The next day after school I decided to make a trip to the music preparatory room to ask Rossweisse-sensei some questions… meaning that I'll be investigating the judges.
"There's no point in bribing me." Rossweisse-sensei said that to me straight away as I stepped into the room.
Her hair was tied up and she was wearing a light blue blouse together with a tight skirt—this music teacher of ours looked just the perfect teacher who had stepped out of a guy's fantasy, but in actual fact, she was a violent lady who acted on her whims.
"Because I have to go along with the preferences of the head! And I'll even have to say things like, 'Oh my, Utatane-sensei has such an incredible sense of music! Ohohohoho'. What a pain…"
What appeared in my mind was the face of another judge, Utatane Koharu, the head teacher of the second year. She looked like an idle and rich old lady, but she was actually a really strict woman.
"Please do not reveal those complicated inside stories to your students without any reservations!"
"But you are here for those complicated inside stories, right? You are trying to bribe me so that you can beat Ruby."
Since when did I ever say anything about bribing? Also, that means that the details about our contest against Ruby has reached the ears of the teachers already?
"No, I am just here to check on the judges's preference in music."
"How much?"
"Eh?"
"How much are you paying me?"
Oi! Damn you! You just said you would not accept my bribes, and now you are asking me to bribe you!? I gripped hard on my knees to suppress my anger, and squeezed out the following words.
"In exchange, I'll give you the cream puffs sold at the pastry shop next to the station."
"I'll take four of those!"
Damn her for taking the opportunity to ask for a bribe…
"You should know that our principal's a Christian, right? He was the one who chose the set piece, so you will not go wrong if you choose gospels or things like that. For the past years, it was likely for the judge who was chosen by the students to award high scores to rock and pop music. As for that old hag, her preferences are hard to grasp. She likes movies and TV series, so you guys can try investigating along those lines?"
"How do we go about investigating it? By asking her directly? But I have never attended her lessons before, nor have I spoken with her even once."
"Who knows? Come up with something by yourself. Ruby had already asked her."
Ah! So Rossweisse-sensei had said the same things to Ruby as well? Seemed like we were a step behind her.
"Mmm, I am craving some pastries already! It's all up to you now, Haruto!"
As I was angry at Rossweisse-sensei's demand for bribes, I ended up buying only a single cream puff and cutting it up into quarters before giving it to her. It's obvious I was severely beaten up by her.
It was not like Rossweisse-sensei's information was totally useless though. We do at least know that we have to focus our attention on Utatane-sensei. I subconsciously went to the staff room in an attempt to look for Utatane-sensei. However, Ruby was already in the office. She was at the table of the head of second year.
I hid myself behind a compartment wall and peeked at them. Utatane-sensei was grabbing onto Ruby and lecturing her. Not surprised here. Ruby was a bad student who hardly attends lessons, so it's likely for her to be summoned to the staff room occasionally and get lectured by the teachers, right?
But upon listening closer, their conversation had unknowingly turned into things like, "Right, right! That's the song! I do not know the name of the song, but I had heard it in a movie's soundtracks before…" "Ah… then it is probably…" Ruby's techniques in getting others to talk is something really scary…
I then thought of something. All I need to do is to stay close to Ruby and slowly piece together the information which she had gathered, right? No, but… that will mean we are progressing at the same pace as Ruby. We will have to overtake Ruby by a long distance if we want to defeat her.
The conversation between Ruby and Utatane-sensei was already over after I was thought about all these things. How can this be!? I had actually missed the important details at the most crucial moments!
The next day, it was our class's turn to use to use the music room after school. Since we had not yet decided on our choice piece, we started by practicing our set piece.
K618 Ave verum corpus is one of Mozart's masterpieces. It's a simple song that is easy for the different parts to practice on their own.
The only thing is, it would not be easy to gather the four different, separated lines of soprano, alto, tenor and bass, and blend them together into a single song. It is difficult for a layman to grasp the techniques of the harmony—now add on the fact that the thirty plus voices before me were all singing on their own.
I was beginning to feel a loss of what to do as I held the baton in my hand.
"Haruto!" Yang, who was standing in the front row together with the other altos, had her eyebrows arched upwards. "Hey! If all it takes to conduct is to stand there and swing your hands to the left and right like a metronome, then I know how to conduct too!"
"Then why not you doing it!?" I placed the baton on the music stand. I was rather pissed off.
An awkward silence filled the music room for a short while. The person who broke the silence was Yasaka.
"How about this—we'll head outside."
Our classmates were stirring up quite a commotion thanks to Yasaka's words. Yang turned to face the piano and said, "Weiss, please teach that idiot properly. We'll go to the corridor to practice within our own sections."
There were some who objected and said they did not want to leave the air-conditioned comfort of the music room, but Class-rep Ino agreed to the suggestion of Yasaka. And so, my classmates began walking out of the room to the corridors, leaving behind a surprised me as well as Weiss, who was still sitting at the piano.
I tried my hardest not to come into eye contact with Weiss, and sat myself before the music stand. I could hear the singing of my classmates coming from outside of the heavy metal door of the music room. Not only that, but all the classes in school were practicing at this time as well. The voices of hundreds of people were all mixed up together, though it did not sound clear.
"… Do you still want to be the conductor?" Weiss asked me softly.
"I am not against it… It's just that everyone seemed to have some sort of weird expectations of me—it was the same for yesterday with Ruby as well. I hate it. They think we can beat the winners of last year just because I had much knowledge with music? A conductor is not a magician!"
"I can understand your feelings…"
As my view was blocked by the cover of the piano, I was unable to see the expression of Weiss while she was mumbling those words.
"I feel… that a conductor is unnecessary for an ensemble that is made up of laymen."
"… Mmm, you're right."
"Why?"
"Well, no one has any spare attention left to take note of my baton. They already have their hands full with the scores before them. The laymen ensemble will have depend on the accompaniment of the piano. But even the accompaniment is not…"
I stopped my sentence halfway. Everything I had said till then was correct. Those without music background would be unable to sing along to the conductor, while an inexperienced accompaniment player will only play the piano at his own pace, so there is absolutely no need for a conductor.
However, I stepped onto the conductor's stand once more and exchanged eye contact with Weiss. It was as though her eyes were asking me this—why did you think I volunteered to be the accompaniment?
That's right. Our accompaniment was not selected just because she "happens to have learned the piano before", which is a reason that can be seen in nearly every other class.
The accompaniment is none other than Weiss. There's Weiss and I—a weapon which Ruby's class does not possess. I gently lifted the baton off the music stand. Weiss's shoulders respond sensitively to my action.
I waved the first note slowly, as though I was trying to pierce a needle in the air. The song was just forty-six bars long. Despite the solemn tune, it did not affect the litheness to each and every bar and beat.
The melody of the piano began making its steps forward. I was in total control of the tempo, and it almost felt like I could even scoop up each individual notes with my hand… since the tune was something I had composed specially for Weiss, it was made up of only the most basic triad. The delicate sounds would perfectly coordinate itself to the slightest movements of my fingertips. I thought I could even feel Weiss's breaths.
The song began to play in my ears—the main melody switched its scale to A Major. The mood of the tune then became slightly darker, and the scale was changed to F Major. The crystal clear voices of prayers echoed against the tall ceilings of the cathedral before being absorbed by the baton in my hand, which was pointing to a faraway place. The area around us finally returned to silence.
When the piece was over, I stared at the blackboard at the back of the music room for a long while. I could feel my strength flowing away from my body. I slowly stepped down from the stand and made my way towards the piano. Weiss's face was dyed a faint red. She shifted her gaze away when she realized I was looking at her.
"I'm sorry, Weiss… and thank you."
"All I did… was to play to your conducting."
I focused my attention on Weiss's right hand, which was resting on the keyboard… the hand of hers that was different from everyone else's. Weiss used that hand for my sake.
"Ah! I-I did not do it for you!"
"Ah… no, you obviously did not do it for me, so… why? Because you want that ticket?"
"No! Y-you and Ruby…"
Me and Ruby? Is there something wrong with us attending the concert together? But Weiss's face turned red as she was halfway into her sentence, and she did not say anything else for a while.
"Geez! You idiot!"
In the end, she said that and began to slap my arms hard repeatedly. Just as I was about to grab her wrist to stop her from doing that, Weiss slapped my hand away with her face flushed red. She was looking past me and towards my back.
I turned around in shock. The door of the music room was opened unknowingly, forming a tiny slit, and my classmates, led by Sun, were all peeking at us through the slit.
"Darn! It's over already?"
"The squabble between you two was really short!"
"That was so boring!"
"It's not like we exist for your viewing pleasure!"
By the time we resumed our practice, there was not much time left for our class to use the music room. However, the practice made me feel like I had finally managed to catch a hold of the edges of Ruby's tuxedo.
After the practice was over, Weiss and I were left alone once more as both of us went to the music library to return the baton and the scores.
"Weiss, can you play the accompaniment for the actual performance as well?" I quietly asked Weiss that question while I was returning the scores back onto the racks in the dark storeroom.
Weiss stared at my face before lowering her head. She can't? Those inerasable scars of Weiss were something inflicted to her while she was on the stage. Even though she can play the piano during our practices, if we are talking about her playing under the spotlights.
But… the sounds of her piano play an important role in guiding our class throughout the whole song. We will definitely have to depend on Weiss's accompaniment so that the chorus could coordinate themselves to my conducting much better. It was then when I suddenly thought of something…
"Then… how about this. At the very least…"
Weiss listened to my request with a helpless expression on her face. After much deliberation, she finally said to me hoarsely, "… Do I have to?"
"Mmm, yes!" I nodded my head calmly.
"So that means you do not want to attend the concert with Ruby?"
"No, that's not it."
For some reason, Weiss was particularly persistent about that. To me, it does not matter who gets the ticket. It's just…
"I want to beat Ruby. I want to show Ruby the things that you and I can do together, so I will definitely need your help."
Weiss bit her lips. Her gaze fell to the floor.
So it still can't do huh… just as I was about to apologize to Weiss, she suddenly lifted her head and said, "… I understand… I will give it a try."
I grabbed her by her hands and swung them around emotionally. With that, we might finally be on par against Ruby—for the set piece anyway. So what is left… is the choice piece.
Ruby said we deserved to be her opponents. Ruby believed in me. Yang believed in me. And Weiss believed in me as well. I will never let her have the chance to say things like "an easy victory'" again.