The Healing Life of a Music Genius - Chapter 197



Only Noblemtl

197 arrival

* * *

“Mister. Mister! Mister!!!”

“······.”

“How long are you going to sleep? People, you know. When you wake up in the morning, you have your own work to do. Do you know that if you don’t catch fish today, we’ll starve? Are you going to survive another day with coconuts? Do you know that we’re running out of protein that we need to live?”

“Hey······Seo Jin-ah.”

“yes.”

“How old are you this year?”

“It’s been about a year since I came to the deserted island, so I’m now 13 years old.”

“Hmm. I see. But you speak English really well. Sometimes I miss the days when we couldn’t communicate. Back then, you didn’t even nag me.”

“······.”

“Oh, sir. Mr. Seojin. I’m sorry. I spoke out of turn again. So, please relax your expression. I’ll get to work. Of course.”

“······.”

Mr. Miller got up from his seat, unable to resist my urging.

The old man often fell into a deep sleep.

He sleeps so peacefully that he doesn’t even flinch no matter how much you call him.

At times like that, I would feel a strange sense of unease and would wake him up by force.

Fortunately, the old man recovered quickly.

He is wearing fishing gear and beckons me to him.

We were planning to catch some cod or mackerel today at a point about 30 minutes away from here.

Of course, these were fish I had never caught before, but how can a person live only seeing reality?

Dreams and hopes!

Grand ambitions!

Mr. Miller always told me that I needed something like that to live each day well.

We cast our fishing rods at the same time.

A fishing rod made from iron plates and clothes that washed up on a deserted island.

They made needles by cutting iron plates with stones, and they made fishing lines by pulling thread from clothes.

The strings would break too easily, and it was very difficult to make a needle that would do its job.

There was no way that fish could be caught easily with this type of fishing rod.

But we always said that we caught a lot of fish.

“Today is salmon steak. Let’s catch some salmon.”

“······Would that work?”

“Oh! Yes!”

“No, salmon live in warm areas like this. Aren’t salmon usually caught in large quantities in places like Northern Europe? Places like Norway?”

The old man looks at me seriously.

“Seo Jin-ah.”

“yes.”

“Even fish get lost sometimes.”

“······.”

And then he snickers.

It was a fantastic theory.

but.

“It’s like you and I are lost for a moment. So let’s catch up. Can you do it?”

The old man’s words always sounded plausible.

I ended up laughing along with the old man.

That evening.

We ended up eating a grilled fish with yellow stripes, the name of which we didn’t know.

Well, that was expected.

Mr. Miller said it tasted like salmon, but honestly, it didn’t taste like anything.

But as I kept eating these kinds of fish, I started to get used to it.

After dinner, we relaxed and lay down near the campfire.

The sand on the beach provides a nice softness.

Thanks to the campfire burning for quite some time, the sand we were lying on was just the right temperature, which felt quite nice.

The crackling sound of firewood strangely calms the mind.

You will naturally find yourself listening to the gentle sound of the waves.

We stared at the night sky endlessly.

Here, countless stars were visible.

Milky Way.

A white beam of light stretches across the dark sky into the distance.

The old man speaks to me.

Each of those dots is a star like the sun.

In this incredibly small place in an unimaginably vast universe.

We are having a leisurely dinner, sharing interesting stories, and gazing out into the vast universe.

so······.

He tells us to fully enjoy this moment.

I followed the old man’s advice faithfully.

Mr. Miller came in with his guitar.

A shabby guitar without a single string.

He makes wonderful melodies with that guitar.

A memory that is clearly engraved.

My uncle made this moment a memory.

As time passed, my eyelids became heavier and heavier.

Even though I’ve already had a lot to talk about with Mr. Miller today, I still keep finding things to talk about.

I answered with my eyes half-closed.

“······ Then I will try to win the contest in your stead. In a contest that is so great that everyone recognizes it.”

I can clearly hear Mr. Miller’s laughter.

“Are you going to let go of my grudge?”

“······ I want to do that even a little bit. I’m your disciple, sir.”

“But you are my colleague, not my disciple.”

“But······. And······. I also really want to win the contest. I want to do that.”

“It won’t be an easy task.”

“i know.”

“That’s a great decision.”

“I think I can do that now.”

“That’s cool.”

“Thanks to you, sir, I······.”

My eyes were completely closed.

I feel the old man patting me on the back.

Just as I was about to fall asleep.

The old man speaks to me quietly.

“If you win a contest like that······. If that happens······.”

I fell into a deep sleep.

Warm yet sad.

Heartbreaking yet beautiful.

It was a very sweet sleep.

* * *

“Queen Elizabeth? Isn’t that a very famous competition?”

“Yes! It’s one of the world’s top three piano competitions. But this time, I heard that a kid in his second year of middle school made it to the finals.”

“You’re from Seolhwa Yejung too? They’re making a fuss about you not being from a Confucian school.”

“I guess there’s chaos in Europe too.”

“A genius has emerged from our country.”

Even people who weren’t particularly interested in classical music began to learn who ‘Han Seo-jin’ was.

The Korean media was busy reporting news about the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and people began to seek out Han Seo-jin’s performance out of curiosity.

And the response was tremendous.

Wow! This is the first time I’ve gotten goosebumps listening to piano performance. This is really awesome!

N Oh my. ㅠㅠ I cried a lot after listening to ⌜Strict Variations⌟ and ⌜Raindrop Prelude⌟.

n I told you I became a fan of Han Seo-jin right away. This is the first time I knew there was a pianist like this in the world.

If you’re only 14, aren’t you totally Mozart?

N Yeah, it’s already being used as an official nickname in Europe.

N Oh my gosh lol really?

n [Link] Check it out. It’s in German, so you can use a translator to see it.

N Seriously lol

N Han Seo-jin. In the semi-finals, you beat all the contestants who were much older than you and took first place. I told you it was an absolutely overwhelming performance.

n How many points was the difference between you and second place?

N Yankowski got 9.38 points? Han Seo-jin got 9.61 points. So there’s a difference of 0.23 points.

N Huh? Then there’s not much difference?

No. It’s really hard to get 0.1 in these types of contests. This is a big difference.

ㄴ For reference, the previous Queen Elizabeth winner won the final with 9.22 points.

N Wow. Then it’s already another level? What is it? Then, if Yankowski had appeared as Queen Elizabeth last time, he would have won?

N yeah, that’s right. This year, Queen Elizabeth is particularly competitive.

n Meanwhile, South Korea’s Han Seo-jin is number one! She’s 14 years old!

N crazy lol

n You even got to premiere Beethoven’s music there. Han Seo-jin is already a star among stars in the classical music world.

N I’m really looking forward to it. Aren’t we going to win like this?

N If that happens, it’ll be a jackpot, right?

ㄴ For your information, winners of the Queen Elisabeth Competition are entitled to ‘military exemption’.

N Oh my gosh lol By any chance······even win?

ㄴ The countdown to a smooth life has begun!

N this is not a joke lol

A variety of comments began to appear on the ‘Han Seo-jin’ article.

Thanks to the semi-final competition where all scores are revealed to the public, there have been quite a few articles and columns predicting who will win.

Starting with Han Seo-jin, who took first place with 9.61 points.

2nd place Oleg Jankovsky 9.38 points.

3rd place Sylvie Lucas 9.31 points.

4th place Brian Turner 9.27 points.

and.

Another participant from South Korea, Lee Hyun-joo, also came in 8th place with 8.71 points, making Brussels more interesting in South Korea than ever before.

In line with this, we began to take an in-depth look at the ‘Chapelle’, a special system unique to the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

A unique system where the 12 finalists are quarantined for two weeks and have to practice their songs in a space where no electronic devices are allowed.

The ‘Music Chapel’, which is shrouded in mystery under Belgian control, was also an element that attracted people’s interest.

Today, two days after completing all the semi-final schedules.

With the day leading up to entering Chapel, the finalists were busy preparing in their own ways.

* * *

“I wonder if we’re running out of socks? Hmm. No. Food might be more important than clothes. In that case, first······.”

My father, mother, and I quietly watched Suyeon taking care of my household.

Suyeon first emptied her bag.

Put colorful candies, including lemon candies, in my carrier.

‘Almost······. 3 bags would be enough?’

We also include various notes with messages of support.

A situation that will make you laugh just by looking at it.

But it seems that Sooyeon’s heart wasn’t like that.

“Oppa. I need to go shopping first. I need to buy 14 days’ worth of easy meals······. I need 42 servings! And if I add snacks to that······.”

They say it will be enough for about 100 people.

Not long ago, our smart Suyeon, who even mastered the multiplication table, easily did mental calculations.

But if it’s food for 100 people······.

Wouldn’t that basically mean clearing out an entire corner of the supermarket?

As I watched Sooyeon heartlessly put the Pringles her father bought for her as a snack into her bag, I calmly explained to her.

“They said that Chapel provides meals and snacks. So I don’t think you need to pack this much.”

“No! But I still can’t believe it!”

Suyeon was resolute.

however.

If you look closely, Suyeon’s expression is a bit sharp.

My mother and I noticed it at the same time, and only then did we begin to understand the situation a little.

We whispered softly.

“Is that right?”

“I think so?”

“What should I do?”

“I have to try to appease her.”

My mother pokes me in the ribs with her elbow.

My father simply shrugged his shoulders.

As the representative of the Han family, I carefully asked Suyeon about this, and it seemed like our guess was roughly correct.

“Oppa, you’re going to have to be alone again! Who knows what might happen! What are you going to do if you starve? Then······ it’ll be a big deal!”

Suyeon seemed to remember the accident from two years ago.

Since that day, I have never been away from Suyeon for a long time.

I always took Suyeon with me when I went abroad, and as we tried to spend more time together, we ended up spending more time together.

I stroked Sooyeon’s head for a while, reassuring her that something like that would never happen again.

Suyeon finally shed a single tear.

“I······. I’m so worried······.”

“I told you, oppa, you’ll be okay?”

“I told you we were going to the scary palace! I told you you couldn’t even make a phone call there.”

“It’s just a place where you’re in that situation. It’s not a dangerous place. And I told you that oppa is going to study, right? Sooyeon, didn’t I explain to you what oppa was going to do in the finals?”

Suyeon hesitated for a moment and then answered.

“······ I said I was practicing and playing new Beethoven music.”

“What should I do then?”

“······ I told you I had to go to Chapel. For two weeks······. I know······. But······. I······. Euaaaah!”

Suyeon shedding tears like chicken poop.

I hugged Suyeon tightly, and after crying for a while in my arms, she fell asleep as if she had fainted.

My mother said something to me while looking at the sea with my brother and sister.

“It will be nice to see you someday, Seojin, when you get married.”

“I told you I was worried.”

“On the contrary, it would be the same if Sooyeon gets married.”

“······ That really worries me.”

“yes?”

Mother laughing heartily.

Meanwhile, my father muttered the same thing as me, “Whew. I’m worried too… I’m against it for now.”

I had already finished preparing to go to Chapel.

One large carrier and one small backpack.

Since we were going to be staying for 14 days, our luggage ended up piling up.

After the finalists were announced, I had the opportunity to hear a detailed explanation about Chappelle from the head judge.

They said that meals would be delivered in packed lunches prepared by the hotel chef at each meal.

They said that the laundry would be picked up in the morning, washed, and delivered the next day.

He said that if there is something you need at Chapel, there is a system that will purchase it for you.

Of course, only items that were deemed legitimate after review by the review committee were allowed to be brought in.

The biggest feature of Music Chapel is that the use of any electronic devices is absolutely prohibited.

All types of mobile phones, including smartphones.

Computer or tablet PC.

Devices that can play music.

Even electronic watches were prohibited items.

‘In a way, it’s like going to a place where you take a test for 14 days.’

It seemed as if we could see what Brussels’ intentions were.

After about an hour, Suyeon woke up.

Her eyes were swollen, but she seemed relieved after crying.

My family burst into laughter again as I wiggled my fingers and said, “I’m sorry, Oppa. I guess I was immature. I should have cheered you on first…”

In the evening, we went to a famous Korean restaurant in Brussels.

It was a store run by Koreans, and they recognized me and gave me galbijjim for free.

They sent me a message of support, telling me to do well in Chapel.

When we returned to our accommodation, we gathered in the living room and chatted about various things until we fell asleep.

At around 10 o’clock, Suyeon fell asleep in my arms, at 12 o’clock, my mother started nodding off, and at around 1 o’clock, I think I fell asleep too.

The next day.

In the late afternoon we exchanged greetings at the entrance to the Palais des Beaux-Arts.

“Brother! Take care of yourself and come back healthy. Your health always comes first! Got it?”

“Okay, okay. Got it.”

“You have to eat well. Mom said that you have to do that to grow up well.”

“Yes. Suyeon, you should also listen to mom and dad and have a good time.”

“Yeah! Don’t worry about me. I’ll be waiting for you, oppa!”

Suyeon was the first to greet me.

When I pat her head, she smiles brightly and hugs me tightly.

It was a cute greeting, just like our little brother.

Perhaps this greeting will be the one you will remember the most from Chapel later on.

I also greeted my mother, father, Professor Kang Yu-han, Mr. Richter, and Conductor Hoffmann.

I also exchanged greetings with some of the great masters who came to see me.

and.

I entered the Palais des Beaux-Arts alone.

First of all, there was a baggage check.

I pass my carrier and bags through an X-ray machine, just like at the airport. My body is also scanned from front to back with a long detector.

Since we had prepared in advance, there was no problem.

The staff took my luggage away, and I went into the concert hall.

“Hey! Seo Jin!”

There were some nice people there.

Sister Lucas was the first to welcome me, and Sister Hyunju asked about my well-being afterward.

He made eye contact with Jankowski, who was sitting in his seat, and exchanged a quick greeting with Turner, who was scratching his cheek.

After a while, Judge Scott appeared on stage.

He once again tells you what to watch out for in the Music Chapel and explains how to get around.

He emphasized once again that everyone will be driven into their cars one by one, following the organizers of the competition, and that from the moment you leave the concert hall, you will not be allowed to use any electronic devices.

Among the 12 finalists, the move began with the Chinese contestant who came in 12th place.

Next is 11th place.

Next is 10th place.

In the end it was me.

The car waiting in the Palais des Beaux-Arts parking lot was a black luxury sedan.

The driver opened the door for me, so I got into the back seat, and the car started moving quickly.

It was said that it took about 30 minutes from Brussels to Waterloo.

Not too far away.

In the meantime, I took in the scenery outside the window.

Brussels had become familiar to me.

Royal palaces and quaint cathedrals.

The park where I busked and my regular waffle shop.

A beautiful street where people are laughing and chatting.

After leaving there, the car continued to drive further and further out.

As the tall buildings disappeared, mountains and wide open fields appeared.

After passing through an area filled with small European-style houses, the car enters a forest road lined with dense trees.

After asking the knight for permission, I opened the window.

A warm breeze with the scent of the forest touches my face and slowly disappears.

The car went deep into the forest.

The asphalt road was no longer there, and a slightly bumpy dirt road appeared.

Traces of the collapsed walls began to appear here and there.

I asked the knight out of curiosity, and he said that most of them were destroyed in past battles, so only this form is preserved now.

The car slows down.

The car came to a complete stop in front of a huge door.

“You have to walk from here. Cars can’t go inside.”

“So this is Chapelle?”

“Yes, that’s right. If you walk for about five minutes, you’ll come across the Music Chapel mansion.”

A driver who skillfully parks the car and opens the door.

I got out of the car and looked at the huge gate.

The walls and gates here were relatively well preserved.

Although you could see some collapsed walls here and there, they weren’t at a level that a person could cross.

As the knight made a phone call to someone, the gate slowly began to open.

There is a noise of metal rubbing against metal and the huge door moves slowly.

One thing that was unexpected was······.

The castle didn’t have the splendid buildings I had imagined.

Once again, a large forest has appeared.

Dense trees.

In contrast, there was a narrow path that only one person could walk through, extending all the way to the end.

“Let’s go.”

I followed the knight into the castle.

The sound of metal rubbing against metal is heard again behind my back, followed by a thud!

I walked for a long time along a dark, secluded path in the forest.

There was a lot of moss in the forest here and there, probably because it was a humid place.

I had a feeling that if I came into this forest late at night, I might easily get lost.

And at the end of this road.

I could see an old-fashioned mansion that was dyed orange, reflecting the sunset.

Music Chapel.

The place where the finalists of the Queen Elisabeth Competition gather.

To fulfill my own promise that no one in this world will confirm to me······.

Here you will encounter the unpublished musical scores of the great composer.

Finally arrived.