Ten thousand times…?
It’s easy to say ten thousand times, but even repeating a simple action a hundred times would be harmful to the body.
Moreover, the conducting motion Karas just demonstrated was anything but simple.
Despite having conducted various symphonies like Beethoven’s Fate, Choral, Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique, and Dvořák’s New World, the conducting Karas just showed was on a different level.
Maestro?
Karas had already walked away, as if she had finished her task.
All that was left where she had stood was the branch that had substituted for a baton, slashing the air.
Can I do this?
Of course, it’s a do-or-die situation.
After all, how many times did I review the legal code while preparing for the bar exam in my previous life? The number of times I repeated memorizing the laws was countless.
When it comes to persistence, I was confident I wouldn’t lose to anyone. Once determined, I bent down and picked up the branch.
“Hoo—!”
There was no one watching, but my whole body was tense. To exaggerate, I wasn’t this nervous even when taking the bar exam.
However, as I recalled the conducting motion Karas had just shown, the tension melted away as if it were a lie.
I raised my wrist a bit higher in line with my elbow. Even my shoulder and the width of my steps were made to resemble Karas.
The prelude part definitely started with an 8-beat. As the baton slowly embraced the air like holding a baby, it swiftly drew the horizon.
“Again.”
I spoke to myself in a low voice because it was clearly different from the conducting Karas had shown.
Though I thought I followed exactly the same, I wasn’t satisfied from the start.
I slowly raised the baton again.
“Again.”
Even as time passed, it was the same. The conducting motions Karas had shown were vividly recorded in my mind like a scene from a movie.
However, the more I tried to imitate, the less it worked as I wanted. It felt like being told to run before I could even walk.
The forest had already embraced the silence, with not a breath of wind.
“Again.”
Several hours had passed, but I could only follow it about ten times. Even then, it was insufficient to elicit the resonance of the forest like Karas. It was a first-time experience in my music career.
The animals in the forest watched this scene as if it were an amusing spectacle.
“Again.”
Stubbornness flared up.
“Maestro, will he be alright?”
Maya, the assistant, looked visibly worried. It was understandable since the dusk had thickened in the forest, but Kang Hyun showed no sign of stopping his practice.
He had been practicing conducting for hours, continuously moving his shoulders and arms without taking a single breath.
“Maya, what do you think is Hyun’s weakness?”
It was an unexpected question. To Maya, Kang Hyun seemed to have no weaknesses.
It was not just as a conductor. He had won the Queen Elisabeth Competition at a young age and had received love calls from great maestros around the world.
Especially the eternal maestro Gustav’s high praise was unforgettable. He was a man as cold as ice when it came to music.
“Didn’t the Maestro also highly praise Hyun? Honestly, I’ve never seen the Maestro show such interest in another conductor. I can’t find any faults in Hyun.”
“Hyun’s weakness is in his perfection.”
“Pardon?”
She couldn’t understand. How could perfection be a weakness? But Karas’s face was firm, even stern.
Her gaze pointed towards the forest where Kang Hyun was.
“Hyun is an incredibly talented child. It’s no exaggeration to say the god of music is watching over him. It’s unimaginable how he could possess such talent at such a young age. This must be how many musicians felt living in the same era as Mozart.”
It was high praise. Even Karas, known as the legendary maestro who marked the pinnacle of the 20th century, said so.
Some music critics even claimed that a conductor better than her would never appear in modern music history. She had astonished even her.
“That’s the weakness. He has never experienced failure.”
“Failure?”
“Many musicians feel despair and frustration at the walls blocking their path. For some, that wall may be another person, for others, it may be themselves. I believe Hyun needs to feel that wall.”
When Karas told Hyun to ‘do it ten thousand times,’ she didn’t literally mean to complete the number ten thousand. It was to make Hyun realize something through a long period.
Maya looked at Karas with curious eyes.
“Maestro, have you experienced such a thing?”
“Experienced hitting a wall?”
“Yes, Maestro.”
Karas smiled faintly. She was known as an unparalleled genius and had captivated classical music fans worldwide since her debut.
Eventually called the Empress of Austria, she was said to reside in the castle in the blue sky. She was a conductor at the peak.
“Yes, I have.”
“You, Maestro?”
“When I first learned conducting. My teacher told me, ‘Karas, you are not qualified to be a conductor.’”
Maya’s eyes widened. But Karas could not continue speaking. Her face was deeply immersed in the memories of the past.
As the full moon rose, Karas looked out the window.
“Hyun is truly a mysterious boy. Not only does he have talent given by the god of music, but he also has such perseverance and tenacity. Talking with him feels like conversing with someone my own age. I wonder what my teacher would say if he saw Hyun.”
“Again—!”
My breaths became rough. My shoulders and elbows were trembling at the fingertips.
When conducting, it felt like waves striking, causing muscle spasms. My back and even the hem of my pants were drenched in sweat.
“Again!”
I couldn’t give up. Karas didn’t mean to complete ten thousand times in one go.
From an ordinary person’s perspective, it would definitely mean to practice ten thousand times over a long period.
However, once I started practicing, that didn’t apply.
“Again!”
It felt like an insatiable thirst kept rising from deep within my heart, making me unable to stop conducting. Even the animals in the forest were now holding their breath, watching me. Karas’s conducting kept replaying in my head.
“Again!”
Though it was the same motion, it was different from Karas’s. It felt like I was blocked by an invisible wall, making me feel suffocated.
My breath became rougher, and sweat flowed like a torrential downpour, but I had no intention of stopping.
How did Karas make the forest resonate?
Despite conducting numerous symphonies and even composing symphonies, I couldn’t easily follow the Empress’s conducting.
“Again!”
The more time passed, the more it felt like I was getting deeper into a maze, unable to see ahead.
Now I even doubted if I was doing it correctly.
My shoulders and elbows were already groaning from cramps. I bit the inside of my cheek to stay focused.
But how much time passed? As the full moon reached its peak and the dawn approached, revealing the bright sun, my body tilted toward the ground.
Thud!
“Such incredible perseverance.”
Karas let out an exclamation of pure admiration. She had never imagined that he would practice until he lost consciousness.
Even a simple 4/4 beat conducting requires considerable physical strength.
Though she said ‘ten thousand times,’ she never meant to complete it in one go.
However, Kang Hyun practiced with a determination not to stop until he could conduct like Karas. It was truly frightening perseverance and determination.
“The patient has exhausted himself tremendously. He should rest and avoid getting out of bed for a while. Especially avoid strenuous activities with his arms, as they’ve gone through multiple muscle spasms.”
The attending physician looked puzzled. Surely, he thought Kang Hyun was a musician, but the spasms in his shoulders and arms seemed like those of an athlete who underwent intense training.
Fortunately, he would recover with rest. Hearing this, Son Yooha’s tearful face brightened.
“Ugh.”
It was a while after the doctor had left. Kang Hyun slowly opened his eyes. At that moment, Son Yooha threw her arms around his neck.
“Ouch, Yooha.”
To an outsider, it looked like a heartwarming reunion with a soldier returning from deployment.
Karas gave a faint smile at the young couple’s reunion. But Kang Hyun, upon seeing Karas, immediately sat up in bed.
“I’m sorry, Maestro.”
“Hyun, why are you apologizing?”
“I could only practice a hundred times properly. My stamina didn’t hold up as expected.”
Karas was once again purely amazed by the boy’s perseverance. She knew better than anyone how tirelessly Kang Hyun had practiced.
A hundred times might seem a small number, but repeating the same conducting motion as hers would have felt like shaving down his bones in pain.
“Hyun, did you feel the wall?”
“I did. It felt like I was blocked.”
It was the despair and frustration many musicians feel. Even Baek Jung-hoon had his music stagnate for a while, blocked by a wall. Kang Hyun was the same now. He was feeling the limits of a new style of conducting he had never experienced before.
“Have you ever experienced this before?”
Kang Hyun shook his head. No way, compared to his previous life, his musical talent in this life was so abundant it felt like a lie. The upgraded software surely played a significant role.
Thanks to that, he had never experienced a slump that others usually go through. He never faced difficulties while learning music. But why?
“Hyun, are you trying to get up already?”
Despite facing his first difficulty, Kang Hyun felt more competitive. The doctor advised him to rest, but there was no time.
Son Yooha looked helplessly at Karas, but Karas, as a fellow musician, fully understood Kang Hyun’s feelings.
On one hand, it was astonishing. The culmination of genius talent and perseverance was thrilling just to imagine.
