FMV 09

Chapter 9

“I’m still a little short.”

But she wasn’t short by an impossible amount.

If she helped at the workshop a little longer, she thought she could save enough to buy a piano herself.

“I can’t get a piano right away, so….”

Planning to think a little more about what she would do from now on, Aurelia carefully put the old sack deep inside the wardrobe. Then she sat at her desk and picked up a pen.

As Aurelia sat at her desk, Professor Schneider’s words echoed in her mind.

“Take your time and think carefully about your future.”

Yes. This was not the time to feel discouraged like this. It was time to think about her future.

Of course, the future Professor Schneider had told her to think about probably wasn’t supposed to be this.

But it didn’t matter.

Just as she always had, Aurelia would somehow succeed in whatever she set her mind to.

“My future is as a pianist. Even if I have to take a longer road and arrive late, I will definitely stand on that stage.”

Only a few days ago, Aurelia had cursed the god who had given her talent. But now, she quickly changed her mind.

God did not give talent to just anyone.

“He gave it to me because he knew I could handle that talent and overcome any hardship.”

Therefore, even for the sake of the god who had given her the talent to become a pianist before she was even born, Aurelia was determined to somehow overcome this world.

Finally, Aurelia had stepped out of the closet she had locked herself inside. Then she remembered what Professor Schneider had said next.

There were other ways if she really wanted to play the piano.

“Yes, I could become a composer. And if I become a promising composer someday, there will surely be a time when I can present my music on a stage.”

Perhaps this wasn’t what Professor Schneider had meant by his words, but Aurelia didn’t care.

It was her life, and if she had to take that path, she intended to reach her dream by whatever means necessary.

Life slowly returned to Aurelia’s face, which had looked dull and lifeless for so long.

“You’re late.”

“Something came up.”

“I didn’t expect you to come back with two violins.”

At Aiden’s words, Leonard merely shrugged once before putting a cigar between his lips.

Aiden also had no desire to irritate his ill-tempered employer, so he did not ask any further and lowered his head back to the sheet music.

Although Aiden and Leonard were closer than an ordinary employer and employee—more like friends, in fact—if they had to distinguish who held the upper hand, it was naturally Leonard.

“There was a crazy cat living in that workshop.”

“A cat? I never heard that Bernhard was raising an animal.”

“It almost tried to eat me. And it wouldn’t stop crying, either.”

“Well, that’s how cats are.”

Aiden played along with Leonard’s words as he wondered about the cat that had apparently appeared while he was away.

But no matter how much he thought about it, there was no way an animal would have entered the Bernhard Instrument Workshop.

And not even a dog, but a cat.

“Wait, you really mean they were raising a cat? I thought Mr. Bernhard didn’t like animals.”

More precisely, Aiden knew that Bernhard was so allergic to animal fur that he would cough repeatedly whenever an animal came near him.

He wasn’t the kind of person who would put up with that just because he was fond of animals.

Of course, there was one person who was more like a cat than an actual cat.

No way.

“You mean a cat that goes meow, right?”

Leonard rested the half-finished cigar on the edge of the ashtray and met Aiden’s questioning gaze.

With another shrug, Leonard made it clear that the “cat” he was talking about wasn’t actually a cat.

“Aurelia?”

“Ah, yes. I think that was her name. Even her name is ridiculous. She’s a girl, too, yet her name basically means ‘chrysalis.’”

Leonard’s expression remained indifferent.

Unlike Aiden, who had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at Leonard’s thoughtless words.

She was the only daughter of an instrument workshop, born and raised in the same neighborhood as Aiden since childhood.

To Aiden, she was his student and also a little sister he felt he had to protect from the world.

And to Leonard, that girl was a “bad-tempered cat with a name like a chrysalis.”

“Anyway, thanks to her, I found a violin I liked, so I suppose it wasn’t such a bad experience. It’s not like I’ll ever see her again.”

Even now, in Leonard’s mind, Aurelia was nothing more than a crazy little cat with all its fur standing on end.

It had been an annoying encounter, and since he would never meet her again, there was no reason to think about it any further.

“Lily.”

When David returned with a relatively cheerful expression, what greeted him was an empty workshop and a pitiful, dry towel lying helplessly on the floor of the safe.

The meaning was painfully obvious.

Aurelia had entered the safe, realized that her violin was gone, and left.

He should have told Aurelia beforehand.

He had been so focused on buying a piano for his daughter that he had left her alone, and that had been his mistake.

“Open the door for a moment.”

Even though he knew this, David had been unable to approach Aurelia carelessly because it had taken time to make a piano especially for her.

Regardless of their relationship as father and daughter, he already knew that he had failed to respect Aurelia as an instrument maker.

‘But she’ll change her mind when she sees the piano.’

When David heard that the piano was finished, he closed the workshop earlier than usual. He then stopped by Krause’s Instrument Workshop and, together with the few workers there, carried the piano all the way home.

By then, he was covered in sweat.

“I don’t really want to open it.”

“Hurry. There are people waiting outside.”

Aurelia had been sitting at the desk blocking the door, scribbling on sheet music. In the end, she put down her pen and let out a deep sigh.

Compared to when she had first realized what had happened, she felt much better now. But she still resented her father.

She didn’t want to say something cruel to him while she was still feeling this way.

But at the same time, she couldn’t simply stop seeing the only father she had for the rest of her life.

“I’ll come out.”

Aurelia moved the desk aside and opened the door. David, drenched in sweat, hurried into the room and immediately began moving her desk.

Not just slightly.

He moved it to a completely different place.

“Did you come in just to move this? You said people were waiting outside….”

“Just wait a little. I’ll explain everything.”

Aurelia still couldn’t understand what her father was doing, but her father had always been someone who acted before he spoke.

Thinking that he must have a reason, Aurelia let him move the desk. Once he finished, David gently patted her shoulder with his rough hand and left the room again.

“What on earth is he doing?”

Aurelia picked up the pen that had fallen to the floor when the desk was moved and placed it back on the desk. Then she let out another deep sigh.

Ink from the pen had spilled onto the sheet music and stained it.

“Lily, come out. You might get hit if you stay there.”

As Aurelia continued sighing, a piano so large that it nearly blocked her view of her father came into sight.

Two workers she sometimes saw when she visited Krause’s Instrument Workshop were carrying a piano into the room with David. One by one, they moved it toward the window while calling out together in rhythm.

“Suddenly, what’s this…?”

She still couldn’t understand what was happening.

Her father had sold her violin without even discussing it with her, leaving her resentful. So how was she supposed to react to the piano he had suddenly brought home?

“Here. This should go here. It gets plenty of sunlight by the window.”

Once the upright piano filled one side of Aurelia’s room, the workers bowed politely to her and left.

Aurelia opened her mouth, thinking she could finally hear an explanation, but David also left with the workers.

“I’ve lived with my father my whole life, and I still find him hard to understand sometimes.”