For the next several days, Lee practiced his magic alongside Em along their journey. They were quickly approaching their next stop, a town by the name of Asper. From what information he could gather from Annalise, Jeremy, and Kendri, this would be where the majority of the adventurers traveling alongside them would part ways, as the town had a significant guild presence.

This was also where the numerous pathways across the kingdom would emerge. No longer would there be a single dirt road between each town, village, or city like that near the border. From here on, they would need to properly plot their course.

The list of magic Lee and Em had come up with was extensive, but most of the list was chockful of things that were, quite frankly, wishful thinking. A lot of what Em had suggested was from her catalog of numerous books, and Lee had spent way too much time trying to read book spines through his mind-space given by Hidden Cache. Having gotten sick of it, when they camped, Lee placed down a few of her bookshelves and let her sort it out herself.

Lee knew she loved her books and had formerly lived vicariously through them, but he didn’t expect her ideas to come from fiction. She had many thick tomes full of very real research and theory about magical spells and elements, but she also had a vast array of fictional tales.

She preferred fiction.

At first, he had declined most of her ideas about spells that could mind-control people, trap their mind to have them relive their past trauma, and summon living, breathing animals to fight for him like some kind of summoner from Snow White. Still, after turning down so many, he started to feel a little bad about it. She had begun to pout and grow unenthusiastic about the whole process after too many denials, so he started to throw them onto the list even though they were most likely not possible.

Surprisingly, there was one thing that she was very knowledgeable in—Music.

“No. Higher pitched. Like this.” Em plucked one of her many metallic webs wrapped nearly around her fang legs, and an almost inaudible high-pitched note rang out.

Lee tried his best to replicate the sound using his spell Musical Melodious Memory but was slightly off mark. “Em, even I have my limits. I’m using threads of mana to warp sound. It’s not as simple as—” Lee gestured frustratingly at her metallic webs. “whatever you’re doing with your webs.”

Em stared up at the flashy display of mana, which made up his spell and tsk’d. “It’s called musical melodious memory. Shouldn’t your memory be enough? It’s not like you control every inch of your mana when using other spells.”

Lee opened his mouth to respond but paused. He frowned as he slowly looked up at his spell. “I’m an idiot.”

Since he had first created the spell, he had always felt that it was much more complex and wildly different than his others. When he cast Water Wave Wall, he never had to think about the process: how the water looked, what water was made of, the white tips of the waves, or how thick or tall the waves were. It just happened.

When it came to Musical Melodious Memory, it was an overcomplicated magical mana instrument that had three different dimensions. He had barely managed to play hot cross buns during their trip, and Prelude in C major, which he played at the funeral service back in Neldam, was one of the only songs he actually knew how to play on a real instrument.

Lee cancelled his current casting of Musical Melodious Memory and then recast it with a song firmly set in his mind. Now, he wasn’t proud of his song selection, but with Em right in front of him, only one song sprang to mind.

His spell reformed, and the waves of air mana began to vibrate and send musical notes ringing through the air. The sound was loud, not enough to deafen anybody by any means, but apparently loud enough for everyone in the wagon to stick their heads out the back flap in confusion.

To his horror, a voice came to life—a mimic of his own.

“The itsy-bitsy spider went up the water spout.

Down came the rain and washed the spider out.

Out came the sun and dried up all the rain

And the itsy-bitsy spider went up the spout again.

The itsy-bitsy spi—”

Lee quickly canceled the spell out of pure embarrassment, then bashed his head into the metallic plates that made up Em’s back.

“Oh, Leeeeeeeeee…” Em’s voice pierced his very soul. Her teasing was going to reach an all-time high. She now had enough ammunition to use against him for ages to come.

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He didn’t respond and tried to imagine how his trip would go if he magically disappeared at their next stop. Who knows? The town they were coming up to was large. It would be easy to get lost…

“Is that what you sound like when you sing?” Em teased.

Mind control magic was going to be a necessity. He could make it work. He had enough motivation.

“Do another song. You have to make sure this time wasn’t a fluke!”

Since he never responded, lost in his own world of trying to solve this unprecedented disaster, Em started to jump up and down, banging him across her metal thorax.

Lee held on for dear life as he tried to think of some magnificent song that would delete any and all memories of the ‘itsy-bitsy spider’ from their minds. It had to be something different. Something that they would have never even had the chance to hear ever again. It also needed to be a song he remembered in its entirety, as the spell apparently worked off his memory.

With his only view being Em’s metallic back, metal was locked into his mind. While it wasn’t one of his favorite genres, he enjoyed a few songs. He flicked his hand up without meeting anyone's eyes and cast the spell again.

The quick and echoing thrums of a guitar started to announce themselves before a long screaming voice—not his own, thankfully—screeched out some vocals. Drums, bass, guitar, and lyrics flowed out of his mana to create a full band by itself. Lee took a second to listen, and it sounded just like the original.

Em stopped, the wagon stopped… everything stopped as the song continued to play.

Lee quickly stole a peek at Em and saw her staring into the sky blankly. She was looking at the mana, vibrating out a sound formerly unknown. A song unknown.

Home’s Hommage, Regina, Jeremy, Kendri, and even the two horses stopped to listen to the… aggressive music.

The song was ‘Tears Don’t Fall’ by Bullet For My Valentine.

The song played onward for five minutes, and when it was finished, everyone looked at Lee simultaneously.

“That song is much better.” Lee said, trying to get everyone to forget the ‘itsy-bitsy spider.’

Regina was the first to speak as she brought out her notepad. “What language was that?”

It took Lee a second to register the question. Then, it dawned on him. To them, he had always been speaking their language, Barrusian. The song itself was in English. It appeared that his Language Comprehension ability didn’t work for his spells. That meant…

“So, that first song… You didn’t understand the words?” Lee cautiously asked.

Everyone shook their heads, and Lee felt like he was floating on a fluffy cloud from the weight lifted from his shoulder. It wasn’t like the spell Em wanted, but it felt wonderful.

“It’s English. It’s the language I speak.” Lee told Regina.

“It was glorious…” Em stated as she continued to stare up into the sky toward where his spell was. She turned to face him, and from the glint in her eye, Lee knew more trouble was coming.

“You must make me an entrance theme. One using that type of music. Just imagine… running into battle with—That at your back.”

Em was in one of her many moods, but Lee looked over his shoulder and saw another wagon coming up the road. “We can discuss that later. We’re blocking the road.”

It took another few hours to arrive at the town of Apser. By this time, Lee had gotten back in the wagon to avoid Em’s pestering about her ‘theme song.’ He wasn’t even sure how she knew what a theme song was, but she made it very clear that she wanted one.

The sun was just beginning to set as they strolled by the numerous surrounding farms located on the outskirts of Asper. Lee laid his eyes upon the stone wall surrounding its exterior as they grew closer to the entry gate, and he had to give credit where credit was due. This place was defensible.

Tall, towering blocks of smoothly cut stone were stacked upon one another, creating a solid twenty-foot wall that seemed to encircle the entirety of the town. Up atop the towering gray walls, several patrolling guards—No, militia? They were doing their rounds. At the entryway, two of said militia checked the incoming wagons and had short conversations with the passengers. It looked to be on the side of ‘just doing what needs to be doing.’ There weren’t any in-depth searches happening. Most likely, it was from having had several wagons full of adventurers returning throughout the day already.

Their wagon slowly crept up through the line, but one young-looking militiaman spotted Em scuttling in line when they were still several wagons away from the entry. Em wasn’t as large as a wagon, but she was large enough to create a noticeable gap in the wagon line. Lee glanced behind her at the wagon before them and noticed the deathly still and pale-paced passengers.

Oh no.

Lee could read the writing on the wall. He had been warned time and time again about how people like Em were treated, but he had never really experienced it firsthand. He looked at Em, hoping to give her a reassuring smile, but she wasn’t looking in his direction. She was fidgeting and had an uncomfortable look etched onto her face.

Lee hopped out the back of the wagon, eliciting some yells from Regina and Jeremy, but he ignored them. He activated Hidden Miracle to turn on both of his titles and then stood in front of Em with a smile directed at the young militiamen.

He saw the exact, eye-widening moment when comprehension took hold of the militiamen's face. Lee raised a finger to his mouth and gave him a ‘shooshing’ gesture, still with a smile for reassurance. The young man rapidly looked from Lee to Em, before wisely deciding that this was out of his paygrade, eventually storming off back behind the gate with hasty steps.

Lee turned to face the passengers on the wagon behind them, who looked like a couple. An older gentleman with graying hair and what looked to be his wife. She held onto his arm with a death grip as both of their eyes were locked onto Em. They had some vegetables stacked into their wide wooden wagon, and on top of the vegetables was a young woman in her late teens, trying to hide. He gave them all a little wave. “No need to be alarmed. She’s a healer.”

The older woman slowly loosened her grip on her husband and gave Lee a very forced smile.

Better than I had expected. Lee mused.

Their wagon slowly inched forward, and when it was their turn for inspection, there were roughly three times the amount of militiamen present.

That was when Regina stepped out.