Isabel suddenly let out a sigh of relief and opened her eyes.
She held her forehead and slowly came to from the soft feather hammock.
With her back to her, Yanis was painting in Isabel's bedroom and cheerfully said, "How was the ritual experience this time?"
Isabel turned her head and saw a brilliant sunrise.
Above the glittering lake, the newborn red sun seemed to set the entire expanse of water ablaze.
Below were red and gold, above light blue and deep blue...
This strange and beautiful scene reminded Isabel of 'Fox' Mr. Aiwass's eyes when resonating with the Path of Devotion.
"Hmm, why aren't you speaking?"
When Isabel's reply hadn't come for a while, Yanis turned curious, jokingly said, "You didn't fail to advance, did you?"
"...No, I succeeded," Isabel said softly.
"You actually succeeded?" Yanis said in a tone of surprise.
"Mrs. Yanis, why are you so surprised?"
"Because I really did consider the possibility of you failing to advance."
Yanis casually twirled the paintbrush in her hand, tilting her head, "So, you don't blame me for not telling you the various precautions in the ritual beforehand?"
"...It's okay. Failure is a kind of experience too," Isabel murmured.
The elf artist laughed, walked over, and gently tapped Isabel, "You're obviously cursing me in your heart. You silly little thing."
Seeing this, Isabel didn't pretend anymore.
She approached with an aggrieved expression, "Teacher, I think you still need to teach me some common sense things. Meaningless setbacks without any preparation... I've failed many times already."
This was almost exactly what Sherlock had previously told her. Now she had directly borrowed his words.
"Someone else taught you to say this, didn't they?"
But Yanis easily saw through the truth.
"...Ah? How did you—"
"With your personality, when you say 'words of your own,' they won't come out so smoothly, so precisely. You'll hesitate about your own judgment. As you've just said— you've failed too many times. So much so that your confidence has been undermined," Yanis said.
Yanis sighed, leaned in closer, and caressed Isabel's hair, "Then do you know why I didn't hope for you to succeed on your first attempt?"
"Because failure in the advancement ritual was bound to happen sooner or later."
Yanis patiently answered, "Whether it's the New Moon Ritual or the Full Moon Ritual, its essence is to compete with others. The only difference is whether it's direct competition or indirect competition. Since it's a competition with others, where there are winners, there will surely be losers. Some may fail repeatedly, but no one can win forever.
"Constant victory will only build up more and more pressure. For this reason, the first failure is actually a precious opportunity. It allows you to balance your mentality and relax."
"Why is failure considered an opportunity?"
Isabel stubbornly asked, "I'd rather win."
Yanis silently stroked her hair, then affectionately pinched her soft cheek.
The elf spoke earnestly, "It's simple, Little Isabel. Because failing the first time you advance doesn't cause any harm to yourself. It only delays time—half a month or a month later, you can participate in another ritual. In other words, if you fail this time, you can still join another New Moon Ritual and experience real competition. Then if you go back to a Full Moon Ritual, you'll have experience.
"You get deceived by others in the ritual, get defeated. Your real identity is tricked out of you, used like a tool by others—yes, these indeed are 'failures.'
"But at the same time, it's just a dream. Even if they know your true identity, what can they do? You are the princess of Avalon; what more could they possibly do against you? That is your greatest reliance, Isabel. They can't really do anything to you, your failure is just that—a failure. It won't cause any irrecoverable actual loss.
"In a place where no one recognizes you, people will not care about your identity or show you the slightest sentiment, only brutal competition, survival, deception, betrayal... This will undoubtedly cause you to grow rapidly.
"And all you need to pay is the 'price of time.' Participating in more rituals will expose you, a well-protected and noble princess, to the unrestrained malice in people's hearts while assuring your safety in advance. In my opinion, this is more valuable for your improvement than the advancement ritual itself," Yanis revealed the truth she hadn't spoken before: "Competing fairly with others who are prepared when you have no awareness or understanding is indeed unfair. But reality is often ... You will be ambushed by those who are prepared when you are least expecting and unprepared."
"...So if that's the case," Isabel said somewhat frantically, "does that mean that if I succeed in advancing, I've done something wrong? In that case, I can't afford to fail next time because failure would come with a real cost..."
Hearing this, Yanis blinked.
She took a moment to process what had just been said and then couldn't help but laugh.
"My little Isabel, why are you so adorable—" Mrs. Yanis exclaimed with the intonation akin to cooing over a puppy, embracing the soft Isabel tightly in her arms.
Her gaze was filled with tenderness and affirmation: "What are you talking about, my little sweetheart? If you managed to advance smoothly, that simply proves that you're truly excellent.
"You've already done very well. As for the ritual next time... you don't have to worry about it.
"No matter by what means you emerged victorious, it shows at the very least that you are not the worst. If you can win without knowing anything, then won't you do even better after I've taught you seriously?"
Mrs. Yanis spoke in a soothing voice: "Let's not talk about that now, little Isabel. What did you choose as your Path trait?"
She looked like she was only three or four years older than Isabel, like an elder sister, yet she spoke like an elder.
"...Speaking of which."
Isabel murmured in Mrs. Yanis' embrace with a hint of complaint: "You never told me what to choose. I hesitated for a long time and finally picked 'Agile Singing Voice'."
"To increase the chanting difficulty of Enchanted Tunes, huh? That's not bad either. Anyway, you're a prodigy, anything you choose is fine. Following your heart is 'beauty' itself."
Mrs. Yanis raised her eyebrows: "I knew it, you sang in the dream, didn't you? I thought you wouldn't even find teammates."
"It wasn't that bad—"
Isabel insisted stubbornly: "I managed to find teammates right from the start!"
"Alright, alright..."
Mrs. Yanis smiled, cocking her head to size up Isabel: "How about I paint you a picture? To commemorate your first ritual victory.
"The way you look right now, your posture—just awaken laziness, surprise, shyness, with a hint of confidence rising quietly like the dawn, and your cute timidity..."
Suddenly, Isabel interrupted Mrs. Yanis: "There's another thing!"
A hint of astonishment flickered in Mrs. Yanis' eyes.
She couldn't resist smiling: "What is it, my little sweetheart?"
Although she was delighted to see her student's confidence... she had never thought that Isabel would progress to a level of courage where she would interrupt her after just one ritual.
Her curiosity about what Isabel had experienced grew even stronger.
But she respected Isabel. If Isabel didn't bring it up herself, she wouldn't ask—because she knew that if she were to ask, her obedient student would surely tell.
That wouldn't be good. It would be like using her authority as a teacher to pry out secrets, destroying the natural rapport and the beauty of tacit understanding.
"I remember, you mentioned before... that you wished to invite Mr. Aiwass to the Hall of Silver and Tin," Isabel said eagerly, in a low voice.
"Can we invite him sooner? I want to see what he looks like now... and have a chat with him."
She had just embraced the young Aiwass for a full four hours, and now she felt completely unafraid of an encounter with the real Aiwass. If before she was "somewhat anticipatory," now she was "impatient."
The fear and estrangement that come with meeting a stranger for the first time had completely dissipated in those four hours.
With this in mind, she actually wanted to meet Aiwass as soon as possible. It was a fascinating feeling, like seeing a character from a story come to life.
The strange position of knowing someone well when they don't recognize you gave Isabel a rare sense of security, which is something she constantly lacked in her day-to-day life.
At that time, Isabel wanted to whisper secretly in her heart after meeting Mr. Aiwass:
—Sister once acted as your mother, and even sang you lullabies!
She could only say it in her heart because saying it out loud would seem impolite. But even just thinking it would surely make her chuckle inwardly.
Upon hearing this, Mrs. Yanis, intrigued, arched an eyebrow noncommittally.