Chapter 232 The Ceremony Begins
"So, after that, she basically never left the dormitory?" The Dean of Academic Affairs looked at the school worker who came to report Hevinia's whereabouts, "nor did she join any other bands?"
"Yes." The school worker nodded. "In the past half month, she has not left the dormitory except for occasionally going to the library to borrow books. And she only went out of the dormitory to borrow books, and the round trip time did not exceed an hour. During this period, we also kept an eye on her to make sure she did not leave our sight."
The Dean of Academic Affairs asked again, "What books did she borrow?"
"We've sorted it out. These are the book lists." The janitor handed over the book list from the library. "She has at least five book cards, so there are more books to borrow at one time, but we can make sure that nothing is missed."
"Five book cards?"
"Yes, it was lent to her by another student." The janitor hesitated. "Dean, is this a violation of school rules?"
The Dean of Academic Affairs did not answer immediately, but narrowed his eyes and looked at the list of books in his hand.
The list of books contains some very common books, including some theoretical books by scholars and masters, some explanations of musical scores, and even some fairy tales written by poets.
Just looking at the list of books, apart from knowing that the person borrowing the books is a reading enthusiast, I can't tell anything else. There is no bias at all.
...Should I say it was unexpected or expected?
The reason why it was unexpected was that the Dean of Academic Affairs had already known that Caesar, who was so powerful in the three colleges, had gained the capital to start his career after reading a series of banned books with the authority of a librarian.
Although the Dean of Academic Affairs is still not sure whether Hevinia is Caesar, he will definitely consider this aspect. After all, the banned books in the first college are more numerous and more diverse than those in the three colleges. If Hevinia is willing, she can obtain more secret knowledge.
But if she had done so much, would she still be alive today? Would she still have high hopes for the principal?
At least the provost doesn't think so.
So when the Dean of Academic Affairs saw this list of books, he was not too surprised.
"This doesn't violate school rules." He said calmly, "She was able to borrow so many book cards because of her ability, and it's not a sin to like reading... Is there anything else?"
"Yes, and there are also letters she wrote," the janitor said. "She has two owls in total, one for home and one for a musician named Ogg. We intercepted and checked these letters in advance when they were sent and received. Please take a look."
The janitor handed over another thicker stack of paper.
The Dean of Academic Affairs took it and read it quickly.
The school worker also began to explain at the same time: "Most of the letters to the family are about family matters. Apart from those meaningless greetings, the focus during this period is on Miss Helvinia's withdrawal from the ceremony. Miss Helvinia's father was very dissatisfied with her decision, probably because of the pressure from the Lawrence family. However, Miss Helvinia has always refused to give in, so Miss Helvinia's father gradually compromised."
The janitor paused.
"As for the letters written to Og, they were just like chats between friends. I also went to the three colleges to inquire about Og's information. He was a student who was forced to drop out of school because of failure in upgrading. Miss Helvinia seemed to be using the knowledge she saw to try to restore the music score for Og. She also used some sentences from fairy tales to encourage him not to give up. Og was very grateful for this."
After the school worker finished his explanation, the Dean of Academic Affairs also took a general look at the entire letter.
Just as the janitor said, judging from these letters alone, there was nothing wrong with Hevinia.
She is just a kind-hearted Miss Jinyin who has her own persistence.
But unfortunately,
This is the biggest flaw.
Because as the Dean of Studies, Raoul has seen too many young ladies, no matter if they were from the two Taichu families or the second-class nobles, none of them had anything to do with kindness.
There is no relationship.
So this seemingly perfect letter was full of loopholes in Raoul's eyes.
"No need to monitor her letters anymore." The Dean rolled up all the letters and burned them with a candle. He said calmly, "It's obvious that she already knows that her letters are being monitored by us. She wrote these for us to see and to establish her image."
The janitor nodded.
The Dean of Academic Affairs looked at the candle flame that was burning brighter and brighter because of the letter paper as fuel, and said softly, "You are really patient."
It has been half a month since Hevinia quit Phoenix's band.
And the ceremony is getting closer.
Theoretically speaking, at this point she no longer had the ability to join any band.
Phoenix had also submitted the final list, and she was not on it.
No matter from which perspective, she has already withdrawn from this grand ceremony and no longer appears in the public eye.
It would be unreasonable for Raoul to cause trouble for Hevinia at this time.
but……
Raoul knew that this was just the calm before the storm.
He closed his eyes and began to think about something.
The janitor didn't dare to disturb them and just waited quietly by the side.
More than ten minutes later, he slowly said, "If I remember correctly, the time for the bottom outer song to be played is... tomorrow?"
"Yes."
The lowest level of music is naturally the outer music.
The order in which the music of the ceremony is played is from the foot of the holy mountain to the top of the mountain.
The process was very slow, so slow that a mountain road that a unicorn could walk in a few hours took Le Zhang half a month to climb.
There is an obvious dividing line among them, which is the hall where the Eternal Note is located.
The music outside the eternal note is the outer song, and the music inside the eternal note is the inner song.
For the core players, only when the first inner song is played, it means that the ceremony has officially begun, and the Lord of Holy Sound will also wake up at this moment, until the music climbs to the last Seven-tone Temple three days later and plays the final chapter.
But this is only the opinion of the core performers. According to the regulations in the "History of Holy Music", as long as the first piece of music is played, the ceremony has begun.
so……
Raoul opened his eyes and made a decision.
"Retreat, no need to stare at her anymore."
The janitor was slightly stunned: "Don't you need to keep an eye on her?"
"Yes, I don't want to play hide-and-seek and guessing games anymore." Raoul said calmly, "Just spread the news. I will personally go to the eternal note and use the power of the Lord to wake up the tuner."
"Then everything will be revealed."
"I will judge her myself in the presence of the Lord."
…
"The ceremony is about to begin." In the girls' dormitory, Anita sipped her tea while speaking to Helvinia who was sitting in front of her. "When the ceremony comes, the power of the music in our bodies will become stronger and purer."
Helvinia asked as she took notes, "Is it because the Lord is awakening?"
"Yes." Anita said, "In fact, it is not accurate to say that the Lord is awakening. The Lord does not need to sleep, and He never sleeps. He just starts listening from this moment."
"…What does this mean?"
"It means exactly what it says." Anita said, "The Lord is everything to us, but we are not everything to the Lord. He gave us the music and magic, but He does not watch over us all the time, just like..."
Helvinia raised an eyebrow, "Buying tickets to see a play once every twenty years?"
"Your metaphor is indeed very vivid." Anita said with a smile, "But if you write it so bluntly in your paper, I don't think your supervisor will be very happy. Such a description is very disrespectful to God."
"Oh, sorry, sorry, I just said it casually!" Hevinia clasped her hands together and begged, "Please don't tell my mentor."
"Don't worry, I'm not that old-fashioned." Anita said, "And that's what I asked the principal back then."
"……ah?"
"For children who are new to music, this metaphor can really explain the relationship between the performer and the Lord in the simplest and most straightforward way," Anita said. "We are different from the gods and believers of other churches. The relationship between the Lord and us is the purest. He gives us power, and we repay Him with music. In essence, the audience pays and the performer performs. The only difference is that as an audience, the Lord has many choices, but as performers, we only have the Lord as an audience."
"And this is an audience that only comes once every twenty years." Hevinia said softly.
"Yes." Anita nodded slightly. "So there are many excellent performers who never get to play for the Lord in their entire lives. This is also a pity."
"Really?" Hevinia tilted her head. "But Miss Anita, I see you don't seem to have any regrets."
"oh?"
"You are such an excellent player," Helvinia said, "but you never planned to participate in the ceremony, did you? Don't you feel regretful?"
"Haha, you're asking about me." Anita said calmly, "The reason why I don't participate in the ceremony is simple... It's not perfect enough."
"…Not perfect?"
"Yes," Anita said, "The performer is the purest and most ultimate artist. A golden-voice performer can only perform for the Lord once in his life. If he does not pursue perfection, how can he have the dignity to go on stage?"
"I don't quite understand you," Helvinia asked. "What is perfect?"
"At least we can't go against the original intention of the performer," Anita said. "Someone told me that if a performer goes on stage not for the ultimate art but for ranking or grace, then such a performer is unqualified. Unfortunately, most performers nowadays are like this."
Hevinia understood: "This is what Principal Ulysses told you, right?"
"Of course." Anita couldn't help but smile a little when she mentioned the principal. "That's what he said to me when I first met him. In fact, he said that to every student."
"Does Principal Ulysses have many disciples?"
"Yes." Anita nodded slightly. "After the last grand ceremony, the principal delegated all his power to others, and then traveled all over Shengyin alone, just to find pure performers like him. But unfortunately, until today, no one can stand at the same level as the principal."
"You can't do that either?"
"Of course." Anita shook her head. "No matter in terms of strength or state of mind, we are far behind. In fact... I may never catch up in this lifetime."
“I see…”
Helvinia nodded thoughtfully.
In fact, Hevinia and Anita were in a very delicate state at this time.
She knew very well that Anita knew her identity, and she knew that Anita knew it too, but they both tacitly did not point it out.
Even after Hevinia quit the band, she had more time to spend with Anita.
This was not the first time they had such a chat. In the past half month, Anita replaced Ulysses and became Hevinia's new teacher. And through chatting with Anita, Hevinia gradually guessed why Ulysses and Anita did not do anything to her.
…pure and ultimate music.
In other words, in their eyes, whether it was the two Taichu families or the Lawrence family, they were only participating in the ceremony to gain grace, so they were not qualified to be on the same stage with them.
Especially after they destroyed Ulysses' Divine Comedy twenty years ago, cooperation became even more impossible.
The only question is, does Ulysses want to see the real, purest music in Helvinia, or does he want to kill her after she has collected all the music, snatch the music score and play it himself?
Helvinia couldn't be sure, but she wasn't stupid enough to ask.
Before a real falling out, she won't say anything, but she will be prepared.
At this moment, a female performer walked over quickly and said something in Anita's ear.
Anita nodded after listening to it. After the female performer left, she said, "Dean Raoul decided to wake up the tuner in the boys' dormitory in front of the eternal note when the ceremony begins."
"I remember you said that the Tuner cannot be awakened by external force."
"Generally speaking, it is like that," Anita said, "but it is different during the ceremony. Remember what I just told you? During the ceremony, the power of each of our movements will become stronger, and this also makes it possible to awaken them. Of course, the success rate is not high."
"How many?"
"About 30%." Anita said, "If he fails, the tuner will die, so he only has one chance, which should start before the Lord's power is the strongest but will not affect the progress of the ceremony, that is... before the last outer song ends and the first inner song starts."
After listening, Hevinia was silent for a while, then nodded slightly: "I understand."
That night.
The first outer song was played slowly at the foot of the mountain.
The ceremony begins.
(End of this chapter)
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