Chapter 14

Tagadak. Tak. Dadak.

The coachman pulled the reins.
The carriage slowly slowed down.
The carriage carrying Serpens and Lucas stopped beside carriages of all kinds.

“Ugh!”

Serpens got down from the carriage and stretched.
The sound of bones cracking in a way that did not fit his age.
Only after twisting his body this way and that did Serpens make a satisfied expression.

“This is…… Oratio.”

An astonishing sight entered his eyes.
Serpens was feeling a new kind of overwhelming emotion.

A size incomparable to Navigatou or Litoret.
The buildings were several stories tall on average, and people’s faces had a healthy glow.
From Satus to Litoret. From Litoret to Navigatou.
In a short time, he had moved through three places and felt a new surprise each time.
He had been surprised by the quite different atmospheres and by their enormous size.
But this was the first time he felt overwhelmed by the atmosphere itself.

“Follow me closely.”
“……Lucas, what happens if I get lost here?”
“I could find you if I had to. But I despise troublesome work.”
“Aha.”

There was no hesitation in Lucas’s steps.
He moved as if a map to their destination had been drawn in his head.

‘I wanted to look around though.’

With Lucas’s steps faster than usual, Serpens was not given even a moment to look away.
His heart was on Oratio’s scenery, but his body was already busy enough just chasing after Lucas.

“Lucas! Where are we going?”
“The empire’s finest orchestra.”
“Orchestra?”
“Yes.”
“What is an orchestra?”
“It means a group of musicians gathered together.”
“Musicians? Why are we suddenly going to a place like that? To rest our body and mind?”
“I have business with the owner of that place.”
“Ah, you said we were coming to meet an acquaintance.”

Serpens couldn’t understand.
But was this the first or second time something like that had happened?
Now, it was only natural to simply follow.
Fortunately, this time, it didn’t seem like something that would make his body suffer.

‘An orchestra…….’

Serpens’s curiosity stirred.
He couldn’t remember how long ago it had been, but there was also one memory of music in the boy’s memories.
Probably when he was very young.
In other words, when his age had been one digit, not two.
It was when he had lived among the beggars of Satus.
The boy had been hungry as usual, and even though he was with others, he had felt lonely.

In the early dawn, when the moon set and the sun rose.
The singing voice of a bard who occasionally passed through the village.
The gentle music he hummed had been comfort for a child who couldn’t fall asleep, and at times, a lullaby.

He didn’t remember the exact lyrics.
When Serpens searched his memory, it seemed to have been roughly about the life of a knight.

“We are here.”
“Already?”

Was it because he had been submerged in memory?
It didn’t feel like they had walked much, but they had already reached their destination.

“Lucas. Did you not say this was the empire’s finest orchestra?”
“I did.”
“Are groups called orchestras normally veeeery poor?”
“No. Famous ones make heaps of money.”
“Mm. In that case, I think you misunderstand the word finest, Lucas.”
“Stop talking nonsense and follow me inside.”

The reason Serpens had doubts was the building before them.
It could not be called small, but it was a building different from what he had imagined.
It was a little tall, but in the end, it was only an ordinary building.

‘I had expectations because he said they were the best in a field.’

At this size, it was probably about the same size as the inn they had visited.

Would the inside be different? Serpens secretly hoped as he climbed the stairs.
After going up about one floor, a door appeared.
Serpens opened the door with a small expectation.
But what he saw was an empty space.
It was literally a space with nothing in it, where even footsteps echoed.

“……What is this?”

The inside of the tall building was not divided into floors.
Nor was the space separated into rooms.
It was simply an empty space that was pointlessly tall and wide.
The wood that made up the space seemed to have been well maintained.
That was the end of what could be praised.
In a space where the only light was sunlight entering through the windows, that was the only thing worth praising.

“Lucas. Over there.”
“I know.”

At that moment, Serpens pointed to a man lying in the middle of the room while wearing a tailcoat.
The person lying there without moving even looked like a corpse.

Seen up close, the man was sleeping with a rather handsome face.
Dark red hair. A gentle impression that could be felt even with his eyes closed.
He definitely looked younger than Lucas, but his appearance didn’t give off the youthful air of someone around twenty.

“Lars, wake up.”

Lucas woke the man.
The man didn’t move.
After staring at him for a moment, Lucas placed his hand on his sword.

Then,

Shot up.

“Ah. You’re here, Boss.”

The man stood up in the blink of an eye.
There was no grogginess from waking up to be found in the man called Lars.

“Can you not wake up from words?”
“You know how it is. When I focus on music, I don’t hear people’s words well.”
“……Enough talk. Take this.”

Tuk.

Lucas tossed a red jewel from inside his clothes.

“Uh. Lucas, that’s……”

It was the jewel Serpens had found from the monster’s corpse.

After receiving the jewel, Lars quietly examined it, then soon showed a serious expression.

“Where did you find something like this?”
“This one found it. He found it in the corpse of a goblin.”

A goblin corpse.
Serpens felt that a lot had been omitted, but it wasn’t wrong either, so he let it pass.

“Hmmm. Who’s this kid?”
“Ah. I am called Serpens!”
“Hooh? Boss. You decided to take a disciple?”
“Something like that.”
“Hoho. A disciple for that Lucas Liberator.”

Lars’s red eyes scanned Serpens, then turned toward Lucas.

“Kkeuk. Looks like you’ll have your hands full.”

At that incomprehensible laugh, Serpens felt offended.
He didn’t know what Lars had thought, but he surely had not viewed him favorably.
Lars, who had seemed fairly handsome, somehow began to look hateful to Serpens.
Ignoring him, Lucas asked.

“Can you tell who the owner of that is?”
“This?”

Lars turned his gaze again and looked closely at the red jewel.
The jewel sparkled bewitchingly in the faint sunlight.

“Impossible, impossible.”
“……You cannot find them?”
“The demonic energy condensed inside is quite high. Breaking it might be one thing, but tracing it back to its owner is impossible.”

Swoosh.

The jewel returned to Lucas.
The tingling caused by the demonic energy.
Each time he felt it, it was unpleasant enough that he wanted to throw it away immediately.

“I am saying this just in case, but it’ll be the same even if you go to other people. In this field, there should be no one better than me.”

Lars shrugged.
The slight lift at the corners of his mouth spoke for his confidence.

“Lucas. Are you sure this person is trustworthy?”
At that somehow suspicious appearance, Serpens asked in a whisper.

“He may look like that, but he is an archmage. His ability is guaranteed.”
“An archmage?”
“Yes.”
“…….”
“Does that guarantee his ability?”
“……?”

All three fell into silence.

Serpens couldn’t understand why the two were looking at him.

“Do you not know what an archmage is, Serpens?”
“A type of magician, I suppose.”

The boy said it confidently.

“Yes. Well, that is not wrong.”

Lucas nodded.

A 9th-class magician. In other words, even an archmage was ultimately a magician.
They were people who had surpassed the human realm, but the fact that they were magicians did not change.
Also, he reminded himself once again that the boy before his eyes was a twelve-year-old beggar.
Common sense to one person could be new information to someone else.

“How much do you know about magicians?”
“That they are people who use magic? And that they are relatively few compared to people who handle weapons.”
“You know well.”
“But I have never actually seen a person who handles magic. Not relatively speaking, but aren’t they few in absolute numbers too?”
“They are not that few. It may be that the village you were in lacked the funds to hire magicians, so you couldn’t encounter many.”
“Tch. To think it was a poor village. No wonder they made such a fuss over one loaf of bread.”
“……That has nothing to do with the village being poor.”

Meanwhile, Lars found both of them amusing.
A boy who spoke in a way that didn’t suit his age, and Lucas showing an appearance he had never seen before.
Either one seemed like they could relieve his boredom at least a little.

“Hey, kid. You’re saying that you’ve never seen a magician before?”

Serpens nodded.

“Hooh. Then depending on what I do, your perception of magicians will change.”
“If that is what you mean, don’t worry. I do not do the foolish thing of judging an entire group by looking at one person.”
“That is a praiseworthy mindset.”

Serpens quietly avoided his gaze.
Though he had spoken like a sage, his heart wasn’t like that.
The perception that magicians would be obnoxious had already been planted in him.
His refined tailcoat and grinning smile especially drew out Serpens’s antipathy.

Lars also knew that.

“Now then.”

Snap.

Lars lightly snapped his fingers.
And in that moment.

“……Huh?”

The appearance of the space they were in changed.

A space that seemed to have expanded dozens of times upward and to both sides.
Thousands of red audience seats facing the three.
The place where they stood had changed into a lit stage.

“What is this?”
“Amazing, is it not? This is magic.”

Lars said with a smile.
As he slowly walked around the stage and gestured this way and that, various instruments appeared in the air.

‘Am I dreaming?’

Serpens secretly pinched his thigh.
The pain was clearly felt. It was definitely not a dream.

“You did something useless. We were about to leave soon.”

Lucas said in a voice mixed with annoyance.

“Why are you being like that, Boss? We should give our little guest an experience like this.”
“Tch.”

Serpens looked around in a daze.
Darkened audience seats. Himself with the instruments behind him. A spotlight shining on the boy.
Feeling as if he had become the master of this place, his body tensed on its own.

“How is it, kid? Do you want to try performing?”
“Performing?”

Serpens looked at the instruments floating in the air.
Violins. Trumpets. Cellos, and so on.
They were instruments the boy did not even know the names of.

“But I don’t even know how to make a sound, let alone perform……”

Serpens scratched his head.
It was only natural that he could not handle instruments. Even if he could, he might not be able to perform now.

“Boss. Stop glaring at the kid. You’re going to pierce a hole through him.”
“I’m not a magician. I cannot pierce through people with only my gaze.”
“……It was a joke, a joke.”

Lucas was glaring at Serpens.
His eyes were the same as usual, but both Serpens and Lars could tell.
He was definitely glaring.

“It’s fine, kid. Would you like to hold this?”

Lars took a conductor’s baton out of the air.
Serpens received the baton and hesitated for a moment.

“I can do this, right, Lucas?”
“There is no need to ask me.”
“You’re not going to add cutting practice because I do this, right?”
“I won’t do that.”

Only after hearing Lucas’s answer did Serpens begin to move the baton.
Since he didn’t know how to handle it, he swung it wildly like handling a branch picked up from the street.

Diriring.

“Uwak!”

But at that moment, the sound of a performance was heard.
Unlike Serpens’s crude conducting, a refined performance began to flow out.

“Hooh……”

Lars quietly began to take in the music.
He appreciated the heavy atmosphere created by the low notes, and at times, the melodies of the high notes.

Serpens looked at Lars.
He looked at the musician whose eyebrows twitched and whose head moved along with the music he heard.

Like that, Serpens’s conducting continued for a while.
At the moment the instruments brought their performance to an end.
With the sound of a drum announcing the end, Lars nodded.

“So this…… is what you feel like.”

Serpens looked at Lucas with a frown.
Without making a sound, he spoke to Lucas through the shape of his mouth.

“I think this person is strange.”

Instead of answering, Lucas asked Lars a question.

“So. Are you satisfied?”

Lars nodded for a moment and organized his thoughts.
After mulling over Serpens’s performance again, he soon opened his mouth.

“Well, this is an unprecedented dissonance.”