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Chapter 21
Hah.
Vincent let out a silent, incredulous laugh as he watched Aria’s strange behavior.
A hand that small couldn’t possibly play an organ.
Her legs didn’t even reach the pedals beneath her feet.
They were so short that they simply dangled in the air—more cute than functional.
A childish whim of a little girl, huh.
Vincent chuckled softly.
“Please stop fooling around and come down. That’s not something you should be touching carelessly.”
It was crafted over three years by Picaro, a master artisan of the Holy Empire.
A masterpiece considered more artwork than instrument, preserved without a single person daring to lay hands on it.
To let something so precious be defiled by a child’s ignorant pounding would be too cruel.
But the moment Aria deftly activated the organ’s wind-magic mechanism, his steps froze.
Her tiny hands skillfully pressed the stops that controlled the organ’s timbre.
And just like that—without even a single practice run—the performance began.
Toccata and Fugue in D minor.
Maestro Cortez’s signature piece, a masterpiece symbolizing the Baroque era in which he lived.
The dramatic adagio began.
Like a mathematical graph, she controlled pitch, resonance, melody, and tempo as she wished.
She couldn’t reach the pedals, so the technique was limited—but she still reproduced its intense tension and intricate rhythms perfectly.
With those small hands.
Overwhelming at times, tender at others.
The instrument of angels that guides souls to heaven…
Vincent recalled the organ’s old epithet.
His gaze dropped to his forearm, exposed in the summer heat.
Goosebumps.
He whispered without realizing it.
“…The Heroic Symphony.”
It was never meant for the organ.
But Aria pressed and released the stops, then slammed a hand onto the keys.
The timbre changed in an instant.
The composer of this piece, Ben, once described the organ as—
“The emperor of instruments.”
The angel’s music abruptly shifted into the triumphant proclamation of an emperor’s dominion.
A piece never before performed on the organ transformed on the spot, thundering through the study.
“Hermstern Dance No. 5.”
Now she had switched to a violin piece altogether.
But Aria didn’t pause—her fingers danced lightly, briskly across the keys.
Blue meadows and cool winds, the wandering dance of nomads roaming freely across them.
It wasn’t a desperate attempt to keep up.
She played with the rhythm—capturing their passionate dance and their sorrow of never finding a place to settle.
The emotion swelled, then faded.
A shiver ran through his entire body.
Vincent clenched his fists to keep from getting too excited.
A joy-filled grin tugged at his lips.
Aria stepped down from the bench and stood before him.
Her tiny lips moved.
—Get lost.
Get lost.
Truly, like husband and wife.
Their sharp tongues were eerily identical.
Vincent touched his lips curved into a smile.
He obediently stepped out of the study.
The door slammed shut behind him as if blown by a gust of wind.
Aria had slammed it herself.
She was clearly furious.
He’d been kicked out.
Yet he still couldn’t stop grinning like a fool.
An ecosystem-disrupting species.
That was what he’d thought the first time he saw Aria—and his prediction had been spot on.
His sister-in-law was a genius.
An overwhelming one.
“I am a genius.”
Aria stared coolly at Vincent, who had suddenly barged in and started rambling about being a genius.
She had planned to enjoy the summer flowers blooming in the garden after breakfast, but this uninvited guest ruined everything.
He boldly declared himself a genius, then downed his tea in one gulp and slammed the cup down.
“I survived by clawing my way up—because I‘m a genius. Which is why I cannot tolerate people who have genius-level talent yet hide it.”
“……”
“I finally understand why you stayed in the study all this time. You were practicing in secret to avoid being seen, weren’t you?”
Not exactly, but… if he wanted to misunderstand, she wasn’t going to stop him.
It was too bothersome to correct him, so Aria simply nodded.
“You cover your face with a mask because you’re a ‘face genius’ too, aren’t you?”
“?”
“Hah, my brother is the same. Why do you both neglect your natural beauty like weeds? As a fellow face genius, I simply cannot understand.”
Vincent brushed back his golden hair that fell to his shoulders.
Hair shining with honey-like gloss and eyes like a deep, captivating sea.
Watching this boy openly admire his own appearance, Aria thought:
…Studying too much fried his brain.
There really was only a thin line between genius and fool.
He must be what people mean by that.
Ignoring the handsome but delusional blond boy, she popped a strawberry macaron into her mouth and chewed.
Then her eyes drifted to the book Vincent had set on the table.
It looked thick and heavy enough to use as a weapon.
[What’s that?]
“Oh, a handwritten copy of the old legal code. I’ve already finished reading the draft of the newly revised laws.”
Come to think of it, she’d only ever seen him reading law books at the library too.
He even carries it around?
Truly dedicated.
Even while eating her snacks, Aria looked slightly overwhelmed.
Law codes varied by territory, but they usually ran in the dozens—sometimes even hundreds—of volumes…
If the new code is coming out soon, why read the old one…?
Was he trying to become a judge?
“Anyway, stop changing the subject.”
Vincent continued before she could process her confusion.
“No one in this world dislikes a child prodigy. Some even lie about their age just to be called one, yet you are genuinely young.”
Aria knew she was a genius.
Because Count Cortez had told her so relentlessly.
“You’re a genius. You have an impossible vocal range, and your ear is so perfect you can mimic anything after hearing it once. You’re incomparable to your mother.”
Some days he’d praise her as heaven-sent.
And on other days:
“You call that singing?”
Or he’d sneer and call it a horrible noise.
“Damn it, how dare a brat like you steal the Cortez talent? I—I should have inherited it!”
That was his drunken truth.
Watching him crumble day by day under his inferiority complex, Aria became certain:
She truly was born with divine talent.
She inherited musical genius from her grandfather, Maestro Cortez, and perfect pitch and angelic tone from Sophia.
Everyone who saw her talent coveted it.
So she understood why Vincent seemed so frustrated.
But Aria had never once been happy because of her gift.
Because she was labeled a once-in-a-lifetime prodigy, she had endured every cruelty and hardship imaginable.
“If you simply speak up, Valentine will wholeheartedly support you. No family loves the arts more than they do.”
“……”
“Imagine it—people worshiping you as a ‘child of music.’”
She already had.
Countless times.
Aria had even once become the emperor’s “god.”
And from that experience, she learned one thing:
Humans can never become gods.
[Vincent.]
Aria finally took out her card.
[If you survived because you’re a genius, then you’ll also die because you’re a genius. At the hands of the very people who praised you.]
“What?”
Vincent blinked in confusion.
Aria was referring to the future—where he would be framed and exiled—but of course he had no way of understanding that now.
She quietly wrote another line.
[People’s approval is that light. It won’t even last ten years.]
“……”
[You don’t need to be desperate for recognition. You don’t have to prove your genius. If you just focus on your own work, acknowledgment will follow naturally.]
“Well… of course, but…”
Maybe it felt strange to be lectured by someone younger.
For the first time, Vincent flushed like a boy his age and stammered.
“You really surprise me. I had no idea you thought about things like that… Also, you’re suddenly speaking informally to me?”
So what.
Aria’s blank expression conveyed that perfectly.
Vincent shook his head with a helpless smile.
“Well, you’re not wrong. Even if I do nothing but breathe, I shine more brilliantly than the sun. Naturally, the wind envies the sun.”
That was… not what she meant.
Since she’d already brought it up, she added a dose of reality.
[If you keep acting that obnoxious, you’ll get stoned to death.]
“…What?”
[So mind your business and get back to work.]
It was sincere advice.
Vincent stared blankly, then let out an awkward laugh.
“Haha… surely that was a joke.”
[It wasn’t.]
“……”
[And now I would like you to leave.]
A heavy silence settled.
Aria, delighted by the sudden peace and quiet, calmly sipped her tea.
