novelraw Chapter 131: GROUP SOCIALIZING (3)
Chapter 131: GROUP SOCIALIZING (3)
[Tavern The Voice of the North — 2:00 PM]
The tavern had something that in Veltharr served as afternoon entertainment — a space with a magical amplification system and a book of regional songs.
Basically: border-town karaoke.
The team found it by accident when the boy pointed at the music coming through the door.
"What’s that?"
"Someone singing," said Emily.
"In public?"
"Voluntarily."
The boy processed that.
"Can anyone do it?"
"Anyone who pays for a turn."
They looked at Alex simultaneously.
Alex looked at his purse and sighed.
"I know."
---
Emily sang first because no one else wanted to go first.
Soft voice, in tune — the kind of voice that combines with light magic in ways that made sense. The song was something regional from Veltharr that she didn’t know completely; she read the lyrics from the book and followed along, getting lost once and recovering.
The team applauded.
The tavern too.
Emily sat back down with slightly red cheeks.
"That was horrible."
"It was fine," said Kira.
"It was fine," confirmed Maya.
"It was adorable," said Raven.
"That’s not the same as fine."
"No, but it was also true."
Emily looked at Alex, embarrassed, waiting for his opinion.
Alex gave her a smile. "You did great, Emily. For the first time singing that song, it was perfect, just like you."
"Alex... thank you," Emily thanked him in a whisper, her cheeks visibly red.
The boy clapped three more times after everyone else had stopped.
Emily looked at him.
"Did you like it?"
"I didn’t know you could do that." He looked at the space where she had been. "Sing like that for others."
"Do you want to try?"
The boy looked at the songbook.
"I don’t know any."
"You can pick one and read it."
He processed that for several seconds.
"Later," he said.
"Whenever you want."
---
Raven didn’t sing.
She refused with the brevity of someone who has made a decision and isn’t going to discuss it.
Alex played his trap card.
"Can you do it, please... for me."
The expression Alex made caused Raven to feel embarrassed and, resigned, she accepted.
"Fine, but I warned you I’m bad at this." But she looked at him with a determined smile. "You’re going to compensate me in bed." She said that last part while standing up and taking the microphone.
She chose a random song and began her attempt at singing — though it didn’t go that badly; she just needed a little more tuning.
The place applauded, and the girls did too.
Emily was the first to congratulate her.
"That was very good, Raven. If you practiced more, you’d be an incredible singer."
"Don’t say more. I feel strange after seeing how everyone was looking at me."
Alex let out a low laugh and replied.
"That’s because you’re embarrassed. I know it’s not like you, but that’s how it feels."
Raven sat down next to him and said,
"Oh my god, shut up and kiss me."
Alex gave her a kiss that made the other girls jealous.
But they preferred not to say anything because they knew Raven did it to hide her embarrassment.
Maya didn’t sing either.
"I don’t sing in public."
"Do you sing in private?" asked Alex.
"That information is not available."
"Maybe you could sing for me later?"
"Maybe yes, maybe no."
Kira also didn’t want to sing.
"Why not?" asked the boy.
"Because my voice is for giving tactical orders and for speaking." Kira looked at him. "Not for songs."
"How do you know if you don’t try?"
Her ears froze.
The boy looked at her with the direct honesty of someone who still hasn’t learned which questions aren’t asked.
Kira looked at him for two seconds.
She went to the songbook.
She chose the shortest one.
She sang it.
"How adorable," said Raven while listening.
Raven was right — it was adorable.
Not because of the voice, which was exactly what Kira had described — functional, direct, without unnecessary embellishments. But because of the way she did it: with the same seriousness with which she did everything, reading each word as if it were important tactical information, her ears completely forward.
The tavern applauded.
Kira returned to her seat.
"That was terrible," she said.
"It wasn’t terrible," said the boy.
He looked at her without pretension.
"It was brave."
"Thank you."
"You were incredible. I loved it," said Alex.
Her ears moved.
"Could I have a kiss too?" she asked with a direct tone.
"Mm, I guess I don’t see why not... Come here," Alex replied, gesturing for her to come closer.
Kira approached and, to the surprise of the girls and the rest of the nearby audience, she sat on Alex’s lap and kissed him, while he kissed her back.
Raven looked at the people watching them. "What? You’ve never seen a young guy with a harem of older women?"
The people shook their heads.
"Well, now you’re seeing it."
---
Alex was the last of the team to go up.
He hadn’t planned to go up.
But the boy looked at him with that expression of someone who is learning that doing things gives something, and that something matters, and that the people around him also need that something from time to time.
"You’re not going?" asked the boy.
Alex looked at the songbook.
He thought about the Academy.
About the years with no free time.
About the things that normal people did — fairs, karaoke, aimless afternoons — that he simply hadn’t had.
"I’m not good," he said.
"Emily also said she wasn’t good."
Alex looked at him.
The boy waited patiently.
Not pushing.
Just waiting.
Alex went to the book.
He chose a song he vaguely knew from having heard it in some hallway of the Academy when someone else was singing it.
He sang it.
He was indeed not good — the pitch sometimes right, sometimes not, the confidence of someone who rarely allows himself to be bad at something in front of others.
But he sang the whole thing.
The team applauded louder than they normally would, with the specific energy of people applauding something more than the song.
Alex returned to his seat.
Grim, from the corner where he had been silent all afternoon: **"Mediocre."**
"I know."
**"But you did it."**
Alex looked at him.
**"That matters more."**
---
[Afternoon — Veltharr — 5:00 PM]
The team on the main street, walking without a specific destination.
Alex’s Crowns notably reduced.
The boy walked next to Kira; she had been teaching him bow grip for the past hour with the specific patience of someone who understands that a learner needs repetition, not speed.
Maya walked ahead of him.
Akari looked at him periodically with an expression that wasn’t exactly jealousy but resembled it.
Emily with one hand holding Alex’s arm and in the other, mountain flowers she had bought at a stall for Luna, even though Luna was in the spiritual plane. The herbalist had told her that flowers with a high magical charge were perceptible to spiritual plane creatures, and Emily had bought three bouquets without hesitation.
Raven walked with her hands in her pockets, looking at Veltharr with her usual silent evaluation but more relaxed.
Alex watched them walk.
Corruption stable at 76%.
The Anchor Stone extinguished.
Fragment 4 still not integrated, still pressing, still being two simultaneous conversations in the same space.
The Catacombs three days ago.
The Celestial Academy somewhere ahead.
And here — Veltharr, winter afternoon, the team on the main street with mountain flowers and stuffed foxes and a boy learning to hold a bow.
Grim beside him.
**"What are you thinking?"**
Alex considered the question honestly.
"That six months ago I didn’t know this existed."
**"This?"**
Alex looked at the team.
"Having people who love me and care about me... But also people for me to worry about and love."
Grim followed his gaze.
**"And now?"**
Alex watched them walk — Kira correcting the boy’s grip with a tracker’s patience, Emily chasing Maya to make her smell the flowers, Raven letting out a short laugh at something Emily said and immediately pretending she hadn’t.
"Now I can’t imagine the opposite."
Grim considered that.
**"Good."**
The Veltharr afternoon continued.