Chapter 94: The Sword

At the end of the class, Victor said to his students, "I know many of you are hard-working and some of you have been studying canon on your own for a while. I'd like to see every one of you try to write a piece of canon to facilitate your understanding toward this compositional technique."

While the other students were pretty excited about it, Lucien remained silent with his own thoughts. Seeing that, Victor said to Lucien, "Lucien, although you're indeed very talented, don't underestimate canon. Simple as it seems to be, an outstanding piece of cannon can still become a masterpiece that lasts for generations, just like Mr. Hersey's Canon in D. And practicing cannon is very beneficial to a student like you who don't have a very solid music foundation."

Victor was often mindful of giving Lucien, the young genius, some proper "warning" to avoid his possible arrogance, which was very common among musicians who became famous at an early age, and unfortunately most of them ended up wasting their talent and lost their reputation very quickly.

Not until Victor started to talk to him did Lucien come to himself. He nodded and explained, "Thank you, Mr. Victor. I understand how important a solid foundation is and I'll definitely go all out to work on my canon."

"Good. Then what were you thinking about?" asked Victor.

"When you were introducing Mr. Hersey's Canon in D, I was thinking that I could probably recompose this classic piece of work and turn it into a piano concerto. Maybe a piano concerto version of Canon in D will be quite unique."

"Interesting idea, Lucien." Victor touched his chin a bit when he was thinking, "The challenging part is that Mr. Hersey's Canon is composed of very short music bars, thus it's hard to make considerable changes within it."

"Do you think it's doable, Mr, Victor?" asked Lucien with expectation.

"Well... Canon in D was recomposed into a few different versions before, so I'd say a piano concerto version is definitely something to look forward to." Victor confirmed Lucien's idea and smiled.

After the class, when the students were heading toward the practicing rooms, Felicia caught up with Lucien and asked him in a low voice with expectation, "Are you gonna play the piano concerto version of Canon in D on my birthday party next month?"

Canon was not a very demanding nor complicated technique. She did not think it would take Lucien too long to do it.

Lucien was suddenly inspired, then he smiled, "Felicia, I won't forget the help you offered me. I'll play the piano on your birthday party, but not a canon. I'll compose a piece of serenade for you."

"Really!" That was a big surprise for Felicia.The fact that the personal music consultant of the princess would write a piece of serenade specially for her was totally beyond her expectation.

"Yes, but it won't be a very complete one since the time is quite limited. It's probably only an opusculum."

"You're so great, Lucien!" Felicia was excited but also feeling a bit concerned, "But you only have a month... If the work is not good enough, that might damage your reputation."

Although composing a piece of opusculum within a month was not rare, Felicia still worried about Lucien. Since Lucien was drawing so much attention right now after the concert, many people who envied his talent were watching him like vicious beasts at night, waiting for any possible chance to launch their attack and to give this young musician a hard time.

"A piece of serenade shouldn't be a problem." Lucien seemed to be quite confident. And Lucien's confidence came from the fact that he already found a very classic piece of serenade in his spirit library which resembled no music work in this world.

In order to avoid being too suspicious, Lucien decided only to do an opusculum on the birthday party.

"Alright... I'm looking forward to your serenade," said Felicia with both expectation and concern.

...

In the following month, except for analyzing magic spells and reading the book named Astrology and Magic Elements written in the ancient Sylvanas language with the help of the witch's note at night, Lucien spent all his time on studying music and composing his canon and the serenade. After all, music now could provide him with the chance to find the headquarter of the Congress of Magic.

With his hard work and great memory, Lucien now finally felt he was qualified enough as a music student. Within this month, he also successfully recomposed Canon in D and finished the serenade for Felicia's birthday.

Meanwhile, John was still working on his knight training. Although he wanted to awaken his Blessing as soon as possible, he was warned by Lord Venn that, without a solid foundation, the awakening would be very likely to fail. Even if he succeed this time, his future growth would be very limited.

Thus, John was being very patient, even though that meant he needed to do the same training over and over again everyday. In John's spare time, he would go into the Black Forest to fight with goblins and cynocephaluses to gather more experience. At the same time, Lord Venn gave John a sum of money and asked him to rent a unit in the administrative district, in order to protect his family.

Although Joel and his family had a pretty good time in Lucien's house, they were definitely even happier with their own place, especially since it was a place that was earned by their son. Therefore, they soon moved out of Lucien's house, and Lucien respected their choice. After all, they were family, and that would never change, no matter if they lived together or not.

...

The last Thursday of the Month of Gold (October). War Gallery.

"I'm finally satisfied with this part." Natasha just finished her discussion with Lucien about a movement, "Now this part is exciting enough to meet the theme."

"The last version was pretty good already." Lucien smiled, "You indeed have very high expectations on yourself, Your Grace."

Natasha's music knowledge was actually way more profound than Lucien's. By working together, Lucien also learned a lot from the princess.

"Well... if you do something, then you do your best," said Natasha in a good mood.

"Yes, Your Grace," Lucien agreed.

When Lucien was about to leave, Natasha asked him with curiosity, "I heard that you wrote a new serenade for your classmate's birthday party tonight?"

"Yes." Lucien nodded.

Pointing at the piano standing in the center of the room, Natasha asked, "Can I listen to it first?"

"I'm sorry, Your Grace. It's a gift for Felicia's birthday," Lucien refused the princess politely.

"Well, I guess..." Natasha took a few steps back and forth, "Although I'm very curious, I think you're right. I feel like writing a love serenade for Silvia's birthday, too."

"That's... that's very considerate." Lucien was almost used to it now.

At this time, Natasha turned around and said something to lady Camil. Camil left the room and, a moment later, came back with a fine sword in her hand.

"This is the knight sword that I promised you," said Natasha. "Its name is 'Alert', and it's a level one high rank sword with an extraordinary quality. With Alert, your instincts will be way sharper, making you more aware of any approaching danger."