“Spencer, why do you look so glum?”
It was a visit from the eternal crown prince, Samuel.
Spencer, who was sitting in the conductor’s room, looked incredibly bored, almost as if he had transcended all worldly matters.
“It’s because I’m thinking about leaving London soon.”
“Your shoulders may not be in the best shape, but I thought you could still go on for a few more years.”
“It’s better to step down early so that the next conductor can adapt comfortably. The orchestra members would feel the same.”
Spencer had a successor in mind, but the problem was that this person didn’t seem interested in coming to the London Symphony.
“Are you so down because of Hyun?”
Of course, as time passed, more and more great masters were sending love calls to Hyun.
Eventually, even the eternal maestro and the legendary empress, Karas, sent love calls.
By now, he would be learning conducting from Karas at her grand mansion in Austria.
“It’s really something to see the great Spencer so flustered over one person. Truly, living long enough shows you all sorts of things. Hyun is in Austria now, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he’s probably learning conducting from the empress. Honestly, I’d like to bring him to London right now, but the fact that the empress is teaching conducting is something I’ve never heard of in my life.”
“The queen of conducting—is learning from Maestro Karas really that big of a deal?”
Spencer looked at Samuel as if asking why he was stating the obvious.
But eventually, he understood. To ordinary people who haven’t lived as conductors, the empress’s fame might not seem as significant.
“If the empress were to teach me conducting, I’d leave for Austria tomorrow.”
“Is it really that significant?”
“Not just for me. Even the lion of the Berlin Philharmonic would feel the same. Any conductor’s heart would race at the empress’s name. That’s why conductors are in such a frenzy. Not only has the empress, who had not appeared in Austria, shown herself, but she also accepted her first disciple.”
To be the first disciple of a living legend.
Although it wasn’t a perfect mentor-disciple relationship, the fact that Karas, who had never taught anyone, was teaching conducting was significant.
So much so that the music world already referred to Hyun as not just the reincarnation of Mozart but as someone who had monopolized the love of the ‘God of Music.’
He’s just reached adulthood. Yet…
“He might surpass me at this rate.”
Spencer smiled faintly as he thought of Kang Hyun.
Just like a baby can’t run before learning to walk, he started learning from the basics. Like laying the groundwork, he began from the bottom.
The posture of holding the baton, breathing, and eye contact were prioritized.
“Understanding conducting is really difficult. I’ve lived my whole life as a conductor, but I can’t say I completely understand the profound world of conducting. Hyun, your right fingertip is slightly down.”
Wasn’t this Spartan training? He had been practicing the same movements for hours.
If his posture was even slightly off, the maestro would notice it like a ghost. It felt like she could even read his breathing.
It was almost as if his body didn’t belong to him.
“When I first learned conducting, my mentor told me I wasn’t qualified to be a conductor. I couldn’t handle the harmonic instrument, the piano, and I didn’t initially understand the interaction of instruments. So my mentor taught me conducting harshly from the start.”
It was the first time hearing this story. Who in the world could say that the genius empress Karas had no talent for conducting?
Saying she had no talent was practically an insult to other conductors. Moreover, this training had been repeating basic movements for days. He was even dreaming about the training.
“In that sense, Hyun, you have great potential. Even this basic training shows that.”
“Even though I’ve been focusing on posture for almost a week?”
“That’s excellent. It took me over three months when I first learned conducting from my mentor.”
He was speechless. Who was Karas’s mentor to push her so harshly?
“Understanding and learning music is really tough, especially conducting. You have to bring together numerous instruments to perform. You need to understand their various characteristics and even the personalities of the members. I remember trembling like a leaf on my debut stage.”
“You, Maestro, were nervous?”
“Really. Musicians, like other artists, dream of a grand debut stage. If you don’t make a name for yourself early on, you end up being weeded out. But I wasn’t like that. I wanted a simple debut stage.”
The maestro’s wrinkled eyes clearly showed she was reminiscing about the past.
“But that wish was diverted by my mentor’s suggestion. I was asked to debut as a guest conductor for the Berlin Philharmonic. My mentor was a close friend of the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic at the time, so it was possible.”
“May I ask how old you were then?”
“Seventeen.”
It was so unbelievable that he almost laughed. At such a young age, she conducted the world’s top philharmonic.
The past was even more conservative than now, not an era known for flexibility.
Everyone in the world of classical music knew how proud the members of the Berlin Philharmonic were.
“Hyun, are you that surprised? In a way, you also had your debut around the same age, didn’t you? And both in Berlin and London. To top it off, I didn’t even get to see Buckingham Palace in my teens.”
The maestro seemed genuinely surprised that Hyun was so shocked. Objectively looking back at himself, even he found it surprising.
He had already won the Queen Elisabeth Competition in middle school and even conducted a performance for the British royal family in high school.
That was when.
“Hyun, are you warmed up now?”
It seemed today’s training wouldn’t be any easier.
The expression “my body was exhausted” would be appropriate. In Korean, it’s “nokcho,” and in European terms, maybe “pickle.”
Of course, it made sense since he was constantly taught, except for meal times.
This was the first time since his past life that he had studied something so intensely.
“Let’s call it a day.”
As soon as those words left the maestro’s mouth, all the tension in his body released.
It was a tension he hadn’t felt even while preparing for the bar exam. But his mind was much more at ease and enjoyable than back then.
The calluses on his palms had grown thicker. They had initially formed from practicing the violin, but now they were much more pronounced.
Even the sides of his comparatively softer fingers and his wrists seemed to have gained muscle, but who cared?
He was now moving on to understanding harmonic theory and learning the characteristics of the instruments.
Already know it all?
Not at all. The maestro’s deep knowledge showed him that what he knew was very shallow.
Even for the same symphony, changing the composition and arrangement of instruments even slightly resulted in a significantly different sound.
It was as if there was a vast concert hall in the maestro’s mind. A concert hall of imagination where countless instruments could be created at will.
“The world is wide, and there are definitely geniuses among geniuses.”
At that moment.
“Oppa—!”
Son Yooha had come to his room. Since she couldn’t meet him while he was being taught by the maestro, Yooha often visited his room briefly like this. It seemed she had made a simple sandwich as a late-night snack while waiting.
“I’m learning to cook from Mr. Mikel these days. Try it!”
Hmm, it’s a masterpiece. As soon as he took a bite, it felt like a culinary dish rather than a simple sandwich, with its rich flavor.
Of course, the maestro’s chef was said to be a top chef recognized even in Austria, so this was probably nothing. But…
“You haven’t heard it lately.”
Hadn’t it been almost a month? It was fortunate. The crying that echoed in the mansion every dawn had stopped. It seemed the maestro’s condition was gradually improving.
“Maya said she’s really grateful to you. She said she hadn’t seen the maestro smile so brightly in a long time.”
“Really?”
“Yes, the maestro hasn’t smiled like that in a long time. And when he’s practicing with you, he seems to have the energy of someone decades younger.”
Son Yooha’s words weren’t wrong. The maestro was much more expressive and talkative than when they first met.
Moreover, when teaching conducting, he was so energetic that it was hard to believe he was in his old age.
Was it the excitement and thrill of conducting? His stamina was comparable to that of a strong young man.
After sending Son Yooha back, he walked alone.
Summer vacation was coming to an end. It had been a month since the maestro started teaching him.
He walked through the forest beyond the garden, breathing in the early morning air under the full moon.
“Whew.”
He exhaled the cold air and picked up a branch that had fallen on the ground.
In his mind, he pictured the maestro.
Even after a month, the image of that day was still vividly etched in his memory as if it had just happened.
He spread his steps shoulder-width apart and opened his arms as if holding a baby.
From his shoulders to his elbows and fingertips. As his posture flowed naturally, the branch he used as a baton felt like an extension of his body.
Adagio, the baton moved slowly as if time had stopped.
At the moment it cut through the air, the full moon pointed to the tip of the branch.
In the quiet forest, even the animals seemed to watch curiously with their eyes glistening.
But this was just the beginning. The real conducting would start now.
Karas woke up early in the morning and got out of bed. Since Hyun came to the mansion, her insomnia had disappeared completely.
Also, her longing for her daughter seemed to be gradually decreasing, which was a positive change.
Breathing in the morning air, Karas walked into the garden.
Crunch.
The dew-covered garden greeted Karas.
The early morning air, which came with the dawn, felt like it was stirring her lungs.
How long had she walked? Karas wore a puzzled expression and headed towards the forest beyond the garden.
Whisper.
The forest sang, and the old trees seemed to dance together.
The rustling of the dewy foliage created a sound.
Combined with the sound of the flowing stream, it was like an orchestra of countless instruments.
At that moment.
Hyun?
There was a scene that caught the maestro’s eye. Under a tall old tree, Hyun was conducting.
It was the conducting she had briefly shown him a month ago. The sight was so beautiful that the maestro stood there, mesmerized, watching Hyun.
Her eyes sparkled, and her throat moved with emotion. On closer look, he wasn’t just mimicking her conducting.
Hyun, he was creating his own style of conducting.
At that moment,
Flap.
A butterfly that happened to be flying by gently landed on the tip of the branch, and the conducting ended.
