The Speedrun Manual of Miss Witch - Chapter 269

“You have talent, but your musical education started far too late. This is very detrimental.”

Clara put down her hands and turned to look at Ciel, who was sitting beside her. Her expression, with a hint of regret, delivered a conclusion… She seemed not to notice Ciel’s somewhat guilty expression at that moment.

“I once knew a female composer who only started learning piano at 16. She was the first female composer to perform an opera in a monastery garden, but she was denounced by music critics as an ‘amateur who started late’ throughout her life… If you intend to make piano your profession, I still advise you to give up.”

“If you were from the lower class, that could still be considered a journey against the odds on a thorny path, a remarkable story. But clearly, you come from high society. Learning piano would only become a rather negative impression.”

Clara spoke very directly, without holding back at all, and everything she said was very realistic.

This era was not as accepting of artists, especially female artists.

Clara once saw a sentence in a ladies’ home magazine: “Girls who start learning piano after 15 are easily mistaken for ‘theater girls’ (implying questionable workers).”

It truly made Clara quite furious at the time, but there was nothing she could do. That was just the common mindset.

Especially since the young lady’s piano pieces were inspired by romanticism, it would be even easier for misunderstandings to arise.

“I have no intention of making this a profession,”

Ciel shook her head and said, “I just want to have the skill to play what I want to play.”

Ciel was extremely pragmatic about learning piano. It was only to complete the reconstitution ritual and also to lay the groundwork for adding points after the system update, allowing her to complete the reconstitution ritual faster.

She had no thought of copying a few classical masterpieces and showing them off as her own piano pieces. That would be a waste of time and quite unnecessary.

Instead of spending time on that, it would be more meaningful to think about what to paint that would drive more people to madness upon seeing it.

“As long as you understand.”

Clara subtly nodded, a faint smile appearing on her face. She said, “For these two months, whenever you are free, you can come to me. I don’t plan to go on tour for now, so I can teach you a little.”

That romantic piece from just now still greatly interested Clara. She didn’t mind teaching this young lady to see how much of her talent she could uncover.

Clara shifted her gaze to Avena and asked, “What about you, little Avena? Do you want to make up for the classes you missed before?”

“I…”

Avena was about to refuse, but then she thought that if Ciel came alone, she might play some random piano pieces written for who knows whom. In the end, she still agreed, “Alright, I’ll come with her.”

After teaching Ciel about some of the problems she had encountered while playing and giving her some sight-reading techniques, Clara’s own practice time arrived. Ciel and the others also bid farewell to Clara’s home.

After agreeing to have dinner together at the Roswell family mansion in the evening, Avena and Ciel also said goodbye to Amy and Adele and temporarily parted ways.

On the way back to the Roswell family mansion, Ciel and Avena in the carriage remained silent.

Ciel couldn’t resist and said, “Avena… I feel like you might have misunderstood something just now.”

“Oh? Just now?”

Avena’s face showed no expression. She looked at the crowd outside the window and said nonchalantly, “Misunderstood what?”

“《Für Elise》 is just a sound in my mind… it’s knowledge that doesn’t belong to this world.”

Ciel tried to explain in a simpler way, “Similar to… a hum?”

Tara, sitting opposite them, witnessed everything unravel and naturally knew that Avena, the Mother Goddess’s companion, was jealous.

It was just a pity that Lord Ciel didn’t seem to want Lady Avena to know the fact that she was omniscient and omnipotent… In that case, Tara had to really help Lord Mother Goddess.

“It’s normal for Lord Ciel to know knowledge from other worlds.”

Tara interjected in agreement.

Avena paused slightly. She turned to look at Ciel and asked, “Really?”

“Really.”

Ciel nodded.

“You really don’t know Elise?”

Avena looked directly into Ciel’s eyes, as if trying to see through her thoughts.

“I don’t know her.”

Ciel shook her head and said, “If you wish, I can now directly play over a dozen different piano pieces… These are all sounds in my mind. The names of those pieces are just the names given by their original creators.”

Avena stared into Ciel’s eyes. After a long while, she let out a soft sigh.

She truly couldn’t bring herself to doubt Ciel’s words… It seemed that as long as Ciel spoke, she would believe her. As long as Ciel showed a slightly vulnerable, pleading expression, she would be willing to pluck the moon from the sky for Ciel.

…Of course, from the abilities Ciel had shown now, Ciel was more likely to pluck the moon herself.

“Later, will you take time each day to practice piano?”

Avena shifted her gaze back to the window. Her tone softened slightly.

Knowing that Avena no longer felt any resentment, Ciel also breathed a slight sigh of relief.

“Yes,”

Ciel nodded, then continued, “For the rest of the time, I might spend more time painting.”

“If you want to hold a painting exhibition, you can directly contact Isabella.”

Avena reminded her, “The art exhibitions held by the Stuart family still attract quite a few visitors, even for little-known painters.”

“Do I need to prepare some payment for her?”

Ciel asked.

She still had a good amount of money in her Deton employee card. Covering the expenses of holding an art exhibition should not be a problem.

“Payment?”

Avena shook her head and said, “Next time Father holds a banquet, just send an invitation to Edward Stuart.”

“Alright…”

Avena and Ciel returned to the Roswell family mansion together, just as Princess Vitalis arrived to visit Charles.

Recently, Charles had become one of the most prominent figures in high society. The Roswell family, which was once just at the dining table, subtly gained a position where they could claim a share of power. Vitalis’s visit this time seemed to be aimed at gaining Charles’s support.

Ciel and Avena did not participate in Charles and Vitalis’s conversation. Ciel didn’t even meet Vitalis face-to-face once. However, later, Charles mentioned that Princess Vitalis seemed to want to inherit Forte’s power… the Royal Orchestra and the Queen’s Sword.

Charles alone could not swallow these two large organizations. And the Queen, being an ordinary person, would only be made into a puppet if she tried to control these two organizations.

Vitalis, who had directly displayed Tier 3 power and possessed royal and Forte’s bloodline, seemed like a good candidate for cooperation. However, Vitalis had to demonstrate her ability to suppress these two organizations.

No one wanted to see the emergence of a second Forte. At least the current Vitalis, in many of her views, did not contradict Charles’s and William’s positions.

Over the next few days, Ciel entered a state of dedicated study.

Aside from going to Master Clara to learn piano at fixed times, Ciel locked herself in the painting studio, continuously creating artworks—at the same time, Ciel was also waiting for the system upgrade to complete.

After 3 days of this, on July 25th, when Ciel woke up as usual, the system’s “Upgrading” interface finally disappeared.