Romancing the Son of Heaven

Stratagem 33: You Don't Need to Be a Natural Talent! (2)

By this time, the musicians that had gathered in the pavilion were already shocked silly. While all of them admired their king for his prowess in battle and the fact that he had managed to establish peace for such a long time, they couldn't say that they believed that he had much of an interest in music.

It wasn't strange. This was something that was true for most dragons. It couldn't be used in a fight and while it might be something interesting to pass some time, it wasn't worthwhile to pursue to mastery for most of them. Music, to most of the dragon folk, was merely entertainment and would never go further than that. Their king naturally wasn't an exception.

At the very least, they had always believed so until now. For the previous anniversaries of his coronation, while he might've sat through a song or two, he had never shown much interest. But today, not only had he had them gather in a specific building for this, he had even stayed around for all of them to play once.

Yes, it might not have been the song that they had originally chosen to present, but it was something that the king had specifically requested. That alone seemed to show that somehow, since the last time there was a big celebration for the anniversary of his coronation, there had been a change in his feelings regarding this art that they loved.

Nobody said so out loud, but some couldn't help but think to themselves that maybe this had to do with the king's private life. When a dragon fell in love, their feelings were usually like a tempest that swept through their lives, laying waste to everything the person had believed to know about themselves.

When falling for someone, even the toughest warrior might discover their heart for art and poetry, trying to serenade their beloved with a new verse or a composition every day, while a scholar might suddenly pick up a sword to demonstrate the recipient of their affection that they were worthy of them and fight off anyone who dared to compete with them.

Surely, the king wasn't any different. And everyone knew that he was pursuing the Son of Heaven and had been doing so for quite some time. Maybe while doing so, he had discovered that music could be a language of its own, and one that might be quite suitable to woo a god.

If that was the truth, then he would probably develop a new appreciation for this skill that they thought of highly, especially if this attempt proved to be successful. That was definitely something that they were looking forward to.

And who knew? The Son of Heaven was rumored to be a bit of a scholar himself, somebody interested in the fine arts, in music as well as everything else. Even if he might not be specialized in anything, he had a rudimentary understanding of how to play and would probably enjoy a display like this a lot. So maybe that had also influenced the king and caused his taste to become more refined.

After having gotten through the first part, they all looked at the king with a faint feeling of excitement, wondering what would happen next.

Qiu Ling gave a hum, quite satisfied with what he had been able to achieve. "Very well. This was really enjoyable. I'm sorry for springing this on you last minute but I think that you all did very well. Now, since you've prepared specifically for this event, I won't keep you from presenting what you originally wanted to." Saying so, he glanced toward the window. "It is somewhat getting late though.

"I would suggest that we limit this to a few players per group who would like to present something to me personally. For the rest, Scholar An Bai should arrive shortly. I'm not ashamed to admit that he has a much better understanding of music than I do so presenting to him will likely get you more appreciation." He gave a faint smile at that, feeling that it was something he could say without pressure since there weren't any of the gods around. Ah, he really still had a lot to learn!