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In a nice house, Purple Lily District.

Ryan walked to the dining table and noticed that there was a pile of newspaper on his right side, so he asked a bit confusedly, "I thought we already had the latest issue of Aalto Weekly yesterday?"

Managing a trading business, Ryan needed to know what was going on in Aalto in different fields to decide what to buy and what to sell. Therefore, he subscribed to the most comprehensive newspaper—Aalto Weekly.

After making sure that their little son was sitting on the chair safely, the wife, Elena, answered in a pretty good manner, "It’s a supplementary issue, the delivery man told me."

Elena could not read. She had no idea what was on the newspaper.

Then, she started humming the lyrics of Ode to Joy in the kitchen. The family was in a quite happy mood.

Picking up the newspaper, Ryan also hummed the melody together with Elena. He started his career as an apprentice in the trading business, and although he was not the smartest among the apprentices, he was definitely the most hard-working one. Because of his perseverance, he slowly got rid of poverty and also learned how to read. Right now he was managing the business and he had a lovely family that was relatively well-off.

Therefore, his heart was deeply touched when he first heard Symphony of Fate. He fell in love with Lucien Evans’ music instantly, and soon his family members all became the followers of Lucien’s music.

He unfolded Aalto Weekly, and saw the bold black letter in the headline—"Obituary".

Ryan’s first thought was that an important person’s death was very likely to affect the price of many goods.

He continued to read, and the black typed letters looked rather depressing:

"Lucien Evans, the immortal music master, the great pianist and conductor, the innovator, the leader of the current trend of symphony, the founder, the finisher, the music genius loved by God, was recalled by God in the early morning on June 4th."

Ryan did not get it at that moment. After a while, he realized that his ears were tingling. He just could not link the obituary to Mr. Lucien Evans, who was so young and so talented...

He though that Mr. Evans could lead the development of music in Aalto for at least another several decades!

Ryan continued to read with his vision slightly blurred. The lines on the newspaper hurt his heart:

"... Mr. Evans came from the slum and managed to play in the Psalm Hall as a music master. His life has shown us the spirit of perseverance and his great willpower. His life was a glorious legend!"

"... Let us use our most profound condolences to pray for the talented young musician, wishing him the bliss in Mountain Paradise. His song of praise shall always be with God. May God bless him."

Elena walked out of the kitchen with the breakfast. She was so surprised when seeing the look on her husband’s face that she almost dropped the plate.

"What happened, darling?" asked Elena hurriedly. "Why are you crying?"

"Am I...?" Ryan did not even realize the fact that there were tears in his eyes. He only knew that his eyes felt swelled and he could not see very clearly.

A tear dropped on the newspaper and it was quickly absorbed. The letters nearby became blurred.

"I can’t believe it. His leaving is the greatest loss of the field of music! — Christopher"

"Maybe God wants him to play in Mountain Paradise, so Evans had to leave earlier. — Othello"

"He brought us the joy and the spirit of perseverance, but he has left us without taking anything with him. I don’t want to cry, but I can’t help it. — Felicia"

"He has set off for Mountain Paradise, leaving us a peak in the world of symphony that is beyond hard to conquer. The treasure he left with us is equal for everyone—young or old, rich or poor. A grateful and unyielding heart is the most valuable thing in one’s life. One day, when I die, I hope to be buried close to him. — Franz"

Ryan stared at the tear stain on the paper and murmured, "I really... cried."

...

Beside the gate of Aderon District that led to the market, sad people gathered together. Some were silent, while others were sobbing. Many young ladies hugged each other, shedding their tears.

Betty, Joanna and Simon saw these people on the street as soon as they stepped out of Copper Coronet. At the same time, they saw a notice on the city wall.

They could not read, but the color of the notice told them that this was an obituary.

"Which important figure passed away?" asked Betty curiously. In her mind, she saw no reason why these poor people in Aderon should cry for the death of an important person, say, a noble or a cardinal.

Out of curiosity, Betty asked the two gate guards who also looked sad, "May I ask what this notice is about?"

Most people in Aderron did not know how to read. So one of the guards answered in a rather depressed way, "The pride of Aderon... no, The pride of Aalto... Mr. Lucien Evans... has passed away due to his serious illness."

Except Lucien’s close friends, some nobles and some major members of the association knew that the young musician was killed by the evil sorcerer called Professor, other people were told by the Church that Lucien Evans passed away because of his illness. The Church had asked for the permission of the princess.

The fact that a very successful and popular musician was killed by an evil sorcerer right in Aalto would make the followers doubt the capability of the Church. They would wonder if the Church would be able to protect them from the evilness like they claimed they could.

If it was not because of Natasha’s insistence, the Church would try to hide the truth from everyone.

Betty was frozen. She felt that she had lost her soul.

"Betty, what?" asked Joanna concernedly.

Betty suddenly burst out crying. She buried her head in Joanna’s arms, "Evans... Mr. Evans... die... died."

Although she had been traveling around for three years, Betty was still a young lady under twenty, who was not able to control her emotions very well.

Joanna could not believe what she just heard, but she also knew that the guard would not play jokes on this. So, she patted on Betty’s shoulder, although her own eyes were also holding tears, and said, "Mr. Evans was just recalled by God to Mountain Paradise, because his talent was just too outstanding. Don’t cry, Betty. Work harder to become a knight and don’t let Mr. Evans down..."

Betty sobbed and nodded.

...

Riding his Dragon Scale, John led a group of guards heading for the city gate of Aalto that faced the black forest.

Aalto was the last major city very close to the Dark Mountain Range, therefore it was also not far away from the fortification. It only took John about a day to come back to Aalto. He had applied for his annual ten-day vacation as soon as he received the letter from his family that his old friend had come back.

However, due to the strict regulation of the fortification in the Dark Mountain Range, and also because Natasha and Lucien were worried that John, as a knight, would notice the different power from Lucien if they lived in the same villa together, his vacation did not get approved until the third day after the concert.

Wearing the silver set of armor and purple mantle, the blond young man’s eyes were full of joy. He was looking forward to reuniting with his family and old friend.

Although from time to time John had got some letters from the princess, the joy was not even close to that of talking to his old friend face to face. On his way home, John heard that his friend’s concert had just achieved a huge success and everyone was humming the melody of Ode to Joy. His heart was beating faster and faster as he approached the city gate. John almost wanted to push his horse to rush back home, but there were too many people on the streets.

However, John noticed that something was wrong. Those people on the streets all looked very sad, and he heard that people were all saying the name—Lucien Evans.

The look on John’s face started to get more and more serious. He sent his servant to ask what happened.

Then John heard the passerby’s answer very clear, "Mr. Evans was recalled by God..."

The horsewhip in John’s hand suddenly dropped onto the ground, and the sound was crispy.

...

The Aalto Weekly published later recorded this day as following:

"It seems there is a huge piece of cloud covering Aalto. People have lost their smile from the great shock. The angel of music has left this world in such a young age, and that is the whole city’s sorrow."

...

Three days later, Aderon District, beside the old shanty Lucien once lived in.

A black hearse pulled by four bulls started to move slowly, following the life path of Lucien Evans, from Aderon to Gesu, then to the administrative district, and finally it would arrive in the noble district. The funeral would be held in the Golden Cathedral.

Wearing the black knight suit, John walked silently on the right front side. Behind him were Joel, Alisa, Iven, Elena, and Lucien’s other friends. On the left side, Victor stood in the front, followed by Othello, Felicia and Lucien’s classmates.

Christopher, because of his age, and Natasha, because of her status and the fact that she had not had a settled relationship with Lucien, were waiting in the Golden Cathedral.

The black hearse moved slowly. There was only sobbing in low volume in the air.

A poor man from Aderson district silently joined the procession.

Then, more and more people joined them. They wanted to see off Lucien Evans for the last time.