80. Deathforce melody
Styzz betrayed my trust and lost. I knew it when I heard a racket of voices in the great hall and Jing entered the kitchen asking:
“What’s that about a Shanghai pie, Armen?”
“…” I took my phone out and set the alarm to check the rice in twenty minutes, then answered: “No idea.”
“What, no idea?!” Noah’s head peeped into the kitchen. “I crushed Styzz by two moku!”
“Grats.” No idea what a moku was, though.
“Styzz was tired because of the Yuutow Tower, that’s why he lost, he says,” Nina intervened, walking in.
I had heard Nina and Jing return a while ago from a walk around the island, but it seemed Ray and Linah were still at the meeting.
In the great hall, Styzz was tidying the game board while yawning. Noah was relishing his victory.
“Hahaha, I want that Shanghai pie, stupidstar, make it now!”
His tone of voice irked me. I protested:
“But I have no idea what a Shanghai pie is, you dummy!”
“Like I care! Figure it out!”
“I’ve never been to Shanghai in the first place!”
“Me neither! But everyone knows a Shanghai pie is something sweet with fruits, stupid stupidstar!”
“Oh-oh, is that so! Pies are usually sweet and made with fruits, stupid champ!”
“You call me stupid?”
“You rile me!”
“Because I’m from the Champion Institute?”
“You mental?”
“Let’s fight it out!”
“Sure!”
Like an angel of peace, Nina passed between us, and we fell silent, glaring at each other, a bit surprised. How did we end up shouting at each other like that over a pie? Jing cleared his throat, raising a hand.
“Calm down, guys. As it happens, I know what a Shanghai pie is.”
“You do?!” We both turned to him so fast that he cringed.
I smiled.
“Teach me, chef.”
Jing glanced at the rice in the fire then shook his head.
“No. You two get out of the kitchen. Nina and I will make the pie. I said get out,” he insisted as I was about to complain.
Noah pulled me by my sleeve.
“Let’s go. I’ll teach you how to play Go.”
“Eeeh? You will? But it sounds difficult, and my rice—”
“I’ll take care of it,” Jing assured.
“Let’s go!” Noah said, dragging me out of the kitchen. “I’m sure Jing will make a tastier pie than you, stupidstar.”
“How can you be such a jerk, Noah,” I grumbled. I sat down at the table with a reluctant expression. “So? What are the rules?”
“The game is all about controlling territories,” he explained. “Pass the box with the black stones, Styzz, will you?”
“Yeah, yeah,” the green-haired guy said as he stood up, blinking. “I think I’m gonna take a bath. I’m so sleepy I’m surprised you only won by two moku.”
“Don’t give me that line. You were totally focused during the game! Anyway, stupidstar, listen well, I won’t repeat myself. You win if you control a larger area of the board than your opponent. A group of connected stones must have a liberty, or else they can’t stay alive and they can’t remain on the board. You follow?”
“The dead stones are removed? Why?”
“Because if the group of stones doesn’t have one open point bordering it, that means your opponent has enclosed it and the territory is not yours anymore. Your stones have no liberty anymore. You got it?”
“…” My face darkened. “So dead stones have no freedom?”
Noah tsked.
“What are you even talking about? Forget the dead stones: what matters is staying alive.”
“Dead stones can’t come back on the board?”
“They can’t.”
They can’t. Dead stones can’t come back on the board. I shook my head slightly. But of course they can. Ray was the white stones that had brought me back to life in his own territory. I wasn’t technically free, but I was still on the board. I was still playing. I was still alive.
“Dead stones are not useless.”
“… Not useless? Oh, you mean you can sacrifice some stones as a decoy, depending on your strategy, right?”
“Sacrifice?” I repeated, growing gloomier.
“Yeah. Anyway, let’s see a basic example. I put those three white stones here, in those three intersections, surrounding a black stone. There you are. Black moves. Your turn. What will you do to save your stone? Diagonals don’t connect.”
Dead stones are useless. My hazy eyes looked down at the board, then I fixed the black stone and telekinetically moved it, making it jump over a white stone.
“The heck are you doing?!” Noah snorted.
I leaned on the table and wrapped my head in my hands.
“You depressed me. You’re such a bully.”
I heard Noah gasp in bemusement.
“What the…? Oi, what’s your problem, stupidstar? … You’re no fun. I was teaching you in my infinite kindness and—”
“Sorry, champ, I’m just overly sensitive to realistic games. Let me be.”
“… Go is a realistic game?” Noah muttered, confused.
I stubbornly kept my head down as I answered:
“It’s 3D, right?”
“… You for real? It’s a board game, weakstar.”
“Stop changing my nickname. I like stupidstar.”
“You like it?!”
“I got used to it.”
“So, you like things you get used to? If I were to give you a beating every morning, you would like it?”
“… I wouldn’t.”
“Guessed so.”
“Are you saying that from personal experience?”
“… You’re asking for a beating now.”
“I’m just asking. You seem to hate your institute so much.”
“They don’t beat us. It’s worse than that.”
“Worse than that?”
Noah didn’t answer immediately. He wouldn’t tell me about the drugs Mr. Huang gave him, would he? Then he grumbled:
“You must have a finger in every pie, huh.”
“Don’t talk to me about pies.”
“Anyway, stop sulking, raise your head, and let’s play.”
“No. I’m telling you, I’m depressed.”
“You don’t seem depressed at all.”
“Depressions are like truffles. They’re hard to see.”
“So much you can’t see yours, right? Are you searching for it on the table? Do you have no shame, stupidstar?”
My face hidden in my arms, a smile irresistibly stretched my lips.
“I… don’t.”
“Oi, you’re not crying, are you? Is it because I didn’t explain the rules of Go clearly enough and you didn’t understand a thing? You’re sad to be so stupid, am I right?”
“Mmmmgrm…”
“… Geez. Such a pain… It’s okay to be stupid, you know? Stupid people are great. Being sad because you’re stupid is the stupidest thing to do. Besides, I can repeat the rules if you want—”
I was trying to suppress it, but I reached my limit: at that moment, I burst out laughing, raising my head backwards.
“How a bully tries to comfort someone! Hahahahaha, you’re too much, champ!”
I couldn’t stop laughing. After a while, I saw Noah wrap his head in his arms and mutter:
“I’m depressed.”
“Buahahahaha!”
“Aren’t you gonna comfort me? … Really,” he groaned, raising squinted eyes, “who’s the bully here?”
“Excuse-me…”
Surprised, we turned our faces to the guy who had just spoken. He was a huge, hefty, brown-haired man in a white bath towel that could barely hide his muscular, sunburnt thighs. My laughter died in my throat at the sight. Noah recognized him before me.
“Sasha?”
He bowed his colossal body.
“Y-yeah. My name is Sasha Devkota. Nice to meet you.” Oh, right, he was the Independent trainee that had been already asleep in our dorm, after the examination.
We gazed at him in awe, then glanced at each other with the same question in mind: what was that guy doing in the Wind House, using our bathroom?
“Aaah, sorry, sorry.” A guy half the height of Sacha appeared from behind the colossus, his long, black hair cascading down his waist. He was in a towel too. A grin beamed on his face. “We wanted to say hello before making ourselves at home, but since Lizzie and Yoan were so focused on their game, we decided not to disturb them and just came in.”
I blinked at Lei Sunclaw. Lizzie and Yoan? Oh, he meant Styzz and Noah. Still bad with names, huh. I nodded.
“Welcome home.”
“Thanks.”
“Wait a moment,” Noah chimed in in a whisper. “He’s an elite trainee, right? Doesn’t he have a house already?”
“He’s Ray’s subordinate,” I explained.
Noah’s jaw hung open.
“Since when elite trainees can become another elite trainee’s subordinate?!”
“Since I decided it was possible,” Lei replied.
Noah’s gaze was fastened on him, his eyes shining with questions. I was surprised to see him hesitate to ask them. Was it because of Lei’s identity? However, he did ask in the end:
“It’s none of my business but… why would a Sunclaw want to submit to a guy who can’t look people in the eye, can’t eat dinner with everyone, can’t even finish the race in the top half, why submit to a sissy like th—?”
His mouth was shut by my gloved hand. Our eyes met, and his widened under my glare.
“Oho,” Lei said, stepping to us. “You’d better not badmouth Ray in front of Armen, Lwan. He’s scary when he loses his temper.”
Noah pulled away.
“The hell was that for? Are you Ray’s bodyguard or what?”
I gave him a warning smile.
“Something like that. I’m his best friend. So don’t call him a sissy, because he’s not. You don’t know anything about him. Besides, remember you’re his subordinate too.”
“Because he bought me with money.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
“I wouldn’t brag about that.”
“Why? I’m poor. Money is essential for poor guys who have nothing,” Noah retorted. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
“… I will make you accept that my master is the best.”
Noah blinked.
“Your master?”
Lei chuckled quietly. Crap… I corrected:
“I mean, our boss, Ray. When you know him better, you’ll see that he’s an amazing guy with steady principles, who always thinks things over.”
“… That you don’t think things over doesn’t mean your friend is the only one who can, stupidstar.”
Lei snorted with laughter. I didn’t lose countenance and repeated:
“You will see.”
“…”
We kept staring stonily at each other as if determined not to avert our eyes before the other did. Lei muttered:
“Interesting pair. Sasha, you’re the placid type, aren’t you? Don’t get mixed up with those two lion cubs.”
“Er… Okay.”
“Boss,” Lei pointed out gently.
“Ah… Yes, boss,” the colossus said, flushing.
Did Lei tame that hulk? Impressive. Now that I thought about it, wasn’t Sasha the same person who had taken the treasure map and had to share it with Lei after becoming his subordinate for some reason?
I had unwittingly averted my eyes; Noah scoffed:
“Heh… I won.”
“You’re always winning everything, champ. Wonder why yer so poor.”
With a slap, he knocked my head forward, making my red knit cap fall to the ground.
“My beanie!”
“What are you doing with a beanie when it’s so hot on this island, anyway?” Noah teased.
I didn’t answer and frowned at Lei. He had picked up my knit cap and put it on.
“How does it look on me?”
I looked at him up and down. White bath towel. Red beanie.
“You look like a fly agaric.”
Noah snorted with laughter at my comeback.
“A toxic mushroom, huh… Do you think so too, Pasha?” Lei asked.
The colossus fidgeted as he answered softly:
“It’s Sasha. And no, boss. You look more like… one of those ghostly dwarves that help the souls of the deceased reach the Great Crystals. The ones in the fairy tales.”
Far from being offended, Lei looked surprised, and his eyes raised up towards my beanie on his head.
“Do I?”
“Hwara-hwara! That doesn’t suit you at all, Lei!”
We all turned to Linah as she walked into the house, followed by Ray. The young necromancer looked tired despite having woken up just a few hours ago. Linah considered her brother up and down, then gazed up at Sasha in awe as if thinking “Whoa, is he a real giant?”. Then she held up her fist.
“Lei! What are you doing with the Straw Head’s beanie? You’re not bullying him, are you?”
“Haha, not at all—”
“He is,” I said.
“What?!” Lei exclaimed. “Oi, oi, Linah, stop! I’m not. Yoan was.”
“Yoan? Who’s that?”
Noah raised his hand.
“I think it’s m—NOT me!” he rectified hurriedly when Linah directed her fist towards him. “I’m Noah! I’m not Yoan?”
Why did he make it sound like a question? Linah cocked her head to one side, confused.
“Then again, who’s Yoan? Is it that guy?”
Sasha shook energetically his head at Linah’s suspicious eyes. I smiled and straightened up.
“Forget it, Lil Witch. We were just strengthening our relationships.” I took back my red knit cap from Lei’s head and put it on as I said: “How was the meeting?”
“Mm…” She paused thoughtfully. “So-so. We were only seventeen. Cesarine and her underlings didn’t come, nor the European, nor Gorka Soulberg and his fiancée, that Kadestri girl… what was her name again?”
“Felicity,” Lei said.
“Aina,” Ray corrected. “Aina Kyoko Kadestri.”
“Yeah, that’s her name,” Linah nodded. “Gorka’s friend, Sean Bensaïd, didn’t show up either. Anyway, apart from the ones who weren’t present, everyone else was there.”
“Best summary ever,” I laughed. “What about the badge exchange?”
“Few exchanged badges in the end,” Ray answered at my quizzical expression. “They mainly talked about the training and boring stuff about their families and the Nyomin.”
“Well, we did talk about the Independent trainees, though,” Linah pointed out. “Some families are recruiting into their ranks, so they are looking for young talented martial artists and special power-holders.”
“They’ll give them jobs even if they don’t pass the Hero exam in summer?” I asked, surprised.
“Well, yeah, Straw Head, but being hired by a Nyomin family is way more difficult than passing an exam.”
“Is the Sunclaw Family hiring too?” We all turned to Noah. He made an indifferent pout. “I’m just asking. I’m not interested.”
“Aya-aya, if you’re not interested, why ask?” Lei chuckled. “Unfortunately, the Sunclaw are not short of staff at the moment. ‘Mud is full of cheap pebbles easy to pick’ is one of our family’s mottoes.”
Mud was… What? He had just called the Black-Hearts “cheap pebbles”, hadn’t he? That included Ryu, the hydrophobic guy at the training camp, and Jonnie the merfolk, and all Lei’s direct Black-Heart subordinates in Farskyer. I couldn’t help but give him a disappointed pout.
“Cheap pebbles? And there I thought you were a nice guy, Lei, but you’re actually a big jerk, aren’t you?”
Besides me, Noah nodded with an expression filled with contempt. Lei grinned innocently.
“Eh? It’s just how our family business works. Why pay for a hammer of diamond to make a hole if you can make it with an iron hammer? If the diamond hammer breaks, you’re screwed. If it’s the iron hammer, you can just fix it or buy another one. That’s how renewable energies work.”
The hell was he saying? Was that bastard comparing people to hammers?
“Stop repeating our father’s ramblings in a bath towel, Lei,” Linah tsked. “Business is the most boring thing on Earth. If you want to make a hole, use your own hands.”
Lei grinned.
“That’s what I’d personally do. Or not,” he added, sending a wondering glance to giant Sasha.
So, in the end, he didn’t share his father’s view… or did he? Lei was such an ambiguous person. Well, he was clearly the type of person who’d rely on others for the dirty work. But was it out of laziness? Or out of a superiority complex?
While I was trying to determine it, Linah growled at her brother:
“What?! You became Ray’s subordinate? How come?”
“Well, it just happened.”
Lei didn’t explain further. Was he trying to hide Axel’s defeat or my questionable way of winning? In any case, the news had upset Linah.
“What about the Sand House?”
“Empty. Aya-aya, dear sister, don’t glare at me like that. Aren’t you glad to have your older brother by your side?”
“I would have been if you had come to my rescue this morning when I was trapped by the cactuses, you fool! I can’t believe you became the subordinate of the guy you crushed last month!” She turned to Ray with a frustrated and incredulous expression. “What did you do?”
The young necromancer, who was discreetly walking away towards the stairs, stopped and looked very embarrassed.
“I… didn’t do anything. As far as I’m concerned, he can go back to the Sand House.”
“Come on, don’t throw me out, boss.”
“You’ll do as you please, anyway.”
“Haha, that’s true!” Lei laughed, and I tsked under my breath when he lay a friendly arm on Ray’s shoulder. “I’m not a cheap pebble by nature, after all. I’m bad at following orders. Particularly my dad’s. Isn’t it the same for you? We’re so much alike, aren’t we? Ah, but don’t worry, I am a man of my word. So, if I’m bothering you, just tell me, okay, boss?”
At his cheerful words, my mouth twisted into a murderous smile. I was beginning to regret having him at the Wind House… Ray glanced at the Sunclaw, unmoved, shrugged, and was about to move away when the bell of my phone rang and made me start.
“Oh! My rice! I have to watch my r…!”
Right at that instant, Nina and Jing came out of the kitchen with the cooking pot and the dishes. It was ready. Noah sniffed with shining, hungry eyes.
“Mm! It smells good. Oh, and it looks nice. Let’s sit down and dig in, guys! I’m going first! Thanks, Nina!”
“Thanks, Nina—Wait, why just Nina?” I asked. “Don’t discriminate guys, champ, and thank Jing and the initial cook, here.”
“Yeah, yeah. Thanks for the food!”
The champ sat at the round table, served himself, and took a spoon of steaming rice. His face beamed with joy as he began munching. Then he opened his eyes, swallowed, and beamed at me to my surprise.
“I don’t know if it’s Losterness curry, but IT’S DAMN GOOD, stupidstar!”
His explosive statement made me laugh. Had I ever reacted like that because of a meal? I couldn’t remember. Anyway, at least Noah was being sincere for once. I threw my arms akimbo, with my kitchen gloves and my apron, grinning.
“Call me chef.”
“In your dreams.”
“Oh, it does look tasty,” Lei approved, approaching the table with appetite.
“Go put on some clothes first!” Linah snapped at him, and she sat at the table, adding: “You’ll take care of washing the dishes.”
“For real?”
“For real! If you want to stay, you’ll have to work as hard as everyone else!”
Under his sister’s glare, Lei ran away with Sasha to get dressed. I noticed that Ray was heading towards the stairs, too, and I swiftly went to him to suggest quietly:
“Why don’t you have dinner with everyone, Ray?”
Ray’s face shuddered.
“Ah… No, I…”
I smiled at him with confidence.
“Pretty please?”
His shifty gaze was saying, “Why would I eat dinner with people I barely know?”. My smile didn’t falter.
Some minutes later, much to my satisfaction, the nine of us were sitting at the table. We first had to wake Styzz up in the bathroom because he had fallen asleep. Yuutow Tower had taken a toll on the Hidden Wolves fan, but as soon as he tasted the curry, his habitually unimpressed eyes lit up, and a spark of electricity ran through his green, spiked hair. Linah commented:
“Straw Head, there’s something you said earlier that caught my attention. You told Yoan—no, Noah, was it—anyway, you told him to thank the guys too for the cooking, that is, Jing and you.” She looked at me with quivering, smiling lips. “Did you seriously mean it?”
“…? Yeah. Why? I minced the sweet potato, the eggplant, and the broccoli and put it all into the steam cooker. And I made the spiced sauce. And the rice. Steamed food is healthy for humans. My grandpa told me so. And finally, Jing took care of the rest with Nina. So, yeah, I meant it. What kind of weird question is that?”
Wait… could it be the curry tasted bad? No, but Noah…
“Hwara-hwara-hwara!”
Linah burst out laughing and choked on the rice. Nina gently clapped her on the back. The Lil Witch finally calmed down and, under our funny looks, snorted in disbelief:
“Could it be the Straw Head is not the only one that…? No way. You’re hopeless, guys. I mean… She is not a guy. She’s a girl.”
For some cryptic reason, Styzz’s eyes paused on me when he asked:
“Who?”
I was confused. Was Linah trying to make a joke or something? I tried to play along and pushed aside one of my hairlocks.
“Hah… When did you realize I am a girl?”
Sasha gaped at me. Did he believe me? Noah spat out all the rice he had in his mouth, Lei let out a guffaw, Ray hid his face with his baseball cap, and Jing’s lips went up. Gasping, Linah covered her mouth with a hand and said:
“Oh my. You’re actually cute, too, as a girl. So you were a girl, after all!”
I raised a hand.
“I’m not anymore.”
“That was quick. Now, seriously, guys…” Linah shook her head. “There are three girls sitting at this table.”
I was taken aback. So she wasn’t making it up? Then… It could only mean that Jing… No, seriously? My eyes paused on Sasha and his huge complexion, on Linah’s brother, then on Jing again… The bald martial artist swallowed the curry in his—or her?—mouth and said:
“I’m a girl, guys.”
Noah’s lips twisted sideways.
“The way the stupidstar said it was funny, but it doesn’t work twice, Jing.”
“It’sh true, shough.”
There was a pause, then we all gaped at Jing. Eeeeh?! She swallowed and added calmly:
“I may not be very girly, and I’m bald, but everyone in the Sky Walker Clan is like that. We don’t have hair. So, I’m sorry I didn’t correct you guys sooner. I simply don’t attach that much importance to those things. Well, now you know.”
She kept eating with appetite under our surprised gazes. Jing Ferrier was a girl. Well, not that it changed anything.
“Actually,” the colossus intervened shyly as he suspended his spoon at mouth level, “I already knew Jing was a girl.”
Styzz, Noah, Lei, and I snorted. So, Sasha knew? Ray shrugged.
“So did I.”
Ray too?! Linah laughed at us. My plate still empty and with no intention to fill it, I thought back to when I’d first met Jing, in the jungle of the Nyomin reserve, four days ago. I had tried to deceive her, then had given her my yellow ribbon, and helped her pass the examination. Just after that, I…
I had taken a shower with her in the women’s showers. On recalling that, I covered my forehead with my hand. Gods… At least, she had told me not to turn around, and I hadn’t—probably because, at that moment, I had been more worried about Jing finding out the ugly hole the cheebou had dug in my chest.
“Pleash, let’s leafe it a’ shat,” Jing insisted, her mouth full of rice. How many portions had she served herself already?! She swallowed. “By the way, Armen, the rice was delicious. Thank you.”
I grinned at her words.
“You’re welcome.”
“You’re not going to eat?”
“Ah… I’m not hungry right now. I’ll eat later.” I said that, but I was actually eating the wasted lifeforce of my eight companions. It tasted incredibly delicious too. Maybe partly because there were, among them, people I cared a lot about; also, seeing all of them eating together with me at the same table filled me with joy. I grinned. Noah looked funnily at me from the other side of the table.
“You on a diet, stupidstar? Don’t you know the saying? A Hero marches on its stomach. Look at Sasha.”
The giant was serving himself again; he was only taking small portions, as if he didn’t dare to take a big one, but in the end, it felt like he was eating more than anyone.
“He’s right, Straw Head,” Linah approved, raising her fork. “When I was a kid, my maternal great-grandma used to say, ‘Let a good meal go to waste and the devils of Asipatravana will take you away!’.”
Scary great-grandma. Nina looked at the Lil Witch in surprise.
“My mom says the exact same thing.”
Both were from the Hawaii Mountains, after all. I chuckled and stood up.
“Should I check if the pie is baked?”
“Oh, yeah, if you will, thanks!” Jing said.
“Pie!” Noah exulted. “I want to eat Shanghai pie!”
“Are you a kid?” Styzz replied calmly.
As I walked into the kitchen, I could hear their voices, but stopped listening to them. My core was beating fast. Was it life-lust? Maybe. But it wasn’t only that. My deathforce was vibrating. If I hadn’t been a musician, I would have probably not noticed that there was a rhythm in that vibration. My core… was playing music? Was I imagining it? What did that even mean? It was a sensation I had never felt before, but it reminded me of that physical reaction I had when I was alive and thought about happy things: that warm flow of energy that gently blooms in your heart and makes your ears resonate and all your mind tremble with a calm joy. I didn’t remember quite well the sensation, but the one I had right now must be the undead version of happiness. Or, more like, the Fury version of it. I felt alive and fortunate to be surrounded by good people and good food and to be able to share that bliss with my master. I was so happy that…
Humming a melody, I was putting the nice-looking Shanghai pie out of the oven when I stopped in my tracks.
Share happiness with my master?
Since when did I begin to think of Ray as my master and not as my best friend? Now that I thought about it, I had been calling him master more often since I had become a Fury.
‘A friend is way more precious than a master, don’t you think?’
That’s what I had told Arkill once. But now I was beginning to realize that the relationship between a necromancer and his familiar was way more complicated than that of a master and his slave. Even if I was Ray’s friend, I was also bound to him with a necro-bond. A necro-bond that allowed me to live but also changed my view of the world… and my view of Ray.
Should I ask him about it after dinner? Nah, but honestly, why would I worry about those sorts of things? Even if I were to become a familiar loyal to its master, why would that be wrong? Why would I refuse to see Ray as my master, when he actually was? As long as Ray kept being a loyal friend in return, I didn’t care about the rest.
“Oi, oi! Where’s that Shanghai pie?”
Noah’s scream from the great hall made me come back to the present.
“Stupidstar! Hurry up, we’re starving!”
So annoying. A smile faintly stretched my lips as I muttered:
“I’m the one starving, champ.”
The pie was delicious. Or so it seemed from my companions’ expressions. Before they could ask why I wasn’t even trying the pie, I stood up again.
“Guys! I just had an enlightenment!”
“Makes sense,” Noah commented. “It’s nighttime, so the stupidstar lights up.”
“Let me play the violin for you all! I actually have something I want to try.”
I had just found out my core was playing music, and I wanted to imitate it. I wanted my companions to listen to it. I was sure something good would come out of it.
“Oh, let’s hear it!” Linah said.
I ran upstairs to fetch my violin, then back downstairs, my core beating fast with anticipation.
“It’s something new,” I said, my voice quivering a bit. “But… I’m sure it will be something beautiful. Well, at least I think so.”
Everyone had finished eating, and they waited for me to play. They were actually looking at me expectantly. I smiled, took the violin, tuned it, then shut my eyes for a moment to listen to my undead heart… Its music was strong, loud, and poignant. I so wanted to let Ray and Linah hear it! And also Nina and Jing, and Noah, Styzz, Lei, and Sasha…
The bow grazed the strings, and I started playing. Music poured into the Wind House.
It was hard to follow the rhythm of my core, but I did my best. The bow danced on the strings, awakening notes of happiness, passion, and love. I soon realized my core was beating stronger. Was it because of the music?
When I finally stopped, I was so moved that I was having a hard time fighting back my tears. I had never played something so genuinely passionate. The music still reverberated through my whole being.
There was a deep silence among my public, then…
Clap, clap, clap, clap…
Lei was gentlemanly clapping his hands. Jing, Sasha, and Nina followed hesitantly; Noah stopped covering his ears.
“What did we do to you to deserve this, stupidstar?! Are you trying to kill us?”
Confusion filled my heart.
“Eeeh? No, I…”
“You’re being rude, Noah,” Jing scolded him.
“City music sure is different from that of my hometown,” Nina opined.
“It was as if a pack of mummies was having a party in their grave,” Lei chuckled. He sent me a thumbs up. “Dreadful technique. You could take down an Invernessian tiger with it, you know. Good work.” Was he complimenting me or…?
“Hwara-hwara-hwara!” Linah was massaging her temples. “For a moment, I thought you had gone crazy, Straw Head!”
I looked at them, at a loss. Didn’t they appreciate the music? It was the most beautiful melody I had composed until now, though? Or so I thought, but… did I just imagine it? It was said that some musicians corrected the notes in their heads and couldn’t listen to the music they actually produced. Did I just make an awful demonstration? If they hadn’t enjoyed the music, then…
‘You just tried to use qi in your music, Armen.’
From his seat, Ray was avoiding my gaze under his baseball cap as he added mentally:
‘Deathforce music can’t be easily heard. So what they just heard was really… er… hardcore? I know you put all your heart into it, or more like your core, but I’m the only one here who actually listened to the real thing. It was… beautiful.’
I didn’t understand what he said about deathforce music, but at his last words, my mood revived like a fire. I echoed excitedly:
“It was beautiful? Ray, you think it was beautiful?”
The others looked at both of us, startled. Ray got a bit flustered, met my expectant gaze, and cleared his throat.
“Yeah.”
“There’s no way it was!” Noah choked on his saliva out of disbelief. “Are you two really friends? Friends are supposed to be honest!”
Ray ignored him, and standing up, he asserted firmly, without a shadow of a doubt:
“It was beautiful.”
His tone defied anyone to say the contrary. The music of my core resonated even more marvelously to my ears.