FMV 10

Chapter 10

Aurelia could neither like it nor hate it, so she held her aching head in her hands.

As she stared blankly at the piano, David came back into the room carrying the piano bench.

“I’ve always felt sorry that, even though I said I supported you, I couldn’t properly buy you a piano. Whenever you went to Aiden’s house and spent the whole day learning to play, I hated myself for not even being able to buy you a piano.”

“If you think you can just sell my violin like this and get away with it….”

“That isn’t what I’m trying to do. This is simply a gift. Even though I knew you were saving money to buy a piano yourself, I still couldn’t buy one for you….”

“I know. That’s why I was trying to solve it myself.”

The Bernhard Instrument Workshop certainly made better violins than any other workshop that dealt with violins.

But the Bernhard family wanted anyone to be able to own a high-quality violin.

David, as both the owner and craftsman of the Bernhard Instrument Workshop, probably couldn’t abandon the beliefs he had upheld all his life because of his daughter.

‘And I feel the same way.’

Even at a time when music was treated as something belonging exclusively to nobles, the Bernhard family had taught music to children and willingly given violins to poor musicians. That was something worthy of respect.

“I’m sorry for selling your violin. It’s true that I couldn’t send the guest Aiden introduced away empty-handed, but I did it because I thought that after selling the violin to Mr. Deimus, I’d be able to buy you a decent piano.”

After finishing his words, David stepped closer to Aurelia, who was silently hanging her head.

He thought that even though his daughter said she understood, she was still secretly blaming him.

And just as David thought, Aurelia was still blaming her father without even realizing it.

For selling her violin even though he knew she didn’t want him to, and for saying he believed in her while ultimately believing that she would fail.

“You’re going to say the same thing as Professor Schneider, aren’t you?”

Just thinking about what Professor Schneider had said made tears well up in Aurelia’s eyes.

She could never understand his words, and that only made her feel more wronged.

And from Aurelia’s point of view, her father was no different from Schneider.

“Professor Schneider said I should give up because I wouldn’t succeed anyway. He said I couldn’t become a successful pianist.”

She couldn’t say this to friends who might be in a similar situation.

But she couldn’t bring herself to tell her father, either, because she already knew exactly what he would say.

“You think the same thing, don’t you, Father? You think I can’t succeed, so you want me to inherit the instrument workshop instead!”

That was why she felt even more hurt.

People had taught Aurelia how wide the world was and how she could go out into that vast world. But after she had learned everything she could, they were suddenly telling her that no matter how wide the world was, there was nowhere for her to go.

“Lily.”

“I don’t want to hear it. In the end, what you want and what Professor Schneider wants are the same. If this is how it was going to be, why did you send me to the conservatory in the first place? And Professor Schneider, too. If I’m a tree that can never be climbed, why did he keep….”

They shouldn’t have taught her that the world was so wide in the first place.

The tears she could no longer hold back fell onto the thin hem of Aurelia’s skirt.

She could not say another word and simply cried. Only after she finally managed to stop did David gently pat her shoulder.

“Professor Schneider said that to you?”

To David, Aurelia was too precious to even look at without feeling protective.

Of course, what parent wouldn’t treasure their own child? But to David, who had raised Aurelia alone, she was worth even more than simply being his daughter.

Sometimes, she was the reason he had to keep living.

She was also the reason he worked all day while breathing in the dust from the wood.

If he could, he wanted to beat Professor Schneider senseless for hurting his precious daughter so badly.

“That professor said what else?”

Aurelia blinked, forgetting to wipe away her tears, when she saw David, even angrier than she was, pounding his fist against his thigh.

She had naturally thought her father would agree with Professor Schneider.

Or, even if he didn’t openly take Schneider’s side, she had thought he would at least show that he secretly felt the same way.

“He said that the other students would bring honor to Zerphium Conservatory, but I wouldn’t. He said I could become a good mother….”

At the words “you could become a good mother,” David suddenly rose from his seat and strode toward the piano in anger.

Aurelia knew that her father wasn’t always gentle and mild, but it was the first time she had ever seen him this angry. Without realizing it, she awkwardly stood up and followed him.

“That damn old man. How could he say something like that to someone’s daughter?”

David placed his hand on the covered piano and breathed heavily in anger. Then he let out a deep sigh and returned to Aurelia.

Apparently, he still couldn’t stop muttering curses under his breath.

“Listen carefully, Lily. I’ve been in this workshop district for decades. I’ve seen countless musicians here ever since I was eight years old.”

“I know. You always brag that some of the musicians you met back then are very famous now.”

“Yes. But I’ve never seen a musician with talent as extraordinary as yours. Aren’t you exactly what people call a genius?”

When her father praised her so openly, Aurelia fidgeted awkwardly with her hands.

David immediately took one of them and gently rubbed the back of her hand.

His touch was so warm that Aurelia felt tears suddenly well up in her eyes again, this time for an entirely different reason.

“Don’t let Professor Schneider’s words hurt you. That man may look impressive on the outside, but he’s an absolute fool. Instead of recognizing your talent and helping you develop it, he said something like that! He must have lost his mind to say such a thing.”

David’s grip on Aurelia’s hand tightened.

No matter how skilled David was, even though he ran the oldest workshop in the district and was so talented that musicians from other countries would visit the Bernhard Instrument Workshop whenever they came to Zerphium, he was still just an ordinary citizen.

Because of that, he couldn’t give Aurelia, who had so much talent and so many dreams, everything she needed.

Whenever he was painfully reminded of that, David hated the principles he had upheld all his life.

‘If I gave up just that one principle, I could have given Lily a better life.’

But whenever David thought that way, Aurelia would be the one to stop him.

She was a good daughter who always told him that she would prove herself through her own abilities and that he should simply continue living the way he always had.

So in the end, there was only one thing David could give Aurelia.

“Lily, my precious daughter, too precious to even look at without feeling protective. I know better than anyone because I make instruments. Whether it’s Zerphium or any other country, you won’t find a pianist more talented than you. I’ll guarantee that as your father.”

All he could do was comfort his wounded daughter and support her so she could follow the path she truly wanted.

If her legs were hurt, he would become her legs.

If her heart was hurt, he would tear away his own flesh if necessary to cover her wounds.

That was all he could do for her.

“Father….”

“Do everything you want to your heart’s content. Whenever you want to play the piano, play it. If you want to become a pianist, then keep walking toward that dream. That’s how you should live. And if it becomes too hard, if it becomes too painful, you can give up then. Even if you become too exhausted and decide to give up, what’s there to worry about when you have me? You have another talent, too, don’t you?”

Even if Aurelia became too exhausted and gave up on her dream of becoming a pianist, she had enough talent as a craftsman to have another path.

David couldn’t believe that Professor Schneider had wounded the heart of such a talented child so deeply.

Once again, he muttered curses at Schneider.

But he didn’t want to say such things in front of his precious daughter sitting before him, so he quickly put on a gentle smile, as if he had never cursed at anyone.

“Of course, discrimination still exists in the workshop business. But you’re a Bernhard child, aren’t you? Even if you become too exhausted and give up on your dream of becoming a pianist, you can borrow the name of a distant relative and sell your instruments. So don’t worry. When it comes to music, you’ve been blessed with more talent than anyone else.”