𖹭 Chapter 7 𖹭
He lowered his gaze, and his red lips moved slightly.
“……That is the first time anyone has ever said something like that to me.”
“Hm? What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
I did not hear Helision properly.
His voice had been too quiet.
Then he looked at me again and asked,
“How did you figure out an illness called… misophonia?”
‘If not for that senior, I would never have known.’
I had learned about it in my previous life, when I was in high school, because of a senior who suffered from misophonia.
But I could not tell him the truth, so I gave a believable excuse.
“I heard about it while living with the traveling troupe.”
Thankfully, Helision did not seem to doubt my answer much.
Instead, he asked something else.
“Why are you helping me?”
It was a strange question.
“Can’t I just help you a little?”
I tilted my head and answered.
“Life is about helping each other.”
Because people are imperfect.
I told Helision to listen to music through a magic device so that the world’s destruction could be prevented, even if only a little.
At least until he met the heroine, I wanted his symptoms to ease.
But even if the world’s destruction had not been involved, I still would have helped him.
How could a person always calculate profit and loss?
Sometimes, you should help others too.
We returned to the hallway where people were gathered.
Duke Calliope Trache came into view. It seemed he had been looking for me the whole time.
“Pieria! Were you with His Highness the Crown Prince?”
The Duke hurried toward me and whispered quietly.
He looked very anxious, as if he was worried something had happened between me and the Crown Prince.
“If he said anything bad to you, tell me. I will file a formal complaint with the imperial family—!”
“It wasn’t like that.”
I shook my head.
The Duke looked between Helision and me with a slightly surprised face.
Even to him, the atmosphere between us must not have looked bad. If Helision had acted according to his reputation, he would have already caused a huge scene.
Anyway, the performance was over, so it was time to leave.
Then Helision looked at me and said,
“……You’ll come again, right?”
I hesitated for a moment.
I had never seen Helision say something like that in the original story.
After thinking briefly, I answered,
“That depends on how Your Highness behaves.”
It meant: don’t go wild for no reason and behave yourself.
After saying goodbye, I took the Duke’s hand and started heading outside.
I glanced back.
Helision was staring at me without blinking.
If helping the male lead had roughly prevented the destruction of the world, then…
‘Helision won’t kill me now… right?’
I had helped him this much.
I started walking again.
It felt like his gaze kept poking the back of my head.
The next day.
Just before entering the Imperial Palace concert hall, Madam Esid took a deep breath.
Then she looked at her daughter, Vibrephon, whose hand she was holding.
‘The winner of this concours must be our Vivi!’
She had prepared a secret performance method for this concours.
It matched the theme of clear and beautiful sound, while also being original in a way no one had ever tried before.
‘No matter how much it is Calliope, once he hears Vivi’s performance, he will have no choice but to change his mind.’
Even though she had been hit hard by that girl called Pieria and kicked out of the annex, Esid’s ambition remained enormous.
Her dream was for Vibrephon to enter the music academy and become an official musician for either the imperial family or the Trache Duke family.
If you had a record of winning a famous junior concours, you could enter the academy after only an interview.
It also gave extra points when noble families recruited orchestra members.
Vibrephon had placed second in junior concours before—
But she had never won first place.
And this year was the very last year Vibrephon could apply for the junior concours.
So this time, she absolutely had to win.
No matter what method she used.
Usually, concours participants avoided the last performance slot.
But Esid had deliberately placed her daughter at the end.
She wanted to leave a deep impression using the special method she had discovered after carefully studying ancient sheet music.
But then Pieria had appeared.
And after losing the final slot, Esid’s entire plan had collapsed.
‘If only it weren’t for Pieria, our Vivi could have closed the concours!’
That was why Esid had bullied Pieria so badly.
Because Pieria was a problem in her daughter’s path.
Even if her abuse had already been discovered.
‘Still, if the Duke likes us this time, I can return to the annex.’
The Trache Duke family’s concours had a unique tradition.
The winner was granted one wish.
Esid had already told Vibrephon to say,
“Please let my mother return to the annex.”
‘Pieria, just wait. Next time I see you…!’
Grinding her teeth, Esid made her vow again.
In her heart, victory was already decided.
Still, she could not fully shake off her uneasiness.
Esid had never actually seen Pieria’s real skill.
Because during every piano lesson, all she had done was bully her.
‘No way. What could that girl possibly know? Has she ever even touched a piano before? She’s probably already regretting signing up for the concours just to impress that old man.’
Esid hurried her steps.
Before the concours began, she needed to at least greet Duke Calliope.
But the moment she entered the concert hall, her body froze.
‘What?’
Pieria was sitting right beside Duke Trache.
‘Why are they sitting together?’
Calliope hated Pieria.
No—he was supposed to hate her.
That was because he had believed all the lies Esid had fed him about Pieria.
And yet the two were sitting side by side.
That meant something had happened between them after Esid was kicked out of the Duke’s estate.
‘This is strange. I heard Pieria is still staying in the annex.’
She had let her guard down.
She had thought that as long as Pieria stayed in the annex, she would have no contact with the men of the Trache family.
At that moment, Pieria sensed a gaze and turned her head.
Blue eyes like a lake looked toward Esid.
Pieria blinked once.
Then she smiled brightly at her.
For some reason, Esid felt chills run down her spine.
‘What is this?’
The girl who used to tremble every time she saw her was now looking straight at her and smiling.
As if she had overcome all the pain and wounds from before.
There was something unsettling about that calm attitude.
Esid’s arm trembled.
Something was going wrong.
While Esid still could not understand the situation, the concours began.
She gave up on greeting Calliope and sat down in a nearby seat.
Quite a few participants sat at the piano bench—
And then stood up again after performing.
Esid half-listened to their performances and yawned.
She only cared about her daughter.
‘Our Vivi is next!’
When it was finally almost Vibrephon’s turn—
Esid woke up fully and wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth.
Vibrephon was second to last, and Esid had gotten so tired of waiting that she had drifted off.
Staccato.
A style of playing where each note is shortened, as if placing dots in sound.
It was the performance method Vibrephon had proudly prepared.
If you used staccato to add variation to a plain melody or emphasize certain parts, it truly fit the theme of clear and beautiful sound.
It was already like a miracle that she had found staccato in ancient sheet music that still had many unreadable parts—
And Vibrephon, who performed it so perfectly, looked like a true musical genius.
When Vibrephon’s performance ended, loud applause burst out.
Esid proudly searched for Pieria’s face.
She wanted to say this to her.
‘Did you see that?’
My daughter plays the piano this well.
Look carefully.
Now you understand the difference in level, don’t you?
This is not a place for someone like you to waste everyone’s time with a poor performance!
But the moment Esid found Pieria in the crowd, her face darkened.
Pieria was still wearing a faint smile.
As if she were looking at her with eyes that said—
‘How pitiful. You tried so hard.’
The performance by Lady Vibrephon Hairocl that Pieria had just heard—
Was at the same level as what Ryu Taeri, Pieria’s previous life, had played when she was four years old.
So Pieria could only feel like she was watching a children’s talent show.
‘As if she’s any better than us…!’
Esid, who had no way of knowing that, trembled with anger.
At the same time, she could not suppress the crazy fear rising inside her.
‘She wouldn’t be smiling like that unless she had something to rely on.’
Could it be that Pieria was actually very good at piano?
So good that she was confident she could surpass her daughter and take first place…?
‘No. It’s not just that.’
It felt more like an animal instinct—
A feeling that something even worse was about to happen.
Esid bit her nails until they bled.
The person beside her looked at her strangely, but Esid was so consumed by fear that she did not notice.
Pieria stepped onto the stage.
Under the spotlight, her shadow covered the figure of a small and plain girl with a thin body.
But there was one unusual thing.
She was carrying a piano bench with effort.
Pieria placed the bench near the support side of the grand piano.
Then she adjusted its position again and again, as if checking something.
Only after that did she move toward the original bench that had already been there.
But instead of sitting down right away, she simply looked at the eighty-eight piano keys before her.
Suddenly—
A tight tension, like strings connected to the piano keys, filled the concert hall.
Pieria’s eyes lit up as she smiled faintly.
It was a look so intense that it felt almost frightening—
A mixture of joy and killing intent.
Pieria took a deep breath.
Then she sat down.
And the performance began.
