She looked at the graffiti of ocean waves on the wall, her voice steady and precise, every word seeming to have been meticulously calculated:
"Color reproduction: 96.2%."
"Brushstroke reproduction: 93.6%."
"Conclusion: on a physical level, my copy has reached the threshold of authentication."
"This forgery is sufficient to be judged an original."
Jade's projection stood behind her, admiration in her smile:
"Yet you still seem dissatisfied."
"Tell me, what troubles you? That less than 4% margin of error, or something beyond the numbers?"
Pearl stood with her arms folded, a worried look on her face.
She lowered her head slightly, her lashes casting faint shadows across her eyelids:
"I am processing an attribute that is difficult to quantify: artistry. It is a prerequisite for becoming the administrator of this paradise world."
"But you already are one," Jade encouraged.
"[Diamond] will remember that you took this position in just six months."
Pearl shook her head lightly, her twin golden braids swaying with the movement:
"It was five months and fifteen days."
"Empty titles have no meaning. In Two-Phase Paradise, political influence is limited."
She raised her head, her gaze returning to the painting:
"Understanding art is not necessary to add strokes to this painting."
Jade nodded, insight gleaming in her violet eyes:
"I know you. That is the conclusion, not the reason."
She looked at the painting from which Pearl had never shifted her gaze, its surface glowing with a deep blue light:
"The World-Covering Wave Painting before you is the final work left by [Hui Shi], the ancestor of painters from the Ancient Benzaiten Kingdom, a civilization in Hatopia's planetary history..."
"It is said that she performed a miracle, creating an entire plane and gathering the whole world into the scroll."
Pearl shook her head slightly, her tone calm:
"I