When the dishes they had ordered were gradually served, Eiren Kanagawa did not rush to begin the lesson. Instead, she first picked up her chopsticks and started eating, urging Hibiki Naegi to hurry and eat as well.
"I'm not really in the habit of drinking soup, but even I know soup should be enjoyed while it's hot. You have pretty good taste. Just from the aroma, I can tell this chicken soup with mushrooms and scallions must be delicious. Hurry up and eat. Nothing in the world is more important than eating. Once we've eaten enough, I'll start teaching you."
Eiren Kanagawa spoke while picking up a piece of Hungarian beef stew with her chopsticks.
"Oh, okay..."
Hibiki Naegi could only obediently nod. She lowered her head and glanced at the generous portions of chicken soup with mushrooms and scallions and rice with cured pork and vegetables in front of her, and her mood inevitably grew somewhat heavy.
The restaurant Eiren Kanagawa had brought her to had an excellent chef. Even though she had yet to start eating, merely smelling the aroma wafting from the food was enough to sense how delicious it was, making it difficult to resist digging in heartily.
Hibiki Naegi had not originally been hungry, yet her stomach suddenly began to rumble, causing her cheeks to redden slightly. It had not been long since lunch, so why was her stomach growling as though she had not eaten a proper meal in ages?
Although the two of them were in a restaurant, it was still too early for the usual dinner hour, so there were very few customers inside. When Hibiki Naegi's stomach began audibly rumbling, Eiren Kanagawa, sitting directly across from her, naturally heard it clearly.
After hearing Hibiki Naegi's stomach growl, the smile on Eiren Kanagawa's lips deepened, as though she had just heard a beautiful melody. She chuckled and said:
"Hurry up and eat. Have some more. Look, your stomach is already growling from hunger. It must be telling you in its own language: Eat more!
"Here, the portion of Hungarian beef stew here is pretty generous too. Help me eat some of it."
Eiren Kanagawa spoke with a warm smile in her voice. Yet faced with such warm words, Hibiki Naegi could not even summon the courage to refuse. She could only nod somewhat stiffly, pick up her chopsticks, and first take a piece of Hungarian beef stew.
Hibiki Naegi had already been troubled by the chicken soup and rice with cured pork and vegetables in front of her, worried that if she ate them now, she would not be able to eat the dinner her younger sister made when she returned home that evening.
And now things were even worse. She did not merely have to eat the chicken soup and rice with cured pork and vegetables. There was also the Hungarian beef stew Eiren Kanagawa wanted her to eat.
After being pan-seared, the chunks of beef had their juices sealed inside. Fragrant onions combined with tomatoes, paprika, carrots, potatoes, ground fennel, bay leaves, and red wine, giving the beef an extraordinarily rich aroma and flavor.
If this dish had appeared on the dinner table she shared with her younger sister, Hibiki Naegi thought she would have enjoyed it immensely.
But now, when she put the stewed beef into her mouth, her strongest impression was that it might as well have been wax. She had absolutely no desire to enjoy the delicious food on the table. All she wanted was to finish eating as quickly as possible and return home as quickly as possible.
Yet at the same time, Hibiki Naegi was a little afraid of going home. The sky outside the restaurant was already gradually darkening. Seiko Kirigiri must have discovered by now that Hibiki had left school early instead of keeping the promise they had made that morning.
When I get home, how am I supposed to explain this to Seiko?
Hibiki Naegi did not know.
She could only pray inwardly that Seiko Kirigiri did not know she had gone out with Eiren Kanagawa.
At the very least, I should call Seiko first. I'll tell her I have something to take care of outside right now and tell her not to worry and go home first...
Hibiki Naegi thought this to herself. Just as she was about to stand up and call Seiko Kirigiri, she suddenly heard the sound of chopsticks falling to the floor.
Before she even had time to think, Hibiki Naegi suddenly felt a weight descend onto her shoulder. When she came back to her senses, she realized that Eiren Kanagawa, who had been sitting across from her, had abruptly thrown down her chopsticks and was tightly gripping Hibiki's shoulder with her slender, pale right hand.
Despite how thin that hand looked, it was astonishingly strong at this moment, like a massive boulder pressing down on Hibiki Naegi's shoulder and leaving her completely unable to resist.
"K-Kanagawa-sensei..."
Hibiki Naegi looked at Eiren Kanagawa with panic in her eyes, unable to understand what she was trying to do.
"Where are you going?"
For some reason, Eiren Kanagawa's voice, which had sounded perfectly normal just moments earlier, had suddenly become extremely hoarse, sending an inexplicable chill of fear through Hibiki Naegi.
"K-Kanagawa-sensei, I-I was just going to call my little sister first..."
Hibiki Naegi explained somewhat nervously.
After hearing that Hibiki Naegi was not trying to leave, Eiren Kanagawa's tone and voice immediately returned to normal. A smile whose sincerity was impossible to judge also appeared on her face as she said:
"It's better not to make phone calls while you're eating. Focus on your food and eat slowly. You can call your little sister after we've finished. It won't be too late then."
Even as she spoke, Eiren Kanagawa's right hand never released Hibiki Naegi's shoulder. On the contrary, compared with before, her grip became even stronger. It was as though she were using that gesture as a silent language to tell Hibiki Naegi:
'I don't care what you're thinking right now. All I want is for you to sit down obediently and keep me company while we eat. Forget one minute. I can't accept you disappearing from my sight for even a single second!'
Faced with Eiren Kanagawa's overwhelming forcefulness, Hibiki Naegi froze for a moment before obediently nodding and sitting back down.
But Eiren Kanagawa seemed as though she were still not satisfied and continued:
"Put your phone on the table, then stop paying attention to it and focus on eating. I'm also using this as a way to train your concentration.
"The most obvious weakness I've noticed in most students I've taught is insufficient concentration. They always think they simply don't have enough time, when the truth is that they can't calm themselves amid all the distractions around them and completely immerse themselves in painting. So if you want to improve your artistic ability, the first thing you need to improve is your concentration.
"The fact that your previous level of painting was enough to qualify for the first exhibition of the Tokyo Metropolitan University National Youth Painting Award proves that you do possess a certain degree of concentration. It's simply not enough yet."
Hibiki Naegi did as Eiren Kanagawa instructed, then asked with some curiosity:
"Kanagawa-sensei, will improving my concentration really improve my painting?"
"Not necessarily. But excellent concentration will definitely allow you to immerse yourself more deeply in the world of painting. It's easy to tell from your previous works that your mind is currently in turmoil.
"Especially in the works you've produced recently, whether oil paintings or practice sketches. One casual glance is enough for me to see that you can't keep your brush steady while painting.
"And you don't have any physiological hand tremor. The reason you can't hold your brush steadily is that your attention frequently drifts toward things that put you under pressure. That distracts you and gradually eats away at your confidence.
"If someone lacks confidence, forget producing a beautiful painting. Simply standing inside the examination room for an art entrance exam might make them so nervous that they can no longer keep their brush steady.
"So right now, what you need to improve isn't just your concentration, but your self-confidence as well. Improving your actual technique isn't nearly as urgent."
Every assessment Eiren Kanagawa gave Hibiki Naegi struck directly at the heart of the matter. While Hibiki felt somewhat embarrassed, she also experienced a sudden sense of enlightenment. So these are the reasons I've fallen into a bottleneck?!
If Teacher Kanagawa says I don't need to rush to improve my technique, doesn't that also mean I actually have some talent for painting?
People sometimes said that teachers could tell at a glance what their students were thinking.
That saying really was true.
At the very least, at this exact moment, Eiren Kanagawa took a sip of warm water and, after seeing the expression on Hibiki Naegi's face, slowly spoke as though she could read minds:
"Don't get too pleased with yourself. It's not because you're exceptionally talented. You only have this much talent, probably about the length of a pinky finger. The reason I'm saying you don't need to rush to improve your technique is that, in your current state, even if I taught you how to improve, you might not be able to grasp it. Wouldn't that just waste time?"
Eiren Kanagawa's words were like a basin of cold water dumped over Hibiki Naegi's head, instantly extinguishing the tiny flame of confidence that had only just begun to flicker inside her.
"Ah... so that's what you meant? I thought I might actually be pretty good..."
Hibiki Naegi sighed in disappointment. However, she no longer reacted too strongly to this kind of thing. After all, she had already grown accustomed to Eiren Kanagawa "pouring cold water" on her.
Eiren Kanagawa continued:
"There's another reason. Most students who take art entrance examinations actually aren't particularly talented either. Some of them don't even choose the art entrance examination route because they genuinely like art. They simply want to use it as a way to get into university. Compared with most students who've taken the art entrance exams before, putting aside differences in talent, at least you still have genuine affection and persistence toward art."
"Hahaha... I wouldn't really say I'm that passionate or persistent. It's just that I know very clearly that I have to get into a good university, and I'm not particularly good at academics.
"With my current grades, if I take the ordinary university entrance examination route, even if I start working hard right now and then spend my entire third year waking early and staying up late to study, I'll probably only get into a fairly decent university in the end. My chances of getting into a prestigious university would still be very low."
Toward the end, Hibiki Naegi could not help giving a bitter smile.
Eiren Kanagawa did not comfort her. Instead, she nodded, clearly agreeing with Hibiki Naegi's assessment.
"You're right. As a Kyoto University professor, I've worked there for many years from the day I was first hired until now, and I've personally watched Kyoto University's admission score requirements rise every single year. Prestigious universities don't adjust their admission thresholds once every several years. They adjust them every year, and every adjustment pushes them higher.
"They basically never adjust them downward. Either they remain unchanged or they rise. Those are the only two possibilities for the admission thresholds of prestigious universities.
"The standards for fine arts departments become stricter every year too. I estimate that next year, they'll become so strict they'll be second only to Tokyo's Five Art Universities. If you truly want to get into Kyoto University's fine arts department, then you'll really have to put your heart into it and follow my guidance properly. If you shut yourself away and try to figure everything out on your own, even if you practice painting without resting for a single moment, in the end..."
Eiren Kanagawa paused here, then spoke a cruel sentence with a smile on her face:
"You might simply remain exactly where you are and then be mercilessly eliminated from the competition in the art entrance examination. Don't underestimate how fierce that competition is. After all, it's another route into university. Every year, huge numbers of students who've spent years specializing in the arts are eliminated, and among those who fail, one-third develop suicidal tendencies.
"Just last year, several students specializing in music were eliminated. Some slit their wrists, some jumped from buildings, and some hanged themselves.
"There was another one who leapt from the platform the instant a train entered the station. Apparently, when the police handled the scene, they couldn't even find a single relatively intact piece of flesh. It was practically like someone had dumped an enormous bucket of strawberry milkshake all over the train and tracks."
Hibiki Naegi's face immediately turned somewhat pale upon hearing this. Under Eiren Kanagawa's vivid description in particular, her mind instinctively imagined the scene of that music student jumping from the station platform to commit suicide. Having practiced art for years, a clear image formed in her mind almost instantly.
The bloody image of mangled flesh that appeared in her thoughts even made Hibiki Naegi feel as though she might vomit.
She could not stop herself from dry-heaving several times. Hibiki Naegi covered her mouth and said with a complicated expression:
"Urk... Kanagawa-sensei, don't talk about things like that while we're eating..."
"I'm just helping you prepare yourself mentally in advance."
Eiren Kanagawa shrugged, then said with a smile:
"All right, that's enough of the preamble. Now let's begin our little lesson~"
Eiren Kanagawa took out the tablet she had prepared in advance. After turning it on, the photo gallery was filled entirely with Hibiki Naegi's paintings, both from long ago and from the recent period.
Eiren Kanagawa placed the tablet somewhere they could both see it and began with the first image, gradually explaining in detail the strengths and weaknesses of every one of Hibiki Naegi's paintings, the areas that needed improvement, and how certain parts she had already painted fairly well could be adjusted to become even better.
Over more than an hour of instruction, Hibiki Naegi felt as though her thoughts had become considerably clearer. Previously, she had known what her weaknesses were but had not known how to correct them. After Eiren Kanagawa explained everything this way, Hibiki discovered that she now had a relatively clear idea of how to address many of those shortcomings.
The sky gradually darkened. After finishing today's tutoring session and paying the bill, Eiren Kanagawa left the restaurant with Hibiki Naegi.
Sitting inside the car, Eiren Kanagawa started the engine while asking Hibiki Naegi:
"Where do you want to go next? Home? Or would you like to come over to my place for a while?"
—
—
40 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon:
Patreon.com/DaoOfHeaven