The Road to Glory Chapter 181 - Welcoming the New Year

[Le Terre│White X-mas Arrives at Noël Market]

[The Best Christmas with Beer, Pretzels, and Music]

[We Can Now Say Santa Really Exists!]

[It’s Time for Santa to Have a Generation Change Too]

The famous French daily newspaper Le Terre (The Earth) featured a photo of people gathered around the Noël Market tree, with ‘Santa’ singing in the center.

Beer glasses clinked as droplets splashed upward, and in one corner, citizens were absorbed in the atmosphere with their arms around each other’s shoulders. The market’s bright yellow lights and, above all, the ‘young Santa’ singing with closed eyes.

And the Christmas tree standing tall, as if embracing all of it.

It was a beautiful scene that looked like it had been painted.

The photo was filled with Christmas colors, enough to show those who saw it just how joyful and happy the people there were.

Below that large photo, there was a description of how an early Christmas came to the Noël Market.

From Halo’s account, he proposed ‘Hide and Seek,’ which drew many people to the Noël Market shown in the photo, and Halo, dressed as Santa, gave small gifts whenever people found him.

And after the game ended, he did a guerrilla busking in front of the tree, surprisingly performing Christmas carols. It was written so meticulously that it seemed like the reporter must have been there personally.

Following that were many verification posts and photos from people.

From photos taken with Halo to small gifts received from him.

The highlight was a verification photo of a 50-year-old rider uncle holding a Christmas candy cane in his calf-like hands with a very touched expression.

But above all, what became most talked about was undoubtedly Halo’s new song.

The view count on the fancam uploaded to NuTube skyrocketed instantly.

Of course, while some people were disappointed with the audio quality due to outdoor noise, device limitations, and mixed laughter of people, others actually preferred this.

The surrounding noise filled in for the missing session, making it sound acoustically richer, and the video filled with Christmas festival atmosphere had a strong music video feel to it.

[HALO Releases New Song for Paris Citizens]

French mass media focused on how Halo surprisingly released a ‘new song’ in their country. While Halo often did busking, this was the first time he had released a new song this way.

[Paris, The Most Beautiful City Halo Loves, We’re Better Right?]

[We Were All Good Children, and Santa Came]

They excitedly published articles, showing their enthusiasm clearly, which inevitably made other foreign countries jealous.

Especially the British, who had heightened patriotism when Halo busked with their prince, brought up what French daily newspapers had glossed over.

[Paris, France: Pickpocket Paradise]

[999 Things Tourists Should Know When Visiting Paris in Rome]

[When visiting Paris, make sure to bring a bodyguard with you.]

Not just Britain, but Italy, Spain, and others published articles targeting France, and French citizens snorted and counterattacked.

[Italy’s talking to us about pickpockets?]

[We (France) are the safest country in Europe with the finest civic consciousness]

[Been wanting to say this since last week, we (France) are historically The Sun King’s country! If he’s coming anywhere, shouldn’t it be here?]

While European countries fought amongst themselves, third-party countries munched on peanuts watching, but Korea couldn’t just enjoy it carefreely.

[Are these French people crazy? Suddenly claiming Halo is France’s son??]

[How dare you try to change the nationality of the only son of three generations of the Roh family, the pride of Korea?]

Unable to participate in Halo’s hide and seek game and having to watch from afar while sucking their thumbs, plus missing the live Christmas carol that was apparently a new song, they were dying of frustration and couldn’t understand why naturalization talks kept coming up.

It would be better if Halo (Roh Haeil) gave a clear answer, but he wasn’t exactly known for good communication.

Meanwhile, whether by coincidence or timing, news came out that the French police had strengthened their crackdown on pickpockets, and news about conflicts between pickpocket organizations was buried under Halo’s Vienna concert.

Tuesday, December 7th.

At the Wiener Stadthalle, Austria’s famous 60-year-old concert venue in Vienna. The audience of about 15,000 in the indoor concert hall was shouting “Bravo, brava!”

Halo and his members in classic formal suits. And the orchestra spread like wings on both sides.

This time’s concept was orchestra.

In this country of classical music, Halo’s stage performing his music arranged for orchestra was, as always, a different concert from before.

A collaboration with Vienna’s beloved orchestra.

Also, like he did in the old variety show ‘Spring Again,’ he sang famous Viennese art songs. Songs typically sung by sopranos were reproduced in a boy’s voice.

Some wished his voice would never change and would last forever like this.

And this isn’t widely known, but Halo revisited ‘The Divorce of Figaro.’

He went to check how the people he had performed with before were doing.

Unfortunately, the whiteboard where they had been theorizing about Halo’s identity seemed to have been taken down, but

“Hey, do you know what kind of place this bar is?”

“How many times are you going to say that? Did he really visit?”

A photo from the NuTube video of Halo performing here was framed on the wall of the store,

“I told you to watch the NuTube video! And there, our old man…”

“Ahem, it’s nothing special. Such things happened back in the day.”

The people from back then were chatting happily.

Halo didn’t bother to make his presence known since they seemed to be enjoying themselves well enough. He ate french fries at the bar, paid a hefty tip when leaving, and didn’t forget to ask them to buy everyone a round of beer.

Then December 16th.

In Sydney, Australia, he invited special friends.

It was Brahms, a little-known Dutch indie punk band. They were diligent friends who gradually built recognition by uploading Halo cover videos to NuTube while steadily expressing their own musical world.

“No way, that person was really Halo…”

“Hey, where’s that money? We agreed to return it.”

“Oh right. Where did I put it? Didn’t I give it to you?”

“Not me?”

The hefty sum of 5,000 dollars had disappeared somewhere.

As Levi was trying to figure out where it went, he recalled not being short on money when buying new instruments recently.

“!”

His pupils shook.

Halo, who had been waiting for them to return it since they said they would, wore a playful expression.

He hadn’t intended to take it back, but it was amusing to see their expressions laid bare.

“Hmm.”

“I’ll go withdraw it from the ATM right now.”

When Halo just stared at him, Levi rushed to leave in panic. Only then did Halo laugh and stop him.

“That’s fine, instead, show me a performance worth over five thousand dollars.”

“A five-thousand-dollar performance?”

In NuTube terms, that meant five million views.

While that was an easy number for Halo to get just by uploading a video, it was an enormous figure for regular NuTubers. Levi and his friends were rather shocked.

However, unlike during the meeting, as people who had done busking for a very long time, they pulled it off brilliantly.

Halo covers had always been their main NuTube content, and their new punk music wasn’t bad either. Having continuously covered Halo, they showed influence from his music, which made their previously complex music more concise.

Above all, what became a hot topic at the Sydney concert wasn’t the punk band Brahms. Although they might feel hurt by this, they accepted the situation with smiles.

When Halo’s Prague travel story came out, the number one search term in each country that day was ‘5,000 euros.’

“Do you know how much Mr. Halo gave us for the CD?”

“You’ll be really surprised!”

“We were trembling too. Honestly, back then, we thought Mr. Halo would report it as lost money.”

When it became known that Halo had paid 5,000 euros for Brahms’ CD, people searched to find out how much 5,000 euros was worth. The punk band Brahms reached second place in search terms, so they certainly got their share of attention.

Many people wanted to hear how good the music was that ‘the’ Halo paid five thousand euros for.

Despite it being mid-winter, after spending time in warm weather with kangaroos, Halo entered Thailand on December 18th for the Bangkok concert on December 23rd.

While Europe had been in the Christmas season since late November, December 23rd was two days before Christmas, and Bangkok was in high spirits.

However, with Halo’s concert overlapping, there was the ironic situation where Halo’s concert ranked higher in search terms than Christmas around the 23rd, and Hong Kong on December 30th was even more extreme.

Christmas might be a big event in Europe, but

Wasn’t December 30th the end of the year?

A time to prepare for the new year, get ready for the year-end countdown, and spend time cozily with family.

When Halo arrived, the airport was paralyzed, and at Halo’s concert, there was an even more spectacular drone show than year-end award ceremonies or events.

From Halo’s symbolic mark to a belated birthday celebration, the show was magnificent.

While other countries had put up advertisements during Halo’s birthday, Hong Kong displayed advertisements throughout the entire region before and after Halo’s concert.

Needless to say, oil-rich countries responded with “Just come to our country, we’ll show you what oil money can do.”

And in the new year 2033.

Halo returned home ahead of his concert at Seoul Arena.

A peaceful morning began as he ate rice cake soup with his long-unseen father and mother.

“Now that you’re getting busy again, what am I supposed to do alone?”

“Father, are you going back to work too?”

“I have to. Can’t just play around forever.”

Professor Roh Yunhyeon would resume teaching in the spring semester after ending his sabbatical. Already dreading the attention he’d receive, Professor Roh Yunhyeon decided to set a more substantial lecture schedule this time.

He planned to cover the first week’s progress and focus more on parts that usually get rushed through due to final exam schedules.

Since students’ abilities were improving day by day, he thought he could make the assignments more challenging.

Then college students would feel they got their money’s worth from tuition, and Professor Roh Yunhyeon wouldn’t have to deal with unnecessary questions from students. A win-win situation.

“Haeil, what about you?”

“I should release an album now.”

“Oh my. People will love that.”

His mother, who had been secretly waiting for her son’s album, brightened her eyes, and Professor Roh Yunhyeon thought his son was also a workaholic.

Seeing him work so hard at something he both likes and suits him.

It seems he opposed it needlessly about two years ago.

-Then how much do you think you can earn in the future?

-How would I know? I won’t be counting each penny

It really turned out just as his son said.

Haeil’s wealth was endlessly growing, and it would continue to grow more. He couldn’t ignore the value of copyrights.

The endless profits that would be generated until his son’s death were truly infinite compared to 900 million won.

“Do you have something to do today too? Need to rehearse?”

“No. We decided to start rehearsals tomorrow. Today-“

“I’m going to see the new label with the members.”

The label that started construction in spring was mostly complete except for the interior, they said. It was the power of money. Everything from verified famous architects to material procurement happened instantly.

Although they’d have to wait a bit longer before they could use the building, Halo decided to go see it once. What they would be using for a long time to come.

Meanwhile, he vaguely thinks.

Come to think of it, BB said he’d visit Korea again around this time.

-Suddenly I’m thinking of someone.

Halo impulsively brought up the topic to someone who had thoroughly tracked his life and had questions.

Even he didn’t know why he suddenly said such things.

-Want to hear about it? I’m certain there’s no one who would suit my music better than them.

BB eagerly said he’d like to hear it, and said he’d briefly go back to the US to prepare equipment for this.

While one person’s life story might be quite boring to listeners, Halo somehow felt a bit excited about it.