Chapter 72

‘……I may have been mistaken.’

However, no matter how many times I saw the card, it was still an SSR class psychic-made violin item card.

“Why won’t you take it?”

Jae-in’s voice broke the heavy silence.

Lenna stammered in surprise.

“……s, senior? Isn’t this card an SSR class psychic-made violin? C, can’t I just thank your generosity and not take it?”

“You can take the violin and thank me, too.”

“What? But this is such an expensive and rare item.  It’s a bit of a burden…… why don’t you use……”

“……What? Burden? I only use rare, UR class or higher psychic-made violins.”

Jae-in Kwon seemed to seriously not understand this.

Kwon Jain’s gaze turned to the card she held in her hand.

She seemed to be wondering whether to throw the item card, just like she did to Yuri.

Lenna’s hand was trembling as she noticed Jae-in’s intention.

Her hands were shaking so much that Jae-in couldn’t use the same technique she used on Yuri.

“…… don’t you like it?”

“Th, that’s not the problem. Senior, you know, I mean……”

“Don’t like platinum? Should I give you another color?”

“I like it, but it’s not that……”

Jae-in’s face gradually turned sulky.

She thinks Lenna isn’t receiving her gift because Lenna doesn’t like the item.

Someone appeared when the three of us, defeated by Jae-in’s eccentricity, were completely stiff.

“Jae-in, are you still talking to your juniors?”

It was Jared Lee, sub-master of the EverLake team.

In the game, Jared Lee used to take care of Jae-in’s sudden weird behaviors.

I’m gonna use Jared Lee to help Lenna here.

“Senior Jae-in Kwon seems she wants to give her a gift……”

I blurred my words and looked at Jae-in’s psychic-made violin card.

Jarrad Lee’s gaze followed mine and looked at the item card once, then at Lenna, who was still shaking.

Jared Lee thought for a moment.

“Jae-in, most people feel very flustered if they receive a gift from someone they’ve just met.”

“ ……Yeah?”

“Besides, these kids are still young. Only seventeen.”

“I used a better psychic-made violin at seventeen years old.”

“······That’s because a master craftsman heard your performance and came all the way to Korea to give you his masterpiece.”

Jae-in still didn’t seem to understand, but Jared may stop her.

All appeared to end well, considering the flow of their conversation.

“So, will you take this psychic-made violin? Miss Lenna.”

“What?”

Why is this the conclusion?

Jared’s unexpected remark betrayed Lenna’s relief.

“Please take it.  Jae-in is just very excited to be in Korea after all these years and meeting her high school juniors.”

She looks way more than “excited.”

Lenna still couldn’t move even after what Jared said.

The psychic-made violin item card was still waiting for her.

Seeing that, Jarrad Lee said in a pitiful voice,

“It might have an impact on Jae-in performance. She’s obsessed with weird things……It’s been a while since she’s done a concert in Korea, so what should we do now?”

The effect of these words was enormous.

Lenna hurriedly reached out and received the item card.

She was terrified that the performance would go wrong because of herself.

“Th, thank you……”

Lenna’s hand holding the item card did not cease its trembling.

Jared Lee, in succeeding in his mission, appeared to be satisfied.

Jae-in smiled with a very pleased face and looked at me this time.

Is she going to the extreme with me, too?

“I didn’t give anything to this junior. Do you have anything you want or ask for?”

A world-class violinist made remarks like she could give me a blank check.

‘If I ask her, she’ll do it for sure……!’

Jared Lee was probably thinking the same, as he looked at me and Jae-in back and forth with a pale face.

It wasn’t even comparable to the expression he had when he made Lenna flustered.

‘A request for Jae-in Kwon. Considering the situation with Lenna, if I refuse this, things might get more troublesome. Let’s just ask her to do anything.’

I thought for a while, recalling everything one by one.

Things that happened in this world.

Those who came here today.

Jae-in’s character from the game.

“Please play ‘for LENA’ as an encore.”

It was a song I listened to as a class bell today, but it is a favorite song of my Playable characters and second-grade class 0 who saved Jae-gul Jegal.

Jae-in Kwon chose the encore song according to her mood that day, so she was likely to choose a song other than ” for LENA.”

If we don’t listen to that song live, many people will be disappointed.

“ ……I can’t.”

Platinum and Imperial Topaz accessories are allowed, so are SSR-class full-featured violins, but I can’t choose an encore song!

Do I have to think of another request?

When I was thinking about it, Jae-in opened her mouth again.

“I was going to play ‘for LENA’as an encore for today’s show from the beginning. It won’t be doing you a favor if I play that song.”

I became increasingly unable to understand what this genius violinist was thinking.

“Jae-in, we don’t have time anymore······.”

“…… Okay.”

Jae-in started her device and developed a hologram.

What was written on the hologram was her device codes.

As famous as she is, she must use multiple code lines, so she had multiple code numbers.

“I don’t really check my messages. So just call me with the third or fourth code. Contact me when you think of something you want. ……You guys, too.”

Jae-in Kwon looked at me once and smiled at Yuri and Lenna, who were standing blankly with the gift Jae-in had forcibly handed over.

“Now, Jae-in! Let’s go to the waiting room. ……Did you have spare accessories? You might have to do your makeup again.”

“it’s okay the way it is.”

“No, it’s not.  The coordinators are going to flip! Your concert should be perfect!”

Jae-in and Jared disappeared.

The two disappeared, but we stood there, stuck in place.

I, who suffered the least damage from Kwon Jae-in’s grotesque behavior, have a headache, but I can’t imagine how shocked Yuri and Lenna would be.

“Hey, what happened? I heard that it was okay to take a break while Jae-in Kwon was playing, so I brought folding chairs. When you go to the staff waiting room, you can see all the audience seats and the stage!”

It was Se-eum Sawol, who appeared with four folding chairs, that restarted the time that seemed frozen.

When I saw Se-eum smiling in front of the three of us who were exhausted, I finally felt like I had just returned to reality.

“What happened?”

“…… Senior Jae-in Kwon stopped by.”

“Really? I should’ve come sooner.”

“Nah, If you came, you would’ve been swept away too. Hahaha.”

“……What?”

Se-eum looked curious and slightly disappointed.

Meanwhile, Lenna’s eyes still had no focus, and Yuri had a subtle expression.

Se-eum thought of those two people strangely but chatted about the things that had happened while at work.

We went to the staff’s waiting room hearing about the type of stage lighting and the installation process that Se-eum dealt with.

While sometimes responding to Se-eum, the faint sense of discomfort did not disappear in my head.

‘……Something doesn’t feel right.’

Kwon Jane’s behavior and remarks…… there were more than few strange things.

There was an irritating part to think of her behavior as just some fickle genius artist’s act.

‘It’s like the feeling of discomfort I felt when I talked to Kyubin Hong.’

I was still short of clues, so I couldn’t make a conclusion.

Right now Jae-in isn’t the villain, so, I don’t need to fret.

“Can I stretch the chairs here?”

“Yeah. Sit where you want. Great work, you guys.”

“As long as you don’t block the passage. Good job, all of you!”

With the permission of the staff, we opened the folding chairs and settled down.

A staff seat that is located behind a special wall that can only be seen as a soundproof wall from outside.

Here, the stage and the audience were all obliquely visible.

‘It’s a shame that I can only see Jae-in Kwon’s back and side.’

It was closer than the audience seats, so there was no problem watching the performance.

Beep-.

Shortly afterward, an opening call rang out between the staff at a signal from Jared Lee.

I could see Jae-in walking out to the center of the stage with her accompanist.

‘She did her makeup and hair all over again.’

Kwon Jae-In had her hair down to the side and secured it with the magnolia pin.

Now, she put her hair up and wore a tiara decorated with cornflower blue sapphires.

Clap clap clap-.

Kwon Je-in was seated on the stage, receiving a roar of applause.

She was holding the body of a blue violin, but not a bow yet.

As the audience’s applause ceased, Kwon Jain’s fingers began to dance on the strings.

A cheerful pizzicato rang through the Hall.

It felt like wind flowing through the audience.

‘It wasn’t in any of the songs released by Kwon Jain. It’s a new song.’

Kwon Jae-in paused when the accompanist sitting in front of the grand piano began to play.

She summoned a bow with an item card in her hand.

After two or so bars of piano solo, Jae-in Kwon’s bow began to move across the strings.

‘She’s only using strings and bow’s vibration to make sounds, but it feels like psychic waves·····!’

Once the performance began to climax, a few of the audience covered their mouths,

perhaps not to disturb others with their oohs and aahs.

A sense of refreshing, clean wind flowing with a hint of sentimentality.

Both human and Original clan members listened to Jae-in’s sounds.

“Wow, this is a new song, isn’t it? It so fascinating to hear this fantastic song before anyone else, and directly, too……!”

“Yeah. It’s an unreleased song…… Good to be here today……”

At the end of the song, Se-eum and Yuri gave out a little cry of astonishment.

Lenna was clutching her psychic-made violin card, watching Jae-in’s back with tears in her eyes.

‘I need to thank Jiho Hwang.’

Jae-in’s concert went smoothly.

When she finally finished the encore song, “for LENA,” and ended her Finale.

I saw a butterfly as big as my palm roam the air near the ceiling lights.

‘Butterfly……!’

Jae-in Kwon finished bowing and lifted her head.

She also found the butterfly and hardened her expression.

Puff!

The shining butterfly burst into pieces of scales, or, “Inpyun”, and disappeared.

A butterfly that turns into Korean lighting consonants, vowels, and alphabets, then disappearing.

Jae-in saw that butterfly too and widened her eyes.

I saw this ability before.

‘This is the ability that bi-ryung Na, the Butterfly clan uses to send messages in the game…!’

Jae-in said she came to look for the butterfly.

That butterfly meant, Bi-ryung Na of the Butterfly clan.

‘Wait, she sent a butterfly into Eun-kwang high school? Although it didn’t cause any harm, and even after considering her Gwanglim, this is unusual. Has Bi-ryung Na already finished analyzing the barrier system of Eun-kwang high?

She isn’t even head of the 12 zodiac clans, yet she managed to get past the barrier and send a message.

The butterfly was at an invisible angle in the audience, but the 30-year-old Golden tiger, sensing the process of the incident, changed his eyes to a golden color and had an unpleasant face.

“Don’t tell me, there’s a real butterfly······.”

Jared Lee also found the butterfly and muttered.

Kwon Jain rushed into the staff seat.

“Jared, I saw the butterfly’s inpyun.”

“Inpyun? You’re talking about pieces of scales, right?”

“Yeah. Butterfly left a message. I don’t know what that means yet.”

Kwon Jae-in’s blue eyes were shaking back and forth as if chasing the butterfly that had already disappeared.