57 Take Fate by the Throa (1/2)

Chapter 57: Take Fate by the Throat

Translator: Kris_LiuEditor: Vermillion

Eleven twenty in the morning, inside the director’s office in the Musicians’ Association.

“You gotta pick one out now. These are all your good works from the past,” said Othello with his eyebrows frowning, “We’ve been waiting for you for about twenty minutes.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Othello…Can… can I have some more time?” Victor’s face had a deadly paleness. His dim eyes had been losing focus for a while, and the musical notes were not making sense at all to him.

Wolf was there as well, sitting right across the desk with Director Othello. A contemptuous smile appeared on his face, “Stop struggling, my friend. Just randomly pick one out, after all, they look pretty much the same to me. Mr. Othello still needs to have lunch with Her Highness later.”

“Well…” Othello took out his pocket watch, “The lunch will be at one o’clock. I will give you… another ten minutes. If you still can’t make a decision by then, I’m afraid the association might need to have someone else for the concert. Wolf just came back from Ratacia Palace. He should be able to handle this.”

Ratacia Palace was the royal concert hall of the Duchy of Orvarit.

Wolf couldn’t hold his excitement back, “Victor, I’m sorry to see you struggling. But we, as the musicians in our association, we should regard the interest of our association as the top priority. What do you think?”

Victor did not say anything. After another two minutes, Victor fell back into the chair and pointed at a piece of paper, “That one then.”

The three words took away all his strength, but he also felt a bit relaxed. Victor did not want to spend more time and effort pursuing the piece of work which he had been working on for nine years.

“Maybe it’s a good thing.” Victor thought to himself.

“Good,” Othello clapped his hands, “I’m glad you finally made the decision. I have some medicines that may be helpful your to mental state, but they can have some side effects. Anyway, I gotta take a little nap, you guys can leave now.”

After they left the office, Wolf threw a bitter glance at Victor, “Enjoy your last chance playing in the Psalm Hall. Don’t let your wife down in heaven.”

“You…” Victor’s face was a bit distorted with anger.

“Me?” Wolf snorted, “It is you who will disappoint your wife, not me.”

Then he quickly walked downstairs.

Victor felt very sick and his head became dizzy. Lott, Felicia and Herodotus, who were waiting outside, quickly came close to their teacher.

“Are you all right?” Felicia asked worriedly.

“I’m okay. Just need some rest. We’ll start practicing this afternoon.” Victor answered in a weak voice.

…………

Lucien was running in the heavy rain.

He had not fully recovered from his injury. Holding the umbrella, the wind was preventing him from running faster, but he had to. The earlier he could get to the association, the better his chances would be to give Mr. Victor the new piece of work before the princess saw the song list.

Finally, he folded his umbrella under his arm, so he could run faster.

He just wanted to try his best, he didn’t want any regrets.

…………

It only took Lucien six minutes to get to the association from Victor’s place, a quarter of the usual time.

Twelve forty-one in the afternoon. Lucien pushed open the gate, soaked wet, with water drops falling down from his face on the floor.

“Lucien!” Elena approached him in a hurry from the counter, “are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Elena. Where’s Mr. Victor?” Lucien asked without delay.

“Should be in his own office. I saw Felicia brought him lunch,” answered Elena.

“Thanks!” Leaving his umbrella at the gate, Lucien rushed upstairs.

“What is going on there?” Elena wondered.

…………

It was Lott who opened the door, whose face looked pretty gloomy. Lott did not ask Lucien why he was there. He just nodded to Lucien.

Lucien entered Victor’s office. He saw Victor was sitting behind his desk, looking very absent-minded. The lunch tray was sitting in front of him, remaining untouched. Lucien saw Rhine was also there.

“Did Mr. Victor hand in the music list for the concert?” asked Lucien.

Lott, Felicia and Herodotus just ignored him. Only Rhine nodded, “Yes, the third one was from Mr. Victor’s past work.”

Taking a deep breath, Lucien went directly to Victor and said to him aloud, “Mr. Victor. I wrote a great piece of music! I hope you can give me a chance to listen to it! I’m sure my work can give you some inspiration! Can we change the list afterwards?”

Lucien was too urgent and nervous to select his words. He sounded too direct, almost stupid.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Herodotus was shocked.

Lott walked to Lucien and was about to pull Lucien away from Victor’s desk.

Hiding his face in his palms, Victor answered weakly, “No, we can’t. Director Othello went for lunch with Her Highness ten minutes ago. The list has been sent already. We cannot change it now.”

“Mr. Victor, it’s raining heavily outside! Mr. Othello can still be on the way. We still got a chance!”

“No, we don’t.” Victor murmured like being in a dream. He was not listening.

Being pulled back by Lott, Lucien did not know what to say.

The rest of the students had given up as well.

“Stop, Lucien. We tried, and that’s it.”