WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 64: Fragments of Starlight
──────
Julia Franke.
A genius violinist who had swept countless competitions before reaching adulthood and became a professor at the Frankfurt National University of Music while still in her twenties.
With a career like that, Julia was quite skilled at teaching as well, and she had never easily given up on any student.
Should I just quit?
Yet now, Julia was seriously considering giving up on the lessons altogether.
“You really have never learned anything? You’ve only been playing the violin for a month?”
“That’s what I said.”
Watching Lee calmly admit that he was a complete beginner, Julia felt a headache coming on.
Of course, beginners were not impossible to teach.
In fact, they could be easier to teach than half-baked players with useless habits already ingrained in them.
If they were young, that was.
“Lee, let me say this beforehand. I’m someone who doesn’t think age matters when it comes to learning.”
“That’s a commendable attitude.”
“...
But the violin is different.”
What was he so pleased about?
Julia explained as seriously and sincerely as possible to the young man, who nodded with a satisfied look.
“Do you know why so many violinists begin learning at a very young age?”
“Isn’t it because of overzealous parents?”
“No. It’s because that’s how they maintain flexibility in their wrists and fingers.”
The violin was such a delicate instrument that even a slight change in humidity could ruin its sound.
That was why top violinists needed the flexibility and delicacy to handle the violin precisely even before musical sensitivity or technique.
“Even those who start in their mid-to-late teens have to work twice as hard as people who started earlier.”
Still, teenagers were growing.
Since they still had room to develop, they could build up the necessary physical qualities through enough effort.
Even then, only a tiny few could become professionals, especially top-class violinists.
“But beginning to learn the violin after becoming an adult and becoming a top-class violinist is generally close to impossible.”
Violinists were not merely people who played the violin.
They were people who had remade themselves to suit the instrument from childhood until they became part of it.
“Of course, you can still learn now and enjoy it as a hobby. But taking my lessons for that would be an enormous waste.”
Don’t chase a pointless dream.
There were things money could not accomplish.
Her lessons were excessive for someone who merely wanted a hobby.
So don’t waste your money and effort, and above all, don’t waste her passion and time.
Julia spoke with such grave sincerity that the seriousness in her eyes would have made anyone reconsider.
Yet the young man did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.
No, he even scoffed.
“There’s no need to worry. I don’t know about anything else, but at least my ears and hands will have no trouble keeping up with your lessons.”
“...
Are you really that certain?”
“Why would I need to be certain? It’s simply true.”
Julia wore an odd expression at the young man’s answer.
It was not merely arrogant, but downright presumptuous. Yet seeing how indifferent he was, as though she had asked something obvious, it did not feel like empty boasting.
Wondering where that confidence came from, Julia suddenly felt a spark of anticipation.
“Are you familiar with any other instruments? Is it only the violin you’re learning for the first time?”
“No. The violin is the first instrument I’ve ever played in my life.”
“...
Then are you perhaps a Player? Did you recently gain a Skill related to performing?”
“Regrettably, I dislike those things called Constellations. I’ve never been a Player and have no intention of becoming one.”
In an instant, the expectation on Julia’s face vanished like snow beneath the spring sun.
She could understand if he was accustomed to performing. A performer skilled with one instrument could often adapt to another with ease.
She could also accept it if he had a Skill. Players possessed outstanding abilities regardless of age or aptitude.
“Then what are you so confident in?”
“What else? This body I’ve trained my entire life.”
“Trained? Did you work out? But the body you build through exercise and the body needed for performance are entirely different.”
“You’ll see.”
“...
Yes, I suppose I will.”
In the end, Julia gave up on persuading Lee.
It was not only because she realized he had no intention of giving up regardless of what logic or evidence she presented.
She had become curious about the source of that confidence and how far this insolent young man could truly go.
“Fine. If that’s how strongly you feel, Lee, I’ll teach you as you wish.”
“Should I thank you?”
“You don’t have to. But while you’re learning from me, work diligently and practice. If you slack off or quit halfway through, I’ll be very disappointed.”
“Hmm... All right. I promise. It’s not as though I’m doing this just to pass the time.”
“That’s reassuring.”
Julia smiled faintly.
His attitude was still as arrogant as a king’s, but at least he did not seem to be speaking empty words.
Unless he was some immature young master who wanted to brag about studying under someone world-class by throwing money around.
If he was a student who sincerely wanted to learn the violin, whatever the reason, that was enough for her to teach him with all her heart.
“You said this is your first time learning about the violin... no, about performing itself?”
“Something like that. Just think of me as one of the little children you teach. It’ll be easier for you.”
“You can at least read sheet music, right?”
“Sheet music? You mean those papers with tadpoles drawn all over them like they’re hopping around?”
“...
Okay, I understand. We really need to start at the very beginning.”
After gauging what she would need to teach Lee through a few more questions, Julia looked troubled.
She knew the young man was a complete beginner, but he was worse than she had expected.
He did not even know the basic scales. It went beyond being unfamiliar with music. She wondered if he had ever taken even a basic music class at school.
Yet Lee was not the least bit ashamed of that fact.
As though it had been natural in his childhood not to learn music or culture, he merely asked calmly:
“Ah, but teacher.”
“Just call me Julia. I didn’t come here as a professor to teach you.”
Otherwise, wouldn’t that be terribly unfair to the students who had worked so hard to get into music school?
Julia said it playfully, and Rimon gave a small snort.
“All right, Julia. Before I learn anything else, there’s something I’m personally curious about. May I ask?”
“If you’re asking about my three sizes, that’s classified information.”
“Who are you calling some lecherous old man? Especially someone who’s about to get married. It’s strictly related to the lesson.”
“If it’s that sort of question, ask as much as you want.”
Julia nodded readily.
Curious by nature herself, she believed in open education where students should ask whatever they wondered about, even in the middle of a lesson.
“This violin playing. Does it perhaps help with indigestion?”
“...
What?”
“I mean, does simply playing ever make your physical condition improve on its own? Or have you heard stories like that?”
“Well, if a performance goes well, it can improve your condition...”
“I mean something more practical. Like suddenly recovering from cancer, or helping train mana or psionics.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“Is that so? Then have you ever felt as though someone was watching you from behind while performing?”
“...”
Julia made an equally strange expression as she watched Lee ask bizarre questions with a completely serious face.
She hesitated as though wondering whether she should ask this at all. Then, with a look half suspicious and half doubtful, she finally blurted out:
“Lee, do you do drugs?”
* * *
Fortunately, Julia’s misunderstanding was quickly cleared up.
Lee had been so furious at the suspicion that he was a drug addict, and he firmly stated that he was only innocently curious whether performing could help one’s health.
Though afterward, he had to endure her looking at him as though he had fallen into some strange cult.
In any event, after that ordeal, Julia said she would put together a curriculum and left.
The black-haired young man frowned and looked back.
“Are you having fun? Are you?”
[Aha ha ha! She called you a druggie, Team Leader! A druggie!]
“...
You’re going to laugh yourself to death at this rate.”
A blue-feathered baby bird with a small ring around one slender ankle rolled around laughing atop the piano in one corner of the practice room.
Yoo Na-gyeong opened her beak with a giggle.
[Why did you ask something like that?]
“She’s a famous violinist. I thought she might know something.”
[You have to expect things that make sense. If a violinist knew that, they’d be a witch or a priest.]
It was not speech.
Yoo Na-gyeong’s telepathy was conveyed not through vibrations in the air, but through a resonance of minds.
The young man clicked his tongue.
“Tch, perhaps I shouldn’t have bothered getting you that telepathy item.”
[Heh heh heh. It’s too late to regret it now, you know? Now that I have an item, I’m a bird with wings! I can tease you as much as I want, Team Leader!]
“Should I take that item away right now?”
[What?! You can’t take back something you gave me!]
“Didn’t you know? The one who gives something also has the right to take it back.”
Apparently terrified of losing the item, Yoo Na-gyeong quickly hid the ankle with the ring and curled into a ball of fluff as she protested furiously.
[Don’t be ridiculous. This item is already part of my body. We’ve become one, so it can’t be removed!]
“Then I’ll pull off your leg along with it.”
[Team Leader, are you a devil?!]
“No, I’m the human who made even the Demon God run away.”
[Sheesh, you can’t beat me up with facts! Fight fair with propaganda and fabrication!]
“...
What kind of drugs would someone have to be on to think it’s underhanded to state the truth without propaganda or fabrication?”
After bickering with Yoo Na-gyeong for a while, the young man suddenly looked toward the door Julia had left through and muttered:
“Well, this teacher might last a while. At least she didn’t run away on the first day.”
[Those other teachers ran away because of you, Team Leader.]
“How is that because of me? They asked me to play, so I played. Those people were the ones who quit.”
[That wasn’t exactly a normal performance...]
Muttering to herself with an indescribably strange expression, Yoo Na-gyeong shifted her gaze slightly.
Toward the back of the practice room.
There, she stared at a long box stored with the utmost care, as though it were sealed away, before opening her beak.
[By the way, Team Leader, is this really training for you?]
“Do you think I’ve gotten hooked on a hobby at my age?”
[It’s just such a strange thing to hear about.]
“What can I do? That’s simply the truth.”
The black-haired young man brushed back his hair.
No, the white-haired man had already returned, his formerly arrogant, aristocratic face replaced by sharp eyes and a cold expression.
Rimon Aspelder placed one hand atop the box containing the cursed Pitch-Black Violin and continued quietly.
“Whether it’s because that violin is special, or because my condition is unusual. Either way, it’s clear that this helps me control the power of the Constellation.”
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