Chapter 22: The Thank You Gift

  At this point, Viktor's mood was extremely poor. If the pianoforte could not satisfy his needs, then the newly written piano concerto would only barely meet the standards of performance in the Salle des Psaumes, and it would be difficult to satisfy the nobles, musicians, and critics who came to hear his music, and perhaps afterwards he would even be severely criticized by Wolf in "Musical Review", or perhaps in the future there would never again be an opportunity to receive an invitation from the Musical Society or the Duke to perform a second time at the Salle des Psaumes.

  Such musicians Viktor has seen many, every year there are several excellent musicians who, due to their first concert at Carnegie Hall not achieving the expected success, take a long time to move from "excellent" to "famous", and some even become depressed, gradually becoming mediocre. As for those who despair and commit suicide after failing in their first Carnegie Hall concert, there is usually one every two or three years. Sometimes musicians' spirits are indeed very sensitive, delicate and fragile.

  So, when he heard Lucien's blind interjection and was severely judged by Xavier, Victor couldn't help but feel a wave of annoyance. However, he understood that Lucien was trying to help him out of kindness, so he suppressed his thick voice and said: "Lucien, thank you for your idea, but if combining the pipe organ with the indoor string piano could solve all the problems, then things would have been settled long ago."

  Rhein looked at Lucien with a smile that was not quite a smile, as if expecting his response. Meanwhile, Lott, Hierodotus and Phyllis glared at Lucien in disgust, interrupting the gentlemen's discussion, which was not a well-bred behavior. And he was talking nonsense. They all muttered under their breath: "Indeed, a rough, arrogant, ignorant man from the slums."

  Although it was only for a short while, Lucien didn't quite understand the two books "Piano Making and Tuning" and "Modern Piano Mechanics", and had only read the first dozen or so pages. However, he still roughly grasped the main differences between the two types of pianos and modern pianos. Comparing this to the structure revealed by the opened harpsichord, he already had a draft answer in mind: "Perhaps it's possible to use some mechanical device to amplify the distance of finger pressing, making the sound volume produced by the hammer striking the strings larger."

  Lucien spoke vaguely, completely setting his standards at the level of an ordinary person who had occasionally heard about two defects in ancient pianos in a musician's association and was influenced by the Altor music atmosphere in daily life, without using more precise descriptions such as vibration amplitude.

  "Amplify? How to amplify?" Xavier's gaze became even more severe, his white eyebrows furrowed tightly together. This three-hundred-year-old instrument had developed fiercely, and it wasn't that no one had ever had similar ideas before, but after the previous few failures, no one dared try again.

  In the bewildered gaze of Victor, Rhein and others, Lucien took down a long flute from the instrument rack, walked to the book desk on one side, picked up an ink bottle as a fulcrum, and demonstrated the principle of leverage: "I happened to see a farmer use a wooden stick and a small stone to pry open a large stone. Later, I found that life is full of such phenomena. Doesn't this just enlarge the distance between top and bottom?"

  "Like that..." Xavier didn't refute, but pondered: "But the speed of striking strings becomes slower..." As a harpsichord maker, he soon discovered another problem with such a change.

  Originally just curious and playful, but when Lucien demonstrated, Laine became serious and solemn, at this time he took a step forward, smiled and said: "Great, Lucien you actually discovered the principle of leverage in life, really good at observing and summarizing."

  Lucien appeared bewildered on the surface, seemingly not understanding what Laine was saying, but in his heart he was extremely shocked. How did Laine know about and also refer to it as the principle of leverage?

  It seems that Viktor, Felice, Lotte and even Xavier did not know or notice this phenomenon at all, or if they did, they could not summarize it or give it a name.

  "The principle of leverage was summarized on Earth very early, and by deducing the general situation of the continent from Alto's living standards, it is found that the principle of leverage is not a strange thing. It may have appeared in other countries on the mainland long ago, but because this world pursues divine techniques and bloodline power, the spread of knowledge is slow." Lucien secretly speculated that such a summary of life phenomena had not yet reached the level of taboo for the Church, after all, there was a truly divine Church to compare with Earth's, which was much more confident, and even the development of music had not been suppressed. Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to stand up and demonstrate it himself.

  Rhein saw the strange expressions of the crowd and explained with a gentle smile: "This is a phenomenon of life, I also heard it when I was traveling in Holm, it has been discovered and summarized by local scholars for hundreds of years, called the lever principle. But Lucien, did you notice that the distance moved and the size of the force are inversely proportional?"

  "Of course I know." Lucien muttered, his face squeezing out a puzzled expression, "Really? Is that so? Can we get several of these levers together?"

  Lucien only prepared to say so much, the three-level lever transmission method is not something that a poor citizen can understand, as for whether it can inspire them, and to what extent, it's not something he can control.

  Her eyes lit up like a silver moon: "Together? Multi-level transmission? Let's try it." She walked over to the pipe organ, whispered with Xavier, and pulled out a quill pen and paper to draw something.

  Quietly watching the scene, Lucien seemed as strange as Lott and Phyllis, but in fact he was calmly observing Rhein's actions, muttering to himself: "He is indeed eccentric, not just a superficial violinist or troubadour."

  Victor watched intently and expectantly as Laine and Xavier bustled about, eventually joining in the discussion himself to offer professional advice from a musician's perspective.

  As a result, Lucien, Lott and Phyllis were left at the door.

  For Lucien, who had caused such a change, Lott was filled with interest and finally opened his mouth to speak to him: "Actually, I have also seen such phenomena before, but I have never thought deeply about it. Lucien, you possess a rare quality. How did you think of it at that time?"

  Phyllis, though also somewhat curious about Lucien, pointed to the busy Rhein and Viktor in the music room: "Quiet. If you want to chat, go downstairs." Then she turned her head, intently watching the scene of the three men busily working together, seemingly lost in thought.

  Lotte hadn't yet reached the point where she wanted to get familiar with Lucien, and was more interested in the modifications to the clavichord, so she nodded slightly and stopped talking, walking into the music room to watch from a moderate distance.

  As for Hierod, Colin, and Renny, they were not very pleased with Lucien's show-off behavior, feeling dissatisfied and disdainful. They didn't bother to talk to him, instead continuing to watch Viktor and the others, secretly hoping that the makeover would fail and Lucien would be scolded severely.

  Lucien was very curious about the effect of modifying the harpsichord, and it also related to whether borrowing a dictionary would be successful later. So, he calmly read "Piano Making and Tuning" and "Modern Piano Mechanics" two books. The three-level lever transmission method is only an important point that distinguishes modern pianos from ancient pianos, but not all of them.

  …………

  A loud and thick sound rose in the piano room, then subsided, becoming delicate and soft, like a whispered conversation at night.

  "Too good, really too great." Viktor's face was flushed and almost radiant with joy, his mood extremely good, although there were still many problems with the pipe organ renovation, he had already taken a crucial step forward. "Thank you, Laine, thank you, Mr. Xavier."

  "Should I be able to create a wonderful instrument, it would be my honor."

  Meanwhile, Lucien became increasingly convinced of Rhein's eccentricity; not only had he rigged up a triple-action escapement mechanism, but also combined it with a repetition check system, allowing the wing-shaped pianoforte to be played rapidly and in quick succession: "Fortunately, he hasn't come up with any other gadgets, or I would have thought he'd seen a modern piano."

  After giving Raine and Xavier a warm hug each, Viktor walked up to Lucien with open arms and hugged him: "Thanks also to you, Lucien. Without you, we would have found it hard to think along these lines. Thanks be to Providence for giving us the most crucial guidance at the most critical moment."

  "Nothing, Mr. Viktor, I just voiced my own reckless thoughts, didn't think it would actually work." Lucien was not used to hugging a man and felt a bit awkward.

  Victor released Lucien, laughing loudly and sincerely saying: "No matter what, thank you, Lucien. Whatever you want, just ask, I'll satisfy it if I can."

  This remark made Lotte, Phyllis and Hierodotus look at Lucien with a slight tinge of jealousy; to receive such thanks from Mr. Viktor was really too wonderful.

  And without even getting Mr. Viktor's permission, Annie and Colin, who were following him to learn music, became even more envious and jealous, this sentence implies that they were very clear, indicating that Mr. Viktor was willing to accept Lucien as a true student - a real music learner, which is the best thing each of them has ever dreamed of.

  Lucien's mind was preoccupied with other thoughts and he blurted out:

  "Can you lend me 'A General Service List of English Words'?"

  "Hmph." Rein couldn't help but chuckle, the request was really too low, even Lotte and Phyllis with complex emotions had their mouths curved up in a smile. Didn't Lucien understand Mr. Viktor's meaning?

  Victor laughed heartily, and in his eyes, Lucien had become a kind and honest young man: "You can borrow that 'Universal Dictionary' anytime, is there anything else you need?"

  Lucien found it strange that Laine, Phyllis and others reacted like this, hesitated a bit, felt embarrassed to speak out, thinking that his request was too high, after all, the main idea and transformation were completed by Laine.

  "He finally knew how precious Mr. Viktor's gratitude was." This thought echoed in the minds of Annie, Colin and others as they looked at Lucien with complex eyes.

  "Never mind, Lucien," Victor chuckled thickly. "Don't be shy, go ahead and ask."

  Lucien nodded and asked sincerely:

  "Mr. Victor, can learning characters be exempt from tuition?"

  "Hahaha." Laine suddenly burst out laughing, unable to maintain her elegant image.