Chapter 215

Even when I was trapped in a capsule, music was an indispensable sedative for me.

I don’t know how many times I listened to Brahms’ works.

Music stimulates the brain and guides us to another world.

Harmonious melodies evoke various images,

the sound of a snake moving, the chirping of a bird, the sound of being chased by someone,

and within all those sensory images evoked, the presence of the performer could not be found.

Only the ‘intent’ of the performer was present.

It was when I was thirteen in my past life that I came to realize this simple truth.

The Acropolis Square, where my mother Tenevrayia was being executed by fire.

There, a hideously disfigured bard was performing on an instrument resembling a guitar called a ‘mandolin’ in front of a fountain, gaining quite a popularity.

After listening to the performance, I gave him a gold coin and asked a rather rude question.

How could people love and be enthusiastic about someone like you?

He showed his yellowed teeth and answered.

[Joyful music blinds people’s eyes.]

It was indeed a statement that felt like I had been struck on the head.

No, I had actually been struck on the head by a flying stone from the crowd… for interrupting the performance.

The man’s words later provided a clue to suppress the gnawing jealousy.

I tried hard to meet the bard again to give him thanks, but he could not be found anywhere in the capital of Kaizen.

I was lost in thought.

The performance had ended before I even realized it.

A shower of applause poured down.

Just like that debutante.

My heart was pounding so hard that it couldn’t calm down.

Now I’m nervous even about such things.

* * *

‘Bark (Crescendo of Fools)’, a content driven by classical music variety shows.

“Wow, this is amazing. It doesn’t need any editing at all, does it?”

“Should we just change the direction to show the professors’ reactions?”

“Wouldn’t they think it’s a prank again?”

The university PDs nodded.

I don’t know how long Naame has been playing the violin, but it probably hasn’t exceeded a year.

Even child prodigies who have held the bow since the age of three would find it difficult to complete such a piece at that age.

To show this level of skill on a violin that doesn’t fit?

“But isn’t it better if they misunderstand it’s a prank?”

How easy is it to elicit such a reaction from music professors?

On the contrary, what the professors wanted was exactly that kind of response.

“Professor! We’re back again!”

“Huh? Didn’t you say you were returning the violin?”

“We decided to borrow it for just one more day.”

Before the puzzled gaze from the professor’s round glasses could shoot at them, they immediately played the video they had just filmed in front of the pond.

The seasoned professor, with over 30 years of experience, recognized at the first note what piece Naame was about to perform.

‘6 minutes 30 seconds?’

But the video was a bit long.

Naame’s ‘Caprice No. 24′ had been played rather slowly.

The professor listened closely to the rhythm captured by the camera, stroking his chin without a word.

After listening to the whole piece, which ended with an arpeggio of 18 consecutive notes and a Picardy third coda, he swallowed a breath of silence.

Immediately after that, a small laugh burst from her lips.

“…?”

The music students, who had been anxiously waiting for the professor’s evaluation, all displayed questioning expressions.

“When did you prepare something like this again?”

“Huh?”

“Isn’t this an automatic violin too? But it really looks so real, meaning none of the listeners caught on?”

“…!”

“Well, I won’t be fooled twice.”

The professor recalled the recent memory of getting pranked by Bark friends with automated violin content two months ago.

They had staged it as if a university student was performing, while a real violinist was playing remotely from the next room, planning a content to be evaluated by professors.

He never forgot that caution was vital when dealing with kids obsessed with such v-tuber angles.

On the other hand, the Bark PDs were overjoyed.

A male student responded nonchalantly.

“Professor! Then our video source won’t make it, right? You need to evaluate it as usual!”

“Ah, my bad! You’ll edit this, right? Let me see…”

The professor grabbed the microphone on the desk.

His gaze instantly shifted into that of an evaluator.

“I enjoyed the music very much. It was pleasant to listen to. Throughout, it felt like this child cherished each note. Especially, where articulation had to be, it was properly delivered, giving the entire piece an energetic and vibrant feeling. The bowing was done big and well.”

“Are there any points for improvement, Professor?”

“Why are you asking me that!”

The students threw deliberately mischievous questions.

And the professor laughed and recited his thoughts.

“Hm… The part where I felt the most dissonance was…”

“Oh oh… yes yes!”

“Right before the double stop part?”

“The part before the donkey sound?”

“That’s right. Other parts were fine, but there was a distinct feeling that the tempo slowed down a lot there… And then there’s the fast ascending arpeggio part? That should rise naturally, but it sounds a bit shaky. Could we rewind the video one more time?”

“Yes yes!”

They moved to 5 minutes and 45 seconds.

“That’s right. The violin chin rest is shaking, right? There’s a bit of tension in your shoulder and the sound that’s coming out isn’t stabilized because it’s not fixed.”

“Wow…!”

The students again reflected on the greatness of the professor who could immediately recognize tiny details just from listening.

“Nevertheless, this child flawlessly finished the piece from start to finish without a single mistake. The octave handling and triple stopping were, needless to say, perfect.”

“Perfect…”

“And what I thought was… kind of… it felt like an adult playing a child’s violin? You know how students struggle to play well with toy violins at first. You know what I mean?”

“This is a Mateo Goffriller violin, Professor?”

“So it seems you very clearly caught all the mistakes that could happen when the violin does not fit the body shape. Oh, I’m sorry…! Did I just misspeak? Should I start over?”

“No! You can continue comfortably!”

“Haha, I feel like I ruined the content because of me, what should I do…! Anyway, I truly felt that the child… has deep insight into the violin, and what’s intriguing is how it does not feel childlike at all.”

“What doesn’t feel childlike?”

“Children often lose the details they should show because of the pressure to play each note correctly, but I think this one has some seasoned competence in that regard.”

This was the professor’s sincerity.

Throughout the piece, the presence of a child and an adult coexisted.

Is this the kind of interpretation that comes when an adult imitates a child? She didn’t know since she had never done it.

“It was like being possessed by a spirit, and if I hadn’t watched the video together, I would believe it was someone my age playing, how rich the emotion was. Is this the feeling when even grandmasters with white hair can’t fake their abilities? But why are you all laughing?”

Could it be that the actual performer isn’t just gray-haired but bald?

The professor recalled what he had just said.

There was certainly no misstatement.

Of course, he spoke nothing but the truth, but what if there was an exception to that?

Following that, a shocking truth burst from the students’ lips.

“Tada! It’s actually that it was a prank, not a prank!”

“What…?”

In fact, there was no such thing as an automatic violin.

Naame, at eight years old, performed Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 perfectly, albeit at a slower tempo.

In other words, it was not an adult imitating a child, but rather a child imitating an adult.

“Wait a moment, can you show the video from the beginning again?”

For the first time in his life, the professor doubted his own eyes and ears.

* * *

Leaving the spontaneous concert at the Jahayeon, I hurriedly moved to the lecture hall where I was supposed to meet the Seviron Foundation people.

At a glance, Kaizen’s violin was slightly superior, but if they brought a Stradivarius, that could turn the tables.

Well, it’s scientifically proven that high-priced violins made by America’s latest technology have better sound quality than masterpieces from the 17th century.

Price does not always represent quality.

“Sorry for being late.”

A chilly breeze swept over me, causing goosebumps on my skin.

The large lecture hall in the Natural Science building was spacious enough to seat 200 or 300 people and was entirely dark.

Only the front was brightly lit, so I moved toward it.

“Hello! Are you Naame?”

With real-time translation magic, awkward Korean was etched into my mind.

“I’m Robert Fuller, a professor teaching number theory at MIT. This is my protégé, Emilie Mayakovsky.”

“She’s not a protégé; she’s just an employee. Dr. Fuller doesn’t even teach professors. Anyway, I’m also very glad to meet you, Naame.”

“Yes… nice to meet you…”

The character is very unique…

A bald man who looked like the chairman of an American conglomerate introduced himself as Robert Fuller.

Emilie Mayakovsky, with her blonde hair, exuded a typical Slavic vibe.

After a brief handshake, we sat side by side in the front row of the auditorium, waiting quietly for him to speak.

“Oh, I thought the Korea University would consider us what to borrow such a crap building as 28th Hall, but I heard they remodeled it last year. Haha! After 30 years, they should just tear it down and rebuild it, shouldn’t they?”

“Ah yes… but why did you rent such a large lecture hall?”

Isn’t this too large, even if it is large?

I thought it would just be a small elementary school classroom, but this is definitely excessive.

“I prepared for a large crowd, as Professor Fuller said.”

Oh, a bit 4D, I get it. The dark circles under the employee’s eyes were quite evident.

“From what I hear, Naame seems really intelligent! So, may I ask if we could meet here three times a week for questions about proofs?”

“What kind of questions could you possibly have that many?”

“I have many. Very, very many! In fact, I didn’t organize the list of questions for today, so I’ll have to see that later, but there’s just one I’d love to ask personally at first.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“What does this Korean alphabet mean?”

He held out his phone showing a picture of my paper.

[ㅁㅊㄱㅈㄹ]

“I struggled a lot with these mysterious characters that are scattered throughout the paper. There are dozens of them.”

“This, I’m curious about too, Naame. What does MCGJR mean?”

“Likewise.”

“Huh?”

“In English, it’s WLOG. Without Loss of Generality. It means, ‘similarly,’ that’s why I wrote ‘likewise.’”

“Oh my God.”

The bald man touched his forehead.

Well… I thought I’d end up writing a paper at that moment.

It seemed that everything I hastily wrote had all my personal terminology included.

“Then this too, I wonder…?”

It seems that the number of visits to Korea University won’t be just a couple of times.

By the way, why are we using only English abbreviations when Hangeul is so awesome?

Long live the Republic of Korea!

* * *

At Korea University’s Natural Science Large Lecture Hall, abbreviated as 28 Hall.

Two women’s fingers coincidentally overlapped while trying to press the button for the third floor in the elevator.

“Are you the PD from Hiks Studio? What brings you here…?”

One woman, carrying a violin case on her back, asked. She was one of the students who had just asked Naame to play the violin.

“What brings a Bark member here?”

The woman, who replied with a frown, was Woo Da Yeon, the content PD for the physics department at Hiks Studio.

“I asked first.”

“I’m also from the Physics and Astronomy Department, so what’s wrong with being in the same Natural Science building?”

As Woo Da Yeon folded her arms and retorted, the other woman let out a hollow laugh as if she couldn’t believe it.

“This is a building where only general studies for first-year students are held, right? You look like a senior at first glance.”

“What did you say? Have you finished talking? Then why are you, a Music major, here?”

“I’m here to take general studies.”

“Aha? So, a string major came to take biology just out of the blue?”

“…”

The science and magic channel ‘Hiks Studio’ with 1.5 million subscribers.

The classical music channel ‘Bark’ with 1.5 million subscribers.

The fierce competition to recruit Naame has ignited.