Chapter 8 Alto Part 1

"Follow me inside," Victor spoke with an air of command. Leylin followed Victor as he led them to a hall. It was quite a spacious hall, decorated with a tea table, brown couches and small desks. On the other side was a long dining table made of fine rosewood. Victor got a few students here as well. But unfortunately, his study was too small for all of them. So they just sat in the gallery. Five boys and three girls were sitting there, all pretty young, probably between thirteen and twenty.

Quills and papers were lying on the small round tables in front of them. Some of them were transcribing something, while some were humming or reading in a low voice.

According to Leylin's observation, the students also came from different backgrounds: some were of humble birth, and the others were dressed quite decently. The latter ones were usually from noble families. Therefore, most were not qualified to inherit their family titles or the knight technique.

"Scan for residual radiation," Leylin thought.

[Beep! Scanning for residual radiation.......... Expected levels of radiation found. No anomaly.]

"Interesting, if the radiation levels were within expectations, it is doubtful Victor has a magical artifact. While it is improbable he could also have a laboratory outside of Alto, in which case he would have to observe for longer," Leylin concluded.

Once Leylin took his seat by the other student's side, Victor handed him a book on musical theory. Leylin pretended to be oblivious and looked at Victor while pretending to be ignorant.

Victor looked at Leylin with an exasperated look and explained, "Music theory is a practice musicians use to understand and communicate the language of music. Musical theory examines the fundamentals of music. It also provides a system to interpret musical compositions.

For example, basic music theory defines the elements that form harmony, melody, and rhythm. It identifies compositional elements such as song form, tempo, notes, chords, key signatures, intervals, scales, and more. It also recognizes musical qualities such as pitch, tone, timbre, texture, and dynamics. Before I teach you any instrument, you must memorize it."

Leylin understood what Victor was trying to do.

Victor probably assumed that no child could sit and read a fat book of musical theory. That way, he could stop disgracing himself by acting as a glorified babysitter.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen. Let's take a break." Victor clapped gently and then walked upstairs. At the same time, the servants came with tea and fruits.

The scent of Jasmine and lemon filled the room. Some of the fruits Leylin knew, and some he did not.

A young guy, decently dressed, smiled at the classmates around him with a piece of tablature in his hand. "It seems like Mr Victor got some inspiration. We may call it a day now if his inspiration keeps flowing." He looked a bit older than Leylin. His eyes were long and narrow, and his nose straight. But, among them, this guy was pretty outstanding.

A noble girl in a wine-coloured dress was sitting right beside him. "If class finishes earlier, we're gonna have an extra one during the weekend. So don't get too excited." She responded in a lazy voice, "But I do hope Mr Victor finishes his new song for the concert as soon as possible. So we will finally be able to start practising with the orchestra. Sitting in the room, merely reading tablatures and playing the flute alone can never compete with a real rehearsal."

She was about seventeen or eighteen years old and quite attractive: her hair was long and bright red, like fire, her lips were thick and sexy, and her waist was not tightened like most noble girls - otherwise, she would not be able to play the flute well.

A boy laughed, "The first violinist, whose emerald eyes radiate an intensity, an honesty, a gentleness.....You like Elron, don't you? Lorelei?"

A symphony orchestra's first violinist as the baton was passed to the first violinist when the conductor was not present.

"Shut up, Issac! I feel he has excellent skills, much better than the last one." Lorelei argued, but her face flushed, "Don't you think his solo for violin sonata No.1 in G minor was awe-inspiring?"

Talking about music, the other students became serious and excited. They started discussing sonatas and suites. Finally, Leylin understood why everybody said that the mother tongue of Alto is music.

The day ended, and Locke and Leylin walked around Fleddorf. Trying in to see if there is anything of interest. He spent his time scanning everything he saw. Fleddorf was indeed one of the great cities of the continent.

Three great roads, The Avenue of the Pious, The Avenue of the Brave and the Avenue of the Inspired, ran up the mountain until the royal palace. Concentric roads intersected it at each level of the city. The largest of these, The Grand Avenue, separated the noble heights near the Summit from the grey quarter at the foothills. At the intersection of Grand Avenue with the Great Roads were buildings that defined Alto, The Cathedral of the sepulchre, The Arena of Champions, and Philharmonic Theatre.

He found all sorts of interesting nick nacks in the market. He even found a book that had been irradiated. He tasted various types of food. He studied historical artifacts and books. Finally, he instructed Roran to get the Red Eagle traders to buy everything that interested him and be transported to Cuvelon. The Summit of the city of psalm gleamed under the silver moon; The enormous crystal towers were lit up. The Summit shone bright like a diamond, scattering the city lights. "Is this what Venice was like in the 18th century?" He wondered. They had a long day and decided to call it a day. Just like that, days turned into a week, weeks into a moon. Locke had been performing well in the competition but was not standing out just like they planned, and he had shown himself to be a genius and wiggled his way into victor's good books.