Chapter: 08
Not long after Leonard left, Lily returned, with tear marks still clearly visible around her eyes. David’s heart was heavy as he looked at her, but that was precisely why he had no choice but to speak harshly.
After all, merely comforting his daughter without considering her future would not necessarily be the right thing to do.
“Aurelia, what you did today was wrong. If you act like that, how awkward do you think it makes things for Aiden, who introduced our workshop to him?”
“It wasn’t me who was being arrogant. It was that man. I simply didn’t want to sell my violin to someone like him.”
No matter how extraordinary his talent might be, it was not a reason for him to look down on her and her father, much less the Bernhard Instrument Workshop, which had been maintained for generations.
“At the Zerphium Conservatory, they teach us that music is a reflection of the person.”
Therefore, one had to have a good heart. The belief that music created by an evil person could never become good music capable of touching another person’s heart was also part of Aurelia’s values.
“He doesn’t know the value of my violin.”
No, he probably wasn’t even interested in what kind of value the violin possessed.
The first violin she had secretly made behind her father’s back was Aurelia’s dream.
Her dream of standing on stage as a pianist.
And her dream of ensuring that the legacy of the Bernhard Instrument Workshop, passed down from her grandfather and father and from the generations before them, would not end with her.
“I don’t know. I think Mr. Deimus understood the value of your violin quite well.”
“No way.”
David didn’t believe Leonard was the sort of person who would invest that much money in something he considered worthless.
And not simply because she was his daughter—Aurelia had undoubtedly been born with extraordinary natural talent for music.
‘It would have been better if she had been born a boy.’
Or perhaps, if she had been born with a completely different talent unrelated to music, Aurelia’s life would have been much easier than it was now.
“I have to step out for a while. Keep an eye on the workshop.”
“Where are you going?”
“I think I’ll visit Mr. Krause’s workshop for the first time in a while.”
At David’s words, Aurelia readily nodded.
Every now and then, when the workshop was quiet, David found a small happiness in chatting with people from other workshops, so she thought this was simply another one of those little pleasures.
“Have a good trip.”
David nodded at Aurelia’s farewell, then opened the workshop door and left.
By the time the tinkling bell had stopped ringing, Aurelia was already walking toward the vault.
She had wiped away all the dust from the shelves Leonard had touched while shedding tears one after another in an effort to erase her unpleasant feelings. Now, she had come to clean the dust from the violins in the vault for the first time in a while.
“My violin.”
As soon as Aurelia entered the vault, she immediately realized that her violin was missing from among the violins packed tightly together.
In the end, her father had sold her violin to Leonard.
“He deliberately sent me away.”
Aurelia bit down on her lip, her hands trembling.
When the tears she had briefly managed to stop once again blurred her vision, everything around her became hazy.
“How could he… without even discussing it with me…?”
It was the first time Aurelia had ever felt betrayed by her father.
Even though it was an insignificant violin she had made back when she knew little about wood, using only the types of wood her father commonly worked with, Aurelia had attached enormous meaning to it.
Hadn’t David, because of that violin she had made herself, even begun teaching her the techniques he had previously kept hidden from her?
“Even though you knew what it meant to me.”
The violins Aurelia was making now were of sufficient quality that they could be sold under the Bernhard name.
But although those violins looked good in other people’s eyes, they still failed to satisfy Aurelia herself.
That was why this violin was even more precious to her.
“You’ll definitely become a great pianist. But I hope you won’t devote yourself to that one thing too obsessively. You have more than enough talent to become a master instrument maker, too.”
Even if everyone else failed to support her dream, Aurelia had believed that at least her father supported her.
She had thought that the way he had first sat her down and explained good wood and the attitude of a master craftsman to her had also been part of his support.
“I didn’t even realize they were just words.”
Everyone who saw Aurelia always praised her talent.
Because of that, Aurelia naturally believed that after graduating from the Zerphium Conservatory, she would be living a more perfect life than anyone else.
“Even though everyone thought I wouldn’t be able to.”
It was unfair.
She already knew that even people less capable than her received excessive praise simply because they had graduated from the Zerphium Conservatory.
But she had been born with far greater talent than those people, so she believed that if she worked hard, she could become a musician who surpassed them all.
“No. Even if no one else thinks I can do it, I don’t care.”
She was confident that she could prove that the world was wrong and that she was right.
For a long time, Aurelia had been unable to summon enthusiasm for anything. Strangely enough, it was discovering that her father had sold her violin that finally brought her back to her senses.
The end point of the emotions that had begun with anger was, naturally, a desire for revenge.
‘I have to make Professor Schneider and Father acknowledge me whether they want to or not.’
And to do that, she had to reclaim her daily life.
Once she came to her senses, she realized that this wasn’t the time to be sitting around in despair and crying. She had realized it far too late, and the thought made her anxious.
Her hands couldn’t possibly have become stiff simply because she had missed a few days of practice, but Aurelia couldn’t help worrying that her skills might have deteriorated while she had been taking this break.
“If they say I can’t do it, then I have to show them. I can’t just give up everything and shut myself away.”
No one in this world could love the piano more than she did.
Therefore, Aurelia absolutely had to become a pianist.
“That place suits me best.”
Once she reached that conclusion, strength began returning to the body that had felt as limp and heavy as wet cotton while she had spent the past several days helping at the workshop.
It was as though she had never been on the verge of despair and giving up everything.
“I might not be able to use a private practice room next semester.”
Classes had continued even while she had been hiding away like this.
Her classmates, who were always aiming to take her top position, must have been practicing relentlessly in her absence. So it was better not to expect that she would be assigned a private practice room again next semester.
And even if not next semester, she couldn’t deny that she would eventually need her own piano.
“Besides, I won’t be able to use the conservatory’s practice rooms after I graduate anyway.”
Her father’s workshop dealt with string instruments, so she couldn’t ask him for help with a piano. Of course, if she asked Mr. Krause, who ran a piano workshop, he would probably grant Aurelia’s request.
Aiden was the only person around Aurelia’s age in Workshop Street, and even he was five years older than her, so all the craftsmen on Workshop Street doted on Aurelia.
But that was something that could happen once or twice when she was young. She couldn’t keep touching instruments that other people were supposed to sell.
“The most urgent thing right now is a piano. Maybe I can afford an upright piano with the money I’ve saved so far.”
Aurelia hurried home, so preoccupied with the thought that she didn’t even notice the dry cloth slipping from her hand and falling to the floor.
She was confident that she could prove the world was wrong and that she was right.
If she had to be looked down upon simply because she was a woman, there were plenty of ways to succeed without revealing her identity.
“I’ll definitely succeed.”
She had to become someone so extraordinary that even a man regarded as the greatest virtuoso of the era would have no choice but to obediently return her instrument to her.
She now had a reason to seize success at any cost.
‘I will get my violin back, too. And I’ll crush the pride of everyone who told me I couldn’t do it.’
When Aurelia returned home, instead of hugging the quilt she had wrapped around herself for the past several days as though it were her own bunker, she opened the wardrobe.
She pulled out a bag that looked old at a glance, then sat down on the floor and began counting the crumpled money inside.
