Chapter 557 - 259: Hello, Little Prince_2

He is the spokesperson of the Muse Goddess in the human world.

The major shareholders of Oil Painting magazine are his cadre of cardinals.

Magazines like Art Space and London Art Match, are minor church priests connected through social networks.

Perhaps every art media harbors the ambition to replace Oil Painting, but generally lacks the courage to raise their banner in defiance.

Let’s not speak about anything else.

Just the fact that Oil Painting magazine criticizes them daily for poor artistic vision, catering to Middle Eastern buyers and oil tycoons as a mediocre magazine pandering for art speculators.

This alone is enough to bankrupt the credibility of these publications in the eyes of collectors.

Sir Brown possesses such influence, capable of swaying cautious art magazines to abandon dignity and join in the verbal assault against Detective Cat and Anna supporting her from behind.

These magazines are unconcerned with challenge from competitors.

Anyway, while you’re criticizing, your competitors are also criticizing, so what’s there to fear?

Magazines like Art Space and Art Sunday are competitors with the same target audience on the British Isles and have had numerous disputes in the past. They have often clashed over avant-garde art, Dadaism, and trendy toys, seeing each other as rivals.

However, on the issue of Detective Cat, their tone remained highly consistent.

Instead, Oil Painting magazine itself maintained silence on this matter.

Apart from the shareholder meeting resolution recordings, the regular issues didn’t mention anything related to Detective Cat.

Silence is the highest form of disdain.

"Oh, Detective Cat, I actually quite admire her. Who doesn’t have the right to pursue their hobbies? It’s just that she was pushed to an inappropriate height by the wrong people at the wrong time. That’s all, it’s not personal grievances."

A few days ago, during the welcome ceremony where Ole Krueger replaced Miss Elina as the executive director of Oil Painting magazine representing Krug Brothers Bank’s shareholding,

Sir Brown said to the reporter who raised this question: "We are a respected and serious media magazine. It’s unfortunate, but the level of online painters doesn’t fall within the scope of our normal work discussions."

Unlike her roommates who were fascinated by Detective Cat,

Maca’s character holds reverence for authority.

When designing fashion for her coursework, she would always spend a lot of time studying the artistic language of high luxury brand designers such as Chanel and Louis Vuitton, carefully integrating their ideas into her own designs.

Art critics held a significant weight in Maca’s heart.

From the very first moment she saw media articles, she became a loyal supporter of these views.

Every time she argued with Kelly criticizing Detective Cat, Maca felt as if countless master predecessors were standing behind her, voicing alongside.

At this time, as she read these words,

The enticing attraction that Detective Cat’s strange illustration had briefly created in her mind was driven out again.

"Please, I’m a student at the Royal Academy of Arts; I wouldn’t stoop to buying and displaying works of some online illustrator on my bookshelf like some tasteless bumpkin!"

Maca said with a firm pout.

The volume of her words was somewhat loud, not really meant for her best friend Kelly, but rather for her own unsteady self.

When she saw that promotional poster, there was truly a moment where she somewhat liked that painting knife painting.

Damn it!

Maca was annoyed that her artistic taste was so far off from the masters’.

"The signing event is about to begin."

The staff placed all the advertisement signs properly.

He checked the time and went back to remove the "Closed" sign from in front of the Waterstones bookstore.

The audience began to slowly pour in.

Maca silently followed Kelly to the front of the bookstore.

Standing under the black sign with the words [Waterstone’s], about to step through the black glass door, she couldn’t help but glance back at the advertising poster off to the side.

Upon second glance, it was still beautiful.

A little schoolboy across the street holding a helium balloon pointed at the promotional art saying something, then pulled his father along as they headed towards the bookstore.

This scene fell into Maca’s eyes.

For the first time, a slight and uncontrollable doubt emerged in Maca’s heart regarding the authoritative opinions of art critics.

"Is this painting... really so low in artistic achievement, full of indescribable flaws, just because my artistic education isn’t enough to see it?"

"At least, it wasn’t as terrible as what those media said."

An illustration capable of such attraction isn’t excellent enough.

Then,

What about the works of other illustrators she’s seen before?

-----------------

Kelly eagerly grabbed a purchasing survey card from the staff at the entrance and headed into the main hall.

The bookstore had been decorated anew.

The Oxford Street Waterstones bookstore was quite spacious.

They were very experienced at hosting various book signing events, and under the meticulous arrangements of the staff, it instantly felt like stepping into the fairytale world of The Little Prince.

A meter-wide, orange, cheese-shaped planet hung down from the sky ceiling, representing the astronomic asteroid B612, home of the Little Prince.

The surface of the model featured chocolate-colored volcanic protrusions.

The adjacent display case contained a pair of flying glasses and a fountain pen used by Saint-Exupéry during World War II.

There was also a 50-centimeter-tall wax figure of the Little Prince holding a rose growing in a glass windproof dome.

Under the spotlights, the Little Prince wax figure looked lifelike.

Even the wallpaper on the surrounding load-bearing columns had been replaced with rose motifs.

What attracted Kelly the most wasn’t these but the surrounding book display cabinets.

Waterstones bookstore had specialized sections, from the best-sellers zone on the outermost, the children’s section, the sci-fi section, to the inner emotional literature zone... everything was available.

Since today was the first day of The Little Prince signing event,

The staff had removed the inner most section featuring busty, scantily clad women on explicit R18+ cover from yesterday, which didn’t quite fit the fairytale theme.

And placed four large display cabinets full of hardcover copies of The Little Prince by the door.

The brand-new covers of The Little Prince neatly faced outward on the bookshelves, with the scent of ink still lingering between the pages freshly rolled off the printing press.

There were a total of 280 paperback copies, and 70 hardcover editions with thicker printed paper and sturdy covers, readily available for attendees of the signing event as they walked in.

Kelly eagerly grabbed a book in her hand.

Wow!

The golden-haired girl turned her head a bit and couldn’t help exclaiming.

"OMG."

She had an illusion as if her eyes met the Little Prince on the cover the moment she saw him.

The little figure sitting on top of the golden sand dunes seemed to blink!

Kelly vigorously blinked her own eyes as well.

This time, the illustration remained unchanged.

The four-dimensional space couldn’t be broken, and the Little Prince didn’t truly come to life.

However, the feeling that the Little Prince could walk out of the picture at any moment remained in her vision.

It was just too vivid!

Kelly lowered her head and couldn’t help greeting the character on the cover.

"Hello, Little Prince, Your Highness."

During the publisher’s market research simulation, Kelly had seen this outer cover of The Little Prince.

Her anticipation was originally centered more on the other illustrations within the book.

Holding the physical book in her hands at this moment,

She suddenly felt that the artwork in front of her looked both alike and unlike the photograph bound in the mockup she had seen earlier!