บท 59: Center of Attention
While Ronan and Greyson had been exchanging compliments, the head examiner had made his way over. He had their respective badges in his hands signifying their passing grades for the painting association test.
"Congratulations to you both! So young, yet so talented. You guys will be the new shining stars of our association and take it to new heights. I can already tell that you both are meant for greatness looking at your ages, magic level, and painting ability..." He continued droning on without even bothering to ask for their names. Unlike Grandmaster Allen, this head examiner did not come off as sincere at all. Instead he had a wily fox-like gleam in his eyes and a servile posture that looked like he would kiss up to anyone with power. Seeing through the man's demeanor, Greyson did not respond at all to the man and just accepted the badge with a nod. Ronan, however, felt trapped by the sudden burst of the man's words that were praising him to the high heavens. He could only innocently blush while trying his best to deny the claims.
Completely bored with the pointless exchanging of pleasantries, Greyson had long drowned out the man's words. His brain was turning through ideas on how to quickly leave without coming off too offensively. However, he was soon distracted when he saw some sneaky movement in the crowd. Spotting the face along with the body, his eyes filled with an evil glint and a smirk formed on his face.
"Oh, no, where ever did Mr. 8-years-of-experience go? I so was hoping that he could give his advice to 3-years-of-experience me. I know I still have much to learn from him." His voice practically dripping with sarcasm, the poisonous words suddenly drew the crowd's attention back to the young boy who spoke out earlier. Some people showed sympathy while others were smiling at other's misfortune. Said boy, pretended he did not hear Greyson's words and continued sneaking away. Staying would only be inviting more humiliation on himself, especially since some people would recognize his name and know which painting is his. To be fair, his painting ability was really not bad, however, he had been so distracted looking at Ronan and Greyson that his painting for the exam was done haphazardly and distracted. When he finally came to and looked at his work after the head examiner had yelled that time was up, he could only think of quickly leaving. Just as he had believed he had quietly left with no one noticing, he heard the words of that half-elf and almost just died at that moment. Feeling the blood rushing to his head and his eyes turning red, the boy took a deep breath and controlled his anger. Leaving only one last murderous glare towards Greyson, he humphed before turning around. It would not be over with just this!
...
"Hm?" Although he could not be sure, Greyson had instinctively felt killing intent towards himself. Sneering inwardly, he could already guess who that look had come from. However, he was now an accepted student of the academy and he believed he would be able to stick out as a talented student above most of the others. This would grab the attention of those higher up in the academy who would in turn protect him. What could a random kid like that do to him?
Finally, noticing Greyson's attention had completely wondered away from him, the head examiner took the hint and stopped the conversation and let them go. He could tell by this point that both of these students were not weak towards flattery like the other egotistical noble children. Unknown thoughts flashed in his minds while a weird look was hidden as he bowed his head. This meant these kids would be much harder to control. Hmmmm... he would have to think of a solution. Greyson was too distracted to notice the odd behavior, however, Lucius, who had never left Greyson's shoulder, had noticed the strange atmosphere around the examiner and made sure to remember to remind Greyson about it later.
Ronan had let out a huge sigh of relief once he was freed from the situation. Seeing the other boy looking so worn out, Greyson couldn't hold in a small giggle.
"You know that you did not have to respond to him. You are part of the reason he would not stop talking to us. If you just ignore people like that and give them a cold response then they will go away on their own. No one likes to be the one forcing interaction."
"You make it sound easy. I don't know. With my personality, it's already hard enough to not stutter in front of strangers, let alone come off all cool and collected like you." Ronan just shook his head while smiling wryly.
"Hahaha, well, you have me now right? I'll be the confident one for us."
"Yeah! I'll be counting on you then." Ronan smiled happily while extending his hand. Greyson smiled before shaking it.
"Are you going to be headed over with the rest of the kids who passed then?"
"No, I am actually going to go over and take the music exam as well."
"Music?! You play an instrument, too?" Ronan looked over with a shocked expression.
"Yeah, I'm not exactly positive of my skill, but I think it should be passable." Greyson responded while scratching his head slightly in embarrassment.
"You even have the blacksmith's badge on... Isn't that three occupations, then? Plus you already passed for two of them." Ronan's looked at the other badge shining on Greyson's chest that was now accompanied by the painting badge. Not holding back at all he glanced at Greyson like he was looking at some sort of monster. His expression quickly changed from awe to bitterness.
"What is it?"
"I practiced so hard to get to my level in painting, yet you somehow are already catching up to me with only 3 years of experience and while splitting your time between two other occupations. Comparing yourself to others with talent is just too depressing..."
"This is only in the earlier stages. Even I know that I will probably have to give up at least one of them to continue getting better at all of them. It only gets harder the more I try to increase my level in all of them." Hearing Ronan's words, Greyson only sighed while shaking his head. Practicing all three only seemed easy right now, but he knew that blacksmithing especially would get harder and harder to increase his tier.
"Do you want to walk over with me to check out the situation?" Greyson looked over and asked.
"To the music association area?" At first he paused in thought before Ronan's eyes flashed with a slightly mischievous light as he suddenly thought of something.
"No, I don't think I can. I'm not good with strangers, plus I know nothing about music. I think its best if you just go by yourself."
"Hm? What did you just think of?" Greyson noticed the weird look in his eyes before Ronan had said no.
"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking of a funny happening before with the music association."
"Really?" Greyson squinted his eyes and slightly scrutinized the boy in front of him.
"Yeah, really!" Ronan rapidly nodded his head.
"Okay, then. Well, I catch up to you later after the exam." Greyson of course did not believe him at all, but since Ronan had not wanted to say, he decided against prying. Waving goodbye to his new friend, he headed off to the music association exam area.
...
Slightly looking around, Greyson soon found the area. It was in a large outdoor amphitheater and the testing student would stand on the stage and perform a randomly given song before the judges and the rest of the waiting students. It was to test their musical ability first and foremost, but to also test their experience performing in front of crowds. As most musicians would have to play in front of grand audiences if they wanted to become famous later on. In contrast to some of the more stage-fright prone peers, Greyson was completely calm with the idea. His teacher, Carlyle, had allowed him to play in the music association's concert hall before, so he was not a stranger to this aspect. He did, however, start to realize something very odd with the testing area. From the moment he arrived, all of the waiting students and even some of the judges kept glancing over at him and whispering. It was not that he was not used to others staring, since with his mixed blood status, a lot of people normally point and stare. It was the look in their eyes. A different kind of confusion and disdain. He also couldn't help but notice that he was one of the only males in sight. Almost every single other student and judge was a female.
Greyson was not aware, however, in the noble circles of higher tier kingdoms, only females pursued side occupations in music. Actually even back at the Dalia Academy, he was one of the few boys, but it was not exaggerated to this point of disparity. Very few men joined and most of them who did only had impure intentions towards being surrounded by only females. They also all joined later on and made some excuse like they had only just started learning when in reality they had hit puberty and recently became more and more interested in flirting with girls. This built up a bad reputation and a stigma towards all boys who wanted to join the music association. This was why so many people were whispering about him and looking at him with disdain and disgust. Such a cute-looking and gentle half-elf boy was actually hiding such a perverse mind. He didn't look any older than 8! Most of them shook their heads thinking of such a distracted boy's future.
Oblivious to the thoughts of all the other people, Greyson just found an empty seat and listened to the current performance. To his surprise, it was actually a singer. Most of the people he knew in the association played an instrument, however, there were a select group of amazing singers who were well-known and well-paid for their services as they were more rare. Her looks were unfortunately average, but her voice was enchanting. Closing his eyes, he felt like her voice could lull him to sleep. It was a classic song, "Red Sun," by Fleurette who was a legend in the music scene. She was even famous in the neighboring empires outside of Snow Country. The song was written by her after she had received her father's cold body after a night of battle and saw the contrasting beautiful red sun rise in the sky at dawn. Poignant and heart-breaking, it was her most famous song as the emotions were so raw. The sun continues to rise even after a long day of slaughter as if nothing had just occurred.
Although he had never experienced war, the singer touched his emotions even evoking a small tear to roll down. After the song finished, the emotions still lingered in the air, and it took a moment for the audience to break out of their reverie. Soon thunderous applause and whistles rang out as the listeners finally expressed their amazement towards her magical performance.
"Hey, isn't that Claire Fairchild?"
"Yeah! No wonder she has become so famous these days. I did not realize she was also a talented magician."
"Exactly, she is even part of the Fairchild family. Although they are not a top ten family, they are still a powerful family in the Idris Kingdom. The head of the family is the City Lord of the Elon City, which is the third largest city in the kingdom."
Greyson continued to overhear the whispering of the girls around him about the girl onstage. Claire Fairchild? A pretty name that matched her beautiful voice. Greyson also joined in on the applause as he was genuinely impressed by her performance. After Claire, a couple of mediocre performances passed by until it was already Greyson's turn. Normally he would have had to wait awhile, however, since he arrived so late because he took the other exams, most of the other students had already taken the exam. They were only sitting in the audience to enjoy the music.
Once his name was called to come onstage and perform, Greyson quickly stood up from his spot and walked over to the judges to receive his random song. The reaction of the judges was definitely less than welcoming as the head examiner only angrily grunted in response to seeing Greyson but refused to speak. One of the nicer women finally looked over to him to speak.
"Greyson?"
"Yes."
"Which instrument do you play?"
"Flute."
"Alright, then this will be your piece." She randomly picked out a song from a pile and handed it to Greyson. He received it respectfully before looking over it quickly. Eyes lighting up happily, Greyson realized it was a song that he had enjoyed playing. It was on of Carlyle's favorite songs as well. "Snow Falling" was a famous flute piece, but the composer was unknown. It was a beautiful song that gave one the feeling of watching the first snowfall. In a country like Snow Country, this song was an obviously famous one that was extremely relatable for all the citizens. Quickly ascending the stage, Greyson brought out a cushion and placed it in the middle of the stage. Sitting crossed legged, he slowly took a breath to calm himself before waving his hand and summoning Mesmer. Once people saw the flute, the earlier disdain slowly changed and some of the judges looked much more interested. They could tell the flute was a magic tool, which meant that the boy in front of them was actually fairly serious about music. Otherwise, no one would waste money creating a magic instrument.
Slowly closing his eyes, Greyson brought the flute up to his lips and a light green glow flowed from his fingers into the flute. Starting peacefully and quietly, Greyson's music slowly permeated throughout the amphitheater. Under the influence of Siren's Voice, the audience became enveloped in feelings of calm silence. They picture the seen of a clear forest and the snow falling quietly. A beautiful picture. All dark feelings of anxiety and disgust were blown away as they swayed to the music released by the flute.
...
Far from the theater, a pair of long ears twitched hearing the noise projected.
"Oh?"
He waved his hand, and soon a mirror presented itself in front of him. Reflected in the mirror was surprisingly Greyson's figure onstage.
"Half-elf? Hmmmm... How interesting!" His lips curling into a smile, the man quickly disappeared from his far tower.
...
Greyson soon finished playing as the song was only a couple minutes. However, similar to Claire's earlier situation, the entire audience was still stuck in the beautiful sounds they had just heard. Soon, one clap could be heard from a random audience member. Woken up by the clap, the audience slowly joined in until all hands were applauding the performance. Smiling politely, Greyson gave a standard bow in accordance to performance manners before slowly stepping off the stage. The judges all looked more warmly at him while the head judge gave a couple criticisms. Although she did not compliment him, Greyson could tell the older woman was much happier with him than before, and he would never shy away from criticism as it would only make him better. Carlyle was one to always criticize him anyways. He soon received his third badge from their hands which he soon clipped onto his chest along with the other two.
It was at this moment that everyone else finally realized that he had three badges. Which meant he had passed three exams for different occupations! Soon rumors of this genius burst out into the rest of the exam stations and everyone was made aware of this new talent. Greyson had yet to realize but he had become the center of attention for the rest of the students and teachers.
...
"He actually passed the exams for all three? Hmph, how annoying. I was hoping he would be just a little less talented." A familiar voice pouted.
"Oh? Little Sister Natalia is acquainted with this boy?" Another boy's voice echoed.
"Know? I guess you could say so... He's interesting. Also, talented. Maybe even more talented than you and I."
"Hahaha, well I sure hope so! I've been bored with this status quo lately."
"Gross, only Big Brother Leo would be such a competition freak. And here I was hoping to make you jealous." Natalia looked over in disdain at the boy's excited reaction.
"Jealous? That is only for those who are lack confidence in their ability. That is why they fear competition and those more talented. Plus, is talent everything? There is also hard work. I for one will not look down on my opponent, but I will also not needlessly put myself down. I am powerful. I look forward to see whether this boy, Greyson, can be a new opponent." The boy responded.
"You just look like a brawn for brains to me. This is why my father loves you so much. How annoying."
"That is only because he sees how much talent his precious daughter has but she never puts practice and meditation seriously and wastes it. Whereas I am always practicing and taking advantage of my talent. You could most likely be much stronger than me if only you were serious."
"Boo, not you too. I'm no longer talking with you, it's no fun. I'm leaving!" Without another word, the red-haired girl quickly flew off.
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LazySky
LazySky Well this weekend has been a lot less productive than I was hoping, LOL XD. I will DEFINITELY publish another chapter tonight. Maybe two? I won't push it, though. Somehow I always think I have so much time to waste, then realize the weekend is already over. How sad...
Have a wonderful day, my readers!~
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