The twins were quite decisive. On that very night, Rina agreed to teach Furina, and they prepared to begin lessons.
At night, within the twins' Inner Space.
'Ahem, we shall begin class now.' Rina cleared her throat and walked up to Furina.
She used Hydro to manifest a blackboard, desks, and chairs. Although they weren't strictly necessary, it added a sense of ceremony.
Furina took opera very seriously.
She folded her arms on the desk, kept her back straight, and listened intently to Rina's lecture.
'To learn how to sing opera, you must first learn to read scores—at least Staff Notation and Numbered Musical Notation. You need to distinguish between various notes; solfège syllables like Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti and have a basic understanding of music theory.'
As Rina spoke, she gestured on the blackboard, drawing many musical symbols and pointing them out to Furina one by one.
Rina first demonstrated the pronunciation and differences of the seven basic solfège syllables, letting Furina imitate her.
"Do... Re." Furina spoke slowly. Upon hearing her, Rina's mouth dropped open in shock.
'How can someone sing so perfectly on their first try?'
She had originally estimated that it would be good if Furina could get a few notes and their different scales right tonight. Instead, Furina had already completed a third of her intended goal on the first try.
"Other Me, do you think my singing is accurate?" Furina asked softly, lacking self-confidence.
'This is amazing…' Rina thought to herself. However, she couldn't praise her like that, fearing Furina might become arrogant.
So, she said coldly. 'It's barely passable. I'll teach you a few more techniques so you can sing better.'
'Look, when you make the 'do' sound, the pitch is relatively low. You should consider using your chest voice. Come, watch me. Do—'
"Oh, so that's how it is. Let me try."
"Do—"
Furina imitated Rina's pronunciation and learned it in one go again.
'No way, again?' Rina thought to herself.
'Again, let's see if you can learn this.' Rina wanted to see just how far Furina's talent went.
By now, the nature of the teaching had changed.
.
.
.
Two hours passed.
Watching Furina, who had already mastered most of her vocal techniques and skills, still practicing repeatedly, Rina gasped for air. She was completely speechless and impressed.
'Could she really be a genius?'
Furina basically only needed to hear Rina demonstrate once and practice once or twice to master it completely. Even for difficult parts, she could handle them in five minutes. Rina remained in a state of shock throughout.
'Huh?' This was the only shout in her heart for the past two hours, though her expression remained calm as she told Furina her singing was just alright and still far from her own level.
Furina indeed had a strong talent for opera.
"Do... do... do..." Furina stood to the side, her face serious, constantly practicing every syllable she hadn't perfected.
Watching Furina diligently practice her vocalization, Rina felt a sense of gratification again.
'With such talent and her own hard work, she will likely surpass the level of today's top opera singers in a very short time.'
Time reached 9 PM.
Furina was practicing with great enthusiasm, while Rina was exhausted and collapsed directly onto the floor.
Knock, knock, knock. Just then, knocking came from the door. It was Irene, delivering the daily cake specially provided for the Hydro Archon.
Hearing the sound, Furina ignored Rina lying on the floor and immediately returned to the outside space.
"Coming, coming." Furina walked toward the door while tidying her appearance, maintaining the dignity of the Hydro Archon at all times.
She pushed open the door and reached out to take the cake from Irene.
As Irene was about to leave after Furina took the cake, Furina called her back and gave her an instruction.
"Understood, Lady Furina." Irene didn't ask why Furina gave such an order; the Hydro Archon must have her reasons.
Furina closed the door, returned to her room, and looked at the cake that had just been delivered.
"Sigh, I forgot to mention it during the day. There's only one small cake today..." Furina felt a bit of regret for not remembering to ask Irene for an extra piece.
"There's no other way, this will have to do for today." Furina took out a food knife and cut the cake in a 1:2 ratio. She took the smaller portion for herself and plated the larger portion, bringing it into the Inner Space.
A few minutes earlier in the Inner Space.
Having rested a bit, Rina stood up again. Seeing that Furina had vanished without a trace after hearing the knock, a sense of gloom rose in her heart.
'Really, she saw how tired I was and didn't even come to check on me. Is a small cake more important than me?' Rina grumbled to herself while stomping her foot in anger.
Rina naturally knew about Furina's fixed nightly cake time.
Just then, Rina felt a hand pat her back. She turned around to see that Furina had returned.
'What did you come back for? Isn't the small cake way~ more~ delicious~?' Rina deliberately dragged out her words; anyone could see her dissatisfaction.
"Eh?" Furina looked at Rina in confusion, not understanding what she meant.
"Other Me, you can have this small cake. Thank you for teaching me today, it was hard work!" Furina handed the larger portion of cake to Rina.
'What about you?'
"Mine is right here." Furina took out her own portion and began eating happily.
"Mmm... so tasty! Sweets really do help one relax." Eating the sweet cake, Furina broke into a smile.
Looking at the cake in Furina's hand, which was half the size of the one on her own plate, Rina was momentarily stunned and didn't know what to say.
"Other Me, why aren't you eating? Do you not like cake?" By now, Furina had almost finished her cake, with some cream still lingering on the corner of her mouth.
'Uh…' Rina picked up a fork and put a piece in her mouth.
"How does it taste?"
'It's just so-so.' Rina still looked disdainful, but the increasing speed of her hand movements with the spoon betrayed everything.
Rina didn't actually like sweets much—or rather, she wasn't very interested in them—but since this cake was shared by Furina, it naturally held a different meaning.
A week passed.
During this week, Furina spent her days occasionally patrolling the Palais Mermonia. She never missed a trial presided over by Neuvillette, nor did she miss any new opera performances. At night, she studied opera with Rina and they enjoyed small cakes together after the lessons.
The number of small cakes supplied to the Hydro Archon daily increased from one to two. Now, both twins could eat a whole cake. This week, there were Blueberry Cakes and Strawberry Cakes.
Usually, Furina ate the Blueberry Cake and Rina ate the Strawberry Cake, but they would also swap to taste each other's flavors.
Within a week, Furina's singing skills improved by leaps and bounds, gradually approaching the level of Fontaine's top opera singers.
It must be said, is this the result of talent combined with hard work?
The new political system in Fontaine, promoted and presided over by Neuvillette, was also successfully implemented. The Fontaine Research Institute began to be directly dispatched by Furina to investigate the prophecy crisis.