The Archmage’s Restaurant

# 151

Chapter.36 Hibiren Flowers and Concert

Great City’s Lord’s Castle.

Verna was playing the Legana in the concert hall at the top. Legana is a keyboard instrument that can be considered the organ of this world.

On the Earth where El lived, a keyboard instrument called the organ was played long before the piano appeared.

There is a similar instrument in this world, and its name is Legana.

Legana means a lot to Berna. It was her only dream while she was trapped.

After being forced to marry, the only thing she requested from Count Gray was this instrument.

His own mother, who died screaming, was a legana that his mother often played. The image was so strongly imprinted in young Verna’s brain that she longed for this instrument.

Afterwards, Legana became, in a sense, the medium through which Verna fell in love with Count Gray.

This legana is installed in the hall at the top of the castle. The ceiling of the hall, which draws a round arch, has a spire when viewed from the outside.

Inside the tall spire. The structure was built to make the instrument sound better.

It was also a design that contained the affection of the Gray boy’s father, the Earl of Gray. This concert hall was a gift from Count Gray for Berna.

Therefore, Verna also had a very strong attachment to this concert hall.

Verna’s hand moves.

The movements of the fingers were very passionate and very fast. Even at a glance, it is clear that he uses a considerable level of playing technique.

So the melody that flows is also beautiful.

The Gray boy was listening blankly to the performance in the background, and then clapped as soon as Verna’s fingers stopped.

The Gray boy also likes to listen to Verna’s performance.

When she was young, Verna often played the legana with the Gray boy sitting next to her.

Beads of sweat were hanging on Verna’s forehead, and the boy took out a handkerchief and held it out. And then he let out an exclamation.

“Mom, it seems like your skills are getting better. “I have never heard a performance like this even in the capital.”

“Why are you so embarrassed? “It’s not that great.”

“Oh no. “Is it true?”

The more the Gray boy praised, the more Berna’s face darkened. And then, with a gloomy look on his face, he quietly shook his head at the boy.

“it is not so. “I think my playing skills are really poor.”

Now Verna is by no means shaking from humility. What can I do by showing off my son’s humility?

The nuances in her voice were completely sincere. In other words, Verna actually thinks that way.

Thanks to this, the Gray boy frowned slightly without Verna knowing.

I tried to change that thought somehow, but it was no use. The Gray boy felt very sorry for that.

Of course, I know the reason.

A concert is held once a year in the capital. It is on a completely different scale from the concerts held in the estate.

Also, although the name is a concert, in reality it is like a competition to compete against one another. No, it’s clearly a competition.

A competition is held where numerous nobles, including the emperor, participate and play the legana, and it is called the Imperial Concert.

The legana was an instrument of great significance and popularity in the world.

It is an instrument so deeply rooted in aristocratic society that all nobles learn this legana from birth.

Therefore, this concert was the biggest event taking place in the empire.

It is a large competition with such a long tradition.

However, Verna could not learn Legana, which all nobles must learn.

The reason is, of course, because Count Dedran imprisoned his daughter without treating her like a human being.

Count Dedran had not invested much in his chess pieces.

It started belatedly with the help of Count Gray.

Although she learned it late, she learned it quickly, so when Count Gray was still healthy, Verna once participated in this very concert with the Count.

But the results were disastrous.

A whopping last place.

Verna has never played the legana in front of Count Gray since then. She thought that her husband’s reputation had been lost because of her poor skills.

The trauma continued even after her husband fell into a vegetative state and collapsed. You can play it alone. And he can play in front of the Gray boy who has been taking care of him since he was young.

But especially I can’t do it in front of my husband.

As my skills improve, I will be able to hit it. You can show yourself that you have grown by playing music in the ears of your fallen husband.

I practiced like crazy with that in mind, but the results were always the same.

I couldn’t press the keys on the Legana next to my husband. This is Count Gray, who liked his playing more than anyone else. So, there was a time when I thought that if I played music, it wouldn’t be like a lie.

The more I did it, the more I couldn’t hit it.

People who don’t know it might dismiss it as just music.

Verna believed that music was the crystallization of love that connected her and her husband, so she was stubborn that she could never let it go.

I want to somehow play in front of my husband.

I don’t really want it to happen. I just wanted to show my growth.

If people listened to my performance and liked it, even if it was in my heart or deep in my soul while I was down, that would have been enough.

The problem is that you can’t hit it at all.

For Verna, it was nothing short of a burden on her heart. This is trauma.

Even if I want to hit it, I can’t.

The events of that day are replayed. The face of her husband who loved her performance. When I replayed the events of that day when my face was painted, I felt nauseous instead of playing.

Verna was a very pure person.

My childhood was spent trapped. Even after marrying into the Gray family, she rarely left the lord’s castle.

Because she was her father’s scarecrow, she was unable to learn anything about aristocratic society that she had to learn as a child.

Because of Count Dedran’s thoughts and ambition that if he learned how to think, he would learn and become smarter, he would rebel against him one day, and he could not learn anything other than writing.

Therefore, I did not know that the Imperial Concert was not simply a place to purely evaluate skills.

He didn’t know the real reason why he had no choice but to be in last place. And Count Gray couldn’t explain it.

After that, he fell after being tricked by Count Dedran.

Verna was unable to escape the trauma because the person who was supposed to resolve it had fallen.

In fact, Count Gray, who knew the true nature of the concert, had no intention of sending Verna to the concert.

That also happened due to Count Dedran’s trick. An inevitable choice.

Therefore, no one could know whether Berna was truly worthy of last place or not.

The Gray boy believed that this incident was the cause of Verna’s trauma.

Therefore, I thought that the only way to recover from that was to participate in the concert again and make good grades, so I tried to persuade Verna.

“Mom, that was then, and now it’s different because you’ve already been practicing for a few years. You can get enough recognition. “I think it’s possible to win!”

“No way… doesn’t exist.”

“It could be so. Since this kind of trauma occurred at that concert, wouldn’t the best way to stop the pain be to go to the concert again? “I think that if you get good grades, you will naturally forget those memories and be able to confidently play to your father.”

“that… .”

Verna pursed her lips at the Gray boy’s words. right. That was certain. She wanted to be heard.

Right now.

Every time I hear her play, I think of my husband’s always smiling face.

Even now, while I was just lying down, I was obsessed with the delusion that my husband would laugh if I told him how to play, so I don’t know how much I tried to play Legana next to my husband.

But the results were all failures. She was the kind of woman who took care of her like that and taught her what joy in life is, but she could only end up last.

My hands were shaking and I couldn’t move.

“I’m fine when I’m practicing… why… why… .”

“So let’s go out again. Even if you come in last place, it’s still the same, and if you get a different result, you can come back with confidence!”

“but… .”

“In the meantime, I misunderstood my mother and couldn’t do anything about it because of my family’s circumstances, but it’s different now, right? Now I think it’s okay to go out again. Count Dedran is no more!”

“… … .”

Verna’s eyes wavered at the Gray boy’s words.

That made sense.

If I get different results and can show that I have grown, I will be able to confidently play legana in front of my husband.

Verna clenched her fists.

And then he held the boy’s hand. It didn’t take long for me to nod quietly.

But if there is a problem.

The Gray boy is also just a political prospect who is starting to grow little by little.

He is still too young to understand the huge whirlwind of imperial politics.

Therefore, the Gray boy had no idea that the political threads of the concert were intertwined.

***

Imperial Capital.

Delian, one of the four dukes, was looking at the concert participation list.

Delian is a member of the royal family. Among the royal family, he was the owner of the Delian family, which produced the most emperors in the empire.

He was also an unlucky man whose line of succession to the throne was very far apart because the last emperor was born from a collateral line rather than a direct lineage.

A man who could have ascended to the throne if he had been born 100 years earlier.

But he still has enough power as is. He is the owner of the Delian duchy, which produced as many as 13 emperors.

Therefore, he had the greatest power among the four dukes.

And in his heart, he had an ambition to produce another emperor from the Delian duchy.

Of course, that ambition does not mean rebellion. Rather, there was a regular method.

Because the next emperor who ascends the throne does not necessarily have to be the current crown prince.

The duke’s mansion. In the study, Delian opened his mouth, handing the list he was reading to his hand, Count Michel.

“Look about halfway down that page there.

“Are you talking about the middle?”

Hearing the Duke’s words, Count Michel began to quickly look through the list.

I chant middle, middle, middle in my heart.

And then I read the middle name. The name written there was Verna Gray.

“Do you mean Verna Great?”

When Count Michel carefully checked, Duke Delian waved his hand to indicate that he had guessed it right.

“okay. She was the daughter of that bastard, Count Dedran. “It’s dirty.”