Chapter 73: Birthday Party

We spent the rest of Monday introducing ourselves to one another. While we might not be close to each other due to various factors like age, race, religion, it was a good start. It wasn't outright blatant, but it could be noticed that people from the same country tended to stick to one another more. And of course, the exceptions being the ones who were alone from their country, like a guy from some country called Luxembourg, in Western Europe.

Monday was pretty dull; apart from those introductions, we were introduced to the facilities in this building and what we could do with them.

The piano rooms for practicing the piano. The lounge for lounging around. The entertainment rooms for our entertainment, and so on and so forth.

You get the idea.

I made several friends, but I'll introduce them later on.

According to our schedule, Tuesday was free time to practice for a short piece that we would be playing for an audience at a party.

Yep. A party. Not the competition, but a party. Apparently, affluent and influential families from all over the world would be attending this party. So, we not only have to look good, but we also had to perform well.

While the latter was easily accomplished by thinking of a lovely song to play and practice, the organization helped with the former matter.

In the end, my own attire was judged as low-quality and not accepted for the party. As a result, they measured our body dimensions, and a complete formal attire was delivered to our rooms by the end of the day. It was customized to fit our bodies to the tee and was surprisingly comfortable, completely betraying my expectations of a suit being uncomfortable.

Maybe it was because my previous life's formal attire was made with low-quality materials?

Anyway, we had three days to practice, having the freedom to assign the number of hours we would put in for the party. But since everyone here was a professional, none of us practiced any less than 10 hours per day. Some of the more hardworking ones even spent the entire day in the piano room practicing, coming out only when it was time to sleep.

No one was lazy; after all, everyone here knew that no matter how talented you are, everyone's skills here are almost the same. If you can't pull ahead of your competitors with hard work, you would only end up falling behind.

I was no different, of course. In fact, with the pressure of world-class pianists around me, the rate of increasing my proficiency with the piano was growing fast. Much faster compared to when I was practicing in school.

Come to think of it, less of a competition, this few days seemed to resemble a training camp more, doesn't it?

∞

Friday arrived much quicker than I expected. And since we were neither considered guests nor hosts, we didn't have much to do regarding the party. Apart from playing the piano when it was our turn, we could attend this party like an ordinary guest to socialize with the rich present if we wanted to.

But that would all come only after we have performed. For now, focusing on not messing up our performance would be the focal point.

At 5 pm sharp, guests slowly streamed inside, and by 6 am, the gates were shut, preventing anyone from entering the place. The entrance to the main ballroom was about a 3-minute walk, and the guests could enjoy the scenery along the way. They could even choose to enter the garden by using a side walkway, though, but that would be for later on during the day.

For now, everyone was gathered at the ballroom, patiently waiting for the party to start as they made small talks with each other.

As I observed everything happening from a corner, Maruno came up to me with a drink in his hand.

"Is that red wine?" Staring at him with suspicion, I asked, "Are you sure you will be able to perform under a drunken state?"

"You misunderstand me. It's not red wine; it's fruit punch." Maruno wryly smiled as he replied. I was wrong, yet Maruno could find no excuse to say anything further to me since ever since the time I went to Maruno's hometown, he already made the impression of being drunk almost 24/7.

As for the prim and proper impression that he built up the first two weeks during the preliminaries?

It flew out of the window. As someone wise once said, "It's easier to remember a horrible impression on someone compared to a good impression on someone."

I don't know who that someone wise was, but they sure were wise.

Anyway, the party didn't truly start until 6.30 pm, when all the guests have warmed up sufficiently with one another. There wasn't an awkward atmosphere around them as everyone was very high up the (metaphorical) food chain, and it was almost impossible for anyone to be this successful with an introvert personality unless you're some famous hacker or something.

6.30 pm was also the time when Kachi Shirokusa arrived and formally started the entire party. Apparently, this party wasn't some hatched-up plan made at the top of their mind.

Today was some important old man's birthday, and his influence was high enough that everybody who attended this part wanted to curry favors with him.

Now I'm curious who the legendary old man is.

And precisely at 7 pm, the legendary old man revealed his face, and well...I'm already having a bad premonition before his face was even fully revealed.

For good reasons, too, I might add. Remember the eccentric old man I met at the Colosseum? The one who asked me who my favorite type of woman was?

Like any other cliché novel out there, this damned old man acted like some ordinary civilian as he roamed about the area without any bodyguards.

"Good morning, everyone, and I thank you all for coming to my birthday party today. It brings me great pleasure to see all of the smiles shining brightly on your faces." The old man joyously spoke, his eyes roaming around the hall until it met mine. His own smile deepened as he noticed me.

"Most of you would have known me from somewhere before, but I'll introduce myself for the younger generations present at this party. My name is Yamamoto Akira. Co-founder of famous film studio Studio Ghibli, one of the most influential and important filmmakers of all time, and a Marshal Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy who served as the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II."

Damn, this old man can brag.

"Net worth...105.9 billion USD."

[A/N: For comparison, the Shinomiya family is worth 200 trillion yen, which is about USD 1.81 trillion. But Akira is one person, having 1/10th of the world's greatest conglomerate is a feat.

Plus, the Shinomiya family is huge, and most of it is in assets and cannot be liquefied at one call. And when distributed among everyone, the top brass of the Shinomiya family wouldn't even have the same net worth as Akira.

Plus, it's not fair to compare a single individual and a conglomerate anyway.]

And he has the capacity and achievement to back up his bragging to boot. Sigh, why are all the talented ones so quirky? Are there no normal successful person?

"Of course, that's not all my achievements, but that should be enough to impress the younger generation present." Letting out a smile, the old man, Akira, spoke as though he wasn't already showing off.

If anybody else was in his position, everybody present here would have already scolded them so severely that the person would wish that they were never born. But strangely enough, no one uttered any word of discontent, nor did they show any facial features that revealed their annoyance, irritation, or frustration from Akira's bragging.

It was as though it was all a matter of fact.

Only for the adults, though. While some kids followed in their parents' footsteps and kept a calm smile on their faces, the younger kids showed some form of amazement on their faces.

Honestly, how foolish. If only you guys knew his pervertedness..actually, forget what I said. Even if they knew, I doubt that it would make anyone reel in disgust. If anything, it would actually make them happier. After all, knowing one person's desire would make it easier to understand what would make him happy, and in turn, learning how to suck up to him better.

Still, Akira's achievements were pretty impressive.

"Now, with all that out of the way, let's begin the party!"

And with Akira's announcement, it came with our turn to play on the piano already prepared at one corner on a slightly elevated platform. While it might not be the main focus of this party, it was still one of the things that the people here attended looked forward to.

Knowing that these people (us) were the top thirty or so pianists in the world, it was an honor for them to personally hear us play the piano.

I'm not being arrogant or prideful or anything like that; it was simply the truth. Whoever won the internationals would be world-famous, and asking them to play for them would cost a fortune. And that was assuming they could be paid for with money.

Of course, the people here could all hire any of the pianists here, but given the opportunity to hear not only the number one pianist play but the top thirty in the world, who wouldn't want to experience it?

The first person to go up the stage was an adult who looked in his early thirties. With sharp facial features and blond hair, the American looked neat and attractive. Before he started playing, he announced the song that he would perform - a customary act of a pianist before performing in front of an audience.

"Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata (3rd Movement)."

Akira merely sat down on a seat nearby and closed his eyes, awaiting the music. He showed no outward emotions on his face other than a neutral smile.

And as he started playing, it wasn't unexpected that he was excellent. Much, much better than any of the pianists I've heard in the preliminaries.

Yet, for some reason, I just have a nagging feeling in my heart that he was going to fail. Not from technically or emotionally, but for some other reason.

Why?

I tried to continue enjoying the piece while trying to figure out the nagging feeling in my heart, and before I knew it, eight minutes have passed, and the first song was done.

Nothing happened except for a polite round of applause resounded around the room before continuing their discussions and conversations.

Was I wrong? He played the piece so perfectly that even I couldn't find what was wrong with it, but the nagging feeling didn't leave.

The second person went up, the third person, and so on until the twentieth person - me. Before me, however, Tamashiro Naoko and Sugimoto Manami had already gone up, along with Maruno and Chika. The only other person I knew before this party started was Mayeda Akira, who was going two people after me.

As for the people who went before me, some gave me the same feeling as the first guy, but others didn't.

Every single one of them played really well, and it was actually scaring me a little. But where was the fun if there was no challenge?

Smiling confidently, I walked up to the elevated platform and bowed slightly before announcing my piece.

Usually, I would play some generic classical piece to please the judges, but today was different. It wasn't a competition, but a performance, a party celebration.

So why are people playing boring classical music that would bore people to death? Now, that would defeat the purpose of this party, wouldn't it?

Hence, I chose Beethoven Virus, with minor improvisation of the original song.

When I say "minor improvisation", I meant "completely subvert the piece while trying to keep the main melody alive".

This wasn't some sort of performance where everyone had to pay attention to the pianist playing. We were supposed to be the ones playing the background music for this party.

Though, I cannot deny that I felt proud when everybody just stopped what they were doing and paid close attention to every single note I played.

*****************

A/N: For the piece, search MusicalBasics's "5 Levels of Beethoven Virus: Easy to Insane", and listen to the Insane version. That was what Fuutarou played.