BXBX NOVEL Chapter 418 String Competition Finals (3)
When she said this, she used a tone that neither hints at firm rejection.
Dean Athena had long been asking her to take charge of the revival of the Music and Fine Arts Department ever since the student delegates showed tremendous improvement.
Even though she is willing, time does not allow her to commit to taking over the department. But she believes that even if she did not accept this role, the revival of the department is already at sight.
They just have to wait for the right timing and see things out, especially as the tournament concluded.
Who knows, perhaps the women of the Imperial Family would be willing to persuade the Emperor and the Elders and allow them to formally take a teaching role in the Institute themselves?
Or even more probable, that after a few years of gaining more experience and acclaim on their own, the eight students of the Farauld Institute may be qualified enough to take on the teaching roles at the institute!
No one knows the future and saw Eli remained calm and believed not to rush things on the institute's side.
After a few minutes of deliberation and calculation, the juries announced the results. This time everyone already knew that it was Hailey who got the first place.
However, even as they announced her name, the crowd, especially all those from the Seirende Empire cheered triumphantly. That was because this is the first tournament win for the Farauld Magic institute!
When she received the trophy, Hailey was shivering as she tried to hold back her tears and amazement at what was happening.
She was over the moon when it happened and even if she knew that she played well, there's still this lingering doubt if her performance was enough for the championship.
Welcoming her backstage was Eli, Dean Athena, Queen Tehila, her mentor Queen Lucia and the rest of her friends who were already crying for her backstage.
"Look at you, Ms. Champion!"
Raya hugged her dearly, and Marie followed the suit, so as Anna. The four girls cried and teased each other in delight and the rest watched as they were infected by their cheeriness.
They stayed like that for a while before everyone started to vacate.
With that only Queen Tehila and Raya were left backstage in preparation for the violin competition which would be the last of the day.
There were six of them competing to the top for the finals and all of them were looking at her with vigilance.
"Are you alright Raya? I still worry that you would experience the same thing that happened the last time you went on your round. I still blame myself for not accompanying you at that time…"
Queen Tehila asked Raya with anxiousness feeling the hostility from the rival representatives.
"I'm alright, Your Highness, my Mentor. They have done the worst to me, which is trying to invalidate me in playing. Now I only want to show them that they do not have the power to do that again…"
Raya responded with confidence.
She learned a lot during that time that she was framed, the most valuable lesson was to keep calm and assert things thoroughly before reacting to the situation.
Raya really thanked the heavens that she did not do something foolish in responding to the accusation given to her.
Who knew that her act of not responding would be advantageous for her as she immediately got the jury's sympathy and tried to hold things out until Eli intervened to smoothen things?
Besides, even if they provoke her with words, later on, the piece she chose is the killer piece he pestered her brother from giving it up.
It was supposedly her brother's final piece but when she heard from Eli that the piece had a violin score as well, she pestered Desmond to give up the piece for her instead.
Now she will finally let this piece out in this world, and she is excited about it. Because she, Queen Tehila, and even Eli worked on making sure that she can play and interpret the piece right.
She will not allow her brother's sacrifice and her mentors' efforts to go to waste.
As they waited, someone coincidentally went backstage to check on Queen Tehila's condition and ensure that she was alright in staying backstage.
Seeing the royalty not paying attention to Raya, the rival students started to gossip behind her back.
"Heh… look at how smug her face is!"
"Does she think that she will also get the same luck as her cellist friend?"
"With Halter, Segev, and Gallia here she might as well prepare to be a clapper later on."
The competitors looked at Raya with contempt in her eyes. They did not even lower their voices to ensure that Raya would hear it all.
But contrary to their expected reaction, Raya just smiled at their obvious provocation. The one that was playing at the moment was Segev, who came to the top of segment 4 of the violin competition.
After him, another student from Vanderford will play, and then she will be followed by Raya. It could be said that her order was quite disadvantageous because immediately following her were two other well-known top seeds from Vanderford -Halter, and Gallia.
Coincidentally, Segev, Halter, and Gallia were the same people she saw last time who also almost drove her to self-destruction. But now, she was directly competing against the three of them.
There was a trace of disappointment in the students' eyes, as for Halter and Gallia, they treated her like someone insignificant and not worthy of their attention.
'It's alright.. The most important thing is the music I play… not pleasing people with my actions nor personality.'
Raya took a deep breath and readjusted her state of mind.
Finally, her turn arrived, after glancing a thoughtful look at Queen Tehila, she confidently walked to the stage.
Unlike the others, the judges were curious about her piece because this was the first time they had ever known such a piece existed.
"Student Raya, it says here that you will be playing Erlkonig… Can you tell us more about this piece?"
Raya was prepared for this situation and patiently told them the background of this piece, claiming that this was a lost piece after knowing that it came from Eli.
"Erlkonig is actually a lost piece. It was originally from a poem by Goethe and was put into a song by Schubert. This song was then written for various instruments as a solo piece and the one I will be playing for everyone at the moment was written by Ernst…"
"A lost piece?"
"Is it so… then that would be interesting?"
"Cheh… trying to use an unknown piece to hide the fact of mistakes!" Someone from backstage shouted.
Raya clearly heard the comment and she was sure that the judges heard it as well. But she calmed down and continued,
"I believe before that while submitting the final piece I will be playing, I also included a copy of the piece for the jury's reference."
"Yes, indeed. And so we have all the ideas whenever you have committed an error. Since it was a lost piece, your performance would also be recorded to review if there is anything we need to watch back for deliberation."
One of the juries said, immediately slapping back whoever commented backstage.
"The reason we wanted to know more about it was that we do not believe that the score you have provided can be played by one instrument.
We have been analyzing the song for days now and we still could not comprehend how in the world you would play two lines and four voices!"
"Two lines? Is that a farce?!"
"My goodness… it must be a stunt."
The disbelief and heated discussion ensued once again. Hearing the jury explode in commotion they could not help but be curious as to the truth of the claims they were saying about Raya's piece.
However, her competitors at the back were still unconvinced as they discussed while they were trying to comfort Halter and Gallia who seemed to become affected by the farce created by the unplayed piece by Raya.
"Don't you worry… she's just trying to gain a good impression on the judges to get a place in the top three. I'm sure two of you and Segev will be enough to destroy her futile efforts!
On stage, Raya kept calm and explain,
"It indeed has three voices, for the piece actually has a story to tell. The four voices were the Narrator, the Little Boy, the boy's Father, and the Erlking.
The story revolves around the boy trying to tell her father that the Erlking was trying to get him to go with him. Throughout the piece, you will hear their voices and how they are exchanged.
The Erlking tries to lure the boy along the way, using different tones while the narrator concludes the entire song
As for how possible this was to play, I could only say that you try to hear it."