FMV 14

Chapter: 14

“Leonard.”

Lately, Leonard had been spending quite a lot of time lost in thought, often for long periods.

Even now, as he lightly tapped the desk and stared at a single point, he was immersed in thought as usual.

By the time those thoughts came to an end, Leonard would often pick up the violin that was like his alter ego and create the one perfect melody in the world.

“Leonard?”

Aiden swallowed unconsciously as he called Leonard’s name again, who was still lost in thought.

The greatest violinist of this era had a particularly unpleasant personality.

Especially when someone interrupted him while he was trying to delve into the thoughts stirring inside his head.

“Do you perhaps believe in God?”

“Of course. God is always inside me. Though the problem is that this god isn’t always benevolent.”

Even though he knew better than to disturb Leonard, Aiden had asked such a pointless question because Leonard’s face looked unusually bright today, and that somehow made him uneasy.

Unable to figure out what could possibly have brought that eccentric genius’s smile back, Aiden stared for quite some time at Leonard’s ominous smile.

‘Gambling?’

But Aiden knew better than anyone that Leonard hadn’t visited a gambling house even once since coming to Zerphium.

Aiden had decided that was where the problem began in the first place.

‘There was a time when I thought he might become so obsessed with gambling that he’d sell his violin.’

It was certainly strange that he hadn’t even hovered around the card tables he loved so much, nor touched the alcohol he enjoyed so dearly.

From Aiden’s perspective, it was an incomprehensible change.

‘Did he find something even better?’

No matter how much Aiden thought about what that could be, he couldn’t figure it out.

He could only wonder whether Leonard had finally let go of the devil’s hand and begun listening to the voice of God.

“Why are you suddenly asking about God?”

“You looked unusually happy, so I thought perhaps you’d received a divine calling.”

They had met when Aiden had gone abroad as an exchange student after being recommended by the Zerphium Conservatory, so by now they had spent quite a long time together.

At first, they might have been nothing more than an eccentric violinist and an innocent student accompanist who knew nothing about the world, but now Aiden had become close enough to be called one of Leonard’s few friends.

Even so, Aiden still couldn’t understand what Leonard was thinking.

That was simply because Leonard was the type of person who never revealed what was going on inside him.

“Something enjoyable happened. Should I say I became interested in taking things away and claiming them? No, is it protecting something?”

Leonard was always like this.

Whenever someone asked him something, he would respond with words so strange that it was impossible to understand what he meant, often losing the point of the conversation entirely.

“Is there anyone in this world who would refuse to give you something you said you wanted?”

That was why Aiden couldn’t understand Leonard.

Born in Klona, Leonard had been an aristocrat from birth.

Because of that, when his innate talent was discovered, he must have received wholehearted support.

Even when the waves of revolution began sweeping through Verta, his family had read the changing times faster than anyone else and joined the revolutionary army.

‘He said he survived because of that when all the other nobles were killed.’

Aiden simply couldn’t understand what Leonard could possibly lack that he would need to take something from someone else and then protect it.

Even now, Leonard Deimus was the very person who had the musicians of the entire world going wild over him and desperately wanting to place something—anything—more into his hands.

“That makes me curious too, now that you put it that way.”

“You’ll find out soon enough. What I took, and what I have to protect. I made an enormous deal.”

Hearing Leonard’s words, Aiden naturally nodded.

It was exactly the sort of thing Leonard would say.

‘That sounds exactly like something a compulsive gambler would say.’

But Aiden had no intention of pointing that out and finding fault with Leonard.

Given Leonard’s personality, which never lost its confidence even at a card table, he would probably scoff and say that it was only natural.

“Speaking of which, I think we need to revise the sheet music.”

Before Aiden had a chance to say anything else, Leonard dropped a bombshell.

Leonard quite often revised his sheet music either before a recital began or during the intermission.

This wasn’t limited to Leonard. It was a common practice among musicians who were called geniuses and, more accurately, regarded as monsters. The difference was that Leonard was far more eccentric than any other musician and demanded far more revisions.

‘He’s saying he wouldn’t mind playing the sheet music he just revised right now.’

Leonard didn’t even kindly write out the piano accompaniment whenever he revised a piece. In fact, it was enough to make Aiden wonder whether a human being like Leonard even needed sheet music in the first place.

‘Even if Leonard draws sheet music, what good would it do?’

At least when Aiden had first become Leonard’s accompanist, Leonard had personally drawn out the sheet music for Aiden, who was also just beginning his work as an accompanist.

The reason Aiden had declined that kindness, which was far too excessive to even be called a favor from Leonard, was because it wasn’t sheet music.

It looked more like hieroglyphics.

God never gave anyone everything.

‘How fair of Him.’

The sheet music Leonard wrote was so difficult that no one except Leonard himself could read it.

Only after Aiden had grown somewhat closer to him did he once ask about it, and Leonard’s answer had been utterly absurd.

“Are there really people who aren’t stupid but can’t memorize the music they’re going to perform? A musician should be able to memorize a piece after hearing it just once.”

After hearing Leonard say that, Aiden never asked him anything about it again.

He simply wondered what sort of musical discussion he could possibly have with a genius like him.

‘Other musicians at least have copyists.’

Finding a copyist who could tolerate Leonard’s personality while also revising the constantly changing sheet music was by no means easy.

Most copyists couldn’t endure Leonard’s personality for even a month before running away. Even when someone occasionally appeared who could tolerate him, most couldn’t write down even half of what Leonard played.

Then Leonard would hurl all sorts of harsh insults at the copyist who couldn’t properly transcribe what he heard and send them away.

‘I think he called the last copyist an idiot.’

After that, Leonard had stopped even trying to find another copyist, so Aiden had no choice but to take care of everything himself.

Of course, he was paid far more than any other accompanist because of that, so he couldn’t really complain.

‘Enduring that personality really isn’t easy.’

At the very least, even Aiden sometimes found himself wanting to escape from Leonard and find a more comfortable job.

Either way, it was clear that today’s recital, which had seemed like it might pass by peacefully, would not go smoothly.

Perhaps it would always be like this until that insane musician found something he enjoyed more than music.

“Major.”

“What?”

The melodies born from Leonard’s hands took physical form as sheet music through the quill held in Aiden’s hand.

The first half of this recital had been composed almost entirely of dark, gloomy pieces written in minor keys.

‘He said the theme was failure.’

Leonard had designed it himself, saying that everyone experienced failure at the beginning and that since this was his first time coming to Zerphium, he wanted to talk about failure first.

The second half would show success, while the first half had to be nothing but failure.

At least, that had been the plan until a new sheet of music suddenly emerged from Leonard’s hands after he had spent so long lost in thought.

“The melody you just played is in a major key. Shouldn’t it be minor? I thought we agreed to structure the first half that way.”

“No way.”

Leonard hadn’t even realized it himself.

He didn’t even know what kind of piece his own hands were playing.

“Is the reputation of the genius violinist finally starting to crack?”

Aiden answered jokingly.

Otherwise, there was no way Leonard Deimus—someone so obviously a genius that anyone who saw him perform could only acknowledge it—would fail to remember even what kind of mood the piece he had just played was supposed to have.

Aiden shook his head, thinking that Leonard, who had already been strange enough, had somehow become even stranger.

‘He’s gone mad. Or he made a contract with an even more vicious demon.’

If he really had made a contract with a new demon, that demon seemed determined to drag Leonard’s reputation all the way down to the bottom.

“Damn it.”

After contemplating for quite some time about the piece he had just played, Leonard cursed and took the cigar he had left standing in the ashtray and placed it between his lips.

Because once again, he couldn’t deny that it was all because of that tiny woman.

The feelings he had toward her were clearly not particularly positive.

Irritating and uncomfortable were certainly not words that could be considered positive.

‘But what actually comes out is….’

The biggest mystery was that what came out was an intensely bright piece, one capable of making even the listener feel good.

What was worse, the moment Leonard became aware of the melody he had played, it continued to linger in his head without leaving, thoroughly ruining his mood.

“Let’s pretend we didn’t hear that just now.”

Leonard’s expression twisted into a frown, as though his cigar had swallowed the ash.

It was the exact opposite of Aiden’s expression, now that he no longer needed to memorize the revised sheet music.