“The young ladies of the De Mare family are so talented! The second daughter excels in theology, and now the eldest daughter is composing!”

The nun in charge of hymns at the great cathedral, who received the score submitted by Isabella, showed a broad smile. Isabella, who was displeased at being placed in parallel with Ariadne, forced a slight smile, then changed her mind.

How grand was the Apostle of Acereto incident, yet to be considered on the same level without lifting a finger – isn’t this a profitable deal?

“It’s a full score. We’ll practice separately, then on the day we all gather to practice, we’ll invite the composer. Please come and see if what you imagined is being realized well.”

Isabella, who gave the nun in charge a radiant smile like May peonies, resolved to properly show off to her friends that day.

Her half-sister, who was nothing special, was receiving excessive praise from the marketplace. It was time to show who the true queen of San Carlo’s peers was.

Isabella, being a proper lady who had her debutante last year, could invite her other debutante friends under her own name.

Another privilege of debutantes was that they could make day trips to respectable places like churches, palaces, and friends’ homes without their mother’s accompaniment.

The great cathedral where Isabella’s composed Missa Brevis would have its first ensemble was the perfect place to invite her debutante friends.

It was a day to listen to the ensemble, move with friends to the nearby cardinal’s residence for afternoon tea, receive the usual praise for beauty, return some compliments, and disperse with a sense of fulfillment.

Of course, Lucrezia, who would die for Isabella, insisted on participating, saying that a mother couldn’t miss the historic day when her eldest daughter’s composition was first performed.

Despite Isabella’s annoyance, Lucrezia, who firmly promised to stay far away and not interfere, eventually ended up accompanying Isabella’s social gathering.

Arabella, who really wanted to see her composition being performed, also begged to go with her mother and was allowed to join.

Isabella’s friends were gathering at the great cathedral. Julia, the daughter of Marquis Baldassar, was from the most prestigious family among them, and Camelia from the Castiglione baronial family, three years older, was a ‘friend’ selected to fulfill various roles.

She was the most beautiful lady in society before Isabella’s appearance, and Baron Castiglione had a lot of income from the silk farming business in addition to the money from his fief, so despite her relatively low status, she had a well-off fiancé.

Camelia, of low status, was only welcomed by Isabella when she brought her fiancé, Ottavio, the young master of Count Contarini, and his friends, rather than when Isabella displayed her ‘friends’, the beautiful young ladies, like a bouquet of flowers.

Today too, Ottavio and his friends had been invited through Camelia. Among them was Count Cesare de Como, the biggest catch in San Carlo’s society receiving the most attention from the young ladies, except for Prince Alfonso.

The people on the guest list were arriving one after another. Isabella, who had set up flower decorations and refreshment tables in the front row of the great cathedral and was leisurely waiting for people, brightened up when she saw Camelia, who arrived first.

“Camelia! You arrived early.”

“No, Lady De Mare. Thank you for inviting me.”

“Oh, I told you to call me comfortably. It’s my first composition, so who else would I call if not our Camelia, who has deep knowledge of music?”

Isabella, who greeted Camelia warmly, sat down and chatted about various things. Isabella, when making eye contact and focusing on the other person, was so charming that even another woman could fall for her.

Meanwhile, Julia, the daughter of Marquis Baldassar, also arrived, and Camelia’s fiancé Ottavio and his friends arrived one after another. The front row VIP seats of the great cathedral were starting to get crowded.

“Ottavio, you’re always so funny.”

Isabella said with a crescent eye smile, praising Camelia’s fiancé. Camelia’s expression immediately hardened, but she dared not protest to Isabella.

Calling someone else’s fiancé, who wasn’t even close, by their first name instead of ‘Young Master Contarini’ or the honorific ‘Signor Ottavio’ was clearly crossing the line, but that was what Isabella did best, and it was also something that men pretended not to know but secretly really liked.

“But, Count Cesare is late?”

Isabella, trying her best to hide her impatience, casually threw the question she was most curious about to Ottavio.

“When have you ever seen Count Cesare appear on time? He’s probably just waking up now and getting dressed. He’s not a friend who won’t show up, so let’s proceed without him for now.”

As Isabella nodded with a smile, the performers who had been taking their seats behind the podium started warming up and preparing.

As the conductor raised his hand, they all started playing their strings and the piece began.

– Bam bam bam-.

– Diri ring.

– Dan da ra ran-.

Various sounds intertwined to create a single melody. Following the conductor’s gestures, the melody sometimes became intense, and sometimes softened as if whispering.

Isabella felt elation. So many people move in unison and obey orders according to the piece I wrote! Should I try being a conductor as a hobby?

Although it wasn’t really a piece she had written herself, the rationalization was already complete in her head.

In the middle of the beautiful progression, almost towards the end, suddenly all other instruments fell silent and a pipe organ solo began. It was such an abrupt cut that it was embarrassing to even discuss its musical beauty.

After about sixteen bars of pipe organ solo, suddenly and again without context, all the other string instruments joined in.

It was an event that made even Isabella, who was about to yawn out of boredom towards the latter half due to her lack of musical knowledge, open her eyes wide and perk up her head.

Arabella was watching the first real-world performance of her piece from a dark corner with her chin propped up, feeling conflicted. Her ears were excited, but emotionally she wasn’t.

She should have been the one sitting in that front seat. She tried to think that it was a profitable deal since she got the pipe organ in return, but her mood was still heavy.

Then suddenly the pipe organ solo began. Arabella bit her right thumb.

‘Oh no!’

The score must have been delivered incorrectly. There was no pipe organ solo part in the original Missa Brevis that Arabella had written.

‘The score of the real original lute solo piece before the arrangement must have mistakenly been included in the score of the Missa Brevis arranged version!’

While Arabella was biting her nails, the conductor on the podium seemed to be asking Isabella a question.

“Lady De Mare, the ensemble is over. Did you listen well? There’s a part we don’t understand while playing, why is there a pipe organ solo in the middle?”

Isabella, without showing any sign of embarrassment, calmly made up an excuse.

“I wanted to emphasize the melody of that part.”

“Ah… It’s a bold musical challenge.”

It was rather the conductor who was embarrassed. To the ears of anyone who knew even a little about music, this was clearly an error in the work process.

Julia, the daughter of Marquis Baldassar and a skilled harpist, also tilted her head and whispered to the young master sitting next to her.

The conductor, who naturally thought Isabella would fill in the blank, stammered and asked Isabella.

“The score… As it is now, the part where the pipe organ solo starts is very awkward. It suddenly jumps from the ‘do’ scale to the ‘la’ scale. For a normal player, this part is hard to cover with one hand. Even if it was intentional, it’s difficult to apply in an actual performance situation… Could you play it together with us once and see if there’s any room for modification?”

Isabella was finally flustered.

“You want me to play?”

She couldn’t properly read sheet music. Isabella was an organ beginner who could barely play along after practicing a single piece for several days.

She thought she just needed to bring Arabella’s Missa Brevis score and didn’t even bother to look at it.

If she had just glanced at the score once, she would have noticed that one page was different and wouldn’t have ended up in this situation. Let alone practicing, Isabella couldn’t play this piece now even if someone threatened to kill her.

“A professional performer can’t play that scale? Are you really a professional performer?”

Isabella, getting angry instead, looked around the corner of the great cathedral with panicked eyes for Arabella. It was a silent rebuke to come up with an alternative.

But as soon as her eyes met Isabella’s, Arabella, who thought this was a different kind of permission, sprang out like a bullet.

“No!! Is there any graphite here?”

When a priest brought graphite and staff paper, Arabella began filling out the score without hesitation.

“The string instrument part is missing from the score. It wasn’t left blank on purpose.”

Arabella, who filled five pages of staff paper as if possessed, also neatly corrected the introduction part of the pipe organ solo.

“The jump in scale wasn’t intentional. How can a human hand play that scale? A section is missing here.”

Handing the completed five pages of staff paper to the conductor and even designating where the revised score should go, Arabella finally looked around at the unsettling atmosphere.

Isabella was biting her lip, and the invited guests were whispering heatedly.

– ‘What, the composer wasn’t her?’

– ‘No wonder, I had never heard that Isabella De Mare was good at music, so I was surprised when she said she was dedicating a composition, not even a performance, to the consecration mass.’

– ‘Stealing from her own sister, not someone else’s, she really has no conscience.’

Amidst Isabella’s friends whispering among themselves, Camelia de Castiglione’s face seemed to shine as she spoke ill of Isabella.

“Enough!”

Lucrezia, who had been watching the situation from the corner, stepped forward.

“There seems to have been a misunderstanding.”

Lucrezia, who rose from the dark place and strode to the center of the podium, was quite intimidating, perhaps due to her tall stature and luxurious attire.

She looked around at the young masters and ladies and urged:

“This piece was composed jointly by the elder and younger child. The elder mainly provided the musical ideas, and the younger worked out the details.”

Lucrezia mainly looked at some who were chattering excitedly as she chose her words.

“Clearly Isabella contributed, or rather, it was mainly Isabella who created it. I hope no incorrect stories will circulate.”

At Lucrezia’s firm words, a person leaning against the side aisle of the great cathedral approached and smiled.

“Is that how it works? Beautiful Lucrezia.”

It was Count Cesare de Como, who had styled himself properly with green deerskin boots, gloves of the same color, and a hat decorated with kingfisher feathers.