"The most eye-catching thing... " Turing sat in the art gallery, in front of his canvas, staring blankly at his unfinished draft, quietly murmuring the exam question.

Watching everyone around him busy writing, with their pens swiftly moving, Turing hesitated. Should he overturn and repaint his work?

Turing had just received the task and had already started painting a portrait of Merka. But halfway through, he began to think that the judges might not be able to appreciate this special emotion.

"Now what should I do, should I change and paint a godlike figure? There's still time..." Turing tightly gripped his pen, the relaxed mood before the competition completely gone.

Unconsciously, Turing's right hand twisted the corner of the drawing paper, planning to replace it and start over.

"But over the past year, wasn't it my mother's intention to send me to Lachésis to improve my painting skills?"

"A year ago, I could also paint godlike figures. Three years ago, I could also paint godlike figures."

"If I continue to paint like this... then what have I really changed?"

Gritting his teeth, Turing looked towards the window of the exam room, opposite to Diana's exam room.

"No pain, no gain. How can I possibly achieve first place if I'm just like everyone else?"

"Merka, your face better be attractive enough to captivate the judges."

Thinking jokingly, Turing continued to work on his piece.

When it comes to what's captivating, Merka's eyes are definitely the most captivating."

"Seemingly lifeless artificial eyes, yet they express such sadness and loneliness, more vivid and passionate than real eyes."

Unconsciously, under Turing's colorful brush strokes, Merka's eyes appeared like a black hole in their sockets.

Under Turing's depiction, a young boy with black pupils, his hair hanging down and a smile on his face, emerged on the paper.

This was the perspective from when Turing lay on Merka's thigh. It wasn't too bright or too dark, just enough to embrace a handful of sunlight shining through Merka's hair.

"Artificial eyes don't have whites, so let's not add them."

Turing stopped the pen she had initially intended to embellish the drawing with and looked at the walls around her. The clocks on them told her there was still over ten minutes left.

"He's really handsome, can't get enough of it."

Turing looked at her masterpiece and nodded with a smile.

"If I don't say it, who will know that such a lovely boy is actually a cursed child?"

"... If I don't say it?"

Turing suddenly realized that she had never seen a portrait of a cursed child before.

The cursed child isn't even allowed in graveyards, so would anyone be allowed to make a portrait of them?

"A boy with an artificial eye, isn't that like telling others that he's a cursed child?"

"Maybe the judges won't see it, but if it's noticed by someone with a keen eye, it will definitely stir up a storm."

"How...how can I change it in time?"

"Should I paint the eye as a normal one? No, no, no. That's the standout element of the entire painting!"

As time passed bit by bit, an inexplicable feeling of suffocation pressed on Turing's throat.

"No, the scene back then... wasn't like this, right?"

Turing carefully recalled that due to the lighting at that time, the area above Merka's nose seemed to be covered by a layer of shadow, making it difficult to see clearly.

"If it's meant to attract attention..."

Turing gritted his teeth, horizontally tore off the piece of paper above Merka's nose, wiped it clean, and stuck it under the paper.

A strong aroma of mugwort spread out, and Turing silently recited a spell.

"Molecular-level programming magic, of course I can..."

As Turing recited the spell, the torn paper wriggled like a moving caterpillar and merged with the paper.

"Done!"

Merka, whose face couldn't be seen on the paper, smiled like a nebula.

But no one knew why he was smiling or what kind of mood he was in.

The fluctuating Merka appeared both like someone mourning their loved one's death, who would burst into tears the next second, and like a newsboy holding flowers, smiling foolishly at the beautiful object he received out of nowhere.

It made people irresistibly want to move the frame up a little, to see what kind of face and eyes this boy had.

However, it ended at the tip of the nose, the upper end of the frame.

The small nose attracted people's attention, but also gave them a sense of distant regret and a feeling as if their hearts were being scratched.

"Finally finished the painting, sigh."

Looking at the teacher taking away his own scroll, a feeling of exhaustion, resembling the exhaustion after exerting all one's strength, surged in Turing's heart like spring grass after the rain.

Watching the boys and girls leaving the examination room one after another, Turing sat on his seat, leaning wearily and frowning.

"Why do I feel like I forgot something..."

Turing looked outside. The bright sunshine flirted with the window, divided into multiple beams, attracting Turing's attention.

"Oh right! I promised Merka to go out early..."

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"What should I do... why isn't she coming out yet?" Merka clutched the registration ticket in his hand, anxiously waiting at the door.

"No, no, no, stay calm. The closer it is to the critical moment, the more we can't panic. Otherwise, we'll instantly give away our weaknesses."

"Oedipus Dukes may not hate me to the bone, but at the very least, he wants to bring me to death."

"She might be here to pick up Turing too. If she sees me meeting Turing, it's basically telling her what I look like."

"But it's strange now, the only car fleet missing here is the Altria family's."

"Should I continue waiting for Turing in the agreed place, or should I go look for him? Could Turing have already been picked up?"

"But this matter is really important. If she's not here..."

Merka muttered to himself, considering various possibilities.

"What's the matter that's so important?" Turing suddenly appeared in front of Merka, startling him almost to the point of screaming.

Turing quickly locked Merka's arm, and the two of them instantly blended into the environment like chameleons.

"What did you say on the way? I didn't see Mom around just now. Mom is probably not nearby, let's keep going," Turing looked around cautiously. It can be seen that she doesn't have much confidence in what she said just now.

"Turing, Joseph just went into shock, and he is now at the veterinary hospital," Merka looked at Turing anxiously, he didn't have time to wait and talk on the way.

"What?!" Turing's pupils suddenly contracted, she nervously looked at Merka.

Previously, Joseph had already gone into shock during Elizabeth's cremation. It was not easy to revive him, but unexpectedly he went into shock again now.

Everyone knew that the next year's competition would be horse racing. And due to the biennial gathering, the competition would be held in less than two months.

If a horse that has been trained for a long time suddenly cannot run, it would be a huge blow to the participants.

"Joseph's skin is all ulcerated and swollen everywhere, there is no difference in organ function," Merka touched his nose and said seriously, "And in terms of my medical experience, this is more like symptoms of a cursed child rather than a disease."