A few hours back, the submission of the sculptor's work commenced.
Lethargic or not, they had to bring their work in the presence of an invigilator to ensure that they would not randomly take things out of their space bags.
To make the process more rigorous, they have to manually transport their works toward the showcase room for it to be judged by the circle of juries.
The students lined up readily along with their work, each of them not minding another. They only paid attention to their work and their turn to be interviewed by the judges.
This was the total opposite of the painting competition where the taunting and contempt for one's rival are apparent.
In the sculpting competition, they did not even bother to care about their rival, they only cared about their work.
Max was already worn out from not having a wink of sleep since the start of the competition. His eyes fluttered in weariness and he was already fighting with his consciousness so as to not let out a yawn.
Seeing the long line of works that were yet to be evaluated before his turn arrives, Max pinched his thighs trying to keep himself awake.
'Heavens… please make the evaluation fast… I need sleep.' He prayed as he gazed at the judges that were yet to judge the first work.
"Hey… hey… keep yourself awake. Are you not excited as to what the judges would think of your work?" Suddenly there was a voice ringing from Max's back. A few meters away behind him, a boy called him out with a hushed tone, afraid to catch the judges' attention.
He is a burly boy with facial features that give the impression that he is a muscle head. It was quite an irony because, in their society, boys with big builds like him would most likely choose to hold the sword or warhammer, but instead, this burly boy chose to hold the chisel.
"Oh… sorry."
Max scratched his head, the boy's reminder was actually on point. How could he not show enthusiasm when he even aimed to get into the top three using the work which he made for three days straight?
The boy seemed to not mind Max's embarrassment and even nodded with a light snort while sticking out his thumb up to indicate an 'It's ok' sign.
Soon everyone straightened themselves up as the jury started to scrutinize their works.
Intricate sculptures made of marble, brass, and other materials. Some were carved, while others used casting, modeling, and assembling. Every student sculptor did their best in order for their works to stand out.
However, there would really be selected people who work placed ahead above the rest.
One of them was a sculptor from Vanderford, which has always been known for its rich heritage in fine arts.
The sculptor's works stunned the judges as he was able to create a metal tree sculpture. It was stunning and realistic at the same time.
The judges let out surprised gasps the moment the sculptor revealed his work.
Indeed, sculpting a tree might be a common subject for a sculptor, however, a life-sized one is not.
Aside from the question of what kind of still he used to make the tree have such a distinct surface from a metal, another question is how to balance the weight between the luscious 'canopy' of the tree to the thin trunk.
How will it stay standing?
With this, the work immediately earned lots of praise, and even Max recognized that the sculptor was formidable.
When it was his time to become evaluated, Max was nervous.
Seeing how impressed they were in the tree, he felt immediately uneasy.
That was because he, too, had made a tree sculpture!
"Student Max, let us now see what you have for us." One of the judges asked.
Looking at the massive drape behind Max, the judges have their own guesses in mind.
"Oh…" Max was a little flustered because he went into a daze for a second but he quickly recovered.
"My work's name is life tree, and my main medium was bronze. Please have a look." Max signaled the assistants to carefully unravel the curtains hiding his work.
"Oh, it's a tree again." The judge commented blandly.
The sculptors looked at Max with sympathy as he was too unfortunate to have chosen the same subject matter as the representative of the Vanderford.
"But… Why is this tree somehow broken?" Suddenly one judge exclaimed in curiosity."
"You're right… it looks like it was on the verge of falling apart!"
The judges started to notice that the tree sculpture was not actually intact. In between the massive structure, there were hollow gaps that crept along the trunk, the roots, and even the tiny branches. It was as if one soft push in the sculpture and it would all collapse.
"Student Max, what happened to your sculpture?" The chairman of the jury demanded to hear Max's explanation. "It is on the verge of falling apart!" He added in panic.
"Oh, this is just how it is made, I intentionally created cracks along the entire body of the tree," Max answered.
"But this will make the sculpture unstable!" The judge said.
"Would you like to go around the sculpture to scrutinize it?" Max smiled and remained unperturbed. "You can also touch the sculpture to see if it is stable."
And so with his encouragement, the reluctant judges still went around and spent more time figuring out how it happened. Even as they touched the sculpture, it felt intact and the entire work did not even show any sign of being destroyed.
Their eyes slowly lit up and looked at Max with a newfound respect.
The student sculptors were also curious as to how Max was able to make it stable, but they decided to ask that probably after the competition ended.
"Not bad… not bad…" The judges seemed to have grown fond of the sculpture however their reaction was not as generous as how it was on the tree sculpture from the previous student.
Just as when they were about to put their scores on their notes, they heard Max announce.
"Now that you managed to test the stability of the sculpture, it's time to see the reason why I called it The Life Tree…"
His words managed to catch the judge's attention and they looked at him with curiosity.
Max then went on the base platform of the sculpture and activated a type of mechanism.
Suddenly there was a golden light that seemed to light through the cracks of the tree that had come distracting earlier.
"Oh, my word!"
"How stunning!"
"Unbelievable! How could one ever think of his idea?"
The judges all exclaimed in awe, even the student sculptors were also looking at Max's works with an amazed look.
Then they directed their eyes to Max as if saying, "How on earth did you do that?"
But Max remained calm and lowkey. He only answered the judges' questions to a polite extent and never showed any airs.
While everyone struggled to get back on track, and with great effort, they managed to finish the entire evaluation segment.
Shortly after the deliberation, the results were announced.
Max, as he was able to stun the judges with his two-fold surprise, came to the top. Next was the representative from Vanderford.
Surprisingly following them to the top three was actually the burly boy, whose work was a massive-sized marble sculpture of a man, which one would compare to the famous sculpture in the modern earth, The Thinker.
"Congratulations on your win, the burly boy, lightly elbowed Max with a wide grin.
"Thank you. I say the same to you, your work is amazing and it's full of vigor!" Max seeing the burly guy for the first time up close realized that he was actually the sole representative from the Green Wave Institute.
"Oh? Is it? Is it? Do you like my work? Hahahahaha!"
The burly boy's eyes lit up as he chuckled with joy. It seems like the boy was actually a young tree giant. No wonder his physique was larger than any other sculptures around, including Max.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, they both went to their respective mentors. Randel and Eli met his victory with proud smiles.
"Have some cold juice. I know you did not take any sip of water…" Although Eli wanted to ask Max what happened during the course of the finals, she was more worried about his well-being.
"Thank you, mentor Eli! Whew! I'm so relieved, for a moment I thought I would not get it because there was someone who also chose the same subject as me…" While he was drinking the juice prepared by Eli, Max animatedly explained to the two what happened during his match.
"Oh… by the way… Anna and Raphael's match must have been finished too… Can we check them for a while?" Max suddenly remembered something after realizing that he finished all the juice in the canister.
His friends must also be as tired as him.
Eli and Randel indulged Max's request and soon saw that Anna and Raphael were also done with the match and were both carrying trophies from their division!
Instantly, Max, Randel, and Eli beamed with joy! Victory after victory came upon the group of eight students from the Music and Fine Arts department of the Farauld Academy!
