Solo Swordmaster

Chapter 68: Insane Talent

As a violinist and a professor, Julia had seen many musicians. By her standards, Li’s positioning was less than even a 10 out of a 100. It was worse than an elementary school kid just starting out on the violin.

‘What the?’

For that very reason, she could not understand when suddenly, his positioning turned into a perfect 100 like it was measured and marked out with a ruler. And why there were goosebumps all over her body.

‘All he did was fix his stance… Why am I getting chills?’

Julia was flustered by her body reacting in ways she couldn’t understand.

But Limon didn’t give her the time to figure it out. With a final look of satisfaction, the bow slid across the strings.

“…!”

Julia’s eyes widened. Limon was a complete beginner— no, he was even less than that since he didn’t know how to read notes.

But it wasn’t just the heavenly tune coming from the violin that was more articulate than she could have ever fathomed.

‘That’s…’

From the way he held the violin, the angle in which he drew the bow on the strings, to the delicate vibrato from his left hand adjusting the pitch. It was the first time she had heard Limon play.

And yet, it was all too familiar to her. Moreover, the melody struck a lightning bolt of shock.

‘It’s my performance…?’

Julia finally realized why she was so shocked when she saw Li fix his position. It was a mirror replica of hers.

‘It can’t be… Was he echoing my performance?’

She was dumbstruck. Yes, she had told him to learn after one listen. But that should’ve been impossible.

Despite that, here Li was, imitating her performance fairly well. It was an unimaginable sight to behold.

‘…Okay, Li. There is no doubt about it. You have talent.’

Julia barely kept her composure. She was a professor of Frankfurt University of Music. She’d taught musical prodigies from all over the world, and few among them could imitate performances just by ear, even just roughly.

It was especially easy for players with musical skills like 「Human Karaoke」 and 「Auto-Perform」.

‘But an imitation can be nothing more than what it is.’

And so, Julia thought to herself: it was great that he could copy her performance without any skills, but it wasn’t anything extraordinary. His position and sound were indeed similar to her own, but there was still some amateurishness that could be heard in certain parts of the performance.

‘Even monkeys can copy what they see. Violinists are supposed to perform.’

Of course. From his arms and finger length to flexibility, Li had a different physique from Julia’s. Even if he played the violin with the same techniques, instrument, and music, the miniscule differences were ultimately bound to create a sense of disharmony.

Especially when he lacked technical skill and couldn’t even read notes.

It couldn’t possibly be the same performance. Although, the fact he could echo this much was undeniably incredible.

‘Well, I don’t think he was lying, at least. I’ll accept that he did learn something from my perform—’

Julia flinched. Something felt strangely out of place. It was something minute enough that anyone else would have simply brushed it off, or not even recognize it at all. But to a first-class violinist and the original performer of the techniques Li was using…

She could tell the difference with pinpoint accuracy, and she could feel her eyes popping out of their sockets.

‘…Oh my god.’

He changed the angle of his bow. He moved his fingers. He loosened the pressure on the strings. At times, the change was as small as an ant’s step. Other times, as light as a speck of dust.

As the small adjustments continued, the disharmony from before gradually went away. The music itself was slowly catching up to hers at a rapid speed.

Seeing Li not even break a sweat, Julia vacantly muttered to herself.

“He’s modifying my techniques…to fit his physique? In real time, as he’s performing?”

***

***

Limon recalled back to when the Seven Dragons ruled in the Bronze Age, then to the Heroes’ Age of the swordmasters.

There is no such thing as ‘easy to learn’ in this world. Just a few centuries ago, learning techniques were considered exclusive. It was common to see a master’s students and even their own children not learn from them.

From the common smith, revolutionary sciences, to a swordmaster’s swordsmanship. It would be incomprehensible to those in the modern world that so many techniques were shut out.

But that was the very reason the people of old were so desperate to learn—they had to be.

‘Watch, and steal.’

That was just the way of things. If there was no one to teach them, one had to learn from what they saw, heard, and steal instead.

You learned the secret ingredients and recipe to a dish by slaving away for several years.

You steal the temperature at which alloys melt by dipping your hand in molten steel.

In an age when even parchment was hard to find, you had to keep your eyes open and learn everything you could.

The modern world may think this inefficient and foolish. But because there were people who learned and succeeded by stealing techniques, technology was able to advance under the restraints of exclusivity.

‘With a will to learn, anything in this world can be your teacher. Any technique can be yours if you desire it.’

Limon was one of such people. There were more sword techniques he’d stolen by watching than taught by his teacher.

And so right now, he used his past experience to steal Julia’s performance.

Finger movements, breath control, the speed and angle of the bow, and even the miniscule movement of muscles. His body reenacted everything he’d observed from watching Julia.

Even amidst a desperate struggle, a swordmaster could analyze an opponent’s blade and create a counter in a matter of seconds. Translating that over to a violin wasn’t too hard.

‘Still, it sounds different.’

Now came the hard part. He had to compare his sound with Julia’s, and fix his technique whenever he felt a difference.

It was comically foolish. An idiotic repetition of trial and error, like putting in every number from 1 to 100 in X to solve for 1 + X = 100.

‘A little more.’

But the foolish old man removes the mountains, one mound of dirt at a time. Even the most seemingly impossible tasks were bound to be overcome with constant effort over time.

‘More.’

Most importantly, Limon had played the Abyssal Black Violin before. Within it laid countless techniques of past violinists. Using them as a model to compare to Julia’s techniques, he adjusted his playing bit by bit as he formed a sound that sounded just like hers.

‘Found it.’

The moment the swordmaster’s instincts found the perfectly identical tune, he geared the techniques into the performance like a cogwheel.

Had it been hundreds of times? Millions? Dividing each second he had, he found new techniques as he replaced the one before. Again, and again, and again.

And once he finally finished his task, and all the gears were in their place—

There was no longer a trace of awkward disharmony in his performance. Only the effortless, heavenly melody of a first-class violinist flowed in the air, its beauty unable to be accurate rendered through any audio equipment.

Soon, the eternal piece finally came to an end.

How much time had passed? Only after the lingering afterimage of the performance faded, did Limon take the bow off the strings and open his eyes, revealing his bright golden irises.

“Tsk, I can’t copy any more than just the sound.”

For some reason, he looked disappointed. With a discontented face, he clicked his tongue.

“I can roughly copy the techniques, but the depth isn’t fully there because I don’t understand them. I have a long way to go.”

Only the sound was the same. Limon coldly judged his own performance because it didn’t have the same emotional resonance as Julia’s.

He held the violin out to her.

“Thanks for letting me use it. It’s a pretty good violin.”

“…”

“So how was my performance? I tried my best to show you everything I learned. Did I pass?”

‘I’ll take another test if it was that bad,’ Limon spoke nonchalantly.

But there was no answer from Julia. Taking the violin with a stunned face, she blankly stared at him.

“What’s with that face? Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for my looks,” Limon muttered to himself, waving his hand in front of her face.

Julia blinked several times. Her expression was inexplicable. And she screamed.

“Li… Just what have you been doing all this time with this insane talent?!?!”

***

“Are you sure?” the man with braided hair asked. It was unexpected.

The young man with slit eyes gave a short answer.

“I told you, I’ve checked multiple times.”

“There’s no credibility in the words of an idiot.”

“Then give it up! I’d rather quit than work with comrades who don’t trust me!”

“Comrad, runaway? You’re runaway?”

“…Crazy comrade? Why are you saying that?”

“Sorry, runaways and traitors are immediately executed.”

“What the hell are you blabbering about with that smile on your face?! Wait— Wait just a minute! I spoke thoughtlessly, don’t be like this!”

It was chaos.

There was some blood as the man made a fuss about almost getting his throat cut open. Barely resolving the misunderstanding, the young man with slit eyes took sharp breaths while covered in blood. The blonde woman looked disappointed.

Turning a blind eye to the banter of his comrades, the man with braided hair was in deep thought.

“I expected there would be some fuckers getting in our way, but who knew a family like this would take it… How surprising.”

“What are you going to do, comrad?”

“What else? We’ll have to report it to our superiors and await orders.”

“Don’t narrow our choices, numbskull comrade. This operation’s discretionary authority is in my hands.”

“What does that mean? Are you really going to enforce it?”

The young man with slit eyes’ jaws were agape.

The man with braided hair blatantly disregarded him as he looked down on the document with their target’s location.

His lips curved into a small smile.

“Our boring task has taken quite an interesting turn.”

——

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