Chapter 5: Harpist Academy (14)
—
Edith didn’t take too long to get ready for her selection behind the wall.
Soon enough, she raised her hand to the judges, signaling that with the help of the staff, she had successfully set up props to replace the white ball.
At that moment, almost the entire audience collectively held their breath.
After all, Edith had previously suffered an unexpected setback and had been splattered with mud in front of everyone.
And just when things couldn’t get more chaotic, that masked student, Lord Lin, had given Trissa’s chance to her. At first, people didn’t quite get what was happening, but thanks to Betty’s commentary, they soon realized that this was Trissa’s way of expressing her commitment to fairness before the audience.
“I’m so nervous! I can’t shake this feeling that something unexpected might come flying out of the wall,” Blake said, looking as serious as a cat in a dog park.
Betty replied, “Right? After all, this kind of test is way beyond our usual training levels.
Take the bottle that Edith faced earlier. Its material and smoothness are completely different from a white ball. If she reacted the same way she would to a white ball, it would have led to some very unexpected results.
And with no idea that the flying prop was a bottle, creating a perfect reaction was way harder than anyone could imagine.
So, how Trissa would perform with Edith’s cooperation is truly something to look forward to.
It’s definitely not going to disappoint us!”
“Testing is about to begin!”
“Three, two, one!”
At that crucial moment, Trissa glanced at the judges seated next to Lord Lin, who stood there looking all high and mighty.
Under her gaze, Trissa felt increasingly confident, as if she was just facing a super casual test.
“Bang bang bang!”
Three random cracks appeared in the wall.
First up was a stone about the size of a fist, but the appearance of the other two flying props left everyone dumbfounded.
Dagger! Two sharp daggers, no less!
When Edith saw this, she could hardly believe her eyes.
“No way! I distinctly put in a stone, an iron ball, and a broken broom. How did this suddenly happen…”
But at that moment, no one was concerned with Edith’s protests; everyone’s attention was glued to the three unexpected flying props.
“Swish swish swish…”
The daggers sliced through the air, creating a whoosh sound that could scare a cat out of a tree.
Trissa immediately extended her right arm, her hand open wide. She didn’t, unlike Edith, pull out a four-stringed harp; instead, she seemed to conjure some invisible strings between her fingers, just like Lin Nan.
Then she plucked them with her left hand, sending a sound wave that blasted the stone flying into smithereens.
Then she dropped to one side and quickly swiped her left index finger above her right hand.
Though her movements were a bit clumsy, they definitely conveyed a growing sense of mastery.
“Ding ding dong!”
A series of sharp, quick sounds rang out.
They weren’t exactly musical, and some listeners immediately broke out in goosebumps after hearing them.
Yet the result left everyone speechless.
It was as if the sound waves acted like a fan, striking out just as the two daggers were a mere step away from Trissa, sending the deadly blades flying!
They spun in the air before finally dropping to the ground near the wall.
The audience fell into silence.
Since everything happened so quickly, it took a while for them to recover from this shocking moment, even after the daggers had embedded themselves in the ground.
Remember, even when Edith was caught off guard by the flying props, the most menacing one was probably just that bottle—if it had hit her, she might have just had a small bruise, no life-threatening danger involved.
But Trissa had faced two daggers capable of taking a life.
Just a tiny slip-up, and she might’ve been the first person ever to d*e in the academy’s test area.
“Clap clap clap!”
Wild applause erupted from the audience, sweeping across the square in front of the teaching building and spreading like wildfire among the throngs of people outside the academy.
“Absolutely unbelievable! Those daggers rushed at her, and Trissa managed to perfectly deflect them!”
Blake’s voice rang out, vibrant and full of energy, as though he’d been bottling up excitement all day, ready to explode.
“Even mages of the same caliber as Trissa would struggle against such a sudden attack from daggers,” Betty chimed in, equally amazed.
Since graduating, she had teamed up with Blake to become a ‘debut idol’—though the empire didn’t officially have that term yet, Blake and his harp combo had already become known far and wide in the Imperial Capital.
This meant she hadn’t seen the battlefield or the sharp weapons, just like many of her married classmates.
Betty honestly wondered if she faced such an extreme situation, even in her prime three years ago, she would probably struggle against the daggers.
“Trissa truly deserves the title of the academy’s first certified genius harpist in a thousand years!”
Betty felt a twinge of envy; three years ago, Trissa was their benchmark, and now she felt even more distant.
Like the bright moon in the night sky, no matter how hard you try to chase it, you can never bridge the gap.
Trissa’s gaze was fixed on the two daggers embedded in the ground, and for some reason, she felt an exhilarating sense of relief.
It was almost as if if the flying props hadn’t threatened her life, she would have felt disappointed and surprised instead.
The string that had appeared at her fingertips had vanished,
and she hadn’t even anticipated that in that urgent moment, she had somehow mastered Lord Lin’s technique—not using the four-stringed harp as her first reaction, but facing the threat in another way.
She had succeeded.
This thrill of flirting with life and d*ath, that adrenaline rush,
even though the test was over, the thrilling sensation lingered on.
In a way, she ought to thank Edith for giving her this opportunity.
“Edith, what on earth is wrong with you? If something goes wrong, can you handle the responsibility?”
A certain female judge shot a stern look at Edith.
Edith quickly waved her hands, “It’s not me, really not me!”
She couldn’t believe her eyes when those daggers flew out of the wall.
Though she was annoyed with Trissa, she hadn’t actually wanted to take her life.
Lin Nan suddenly spoke up, “You don’t need to blame Edith; I’m the one who put the daggers in there beforehand.”
When she said that, the entire venue went dead silent.
