Chapter 9: Harpist Academy (18)
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(A little preface: Some friends worry I’ll repeat previous patterns, thinking it’s yet another round of Trissa vs. Harp Skills. Fear not! A woman on the brink of becoming a lower deity feels downright embarrassed to retrace her steps!
Queen Cold Moon will never look back!)
They say it takes a minute on stage and ten years of hard work off it.
Edith was only recently dubbed a genius—just in the past couple of years.
Three years ago, Trissa stole the show in the Imperial Capital, and everyone knew she was the first student in the academy’s history to be declared a genius harpist.
Noble families crowded outside the academy, clamoring to witness her astounding performance during the graduation assessments.
The entrance was trampled by countless matchmakers, and the empire’s eligible bachelors acted like it was a buffet, ready for their pick.
This grand spectacle left the younger students graduating in three years filled with envy.
Edith was one of them.
Of course, she had another title—Konglif’s fiancée.
She understood perfectly why Trissa refused to marry; that woman still had feelings for Konglif, and he, under the pretext of escalating conflicts on the southern front, hadn’t been seen in the Imperial Capital since their engagement.
So, she told herself she needed to become the academy’s top talent.
Only then would the Konglif family take her seriously and realize losing her would be a terrible mistake.
Yes, if she could score as high as, or even higher than, Trissa in the graduation assessment, noble families of a higher rank would definitely show interest.
Konglif would surely return to her side.
Thus, she determined to work even harder.
She was well aware of how she spent the last three years.
While others practiced, she practiced. While others rested, she was still practicing.
She created a record known only to her: for six whole months, she never stepped outside the academy, using every possible moment to improve her skills.
For a long time, including the academy’s teachers, everyone believed that talent was the only thing keeping harpists from reaching the top.
But after such rigorous training and self-imposed pressure, Edith wanted to tell them that, apart from talent, there was also a hefty dose of practice, repeating the same thing countless times.
Just as she had anticipated, two years later, in a major assessment, she won first place by a considerable margin, even breaking Trissa’s record from her graduation year.
Who would’ve thought, mere two years after Trissa graduated, another genius emerged to rival her?
People erupted in excitement.
Edith’s name began to pop up frequently at the gatherings of the capital’s noble families.
The Konglif family immediately sensed a crisis.
After all, engagement was merely a formality, and there were precedents of broken engagements before official marriage in the Imperial Capital.
Thus, Konglif, stationed in the southern region, was promptly recalled to the capital, with orders from the family to keep in constant touch with Edith, ensuring nothing went wrong before her graduation.
Yes, they originally planned to marry after she graduated.
But now, it became clear that if Edith secured an S-rank harpist title, their marriage would bring unmatched glory to the Konglif family, making them the center of attention.
All of Edith’s efforts had finally paid off.
The only worry now was whether Trissa might show up midway and snatch her fiancé away.
Although Trissa’s fame had faded over the last two years and she’d been long absent from the capital, Edith wondered if her skills could still measure up to her peak.
Yet, Edith couldn’t help but long for a day when she could defeat Trissa in front of Konglif, proving to all of the Imperial Capital that Trissa was yesterday’s news, unworthy of the genius harpist title while she, Edith, would take it and become the academy’s greatest talent in history.
Unfortunately, once a harpist graduated, they usually didn’t undergo reassessment, which definitely hindered Edith’s plans. She could only hope to achieve an “SS” rating in all tests, thereby not only hitting her target but smashing Trissa’s record to pieces.
So, when she encountered Trissa at the academy,
she pretended not to know about their childhood bond, mockingly taunting Trissa and making herself appear rather shallow.
She hoped to provoke Trissa, testing whether she could accept Konglif being with her.
If that sparked Trissa’s competitive spirit and pushed her to compete, that would be splendid.
As fate would have it, her script unfolded just as she envisioned, and she secured a rare opportunity to compete alongside last year’s champion.
She swore she would defeat Trissa in front of everyone.
But just as her plan hit the halfway mark, a masked woman in white she had never noticed before disrupted everything.
Not only did it turn her into a laughingstock, but it also put her genius title in jeopardy.
How could she endure this?
Yet that Lin lady, in her upper-crust arrogance, used some grandiose excuse to evade a challenge, refusing to let her clear her name.
Someone like that clearly didn’t have solid fundamentals and only relied on flashy tricks to grab attention.
She probably knew that basic harp skills were the foundation of the Harpist Academy and chose instead to avoid confrontation.
While Edith and Lin Nan were stuck in a stalemate, a tall, scantily dressed woman appeared, captivating everyone’s gaze.
Her attire could only be described as ridiculously breezy, even for modern standards.
It was as if the chilly early spring of the Imperial Capital had no effect on her whatsoever, with a patch of white visible at her chest, hinting at what lay beneath.
Voices preceded her presence.
Accompanied by a hearty laugh, this striking woman sashayed into the testing grounds.
Whether it was Sani, Lisa, the judges, or even Trissa and Edith, everyone instinctively bowed and said in unison, “Greetings, esteemed Dean.”
The lady smiled, “Hello, everyone, no need to be so formal.”
Despite saying this, it wasn’t until Janet reached the center of the testing ground that the academy’s teachers and students returned to their usual behaviors.
“Dean, just now this student Lin…”
Sani approached Janet, recapping Lin Nan’s earlier demands.
Janet nodded, grinning, “Yeah, I heard it all in my office.”
“Dean, this person is just too arrogant! I believe we shouldn’t gamble with someone like her. She wants to participate in the harpist assessment, right? Let’s not give her that chance; we’d be justified since she’s an outsider.”
Sani was not at all impressed with Lin Nan, after all, the girl had practically called the academy a brothel just moments ago.
“No, I accept her conditions,” Janet replied.
“Alright, Dean… uh…”
Sani was taken aback, “But… but… that…”
“Sani…”
In the Harpist Academy, only the Dean could call Sani by her first name.
“Don’t you think this is going to be a rather entertaining gamble?”
Sani fell silent, seeing the determination in Janet’s eyes; as her subordinate, she could only unconditionally support the Dean’s decision.
