’ My skin wasn’t thick enough to exploit Yawen’s slight praise to promote myself under his name.

"If you have no fame, you can’t sell your work for what it’s worth. The only people who would buy the paintings were some art-appreciative nobles from the countryside. I had to sell some paintings to save up enough money to open a gallery.

"Only then could my reputation truly be established—I was ready for the fact that I wouldn’t make a name for myself for the first two years after returning to the arts. Not until I had saved enough money to open a gallery and invite critics... or until a connoisseur saw these paintings of mine at a noble gathering."

It was all up to that to make a name for myself.

The artist Nigel spoke so.

In his plain, humble words, there was actually a hidden absolute confidence in himself.

Although he said, "I dare not promote myself under Yawen’s name," Nigel knew the true level of his paintings. He believed that any true connoisseur who saw his painting in another noble’s home would undoubtedly recognize what level of artist he was.

All it took was one noble willing to sponsor him. With his talent, he could effortlessly soar to great heights.

"But just then, I met him... a traveling wizard from Frigid Wight Tower. He couldn’t stop praising my work and spontaneously offered three times my asking price to take the painting home.

"Not two months later, nobles from the Royal Capital travelled all the way to my hometown, eager to buy my paintings for a large sum. Only then did I realize how he had helped me."

"What is the name of your friend?"

Annan inquired.

"Rafaelo Santi. That’s his name."

Nigel responded promptly: "He’s about a decade older than me. But unlike me, he was born into an artist family. His parents are followers of the Stone Father and Paper Princess... His father is a renowned architect in the United Kingdom, and his mother is a painter from Noah—one of the artists whose works I studied and imitated when I was teaching myself to paint in my youth.

"But he was sent to study the art of wizardry in Winter when he was very young. Because his father told him, ’The skills of sculpting have their limits—the energy and physical strength of a person, the quality of the stone, all affect the final piece. A truly perfect sculpture is only possible with the mastery of the Idol and Shaping schools of spells.’

"So he went to the White Tower to focus on studying spells. And in his thirties, he became a silver-ranked grand wizard, graduated smoothly... and began to devote himself to studying art."

Nigel earnestly expressed his feelings: "I really envy him, and I am very grateful to him. For me, he is one of the few friends I truly want to associate with. Therefore, even after I became famous, even more famous than Rafaelo, I still frequently wrote letters to him.

"Although my mother is a ritualist, I don’t know any rituals. My experience in painting constantly reminds me that I do not have the talent to make a name for myself with ease in different fields like those prodigies.

"All I have is hard work. The art of this era is constantly developing, and I don’t even need to take a step backward... Just by stopping, I would soon be left behind."

"Because it took me a full two decades of seclusion and wholehearted study to finally comprehend this experience. If it were those with talent, perhaps only fifteen years, or even ten years—if they had enough money to spare themselves some work time, perhaps only five or six years would be needed to surpass me.

"I didn’t have the energy to delve into anything else. And with my talent, I was far from mastering the skills of a ritualist through short-term learning..."

Without sufficient proficiency, it would only be an embarrassment.

Nigel’s self-esteem as a distinguished painter, coupled with his sufficiently calm and rational assessment of his own abilities, meant he had no intention of venturing into the ritualist profession.

He knew very well that ritualists crave talent and accumulation even more so than painters; hence, he wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to cross that boundary.

"So, we always corresponded by letter. Not knowing where he had traveled to, I could only send my letter to a contact point in Winter... It was a place he would often return to, and might as well be considered his home.

"We would receive one or two letters from each other almost every year, but meeting face to face was much more troublesome. It was for this reason that he wrote to me... hoping I could make a trip to Winter to paint some ’things he was incapable of depicting correctly.’

"He promised me a handsome reward, including a villa in Winter. That is why I chose this time to sell all my properties in Noah to repay the debt I owed to Paper Princess."

Of course, over the years, what he had accumulated far exceeded the debt he owed back then—a debt that was many times over, even hundreds of times more.

But what Nigel was repaying was not the meager living expenses he had received in exchange for sacrificial offerings of unsellable poor paintings to Paper Princess... it was the money to sustain his "dream."

It was precisely because he owed Paper Princess so much that he persisted through his tears when criticized by Yawen.

That was the initial spark that had allowed him to embark on this path and not give up.

"I arrived at the agreed-upon Frigid Wight Tower and, under the introduction of Rafaelo Santi, met Earl Felix. He gave me a commission... to enter the depths of ’Furnace Mountain’ through a secret passage and depict the form of ’the world’s wound.’

"—At that moment, I thought he wanted to murder me."

Nigel said with a residual fear in his heart.

Anyone who had traveled thousands of miles to a foreign land, only to be told with a smile that they would be sent to the bottom of an active volcano... would feel like they had been deceived and that their life might be in jeopardy.

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"And indeed, when I descended into the depths of ’Furnace Mountain’ through that deep well... I discovered a magnificent sight I had never seen before."

Nigel murmured in a dreamy tone, "It truly was the ’world’s wound.’

"I truly saw the ends of the world—where all colors faded away, where no material existed. At a glance, I could easily see ’beyond the world.’

"It was a realm of chaos where no material possessed a fixed form. Only by intuiting ’beauty’ could one just manage to discern their essence.

"That was... living flames and light held captive. I lost my sanity at that moment, and when I awoke, the painting was complete.

"It was my proudest work, one that could never be replicated. I felt my passion, skills, and something else had all poured into that painting... I could never paint it again in my lifetime.

"Simply by uncovering the canvas that hangs over it, every piece of paper and fiber in the room would spontaneously combust. Every mirror would flash its fierce light all at once, as if the imprisoned light within their depths struggled to escape."

Nigel looked at Annan with utter certainty, speaking words difficult to comprehend, "It is a ’light’ that is exceedingly similar to the light within you."