Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 59
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Infinite Talent Reset Life Episode 59
17. Strauss
“I will announce the roster.”
Time has passed since the game against the Major Leaguers, and now it’s the final day of Spring Camp.
San Diego basks in warm sunlight again today. The surviving children clench their fists and stare at George Huntington’s mouth for the final elimination announcement and the announcement of the 60 survivors.
Tremendous tension descends upon the Main Stadium.
“Number 1… Johann Jefferson.”
“Yeah!”
“That’s right!”
“Johann, I knew you’d be number 1!”
About seventy children rejoice as if it were their own achievement.
‘I made it.’
Though it was an expected result, a deep sense of accomplishment shakes his body.
“Thank you.”
‘Next time, I’d like to experience your tactics.’
Director George Huntington, who during the camp never demanded tactics but instead stepped back and only observed the young players.
Once the games begin, he’ll learn what type of manager he is.
“Number 5 Flash Thompson, Number 6 Julio Rodriguez.”
“Let’s go!”
“Oh, God.”
Clap clap clap clap clap!
After that, names like Jerry Goosby, Del Smith, Ruda Pan and others were recited, and the announcement of the total 60-person roster was complete.
“Damn! Shit!”
“Ahhh! Why!”
George Huntington makes a stern expression while watching the children experiencing mixed emotions.
“Today’s elimination is not a permanent elimination. You have shown talent that can shine brilliantly enough, and you’ve put in efforts worthy of that talent.”
Children who spent more time sweating than not sweating from when they woke up until they went to sleep.
It’s just that other children did slightly better.
“Remember the drops of sweat you shed before and after training every morning and every evening.”
That will become a precious asset for living your life ahead.
“And don’t give up, keep moving forward! Understood!”
“…Yes!”
“That’s all! Dismissed!”
“Waaaaah!”
“Win for our share too! Got it?!”
“If you lose, I’ll kill you!”
“I’ll cheer for you!”
“Sorry. See you next year.”
Children who embrace warmly then turn around carrying their respective luggage.
“Next time I’ll be number 1, Johann.”
“Please don’t grow taller until then. Got it?”
“If you want to curse, come at me.”
“Kekekekeke!”
After even the children who bumped fists leave, Jerry Goosby approaches.
“I talked to my cousin Randall this morning, and he was really interested! Maybe when the season starts he’ll come to meet… Whoa?!”
“You should go too, Goosby. Your parents are waiting outside.”
“Oh, my goodness. Julio, you’re really kind. But it’s okay. Dad said he’d arrive in 20 minutes! When I told him I made the roster, he said he’d speed up even more!”
“No, we need to go, you chatterbox.”
“Oops! Really? Your parents came too? Can I say hello?”
“…Do whatever you want.”
Flash, who gave up, looks at Johann.
“Dad said he gathered all the members.”
“Oh?”
Michael Thompson, who had been running around to gather personnel to develop the tentatively named Star Maker and quick food.
“He gathered them faster than expected.”
‘Is it because of the job shortage?’
Since many people lost their jobs due to the subprime mortgage crisis, it seems he was able to gather them this quickly.
“He said he’d decide on the concept or something like that and start development from a week later.”
“Is that… fast?”
“Who knows?”
“What are you two talking about?”
“Family business talk.”
“Aha. Julio, what did you eat to grow so big? Don’t tell me you’re still growing?”
“Ahaha.”
Julio looked at Johann and Flash pleadingly for help, but the two lightly ignored him.
“Johann!”
“Larry!”
How did he come when he must be so busy.
And why did that person come.
‘Mr. Andrew?’
Outside the camp grounds where reporters and families, doubled in number since admission, are gathered. Johann is surprised to see Larry with an expectant expression and Andrew Pearson.
But that’s only for a moment.
Johann gives a thumbs up, and Larry, whose eyes widen, quickly runs over and grabs Johann’s shoulders.
“That’s right! Well done!”
He never doubted that Johann would be selected for the roster.
“Number 1.”
“…Ooooooh! Ada! Johann was selected first for the roster!”
-Kyaaaaaaah!
A joyful scream pierces through the phone.
A smile forms on Johann’s lips.
“Good work, Mr. Johann.”
After the excitement settles, Andrew Pearson speaks up.
“Thank you. But how did you come here?”
“Because of this.”
‘Huh?’
Johann blinks as he looks at the phone Andrew handed him.
It looks like a captured YouTube screen, and inside it is himself holding a violin.
It seems someone who filmed him playing the violin uploaded it.
‘Those guys all got eliminated though…’
But the view count is unusual.
“500,000?”
‘In just ten days?’
“Currently it’s 800,000.”
Moreover, the view count is rising steeply as word spreads.
-What is this? Why do I feel adult emotions from a young child’s performance?
-You practiced hand-syncing diligently.
-Hand-syncing? Bullshit! That was actually played live!
-That’s an excellent interpretation.
Reactions filled with praise, criticism, and astonishment.
“How long have you been playing the violin?”
Because of this, the interest in Johann that had been carefully put to rest was threatening to flare up again, even as he triggered one of the scandals in his head.
“Uh, well… would you believe me if I said I picked it up for the first time today?”
“Good Lord.”
Clatter!
Johann turned his head and thought ‘Oh no.’
Jerry Goosby stood frozen in shock, having dropped even his treasured violin case.
“So, so you’re saying that you not only memorized the piece I played after hearing it once, but also interpreted the music… no, that you were holding a violin for the first time back then?!”
“It wasn’t the first time I held one.”
Johann hurriedly interrupted.
When choosing elective courses at Fairmont School, he had participated in Music II class and played it before.
“The rest… well. It just came naturally. Is that difficult?”
“…What the fucking hell?”
“Perfect pitch…”
Everyone’s bewildered gazes turned to Andrew Pearson.
Andrew Pearson pushed up his glasses.
“Mr. Johann, do you happen to have perfect pitch?”
The fraudulent talent of perfect pitch – the ability to remember and reproduce any song heard once.
That talent possessed by the great musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who perfectly memorized and reproduced Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere, a sacred song that had been forbidden from being taken outside for 100 years.
“Ah, if that’s what it is, then yes, I suppose so.”
Josef Eduard Anna Strauss was a person born with perfect pitch who never forgot a piece once heard.
‘And his ability to interpret music is also exceptional.’
“Oh, God.”
People were at a loss for words.
* * *
“Hmm.”
On the wide, high, silent stage.
A late-twenties man who had been looking at his laptop while smelling the scent of wood and silence pressing against his buttocks straightened up.
“Is this how it goes?”
The man placed the violin in his hand against his chin and drew the bow.
Screech!
A hymn to spring echoed through the wide hall.
Johann Strauss II’s Voices of Spring Waltz.
Warm wind and babbling brook water broke through the silence and stillness, brightening the dark space and making flowers bloom.
“Whew.”
Silence returned with a long breath.
The young man who had played the entire piece in one go tilted his head.
“It’s… difficult?”
Playing it himself made it clear.
It seemed easy when listening, but playing it directly revealed an incredible level of difficulty.
“It’s not a matter of technique. The emotion…”
It was hard to express that something between richness and freshness felt in the tempo control.
Clap clap clap!
“Bravo.”
The young man turned his head at the sound breaking the silence again and widened his eyes.
“Ma, Maestro!”
A red-faced middle-aged man in his 50s holding a thermos in one hand. Esa-Pekka Salonen, the conductor of the orchestra where the young man worked, smiled with satisfaction.
“Wonderful Voices of Spring.”
It was certainly inadequate and had many mistakes.
If he had played like that during practice time, it would have been such a terrible performance that he would have been immediately scolded.
But his violinist was now trying to break through the shell surrounding him.
Having witnessed that scene, he couldn’t help but applaud.
“Are you dating someone lately? The partner must be older, of course.”
A woman at least 10 years older.
Otherwise, such dense emotions trying to emerge couldn’t have been conveyed through the bow tip.
“N-no! That’s not it!”
“No? Ah, then surely not someone 10 years younger…?”
“Th-that’s not it either!”
The young man, who had been about to agree after hearing praise for the first time in a while, hurriedly shook his head and turned his laptop to show it.
“I was just playing along with what this boy performed.”
The young man, one of the orchestra’s violinists, hurriedly unplugged the connected headphone jack and pressed the play button, and soon warm and bright spring came to the practice hall of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra.
“…Johann Strauss II?”
The violin performance by Johann Strauss II himself that he had once heard on an SP record (Standard-Playing Record), also known as a 78rpm Record.
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor of the LA Philharmonic, the pride of the US West Coast, unconsciously thought and said so.
* * *
“Thank you!”
“Good work.”
“Haha. Not at all.”
Larry, who had brought Julio and Flash in place of the Rodriguez Couple and Thompson Couple who couldn’t come due to busy work.
“Well, I’ll be going now.”
“Thank you for your hard work today too.”
Rick Bottom, who had been staying in San Diego to respond immediately if anything happened to Johann, left first, and when Andrew Pearson also left afterward, Larry got in the car and looked at Johann moving to the passenger seat.
“A lot happened in ten days.”
“I was surprised too.”
He really didn’t expect to beat Major Leaguers, nor did he know so many children would follow him.
‘I expected it though…’
Johann was quiet but had a charm that drew people in and calmed them. He didn’t expect him to become the leader of so many children, but he anticipated he would form a group.
Though he didn’t expect the violin.
“Hehe. At this rate, won’t you sign with the Dodgers as soon as you turn 16?”
“Who knows?”
At 16, there were still 5 more years to go.
He might find something more interesting than baseball.
“That’s true.”
While it’s important to dig deep into one thing, it’s also important to experience various things diversely.
He was too young to choose one path and move forward.
Moreover, Johann showed new aspects every day.
No one could guarantee where or what kind of appearance he would show, like this time.
“He probably composed music during that time too.”
“Uh, how did you know?”
He had already even given it a title.
For Victory.
Having directly experienced the scene where countless children who were somewhat good at baseball from Western California gathered to compete, survive, and be eliminated for World Series advancement, ‘Eagles, Joseph Fiddler Walsh’ went wild with excitement.
“Because that’s what you would have done.”
“Larry….”
His heart warms at Larry’s gentle smile.
“Hmm. About what kind of piece that is….”
“Oh? It’s intense right from the start?”
“Your blood needs to run hot to achieve victory.”
How long had they been chatting about the piece and various other things?
Johann looks out the window with confusion.
“Huh? But where are we going?”
This isn’t the way home.
“We’re here. Ah, this is it.”
Screech!
Johann looks puzzled at some building where the car has parked.
“Why here?”
“Because if you were Johann, you would have suggested coming here.”
“…Oh.”
That’s correct.
‘If only he could show this kind of intuition with Ada too.’
Johann erases the impossible thought from his mind and looks at the musical instrument shop, Donati & Michelle.
Ding-a-ling!
‘Ah.’
As he opens the door and enters, the distinctive scent of musical instruments greets him first.
Inside the not-so-spacious shop, musical instruments line up under warm, sunlight-like lighting.
‘Violin, cello, viola, contrabass.’
In addition, orchestra instruments like flutes and clarinets, along with conductor’s batons, fill the paint-peeled wooden shelves and glass display cases.
How did Larry know about this place?
“I came here when I was young.”
He had come to buy a violin when he was very little.
“I see….”
“Welcome.”
An old man in his eighties approaches with a warm smile, and Larry extends his hand.
“You’re still running the shop.”
“…Oh! You’re that little customer from back then! I remember, I remember. You came holding your father’s hand, didn’t you? Do your strings still break suddenly?”
“Wow.”
He never expected him to remember.
“Haha. It’s been a long time since I quit violin, so I don’t break strings anymore.”
“Oh my… So I’ve lost a regular customer. Or perhaps I’m gaining a new one?”
The old man’s subtle gaze touches Johann and then falls away.
“What instrument did you come to see?”
“Violin, right Johann?”
“Mm… Yes.”
Josef Eduard Anna Strauss, Josef II, could handle various instruments, but among them, the one he handled best was definitely the violin, which was convenient for storage and portability.
“Could you show us a violin that would suit this child?”
“Of course. Gladly.”
The old man smiles warmly again, bowing his upper body to meet Johann’s eyes.
“Young man, may I touch your body briefly?”
Johann looks at the old man.
Eyes piercingly clear and deep.
Johann glances at Larry once and nods, and the old man, smiling innocently as if to show he’s harmless, gently touches from Johann’s fingertips to his chin in a stroking motion.
Then, nodding as if he understands, the old man goes to find and bring several violins.
“If you’re at the introductory stage for violin, I’d like to recommend these ones.”
‘Oh?’
Both Johann and Larry are surprised.
Looking at Johann’s hands with thick calluses here and there, it would be hard to think of him as a beginner.
“Calluses from instruments and calluses from exercise are different. Hehe.”
“…Haha.”
He’s been found out.
“Ahem. Since you’ll be using it, you choose, Johann.”
“Okay.”
Johann slowly closes his eyes and opens them, then picks up the first violin and assumes the proper posture.
Ziiing!
‘Oh?’
Now the old man is surprised.
A clear and deep resonance that couldn’t be thought of as coming from a beginner.
‘Hmm. I must be getting old.’
He mistook someone who wasn’t a beginner for a beginner.
‘Is it time for me to retire now?’
The old man smiles bitterly with a melancholy heart.
Meanwhile, Johann frowns.
‘Young.’
The sound emanating through the sound box doesn’t stretch long but becomes blurred and disappears midway. Also, the overall tone is high and flashy.
Not the refined splendor of nobility, but a flashiness like small fireworks.
It’s also a sound that would completely captivate a reckless young child who can’t think deeply.
That’s what Josef II was saying.
Johann puts down the violin and picks up the next one, drawing the bow across it.
“Hmm….”
“Why? Don’t you like it?”
“Hehe. I’m sorry. It seems I made a poor recommendation.”
As the old man turns around after collecting the violins, Johann narrows his eyes.
‘Will he be able to find the right one this time?’
Josef II had talent that might have surpassed ‘the Waltz King, Johann Baptist Strauss II’ if only he hadn’t lived killing his talent according to his father’s will.
Who knows how much time it would take to find a violin that could satisfy him.
‘In that case, it would be better to….’
Wouldn’t it be better to search through someone who can know the form of sound just by looking at the instrument’s appearance?
Johann closes his eyes and accesses the library again.
“Search. Violin maker.”
Johann reaches toward one of the countless orbs flying toward him as if they had been waiting for this moment—toward a head-sized orb that glows brilliantly and warmly.
‘Oh?’
Johann is surprised as he opens his eyes.
Immersed in nostalgia, immersed in ecstasy, sending praise.
At the scenery he’s seeing after so long.
At meeting kindred spirits.
At the excellent artworks made with such care.
‘All the instruments here were made by one person… no, one family.’
The foundation passed down from generation to generation. The enforced rules. The framework.
Eighty percent of the string instruments here are made under such standardized rules.
Tap tap!
Johann taps a nearby cello with his index finger and nods.
‘Good wood was used.’
A single artwork made from wood that had been carefully dried for a long time, meticulously carved and bent, with varnish delicately applied. Just looking at it, one could fully sense the tremendous time and effort that had been invested.
‘But this style seems familiar somehow… Huh? Why is that here?’
Johann tilts his head as he looks at the violin placed inside a glass case at the very top of a tall shelf.
‘That belongs to this person?’
The being he was currently absorbing from, ‘The Great Master, Nicolao Amati’. Seeing that very person’s work, Johann tilted his head again.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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