Chapter 83
Kim Yul’s worries were mainly centered on how delicately to depict Beethoven’s hearing-loss process.
Of course, since most readers were immersed in the genius musician protagonist, that worry was clearly reasonable.
But.
Some readers had also begun to launch deep analyses of the social climate depicted in 'Beethoven,' as well as its philosophical aspects.
As expected of an author who had always used war and politics as core material, he was carefully weaving the political upheavals of the time into the world of the musician Beethoven.
Just as had been contained in the magical play 'Orléans'.
The writer Ulysses’s ideology was, fundamentally, a little radical.
Of course, if you tried to vet Kim Yul’s ideology, he would definitely feel wronged.
Because to a modern person, democratic values were utterly self-evident.
But this was a Happy Fantasy Land reminiscent of the Middle Ages.
Even democracy’s courier, Pax Americana,
and even an iced Americano to gently moisten the veins, didn’t exist in this world.
Of course, the Empire that had formed a bicameral legislature did possess a certain degree of political sophistication, but.
because its system was almost the same as England, that devil of world history, the Senate’s influence was so strong that it was a bit of a stretch to say it truly represented the people’s will.
A question quietly cast toward such an empire.
France, the country that abandoned Joan of Arc.
And even afterward, the old ways seemed to keep repeating themselves, until the scene of a festering wound finally bursting open was foreshadowed in the novel 'Beethoven'.
“Liberty, equality, fraternity…….”
“Ulysses still has no intention of hiding his radical thinking, huh.”
The French Revolution, in other words.
And then came the superhuman on a white horse, Napoleon Bonaparte, riding in on those values.
It was still too early for readers to tell whether he would turn out to be a MacGuffin or an important figure later on, but.
The name Napoleon began to come and go constantly, from Beethoven’s mouth and from the mouths of the people he met.
And.
- A hero like Napoleon appearing in France will be a blessing to all people! How about it? Why not use your musical talent for him?
- In the new era he will create, why would a court musician be needed? However…… his greatness would be even better expressed in a symphony worthy of it.
Beethoven then began devising a new piece, filled with reverence and respect.
Its name was Symphony No. 3, Bonaparte.
* * *
In the novel 'Beethoven,' it was only now that the motivation for composing Symphony No. 3 had come to light.
But that great piece had already begun to take shape in Fantasy Land, little by little, note by note.
With the full backing of major shareholder Esthea, who had attached herself to Historie as she awakened to music as a new hobby and spent every day spinning out all kinds of melodies.
Of course, that support money hadn’t come from her dragon lair but from the ducal house; in any case, Esthea had handled the financial matter.
And even Chloe’s efforts to recruit musicians at Kim Yul’s request, cackling ohoho and throwing money around lavishly without realizing her father’s money was leaking away, all of it.
And so.
To prepare for the performance that would follow.
The musicians gathered in the music hall for the first time.
“Didn’t expect to see your face here.”
“As the Empire’s finest flutist, I couldn’t possibly sit out a place like this.”
“For an orchestra…… there are a lot of people here, aren’t there?”
“Three horn players? What kind of piece is this supposed to be?”
“Squee! Professor Silveni! It’s been so long!”
“My student, you’re still as loud as ever…… Please, please don’t raise your voice like that.”
In the first place, not many people in the Empire had ever thought of making a living through music, and orchestra work, by its very nature, was brutally competitive.
So while everyone was grinning over the hefty signing bonuses, they couldn’t hide their suspicion at the number of people who had gathered.
Because there were quite a lot more people than in a normal orchestra.
Naturally, their thoughts had no choice but to drift to the piano competition that had once taken place in Peach World Tree Plaza.
No one said it out loud, though.
‘No way, are they planning to have the players compete by instrument……?’
The ominous yet provocative idea began to gnaw away at their brains bit by bit.
Fortunately, that worry did not last long.
“Hohoh! Thank you all for gracing us with your presence like this, desuwa!”
Three people appeared where the musicians had gathered for conversation.
The high elf Chloe, the very person who had recruited them, looked intellectual at a glance, yet had a bizarrely clumsy way of speaking, and
“Waaah! So many fascinating instruments!”
And then there was a cute, lively blonde girl—whether she was some noble daughter or just here on an excursion, who could say.
The two of them were also enough to draw the eye, but.
The musicians’ gazes were fixed on just one person.
Ulysses.
The author writing the novel 'Beethoven,' and.
A man who had turned into sheet music melodies that had never existed anywhere in this world, yet were so fantastical and beautiful.
……And the source of evil that made pianists complain of finger pain.
The source of the pieces he had presented so far was still unclear, and he had also likened the composer to a character in the novel, but.
He might have had some unnamed great composer backing him.
It was one vague speculation, but he might have been a genius who had composed every one of those pieces himself.
For that reason, they had no choice but to forget even their unease for a moment and focus on the black-haired, black-eyed man.
“Chloe. From now on, also line up a choir in advance.”
“A choir? Are you thinking of having them sing or something, desuwa?”
It was a perfectly ordinary exchange, but the musicians couldn’t just listen and let it go.
A choir?
Were they planning to add choir to the orchestra?
But that question was only brief.
“Nice to meet you. I don’t have the knack for long speeches…… First, I’ll hand out the sheet music we’ve prepared. Flute first?”
“Here.”
“This is exciting!”
“Violin?”
“Teacher Silveni! Us, us!”
“……Right.”
Oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, timpani, trumpet, viola, cello, all the way to contrabass.
Each received the sheet music suited to their instrument,
and naturally, they were professionals, so.
They set aside all small talk and began to immerse themselves in the score.
After that, for a while.
The finicky elf was being finicky.
Except for Nurengi’s rumbling sounds.
Among the musicians, not even the sound of swallowing could be heard, only the turning of sheet music.
Two thunderbolts from the very opening.
Along with the musical ideas that freely handled two themes and unfolded in unpredictable ways, there was the outlandish development and key changes that shattered the conventional, fixed rhythm.
And with each movement changing, the atmosphere changed so completely that it felt like a different symphony altogether, along with a massive length that seemed to demand a full hour of performance.
In an atmosphere where everyone was barely holding back their shock.
“Um, Mr. Ulysses?”
“Yes. Is there some problem?”
“Why is the title of this piece Eroica? In the novel it was Bonaparte!”
The second violinist, cheerfully oblivious from the start, asked the question. Kim Yul scratched the back of his head awkwardly and answered.
“It’s a spoiler.”
“Aww, what! What is it? I’m curious……!”
It was a conversation that could be called trivial, but.
“I-Is this perhaps something you composed yourself?”
“Look here, look here! Isn’t the rhythm ridiculous?”
“This is the third horn, but was this part intentionally inserted as a replacement for the first horn?”
“The second movement is too dark—does it perhaps carry some kind of meaning? I feel like I need to understand that emotional line delicately if I want to shape the melody better.”
“A double fugue, a double fugue! How on earth did you come up with that!”
Once the opening barrage of questions was fired, the musicians all rushed at Kim Yul as if they were going to devour him.
“S-stop, stop, desuwa……!”
Chloe, swept up in the madness, struggled and groaned, but of course it did no good.
“What! It’s not pure gold!”
Esthea was also fingering the brass instruments and measuring their purity, so.
Only Kim Yul had to endure the barrage of questions.
But he didn’t have many questions he could answer, either, so he answered only one of them.
“We’ll need a conductor, I think. Who’s the conductor?”
“She came earlier and was in the middle of a discussion. She’s just over there now. Please direct music-related questions to her.”
The door opened.
Two women entered the music hall late.
When she first received Chloe’s proposal, she’d shouted, ‘How dare you try to buy me with money!’ but.
The conductor who, the moment she received the score for 'Eroica,' had said that she didn’t mind being unpaid as long as she could have the chance to conduct, and.
the person who had actually restored the score, the concertmaster.
Inside a database even Kim Yul couldn’t look into.
The arrival of a state-power-level tin can that had replayed Karajan and Furtwängler’s performances over and over in its brain, and had even studied the masterpiece of conducting while floating itself with illusion magic.
As the musicians swarmed toward that side, Kim Yul could finally let out a deep sigh of relief.
“What exactly is Miss Historie? Even the troupe head praised her talent to the skies, desuwa.”
At Chloe’s question, Kim Yul smiled slightly and said.
“She’s the source of all my inspiration.”
From an artistic point of view, there was nothing wrong with Kim Yul’s words whatsoever, but.
Unfortunately, Lady Chloe could not properly understand the meaning contained in that sort of artistic wording, so.
“Hmm.”
Chloe glared at Historie’s music pouch and made a disgruntled face.
At the same time, keenly feeling the gap between rich and poor.
The pounding heart inside her personality pouch began to sing of a feeling Chloe had never experienced before, and thus of an unfamiliar feeling whose meaning she could not begin to understand.