Throne of Magical Arcana

When Lucien arrived at the Musicians’ Association, only two guards were standing in front of the five-storey building, since most of the believers following the God of Truth usually spent their Sunday morning in the church.

“Good morning, Mr. Evans.” The two guards smiled and greeted Lucien.

“Morning.” Lucien nodded, feeling a bit surprised. Since the concert finished late last night, it was quite surprising that the guards were already showing respect to him in this following Sunday morning. Lucien wondered if maybe it was Elena who told the guards, because she was the only one among all the concert audience who needed to work on Sunday.

Before Lucien entered the building, he heard they were whispering, “Three months ago, Mr. Evans was still carrying garbage for our association. He asked me to do him a favor looking after his trolley. Now look at him, a musician!”

“I know… The last time I saw him he was still a music student. Never expected he was such a genius!”

…………

Elena and Cathy were tidying up the documents behind the counter when Lucien came into the lobby. Both of them greeted Lucien with respect, “Good morning, Mr. Evans.”

Elena winked at Lucien with a sweet smile on her face, and Cathy seemed to be a bit nervous.

“Good morning, Elena. Morning, Cathy.” Lucien asked with curiosity, “What keeps you girls this busy this morning?”

“I’m glad you asked.” Elena answered in excitement, “Lucien, you know what? Your name is on both the latest Music Criticism and Symphony News.”

“What? I thought the next issue for both of them would be released at the end of the month…” Now Lucien was really surprised.

“That’s because your music work is so amazing!” Elena was very proud of Lucien, “Many musicians were deeply touched by your Symphony of Fate, and they worked overnight on their reviews! The association thus decided to issue both of the newspapers in advance this month. Now we have the first copies!”

“Mr. Evans, do you want one?” asked Cathy with respect and curiosity.

“Well… I think I should.” Lucien smiled and poured out twenty Fells from his moneybag. From hard saving, Lucien’s small moneybag finally bulged a bit.

“What did they say, Lucien?” Elena still couldn’t read very well, “Cathy and I are really curious.”

Picking up the latest Music Criticism, Lucien saw a painting of the Psalm Hall and two lines of black bold words,

“Ladies and gentlemen, hats off to the real genius!

— Othello”

Lucien read Mr. Othello’s comment to Elena and Cathy, and the girls’ eyes were filled with reverence.

Turning the page, the first review article titled Music with Soul—Salute to Symphony of Fate:

“As a gift from God, music encourages us to continuously progress toward a better future. However, in the past three hundred years, the main role that the solemn and sacred religious music was playing was never challenged on the stage of music, since other music themes were always hiding behind the scenes and paled in comparison with it.

……

“Until we met Symphony of Fate, a great piece of music composed by Lucien Evans and first played on Mr. Victor’s concert held in the Psalm Hall last night, I finally realized what is the most indispensable quality of a masterpiece!

“Music is emotion. Music is feelings. Without emotion and feelings, without soul, music can never be deeply moving to people. And the young musician Lucien Evans knows clearly about this: The four movements of Symphony of Fate are connected by a consistent faith all along—hope and persistence can conquer any difficulty. It is the most exciting, encouraging and touching symphony I have ever appreciated.

……

“Lucien Evans, without any doubt, is a genius. His music talent shocked Aalto, and I believe he will shock the whole continent in the future.

……

“As soul is to life, so is emotion to music!”

The review article was pretty long, which was more about expressing feelings instead of professional analyzing. The reason this article ranked the first was that it was written by the grand duke, Orvarit.

“Wow… The grand duke really likes your symphony!” exclaimed Elena in surprise and joy.

“I heard Princess Natasha also contributed,” said Cathy politely, “Mr. Evans, can you please read her article to us? I know the princess’s very good at reviewing music works.”

“Sure,” answered Lucien, feeling a bit nervous to read the princess’s comment.

Natasha’s article ranked second place in Music Criticism following her father’s work, which titled A Future Trend—The Music Revolution Led by Symphony of Fate:

“A great piece of symphony with magnificent theme and touching emotion running through.

“The talented musician, Lucien Evans, creatively used the four stress accents to form the first bar as the beginning of Symphony of Fate. Each of the four movements of the symphony was relatively independent but yet connected to each other, highlighting the shared theme: Light would conquer darkness and courage would overcome difficulty. The flexible and skilled utilization of assorted music instruments enriched the symphony’s emotion world and grabbed every audience’s heart last night.

……

“Call it heroism. Call it persistence. Call it knight spirit. I was deeply touched by the great work. The short bar which is composed of the four stress accents is still striking my heart, as if it synchronizes with my heart beat.

“This young, unfettered music genius, Mr. Evans, revealed a brand new music world in front of us, where new music skills should be explored, and new music themes should be developed.

“Great innovator! Great pioneer!”

…………

Lucien’s face blushed when he was reading the article. Flipping through this Music Criticism, Lucien found that twenty-nine out of the forty articles here were music reviews about Symphony of Fate. Some of them analyzed its theme and some of them skills. The other several articles were about Victor’s piano concerto and the concert in general.

Urged by Elena and Cathy, Lucien briefly glanced through the latest Symphony News and found the same situation—all of the articles were about either Victor or himself.

“Wait…I know this name.” Elena pointed her finger at a name under the first review article on Symphony News, “Christopher… Gionis.”

Christopher Gionis was the president of the Musicians’ Association, and also the most well-known musician in Aalto who composed more than a hundred great music works. Gionis was respected as a “living music legend”.

Here was Gionis’s comment:

“If you haven’t heard Symphony of Fate, you heard no music in your life.”

“Wow…” Except exclaiming, Elena and Cathy had no idea how to express their admiration to Lucien.

A while later, Elena said to Lucien, “I’m sure few months later, you’ll become one of the most renowned young musicians throughout the continent.”

Without saying anything, Lucien smiled and slightly shook his head. Then he left for Mr. Hank’s office on the third floor.

“Congratulations, Evans.” Hank rose from his seat behind the desk, walked toward Lucien and gave him a hug.

“Thank you, Mr. Hank.” Lucien smiled, “I’m here to quit my librarian’s job.”

“Of course, I expected so.” Hank agreed without hesitation, and then he took out a money bag, “According to Mr. Victor, this is yours.”

The money bag was not big but quite heavy, in which thirty-three gold coins were fascinatingly shining.