Chapter 106: The Dream City of Music

Sitting in the coach, which moved rather smoothly, Lucien looked out the window and found that Aalto became way busier than usual, because of the music festival.

Lots of coaches with strange coats of arms all of a sudden appeared on the streets, but they were familiar to Lucien, since he once read several books in Natasha's study introducing the stories behind the coats of arms of different families on the continent.

Also, there were way more street artists and bards out there today. Among those people, Lucien noticed a familiar figure. It was uncle Joel.

Joel was playing lyre. It seemed the loss of two fingers of his left hand did not bother him too much. Surrounded by a bunch of people, Joel looked rather cheerful and excited.

Lucien asked the coachman to stop. Then, he left the coach and walked close to Joel. Standing behind the crowd, Lucien listened to his playing, smiling.

The crowd burst out a warm applause when Joel finished his playing and bowed to them. A few of the listeners took out their moneybags and put some coins in Joel's hat to show their appreciation.

When Joel straightened up his body, he saw Lucien. Joel's eyes were lit up with surprise.

"How come you're here, Lucien!" When the crowd dispersed, Joel walked with Lucien to a quieter corner, "I thought you were still in the manor."

"I was." Lucien smiled. "I'm going to the association. How're you doing, uncle Joel?"

"I'm doing great!" Joel's eyes were shining with pride, "You saw it. They love my music!"

Lucien nodded and said to Joel, "For sure." Then he pointed at Joel's hat, which was filled with small change.

"I don't need this money. You've been taking care of my family all the time, and because of you and John, we're now living a decent life." Joel weighed the hat a bit with his hand, "As long as they like my playing, that's enough."

"I know," Lucien agreed. "Music itself is beautiful enough."

"I just play because of my dream now, not for a living." Joel nodded, "It feels like those days when I just came to Aalto are back again. I'm passionate and motivated. Aalto Music Festival makes turns me into a spring chicken again... hahaha..."

Later, Lucien wandered around on the street to enjoy the different styles of playing. Street music had its unique charm, which also inspired Lucien quite a bit. Staying in his manor in the suburbs for too long, Lucien missed the bustling atmosphere.

As he was walking, Lucien was trying to construct a rough idea about how to recompose the third movement of Violin Sonata in G Minor, which was a very challenging piece of music in this world. Lucien wanted to present the beauty of this piece of sonata with piano, and he also wanted to show the audience his skills.

Lucien decided to recompose it on his own, rather than referring to the masterpieces in his original world like what he always did before. This concert would be the first and also might be the last music concert in Lucien's life. He wanted to leave something that really belonged to him.

Watching people's smiling and cheerful faces on the street, listening to the melodious music, Lucien sighed and murmured, "I wish there was no Church here."

"Sir, come and join our free concert!" Suddenly, a young man popped out in front of Lucien. "Free!" His green eyes were full of hope.

"Ah?" Lucien was a bit confused.

"We rented a house for hosting our concert, sir!" explained the young man. "By the way, I'm Piola, the first violin in our orchestra!"

It was still early. Lucien was not in a rush, so he nodded with a smile, "Where is it then?"

"Over there!" Piola cheered, "The thirtieth!"

Then he led Lucien to a two-storey house on the other side of the street.

The center of the living room was their simple and temporary stage, on which there were two violins, one viola and one cello. A black-haired girl of ample proportions was sitting in front of a harpsichord.

"Sorry, sir. We need to have more friends here before we start." Piola apologized, "Grace will play harpsichord for our guests during the waiting time."

Lucien realized what was going on here. They should be a band coming from another country. They came here for Aalto Music Festival to pursue their music dream, but renting a formal music hall here in Aalto was unaffordable to them. Therefore, they were hoping that more people here would get to know them by providing their audience with free performances.

What the girl played for the audience after Piola left happened to be For Silvia.

Although Grace played it pretty well, some shortcomings of harpsichord compared with piano could not be hidden from Lucien's eyes.

After a while, more people entered the house. The spacious living room now became quite crowded.

"Dear ladies and gentlemen, " Piola jumped on the stage and picked up his violin, "We come from Sturk, the Bright Pearl of the Sea. It's our great honor to play for you today. Welcome!"

Then he turned around and introduced the band members to the audience, "I'm the first violin, Piola, this is the second violin, Sharon. And our violist, Green. This is our cellist, Leslie. And our beautiful Grace who was playing harpsichord for us."

The small concert took about an hour. Lucien could tell that they were quite experienced from their repertoire, their infectious enthusiasm and their playing skills. Even in Aalto, they could be regarded as qualified instrumentalists.

At the end of the concert, they received warm applause from the audience. The band members were very excited and started to talk to the guests.

"How do you feel about our Fantasia in C Minor, sir?" Piola smiled to Lucien.

"Pretty good," answered Lucien sincerely. "At the same time, you guys can probably pay more attention to how to unfold your music and the technique that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements... as we call it serialism."

"Wow..." Piola was very impressed. He did not expect that he would receive such a professional comment from this young listener. Then Piola started to exchange his ideas with Lucien with great passion.

Their heated discussion drew the attention of the other band members. Gradually, they joined Piola and Lucien's conversation after most of the audience left the house.

...

"Thank you very much, sir. We learned a lot from your suggestions." Grace nodded to Lucien.

"Have a lovely stay in Aalto." Lucien smiled and was about to leave.

"I'm sure we will," answered Piola. "Sir, you know that the schedule of the many concerts that will be held in the Psalm Hall has been released."

"Already?" Lucien was a bit surprised.

"Yes!" Piola looked rather excited, "You know which ones I'm most looking forward to?"

"We all know." smiled Sharon, "Mr. Christopher's and Mr. Evans'."

"Exactly!" Piola clapped his hands, "Seven months traveling! We came all the way here from the shore, just for Mr. Christopher's and Mr. Evans' concerts!"

During Aalto Music Festival, even commoners, who could not afford the tickets, could listen to all the concerts held in the Psalm Hall indirectly by means of a divine power circle, which functioned like a broadcaster on the central square.

Seven months... The shore... Something flashed through Lucien's mind. Then, he started to chat with them about their trip for about another ten minutes.

After Lucien left, Grace said to the other band members, "I still can't believe that a random sir in Aalto can have such profound knowledge of music. This city's amazing."

"Oh my!" exclaimed Piola, "We didn't ask his name!" He patted on his forehead in a regretful way.

...

As soon as Lucien arrived his own office in the association, he heard a knock at the door behind him.

Surprisingly, it was Natasha and Camil.

After Camil closed the door, Natasha said to Lucien in a serious manner, "Argent Horn was detected in some remote towns again. You have to be careful, Lucien. Don't go out at night."