Sir Weissenasche was seated in the theater’s audience seats. As a judge, he was seated at the front.
‘Singers’ from all over Norland were ascending and descending the stage one after another.
So far, Sir Weissenasche has audited twenty-three fame-seeking contestants. Of those twenty-three people, twenty-one performed so horribly that Sir Weissenasche felt like sighing.
He had already lowered his standards enormously per Joshua’s instructions. As long as a contestant’s singing ability could reach that of a bard or minstrel that could be seen all over the road, they will pass the audition.
Regretfully, as matters stood, Sir Weissenasche has yet to find a single individual who was able to properly perform a folksong or epic. Nor did he find any contestant that resembled a ‘singer.’
Most of them were completely tone deaf. Besides those were people that would forget their lyrics in the middle of singing. Worst yet, some got on stage and didn’t say a word.
The only two contestants that passed the audition were people with experience as bards. But, Sir Weissenasche felt that the songs they’ve performed were extremely low quality.
The music of this world was not so cheaply produced like earth’s music. For ordinary people, apart from the folksongs of the bards and minstrels, very rarely do they have the opportunity to listen to music.
Sir Weissenasche believed that the reason why World’s Singers was able to gather this many people was all due to the Flower of Farucci and Belle’s charm.
Many people who had absolutely no talent or experience with music decided to participate all in hopes of being able to meet the Flower of Farucci or Belle.
Regretfully, their hopes and dreams were ultimately vain. ‘Stansfield’ was the only audition judge. In fact, Sir Weissenasche handed the audition for the day after tomorrow to his trusted aide to handle.
“Sure enough, was His Highness Joshua’s hopes simply too high?”
Sir Weissenasche looked at the competitors application forms. Red ‘X’s’ were all over them.
Sir Weissenasche felt that Joshua had excessive expectations in being able to find singers with ‘stunning’ voices among Norland’s commoners or nobles.
But, even if that was the case, Sir Weissenasche did not give up. He placed down his clipboard and made a gesture toward the attendant on the stage.
“Next.”
After eliminating the twenty-fourth contestant, Sir Weissenasche had the attendant bring up the twenty-fifth contestant.
The moment the twenty-fifth contestant got on stage, he immediately caught Sir Weissenasche’s attention... He was simply too tall and robust. He stood nearly too meters tall and was donned in leather armor and a horned helmet.
Dressed like that, one cannot possibly link him with a singer on stage. Rather, he resembled a warrior that would hunt magic beasts.
Sir Weissenasche calmed his mind and made a gesture signaling for him to begin.
He was hoping that this mercenary-looking fellow would give him a surprise and conquer everyone with his voice. Unfortunately, Sir Weissenasche’s hopes were ultimately crushed.
The singing voice of this mercenary-looking fellow was as rough as his appearance. It was simply intolerable to listen to. Even ‘rough’ would be a pleasant description of his voice. A more accurate description would be...’purely shouting with all one’s might.’
If the evaluation of the twenty plus contestants before this fellow were ‘unqualified,’ then, this fellow would be...
Sir Weissenasche waved his hand to order for his attendant to stop the mercenary-looking fellow’s performance.
“Stop! This is enough!”
The attendant covered his ears as he walked onto the stage to loudly shout at that mercenary.
“Stop?”
That attendant’s tone sounded rather unpleasant. On top of that, he interrupted the performance. As such, the mercenary was unable to contain his anger and took a step toward the attendant.
His tall and robust build was extremely oppressing. He seemed to be planning to use the method that mercenaries would always use to settle problems — violence.
Seeing that things seemed to be going out of control on the stage, Sir Weissenasche stood up with the intention of calling for the mage guards hired to maintain orders.
Sure enough, it was too difficult to allow such boorish people to get on stage!
The two mages behind Sir Weissenasche started walking toward the stage. They were going to ‘persuade’ this mercenary to calm down. But, the mercenary only got more emotional.
The mages had underestimated that mercenary. One of them was pushed away by him. The other competitors that were waiting for their turn also started to panic after seeing this scuffle.
Gradually, things started going out of control. At the moment when Sir Weissenasche was about to permit the two mages to use offensive magic, a young woman dressed in a long white dress suddenly walked out from the crowd.
That young woman walked toward the mercenary...
“Step aside!” The mercenary was about to push that woman away like he did the two mages.
But, the next second, that woman extended her slender arm forward and grabbed his wrist. The mercenary immediately attempted to struggle free but was unable to. That woman’s strength was simply too strong.
“Calm yourself,” said the young woman with a stern tone.
Even though the woman was dressed like a wise and virtuous lady, she was emitting a blade-sharp imposing aura. That aura intimidated the mercenary.
The mercenary slowly pulled back his hand and calmed down. He moved his wrist around. There was a dull pain from being grabbed by that woman.
Seeing that the mercenary had calmed down, the two mages were prepared to use their magic to knock him unconscious. But, they were stopped by Sir Weissenasche.
“My apologies, I’ve made too impulsive of a judgement earlier and ended up interrupting your performance,” Sir Weissenasche instructed the two mages to step down.
This competition was to be a stage for all citizens of Norland to exhibit their voice. While Sir Weissenasche was qualified to determine that the mercenary was incapable of ascending onto an actual stage, he was not qualified to interrupt his performance.
Having realized that, Sir Weissenasche offered his apology to the mercenary. Seeing the nearly 1.8 meters tall and difficult-to-handle-looking young woman standing next to him, the mercenary reluctantly accepted Sir Weissenasche’s apology.
Soon, the audition resumed. Hearing the mercenary’s ‘deeply emotional’ performance, Sir Weissenasche began to regret giving him the chance to perform again.
But, after Sir Weissenasche started getting used to that boorish and rough singing voice, he strangely started having a feeling of... being charmed by that voice?!
“Congratulations, you’ve passed.”
Sir Weissenasche approved of the mercenary’s performance and qualified him to participate in the next round.
Having received ‘you’ve passed,’ the mercenary nodded his head in satisfaction and walked down the stage. The next person to get on the stage was the young woman who stopped the mercenary from acting violent.
Messai walked onto the stage. At this moment, the imposing air she had when she stopped the mercenary earlier had completely disappeared. Facing the crowd, she grabbed her dress and didn’t know what to do.
The female knight was hesitating. It has been over ten years since she last sang. At this moment, a message popped up before her eyes. Seeing it, she gained resolution.
‘Knight Messai, advance to the next round. This is an order.’
The message came from Herolia.