The shock Lydia had just lived through was just as violent. I understood why she was bawling on the floor.
Is it okay to compare a high school baseball player and the daughter of a marquess?
I wasn’t sure, but the way the dreams they’d held on to since childhood and worked toward every day had been shattered felt similar.
And I kind of feel responsible...
I’d only done all this to stop her from enacting a ridiculous law, so I did think that she’d reaped what she’d sown. But at the same time, I’d use my status to create a situation where I couldn’t lose. I might have overdone it a little in the process, forcing her into a corner. I’d never realized properly just how powerful my family name made me before this. Still, I couldn’t have known this would happen.
The God of Music coming up to us only to ignore her entirely must have hurt the most. He’d only done so because my otherworldly soul intrigued him, but Lydia must have genuinely thought the God of Music had come to welcome her into his garden. I felt bad about that... I hadn’t done anything, but I couldn’t help my guilt.
Even leaving that aside...I couldn’t leave a crying girl alone! I just couldn’t!
So I rushed to Lydia, who’d curled into a ball on the stage, and pulled her into a hug. “Lady Selesnoa!”
Lydia screamed and tried to push me away, but I held on with all my strength. I knew I might be hurting her, considering how hard I was hugging her, but I still did it. Sometimes, when the soul hurt so much, physical pain helped.
“Your time has yet to come, that’s all,” I shouted into her ear, over her cries. “It’ll come! Your turn will come! It just wasn’t today.”
I’m sorry. I have no idea if there’s any truth to what I’m telling you. Only the God of Music knows who he wants in his garden. But this, I can say with confidence:
“Your singing was wonderful! Anyone who listens to you can tell how diligent you’ve been all these years.”
Lydia’s singing was truly beautiful. She’d pissed me off by bringing up my mother right before singing, but I’d still forgotten that in a heartbeat. By the time she was done singing, only admiration had remained.
In my previous life, I’d loved singing, but my friends and I had still cheered and gone out to have cake whenever practice was canceled for any reason. Lydia, however, never missed a single day of practice. I could tell she’d practiced without fail since she was little. That was amazing!
Lydia loved singing. As a child, she must have innocently sung without another thought, and even after it had turned into a heavy responsibility she had to bear for the future of her house, she had kept on singing.
“You’ve worked hard all this time. That’s why your singing is so beautiful. I felt it, Lady Selesnoa, I truly did.” There was so much I disagreed with Lydia about. But her efforts were precious, even I could admit that. “You’ll grow in the future. You’ll bloom into a finer flower, and then, your time will come. I’m sure of it.”
You only had three shots at reaching Koshien, but you had your entire life to earn a summons from the God of Music.
You don’t realize how young you are and how much is awaiting you in the future, do you? I guess high schoolers are always like this.
There was still a lot I didn’t understand about the values of this world, but I knew that Lydia’s “righteousness,” which entailed pressing someone about their status in front of a retired emperor, was excessive. But that was how things always were in life. High schoolers held naive, extreme ideals because of their ignorance. Encounters and setbacks would change her, little by little.
You’re still immature, Lydia, but that means you have room to grow.
Lydia was still sobbing and attempting to push me away from her.
Ah... She’s so convinced I’m her enemy, my words won’t reach her. I get it. I drove you into this corner, didn’t I? What do I do now? Save me, retired tennis player!
I was praying in the hope of channeling his soul when a voice rang out.
“Lydia.”
It was very calm, but much closer than I’d expected, so I started. When I lifted my head up, I saw that the former empress was standing right next to us.
She smiled at Lydia and continued, “You’ve learned failure today, Lydia. That is very fortunate.”
Lydia was dumbfounded. “Your Imperial Majesty...?”
“When the God of Music invited me to his garden, he told me that the anguish in my voice was beautiful... Before today, you had never suffered any setbacks, Lydia. Your efforts had always been rewarded, and you held your abilities in high regard. You knew nothing but perfection. Despite your young age, you reached that perfection. But perfection is not the pinnacle.”
The former empress’s lips curled into a reflective smile.
“What the best singing is, however...I do not know. I suppose I have no right to lecture you so pompously when I’m still searching for it myself. However, what I can tell you is that perfection is not it. If you’ve learned true anguish from your failure here today, perhaps you’ll succeed in breaking away from perfection. No one knows where the path toward the height of singing leads, and each of us must decide for ourselves whether to walk it or not.”