FMV 01

Chapter 1

Act 1. 《Sudden Shower》

“Extra! Extra!”

Early in the morning, Aurelia was on her way to Zerphium Conservatory.

She gave a coin to a child who looked only about seven years old and slipped one newspaper between the sheet music she was carrying.

In truth, Aurelia was not very interested in things that were worth putting in the newspaper. However, she could not simply walk past a child who had been outside since dawn, running around and handing out extra editions, with sweat covering his forehead.

“You don’t need to give me change. Buy yourself some candy with it on your way home.”

“Thank you!”

The child ran toward the people who were rubbing their sleepy eyes and coming outside after hearing the word extra.

A smile appeared on Aurelia’s lips as she watched his back.

She turned her steps toward the center of the city, where the Zerphium Conservatory was located.

But after only a few steps, Aurelia stopped.

“Lily!”

It was Maria, a fellow student who studied with her.

“Hello, Maria. You’re here early today.”

“Yeah. Since today is the practical exam, I thought I should come early and at least pretend to practice. Of course, I can’t expect to get better grades than you, who comes at this time every day to practice.”

Aurelia gave a small laugh at Maria’s joking words.

Perhaps because the practical exam was approaching, there were unusually many students heading to the Zerphium Conservatory so early in the morning.

“By the way, Lily. I heard you’re taking the exam with Professor Schneider too. Didn’t you originally draw another professor’s sheet music?”

“Yes. Someone asked me to switch.”

Aurelia did not know how other conservatories handled their practical exams, but at the Zerphium Conservatory, every student chose one piece of sheet music from five options. Only after everyone had chosen their music were the professors assigned to each piece announced.

For this practical exam, Aurelia had managed to draw the sheet music belonging to a professor who was relatively popular among the students and was famous for being kind.

“Aurelia, please. I’m begging you. You can play any piece well, can’t you? If I take Professor Schneider’s exam again, I might fail. During the last exam, he even threw the sheet music at me.”

Aurelia had accepted the request from a fellow student whose face she barely knew because of her own arrogance.

Just as her fellow student had said, Aurelia was confident that she could play any piece perfectly.

“Anyway, I’m jealous. You’ll probably come in first again this time.”

“You never know. Maybe someone else has practiced so hard that I won’t even be able to compare myself to them.”

“No way. Everyone at the Zerphium Conservatory knows who arrives at the practice room earliest and practices until the latest.”

Maria was right.

Aurelia always devoted herself to practice from early morning until late evening.

After finishing her day at the conservatory, she also helped at her father’s workshop, where the lights stayed on until late at night.

The problem was that Aurelia became so absorbed in the piano that she only left the practice room when the time she had promised her father had almost arrived.

Because of that, every day Aurelia had to run without stopping all the way from the conservatory to the workshop.

“Isn’t it hard, holding onto nothing but the piano and sheet music all day?”

At Maria’s question, Aurelia gave her brightest smile yet.

It was as if simply thinking about the white and black piano keys made her happy.

“Yes. I love the piano so much. Even if the world were going to end tomorrow, I’d still play the piano.”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing right now?”

At those words, Aurelia burst out laughing.

“The piano is always honest. The keys I press always make the same sound, and they express exactly what I want to say.”

As she climbed the stairs toward the practice rooms, Aurelia remembered the first time in her life that she had pressed a piano key.

The moment Aurelia first felt the clear and pure melody of the piano throughout her entire body, she realized something.

I can’t live without the piano.

If every person had a path and destiny they were meant to follow, Aurelia was certain that her destiny was to become a pianist.

She had felt that way when she first learned the piano, and she still felt the same now.

“Ouch.”

“Sorry!”

“Lily! Are you okay?”

“Ah, yes.”

While Aurelia was lost in thought, she bumped into a student who was running to rent a practice room.

The sheet music she was carrying fell onto the floor, but it was not enough to make her angry.

“I’ll help you pick them up.”

“Thanks.”

Aurelia bent down to pick up the sheet music scattered across the floor, and Maria beside her also bent down and began picking up the pages one by one.

Among the sheet music, Maria picked up the newspaper.

As she stood up, she opened the newspaper to its front page.

“It’s a newspaper?”

“Yes. A child was running around saying it was an extra edition this morning.”

Maria seemed to read the newspaper for a moment before shrugging and handing it back to Aurelia.

“I was wondering why things had been so quiet lately.”

“Exactly.”

Aurelia glanced at the headline on the newspaper Maria handed her.

‘Revolutionary Army Officer Attacked and Injured… Suspect Being Pursued.’

She also shrugged like Maria.

It was unfortunate, but that was all.

Although people said the world was changing every day, it did not really affect ordinary citizens like Aurelia.

Other than noticing that there seemed to be more extra editions of the newspaper, she had no particular feelings about it.

“Oh, did you hear about Leonard Deimus?”

“Leonard Deimus?”

“Yeah. If he hadn’t been attacked, Leonard Deimus would probably have been on the front page. I heard he arrived in Zerphium a few days ago. Apparently, he’s going to hold a recital at Symphony Hall soon.”

There was no one who did not know about Leonard Deimus, the greatest violinist of the current age and a musician.

Of course, Aurelia already knew that he had come to Zerphium.

She had also been thinking that she wanted to go to his concert.

“They say he’s handsome. Everyone’s going crazy over him, saying he has the talent of a devil and the face of an angel. They say he looks much better in person than in photographs. Should I try to get tickets?”

“Do you think you can get them? It’s Leonard Deimus, of all people.”

“I guess you’re right.”

Leonard Deimus’s recital tickets were not something people could simply obtain because they wanted them.

Whenever promising musicians visited Zerphium and held concerts, one of the greatest advantages of the Zerphium Conservatory was that it usually obtained tickets and distributed them among the students.

But since they still had not distributed tickets for his concert, it seemed that even the Zerphium Conservatory had been unable to obtain them.

“We’re here already. Anyway, I’ll go first. See you at the practical exam.”

Only after picking up all the sheet music did Aurelia arrive at the hallway where the practice rooms were gathered.

Among the many practice rooms, she stopped in front of the one with a nameplate that read ‘Aurelia Bernhard’ and said goodbye to Maria.

All students at the Zerphium Conservatory could rent practice rooms.

However, they could only find an empty room, write their name in the attendance book, and rent it for a few hours.

And even then, they could only rent one if there was an available room.

I’m glad I didn’t lose first place last year either.

The first- and second-ranked students at the Zerphium Conservatory received the special privilege of being given their own private practice room the following year.

Aurelia had never lost first place since entering the conservatory, so she had been given a private practice room again this year.

Considering how few practice rooms there were compared to the number of students, it was extremely fortunate.

She did not have a private practice room elsewhere or even her own piano.

“Please take care of me again today.”

Aurelia murmured as she gently stroked the piano.

An instrument was only an object, but it was still affected by the person who played it.

Aurelia loved this practice room because she loved the process of becoming accustomed to its piano while the piano also became accustomed to her.

She naturally placed the many pieces of sheet music on the small side table and put the piece she had to play for today’s practical exam on the music stand.

After finishing her hand exercises by opening and closing her fists several times, a beautiful curve formed at the corners of Aurelia’s lips.

“Aurelia, you can go up now.”

“Yes.”

The assistant who was checking the order called Aurelia’s name.

Her hand tightened around the sheet music, which was covered with so many notes that there was hardly any empty space left.

Aurelia took a deep breath and slowly stood up from her chair.

I can do this. I just have to play like I practiced.

The thin sheet of paper crumpled slightly in her hand, but Aurelia did not care.

Even though she believed she could do well, she could not relax.

The male student who had gone right before her had returned to the waiting room behind the stage without even finishing half of his sheet music.

“What did the professor say?”

“Well, the same as always. He said that was good enough.”

“Well, there’s no point in doing our best anyway. First place has already been decided again this time.”

“Honestly, I don’t understand why Ryan is considered worse than Aurelia. Their skills are similar, but Aurelia comes in first every time. Don’t you think she has something going on with the professor?”

“I can hear you.”