Don't tell me...?
"Hold on!"
=================
-To Beethoven
I regret that you caught sight of the half-sound I cast away.
And I offer my thanks to you, who understood my solitude, sorrow, and despair and felt them together with me.
The art I want from you is
=================
Yang Myeong-hyun, about to write 'Für Elise' in the letter, stopped his hand at my shout.
Thank goodness. It was ink, so once written it couldn't be erased.
"Yes?"
"Wait. Don't write it yet. I don't think that's it."
As I let out a sigh of relief, Yang Myeong-hyun set the pen in his hand down on the desk.
"Are you saying Beethoven is wrong?"
"No. I think Beethoven is right. I can't think of any artist who could take his place."
I told Yang Myeong-hyun what I'd been thinking through again.
"There's no correct answer, but it said the road would differ. Might there not be a wiser choice?"
"What do you mean?"
"It's my mistake. Choosing 'Für Elise' just because a woman is painted in the frame was too simple a leap."
I felt like I could read Yang Myeong-hyun's inner thoughts.
He was probably thinking: you argued it so strongly yourself, and now you're telling me to do this and that, so which is it?
"Hear me out, Mr. Myeong-hyun. There isn't enough reason for van Gogh to choose 'Für Elise.' Because he craved affection?"
This Bedroom in Arles was also a space meant for friends, so it was indeed a place where van Gogh's craving for affection showed.
But.
"In an unstable situation like this, rather than desiring love, he'd have to put the stability of 'myself' first."
I showed Yang Myeong-hyun the back of the frame I was holding.
In the center of the frame's back, small handwriting was scrawled.
-On the night the light flowed, my soul was at peace.
What van Gogh needed most was his art itself.
"The window wasn't transparent, and I didn't notice that."
"Sorry?"
RATTLE—
I stretched out and flung open the window that had been firmly shut.
As the window, tinged with the yellow-green of The Bedroom in Arles, opened, a world of new colors spread out.
A dark blue sky, a yellow moon, and a night sky pouring with stars.
"Look at this. It was still night."
"...The stars and the moon are shining."
It was the road we'd walked on the way to Floor 10.
Outside the window was still the world inside van Gogh's 'The Starry Night.'
"Moonlight Sonata."
Gazing at the huge moon, I murmured the title of another Beethoven piece.
"The Moonlight Sonata is another piece Beethoven composed, is it not? It was in Brother Ji-san's Perk earlier."
"Right. Piano Sonata No. 14. It's known by the name Moonlight Sonata."
"...Did you change your mind because of the moonlight and that writing?"
"Yes. There's a star painted in this picture too."
I turned the frame back around to show the painting.
"Unlike the actual 'The Bedroom in Arles,' this painting has a star in it."
We'd found plenty of evidence that the one behind this letter was Beethoven.
But the answer to whether we absolutely had to pick 'Für Elise' from among his countless pieces wasn't certain.
"But was it not a painting that differs from the real van Gogh's that made Brother Ji-san think of Elise in the first place?"
The two of us turned our eyes together toward the painting on the wall.
True. Say 'Beethoven's woman' and most people would think of 'Elise' first.
I drew one deep breath and prepared to launch into a long explanation.
"But since the road we take changes with our reply, I came to think that as long as we're choosing, it's better to pick a piece more closely connected to van Gogh."
"A piece more closely connected to van Gogh?"
"Yes. Docent. I want to know the information on the Moonlight Sonata."
Fwish-
=================
[Moonlight Sonata]
-Piece Information
┗ Formal title: Piano Sonata No. 14.
Composed in 1801.
Its name comes from a German poet and music critic, after Beethoven's death.
He described it as 'a small boat on a moonlit lake.'
.......
.......
Dedicated to his pupil and lover, Giulietta Guicciardi.
=================
"Digging back through my memory, Beethoven dedicated the Moonlight Sonata to a woman he loved as well."
"If that memory is reliable, then that woman is the one in the painting."
"Yes. Exactly. Then the star and the inscription on the frame, the night sky outside the window, and the woman in the painting all make sense."
"......."
Yang Myeong-hyun, who had been listening carefully to my words, soon opened his mouth with a resolute expression.
"It is not safe."
"Sorry?"
"Why must we make such a bold choice, Brother Ji-san?"
"...Because I decided the Moonlight Sonata fits the hints scattered around this room better."
"But 'Für Elise' is already ringing out, is it not? I would think it better to go in the direction the Tower has thrown us."
'What Yang Myeong-hyun says is always sound. But.'
Was the idea that the piece the Tower spoon-fed us was the safe one really correct?
The museum had been cunningly baiting visitors all along.
There was even a chance that placing great meaning on this background music was their scheme.
"Mr. Yang Myeong-hyun. I'm choosing safety too."
"...I do not understand."
"It said there's no correct answer, but I'm worried that a careless choice could make the next floor, Floor 11, even harsher."
CREEEAK.
"!!"
Just then the room shrank again, and the chair I was standing on slammed fully into the bed and buckled.
I hurriedly leapt across to the bed where Yang Myeong-hyun stood.
CRRRACK—!!
Crushed between the wall and the bed, the wooden chair broke apart with a tremendous noise.
To avoid being hit by the flying wood splinters, I shielded my face with both arms.
Fortunately, no splinters flew as far as my body.
'Now, one more? No. If it shrinks about two more times....'
We'd burst like fruit pressed under a hydraulic press.
With the walls closed in near enough to stifle me, my breathing grew rougher.
"I wondered whether we could get out through the window, but it was wasted effort."
Yang Myeong-hyun grumbled as he kicked at the open window.
Even though the window was open, he couldn't extend his foot outside.
An invisible barrier must have been set up.
The only way out was to write the letter and send it out the door.
If I kept fighting with Yang Myeong-hyun, we might really fail the quest.
'Is it worth persuading Yang Myeong-hyun this hard?'
Even if it was a pretense rather than his true nature, I liked that altruistic character of his and his knowledge of art.
I couldn't trust Yang Myeong-hyun completely, but at least there was nothing uncomfortable about reasoning alongside him in this cramped room.
But if he became an obstacle to the climb.... Wasn't it time to use the Soul Rental Perk?
'Soul Rental, activ—'
"I believe the purpose of this quest lies in the visitor standing in van Gogh's place and fathoming his state of mind."
"......."
At Yang Myeong-hyun's words, I withdrew my intention to activate the Soul Rental Perk.
'Right. Would this Tower be satisfied if I summoned van Gogh himself?'
"Then let me give you more evidence."
"Evidence other than the light, the inscription, and the woman in the painting?"
"Yes. It's the date written on this quest letter."
I pointed my finger at the date noted at the bottom of the letter.
"The Moonlight Sonata's date of release is 1801. It matches the date written on the letter."
"......."
'Für Elise' had been released in 1810.
It was the most decisive clue for choosing the 'Moonlight Sonata.'
"And van Gogh craved people's love too, but what he lacked most was."
Van Gogh had friends, lovers, and his younger brother Theo.
Of course, in the end he failed at his relationships and suffered for it, but even so, along the way he had been loved.
If there was something van Gogh could never have beyond that.
"He wanted his own work to receive recognition, attention, and empathy."
Because he was never in the spotlight until the day he died.
He must have needed someone to look into his paintings more desperately than anyone.
"Recognition as a person."
The word 'recognition' seemed to strike Yang Myeong-hyun in particular, and he muttered it in a low voice.
'Right. I wanted recognition... too.'
Careful. I'd nearly sunk into the abyss of the past in an instant.
"And the reason Beethoven forgave van Gogh in this letter is that they could empathize with each other through the keyword 'ear.' Even if it's fiction."
"So you are saying the 'Moonlight Sonata' helps heal van Gogh more than 'Für Elise,' which foregrounds love."
"Yes. The Moonlight Sonata, where he can empathize and be recognized through the keyword 'light,' just as with 'ear.' That's what I think."
"Forgive my rudeness, but the reading may be finer than the dream itself."
"Another visitor said the same thing to me before."
"Haha."
Even with no room to spare thanks to the shrinking walls, Yang Myeong-hyun let out a light, hearty laugh.
He really was a leisurely man. In any case, from his expression, he seemed finally convinced by my explanation.
"You spoke with van Gogh yourself, Mr. Yang Myeong-hyun."
"......."
"Since there's no answer to the choice, it might not be the wiser option. ...Still, as far as I can, I want to make van Gogh happy."
"You hope for an ideal road in a museum that gives nothing but despair."
I couldn't refute that, so I only shrugged.
In a Tower where we climbed in competition with each other, it was probably an attitude I ought to throw away.
'But I'd decided to try it my own way for now.'
Once convinced, Yang Myeong-hyun set the paper on the desk.
He wrote quickly, before the desk, split and cracking under the pressure, could break apart.
=================
-To Beethoven
I regret that you caught sight of the half-sound I cast away.
And I offer my thanks to you, who understood my solitude, sorrow, and despair and felt them together with me.
The art I want from you is the 'Moonlight Sonata.'
In the moonlight I feel in your piece, the night in my paintings will shine more beautifully still.
-Vincent van Gogh
=================
~~~
When the letter was finished, the piano piece ringing through the room changed from 'Für Elise' to the 'Moonlight Sonata.'
The melody truly felt as though it shone brightly, like moonlight. Calm, yet luminous.
"So it really was not the correct-answer choice. I was stubbornly fixated."
"This isn't the time to blame yourself, it's fine, hurry. Throw it under the door, Mr. Yang Myeong-hyun!"
After writing the letter, Yang Myeong-hyun blew on it to dry the ink as much as possible and folded the paper.
Then he slid the letter into one of the envelopes we'd torn open earlier, one with no sender's name written on it.
'Quick on his feet.'
The only floor space left now was beside the bed.
Barely enough area for one person to set a foot down.
Yang Myeong-hyun bent down flat at the foot of the bed and stretched out his arm.
Then he threw the letter through the gap under the door.
His posture was somewhat ridiculous, but thanks to it the letter flew safely through the gap in the door.
"......."
"......."
We held our breath and waited for something to happen.
Whether because we'd succeeded in the quest and the room had stopped shrinking, everything around us was quiet.
THUD— THUD— THUD—
Just then, footsteps came climbing the wooden stairs, all the way from the first floor.
Maybe because the wooden stairs were old, the brisk footsteps rang out loudly.
And that presence finally reached the bedroom door.
"Yes~ I have received the letter. I will transmit it eighty years into the past for you!"
A woman's voice, presumably the postal carrier's.
Next came a rustling sound from outside the door, and then the footsteps grew more distant.
Had the postal carrier picked up the letter and gone down the stairs?
'We did it....'
A postal carrier coming right into the house made no realistic sense, but this was the Museum of Wishes.
Only then did Yang Myeong-hyun and I wipe away the sweat streaming on our foreheads.
Being just slightly smaller in build than Yang Myeong-hyun, I climbed down to the floor to open the door.
I tried to open it with all the strength I had, but it still didn't budge.
"Huh...? The door hasn't opened."
"This door has opened."
At Yang Myeong-hyun's words, I turned my head to the side.
...Yang Myeong-hyun's hand had passed out through the window that had been blocked by a barrier until moments ago.
I climbed back onto the bed and looked at the scenery outside the window.
A height so dizzying it was hard to believe this was the second story.
Because of van Gogh's swirling style, it was hard even to tell where the ground was.
'Down there?'
"It seems we must jump down from here."
While I was still opening my mouth to answer, Yang Myeong-hyun put a foot up on the windowsill.
"...Right. There's probably no other way."
I'd jumped into The Gates of Hell, so a night sky should be fine.
"I will jump first. Follow me."
"Wha—?! Ah, wait a—"
Without so much as a signal, Yang Myeong-hyun threw himself straight out the window.
I was someone who'd jumped into a place that looked like hellfire myself, but that was far too little hesitation.
'Damn it, nothing for it.'
"AAARGH!!"