28 In the Sewers (1/2)

Chapter 28: In the Sewers

Translator: winniethepooh, Kris_LiuEditor: Vermillion

With his latest progress, Victor was more confident when facing Wolf’s bitter challenge now. After a fierce competition, Victor and Wolf were the last two competitors remaining. In Victor’s opinion, Wolf lost the chance in the end because he spent too much time on criticizing other musician’s work instead of investing more energy in studying music itself.

“I do think so, Wolf. Actually I’m pretty happy with my new work. Do you want to give me some suggestion on it?” Victor had registered his new piano concerto at the association. There was no chance for Wolf to try to plagiarize it.

Wolf thought Victor was still very frustrated with his work. Now Victor’s confidence was something beyond his expectation. Wolf’s face turned ashen and he murmured,

“Not really, Victor. I’d rather keep my curiosity. We’ll see it in three months.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Victor smiled, “All right. I was quite looking forward to your opinion.”

Wolf just wanted to get rid of this topic, and he saw Lucien was standing aside in his cheap and old linen clothes. Raising his chin, he asked in contempt, “When did you become friends with people from the slum?”

That behavior came from a long time ago when Wolf’s family still ranked among nobles. From his great-grandfather on, Wolf’s family lost the title, but it did not prevent him from regarding himself as a noble. He looked down upon the musicians like Victor who came from common families, not to mention poor people like Lucien. His arrogance was mixed with the hatred towards Victor, so in his eyes Lucien was comparable to a disgusting mouse jumping onto his dinner table.

Lucien was a bit angry, but he was already used to this kind of contempt. As long as there was social status and wealth in a world, people would be divided into different levels - the superior and the inferior, the decent and the filthy…The only way for a person to change the situation was striving for power and wealth. But once someone succeeded, they would often join the group and become one among the ones who looked down upon the common folk.

“Mind your words, Wolf.” Frowning his eyebrows, Victor warned him seriously, “Lucien’s my new music student. He’s a… a very talented young lad.” Honestly speaking, Victor boasted about Lucien’s ability. He was not sure about Lucien’s music gift yet.

“Are you serious, Victor? Really?” Wolf started laughing so hard that he almost lost his footing, “You got that nervous with your performance and lost your mind?”

Lacking a bit of confidence, Victor tried to fight back.

“Aalto is the City of Psalm, the City of Music, everyone here can have a chance at learning music. Many outstanding bards are of poor background. The talent of music is a gift from God, and God doesn’t only bless the wealthy and the noble.”

Wolf shook his head while he was still laughing, “Come on, Victor! Both you and I know that a talent can easily awaken the Blessing in their blood. We call people like Princess Natasha and Lord Verdi talents, but your student… Get real!

“If he manage to become an outstanding musician in the future, I will do an open apology to you and your student on Music Criticism, and never hold my own concert again.”

Wolf made the bet on impulse, but he was pretty cautious as well. He added the word “outstanding” on purpose since it was really hard to reach a consensus on what really made an outstanding artist.

Lucien heard that Princess Natasha, also known as the Violet Countess, was the only child of the Grand Duke of Orvarit. And her current title was also one of the prerequisites to become the Grand Duke of the Duchy. She was very gifted in music and had excellent skills in playing violin, flute and harpsichord. Besides, the twenty-five-year-old princess was also an outstanding level five Grand Knight, who was expected to become a Radiant Knight soon.

Lord Verdi, the nephew of the Grand Duke and also a member of the Violet family, just became a level five Grand Knight, and was currently serving as the chief commander of the City Guards in Aalto.