Sitting at the audience stand, Sir Weissenasche was holding a strong-smelling beverage. This strong-smelling beverage was known as the ‘brown bean juice’ among the nobles.
But, Joshua instead calls it ‘coffee.’ As such, Sir Weissenasche started calling it ‘coffee’ too.
Joshua had created multiple trends in Norland. His trends even reached Farucci. Likely, many young playwrights and singers of Farucci will begin following Joshua’s footstep to create works of art in the style of ‘Beauty and the Demon’ and ‘Léon: The Demon.’
Naturally, Sir Weissenasche would also have to follow Joshua’s footsteps.
However, it was not easy for him to complete the mission entrusted to him by the Chaos Demon. Sir Weissenasche took a sip of the coffee before taking a look at the pile of contestant applications. At this moment, he truly realized what it meant to be both physically and emotionally exhausted.
After the stunning performances from that nun called Lia and the Blackwood Elf called Luvita, the following contestants started to stray more and more away from the norms.
It was so much that Sir Weissenasche has seen multiple acrobatic performances on the stage!
“Let’s call it a day. Tell them to stop accepting new sign-ups.”
Sir Weissenasche instructed his attendant to tell the others outside to stop signing up new contestants. As it was approaching late night, even if coffee was able to stimulate his mind, Sir Weissenasche’s biological clock would still not allow him to stay up all night.
The attendant immediately left upon receiving the order. Sir Weissenasche flipped through the documents before him.
Unwittingly, he had already audited two hundred and thirty-two people. Only seven contestants still remain to be audited.
“Sir Weissenasche, how many contestants passed today?”
Joshua’s voice suddenly sounded from behind Sir Weissenasche.
He turned around and saw that Joshua was seated right next to him.
“Twenty-three... Your Highness Joshua.” Asked that question, Sir Weissenasche couldn’t help himself from sighing.
“Although you’ve given all the citizens of Norland an opportunity to be on stage, the commoners that have not received special training, their performances on stage... no, it can’t even be said to be performances. Of those twenty-three individuals, many of them only barely passed after I let go of my standards toward art.”
“Are things... really that bad?” Joshua could see that Sir Weissneasche was extremely exhausted. It seemed like he had aged ten years.
He could imagine how much the audition had ruined him.
“I believe that the citizens of Norland should have artistic blood in them. Perhaps... Joshua, you can hold a spell-chanting competition?” Ciri whispered to Joshua. She offered a proposal to him.
“Eh... Gray Mage Lursk can hold a competition like that,” Joshua turned to look at the contestant on the stage.
It was the two hundred and thirty-second contestant. Judging from his outfit, he seemed to be a... chef? His chef attire was extremely professional. But, his voice sounded like rumbling noise.
Joshua felt that if this chef attempted to openly sing on the street early in the morning, people would rush him from all sides to beat him up.
“Are there really... no good civilian contestants?” With a hopeful mentality, Joshua asked Sir Weissenasche.
“Of course there are,” Sir Weissenasche flipped through the directory of contestants to reveal a profile page to Joshua, “When the audition first started, there was a contestant by the name of Lia. Her singing... Your Highness Joshua, I swear that her singing is definitely at the level of an expert opera singer!”
“Lia.”
Reading that name, Joshua recalled some information the dark elf informed him.
That included the nun by the name of Lia.
The Nation of the Holy Church dispatched that nun to participate in a singing competition conducted by a demon? Furthermore, that nun’s singing was at the level of an expert opera singer?!
Joshua was able to visualize many of the hidden connections. But, since she was a contestant that could perform on stage, he was not concerned about her origin and whether or not she might be a threat to him.
After all, the reason why he was holding this ‘World’s Singers’ was so that he could acquire TV ratings in Norland.
Soon after their conversation, the chef contestant was eliminated by Sir Weissenasche.
With that, the two hundred and thirty-third contestant got on stage.
When the contestant got on stage, Sir Weissenasche couldn’t help himself from frowning slightly.
The attire of the contestant was simply too... shabby. It was no longer in the category of an ordinary civilian. He resembled those demihumans living in Squirrel Street.
But, he was clearly a human...
“Holme?” Sir Weissenasche called out the name of the contestant. The man on the stage nodded his head. It seemed like he was not used to the stage light.
“Please begin your singing performance.”
Sir Weissenasche was not hopeful of this contestant.
Holme stood on the stage and hesitated for a short while before finally starting his performance...
As Sir Weissenasche expected, how could a person who had difficulties living life normally have time to practice singing?
His performance does not sound like singing at all. Instead, he was simply spouting words from his mouth... intolerable and coarse words to the ears.
However, his words seemed to have a rhythm to them.
Sir Weissenasche had thought about stopping the performance on multiple occasions. But, in the end, he held back his anger and endured through it all.
After a minute and half, the contestant by the name of Holme finally finished ‘singing’ his song.
“That’s enough. Next contestant.”
After hearing all those amateurish performances, this was the only one that brought anger upon Sir Weissenasche. He instructed for his attendant to bring contestant Holme away.
His two attendants walked toward the stage. Their pace was very fast. If it wasn’t for the fact that there were other contestants behind him, the two of them might even drag out the filthy beggar from Norland National Theater.
“Wait!”
But, at this moment, Joshua shouted to stop the two attendants from acting roughly. Then, he waved his hand to instruct them to move to the side.
“Did you know that there aren’t many people here that will appreciate your... performance?” Joshua stood up to look at Holme.
“Mi..Milord, my apologies... My performance earlier cannot be considered singing at all,” Holme has already anticipated this outcome. How could the singing style from the underground prison possibly be accepted by these grand individuals baptised by operatic songs all day long when even the residents on the streets of Norland refused to accept them?
“Oh no, I am merely one of the several people present in the audience. That being said, I am very curious as to where you learned your... style of performance.”
When Joshua heard Holme’s performance, he was shocked. He even doubted if he wasn’t in a magic revolutionary world but instead the seventies on earth.
The shock was no different from a Beethoven appreciation symphony suddenly turning into an Eminem concert.
That said, Joshua was not against utilizing World’s Singers to establish a whole new genre of music in this world.