"Sigh…" Lainie sat dejectedly on the bench as she looked at her notebook.
She crossed out one of the nas in it once again, each of the nas struck out diminishes her hope.
"No luck again today…" She mumbled as closed her notebook and looked around.
The busy surroundings drowned the anxiousness she was feeling. She had to assemble her team within a week's ti because the chanics for the composer's match would be around two weeks.
She could not afford to fight with a team who just t their team mbers at the ti of the performance!
"What to do…" Lainie teared up, feeling lost.
"Lainie!" Just then, a soft familiar voice ca from a certain direction. For so reason, this voice gave her a deep sense of relief and assurance.
"ntor…" She put up a smile and greeted Eli as she walked with Randel and Max as they approached her.
"You looked dejected… Are you having trouble with the recruitnt?" Eli asked.
At first, Eli wanted to accompany Lainie to go around and help her convince people, however, Lainie was afraid to trouble her when she knew that not only was she doing her duties as a coach but also as a mber of the committee.
But now, it looks like her student might even lose the battle before it starts.
"Well… it looks like it ntor…" She blushed in embarrassnt and answered shyly. "I feel like I let ntor down." She continued with her head hung low.
"Cheer up, we'll find our mbers soon. I'll join you in the search so that we can persuade more people to co." Eli patted Lainie's shoulders and gave a reassuring smile.
"Yes, I'll tell the others to help too!" Max also tried to ease Lainie's blues with a few words.
Randel only nodded, but his eyes also thought deeply of sothing. Then he bent to whisper close to Eli with a few words.
"Hmmm… alright, that works too." Eli nodded as she listened to Randels words.
Soon, Randel dragged Max away leaving the two ladies alone.
"Don't give up. The day is still young, so we can still do a lot of things." Eli placed her hands on Lainie's. "We can start by going to the string section's venue, it should be the third round for Raya's section today."
"Alright…" Lainie could only nod absentmindedly.
When she ca to, they were already at the spectator's seat watching the auditions proceed.
"The jury is quite harsh. They will imdiately tell if the students are qualified or not." Lainie comnted in a whisper.
"Well, they could no longer afford to tally all the scores for the winners of each cluster and then announce it later. It is quite inefficient for so many contenders." Eli softly replied.
"Oh, this seed like the contestants from the fourth cluster. That ans Raya was already done with her match…" Lainie realized as the number of the next contestant was called.
The two ladies frowned, they had not heard the news on Raya and Athena's side. Does that an that Raya was not able to advance to the finals?
As if on cue, a commotion suddenly arose in the contender's area.
The venue of the audition is a small auditorium, and so it was part of the etiquette to maintain a quiet atmosphere. And so everyone in the hall could hear the commotion even from the audience seats.
"I firmly object to the judges' decision! This girl should not even be granted a slot in the finals because of her malicious actions!"
In the hall, the accusative voice of an old woman rang loudly. The jury, even the current contestant, had no choice but to pause her performance because of it.
"Madam, will you please calm down? We can talk about it outside the auditorium, we cannot disturb the next cluster here." One of the organizers tried to calm the woman down, he was already sweating profusely because he was intimidated by the old woman's stern aura.
"Teacher, the organizers were right… we can appeal outside… I'm sure that the jury will hear it once we explained the matter right away…They would not turn their heads from justice just because the other party is the Seirende Queen's student." Following the dialogue was a young lady's voice.
When Eli heard the word 'Seirende Queen," the aura around her turned cold. Soone is slandering Raya and Queen Tehila it seems.
"Let's take a look, Raya is in trouble." She looked at Lainie and stood up hastily.
The jury could also no longer set the matters aside. One of them stood and asked the organizers to notify the pause of the audition while they attended the matter.
It was not because the one who was causing a commotion was important in their eyes. It was because of the fact that the incident had insensitively brought the na of the royalty of the Empire!
"May I know what this commotion is all about?" The head jury imdiately stepped to the place of commotion and looked at the pair of the old woman and a young lady.
On the other side was the helpless Raya and Dean Athena, who accompanied the student on behalf of Queen Tehila.
At that sa mont, Eli and Lainie also arrived.
"Your excellency, this student here must be stripped of her spot in the finals! She is malicious enough to tamper with my student's violin!"
Just as the old woman was saying this, her student lifted the 'tampered' violin in her hands, the bridge of the violin was misaligned and the top plate was looking unusual.
One of the juries took a glove and carefully inspected the violin. His expression darkened imdiately as he declared "The violin is in a bad state, the sound post was misaligned so much that a little more playing, it would be dislodged."
"Boohoo!! That's why I could not understand why my violin sounded so different earlier. I was already performing when I felt like sothing was unusual and so I did not even have the chance to play appropriately! Boohoo!" As if on cue, the accusing student wept in a heartbroken manner.
The jury frowned upon seeing the state of the violin and hearing the teacher-student tandem narration, but they maintained a neutral expression. "And why would two of you bla the young lady over here?"
They looked at Raya who was dumbfounded and speechless over what happened. It was obvious from her face that she was lost and unable to react because of the sudden accusation.
"It's like this. My student was cued before this malicious girl during the audition. Since there were only two contestants away before her turn, she already took out her violin and set it up.
But because my student needed to quickly excuse herself in the restroom. She kindly asked this girl to hold her violin for a little bit and imdiately run to the restroom.
By the ti my student ca back, it was already her turn to perform and so she no longer had the ti to check if there was sothing wrong with her instrunt!
And she only found out about it in the middle of the performance! Tell , how could she even play appropriately with a violin that is about to break apart in the middle of the performance?!"
The teacher was fuming in anger while she was narrating the story, she did not forget to look at Raya with disdain before she continued.
"I would not have to be this angry if I saw that she also did not qualify for the final round, but for her to be scored highest among her cluster! This is too unfair!"
"I have already told you, that I did not tamper with the violin at all. I handled it with care and I have not even the slightest chance to scrutinize it because of my nervousness!" At this point, Raya was already on the verge of crying.
"Madam, please tone down your accusations, you were only narrating the story when we coaches were not even there to witness the scene." This ti, Athena supported the trembling Raya in a protective manner.
"Hah! You said that I do not have a witness? I have these three students here! They all belong to the sa batch as my student and that girl!" She then pointed at the three reluctant students who were strangely familiar to Raya.
The queuing for a batch was actually done in fives. When the batch is about to perform, they have to go on backstage to wait for their call, and so during the ti of the said incident only these three students could have testified of what really happened backstage.
The head jury massaged his forehead in distress. This is quite a complicated situation.
With no other choice he sternly asked the three students, "Tell honestly, did you see this student here tamper her violin?"
The students shuddered at the Head Jury's question, then they anxiously looked at Raya and their faces changed from worry to helplessness.
After that one finally answered, "Sorry head jury, but I want to keep my conscience clear. I saw this student tamper the violin in my own eyes."
To Raya's dismay, the other two witnesses testified too, "We saw it two, she sneakily displaced the bridge and the sound post!"
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