Water Magician

Vol 3. Chapter 688.2: Bonus Part: Ryo and Abel’s Journey Home (16)

Bonus SS: Traveling Musicians Ryo and Abel

“We definitely left the town of Chuarow...”

“And yet there’s another town right next to it...?”

Ryo was bewildered, and Abel was equally bewildered.

Of course, the two of them were riding Andalusia and Feiwan, and the ice s were following behind them as well.

Even so, neither of them could make sense of the situation.

What stood before them was a gate.

A huge gate, the kind one would expect at the entrance to a town.

And yet, only thirty minutes earlier, they had left the town of Chuarow after resolving the Sweet Dew Lake relocation problem, hurrying once more along their journey.

And despite that, they had arrived at another town almost immediately.

Probably a different town from Chuarow...

And on top of that, right in front of the gate...

“You appear to be Lord Abel and Lord Ryo. We have been awaiting your arrival.”

A refined old man had bowed to them politely and said exactly that.

“We are indeed Abel and Ryo... but sir, is this a different town from Chuarow?”

Abel asked on their behalf.

“This is the residence of Count Soupun of Vivi, who rules Chuarow and the surrounding region.”

“The gate to a residence...”

“It’s awfully big for that.”

The old man answered, and Ryo and Abel were both startled by the scale of it.

It was large enough that they had mistaken it for a town gate.

Even if he was a lord, it hardly seemed like the gate to a private residence...

They were courteously escorted inside.

After entrusting Andalusia and Feiwan and entering the building, they found a man at the entrance bowing with great respect.

“My name is Count Soupun of Vivi. It is more joy than I can bear to welcome such illustrious guests into my home.”

After saying those words to the two of them, Soupun bowed deeply once more.

Which only left Ryo and Abel more bewildered.

“Ah... Lord Count, please raise your head. This is about Sweet Dew Lake, I assume, but that was simply something we did because of how events unfolded. It was only natural for adventurers.”

“The local residents asked us, of course, and so did the water fai... the nonhuman people.”

Abel and Ryo answered.

“Yes, of course. I also received a report from Deputy Magistrate Hyuran. In fact, only a few dozen minutes ago. We were truly fortunate that you happened to pass in front of this residence. Otherwise, we would have had to run after you.”

Soupun answered with a smile.

“But that is not all.”

“Hm?”

“Yes?”

Soupun lowered his head again and continued.

“The two of you are Duke Rondo and Sir Abel, his guard, are you not?”

“Ah...”

“Um...”

Faced with that smiling question, both men hesitated in their answer.

“I was present at the music gathering.”

“Ah...”

At Soupun’s words, Abel had no choice in the end but to nod.

Ryo nodded silently as well.

“Not only did the two gentlemen whom His Majesty treated with great favor come to my aid, but if I were to let you leave my lands without offering proper hospitality, it would be the greatest disgrace of Count Vivi’s life. Please, for the sake of my honor, accept my hospitality.”

“Ah...”

“If you put it that way...”

And so, the two of them were treated to an excellent meal.

Calling it a paradise of wine and meat would be going too far, but dish after dish truly did keep appearing without end.

But in truth, even while they were eating, there was something that had caught Ryo’s attention just a little.

They were dining with Soupun’s family in a vast hall-like chamber.

A gigantic table had been set there.

According to Soupun, it was a place used for banquets with senior officials, high-ranking military men, and the like.

And in one corner of that hall there was an “object” draped in cloth.

Only the upper structure was visible, so Ryo could only guess what it was...

Once everyone had been drinking and things were beginning to feel pleasantly relaxed, Ryo stood up and walked over to the “object.”

Then he gently lifted the cloth.

“I knew it! A Shen-Long!”

Yes, what stood there was a grand piano.

“Shen-Long?”

Abel clearly did not understand.

“Come on, it’s a piano.”

“Ah, a piano.”

Apparently “piano” at least made sense to him.

“I ordered it and bought it at that music gathering...”

Soupun said that much, then looked at the woman beside him.

That would be his wife...

who simply gave a bright smile.

Yes, she smiled and evaded the issue.

Apparently she had grown tired of practicing the piano.

“Musical instruments take time to learn, after all.”

“That’s true.”

Ryo nodded, and Abel agreed.

At that, Soupun’s wife nodded several times as well.

Soupun gave a small shake of his head and let out a sigh.

After that... for some reason, a violin was brought in from the music room as well...

and the two of them ended up having to perform.

Preparations proceeded, including setting up the piano.

But then Ryo suddenly lifted his head as if he had noticed something.

“What is it?”

“I just wanted to check the piano’s pitch...”

After answering that, Ryo walked over to the piano that was being moved into place, opened the keyboard lid, and pressed the A key.

A.

“Ah, good, it’s at the proper pitch. I’m glad it wasn’t off by a semitone.”

Relieved, Ryo closed the lid, bowed to the people who had been preparing to move it, and returned to Abel.

“Off by a semitone?”

“Yes, it wasn’t off. It was at the usual pitch.”

“I adjust the strings every time before I play the violin, but do people do that with pianos too?”

“Normally it’s more like once a year. Of course, before a concert, a tuner would do it... but with a piano like this one, where nobody has been playing it, it can be dangerous.”

Ryo nodded emphatically.

Of course, Abel had no idea what he meant and tilted his head.

“A long time ago, in my homeland, there was a musician named Brahms... or rather, well, a pianist. He traveled together with a violinist. And before a concert in one town... the venue was changed at the last minute, and when they checked the piano, every single key was a semitone flat.”

“That’s rough. A violin only has four strings, so it can be adjusted quickly. But that piano has a lot of strings, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, yes. The performance time was close, so there was no time to tune it again.”

“...What did they do?”

“They played the piano a semitone higher.”

“A semitone higher?”

Abel frowned.

It was hard for him to imagine with a violin.

“A piano has white keys and black keys, and those are offset from one another by semitones.”

“So that means where he should have played a white key, he had to play a black key instead?”

“Yes, except there’s no black key between E and F, so that interval is a semitone there, and there’s no black key between B and C either, so that interval is also a semitone...”

“So sometimes black, sometimes the next white... I have no idea what that means.”

“Yes, it makes no sense. And he managed it almost entirely on the spot. As expected of Brahms.”

For some reason, Ryo nodded emphatically.

“Could you do that, Ryo...?”

“Absolutely not.”

Ryo nodded emphatically once again.

“I’m glad it was properly in tune this time.”

“Yes, very much so.”

Both of them nodded firmly.

“Well then, about the performance... who goes first?”

“Why not try playing together?”

In response to Abel’s question, ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ Ryo proposed something entirely unexpected.

Since the piano had only just come into being in this world of Fai, Abel naturally had never performed alongside a piano before.

As for Ryo, he had never performed together with a violin back when he was on Earth, either...

“Pl-play... together?”

For once, Abel looked genuinely stunned.

But then came a word of salvation from Ryo.

“Abel, just play Paganini’s 24 Caprices the way you always do. I’ll accompany you.”

“Accompany me?”

“And if the mood strikes you, feel free to throw in some variations.”

“Some variations?”

“I might do the same... it’ll be like a jazz session!”

“Jazz? Session?”

Abel did not understand a single word Ryo was saying.

But there was one thing about Abel.

“All right. Fine. Let’s just try it.”

Instant decision.

A king’s decision.

The speed of judgment of someone accustomed to accepting the results of his own decisions.

Once everything was ready, Ryo sat down at the piano.

Abel rose straight to his feet with the violin in hand.

And then...

he began with the familiar, distinctive opening phrase of the 24 Caprices.

Ryo’s piano joined in with it.

Intertwining, chasing one another... at times clashing head-on.

Caprice No. 24 was built around that distinctive phrase, the “theme,” returning again and again.

So long as they did not lose that...

the rest could go wherever their hearts wished.

They spun together, connected together...

and a new Variations on a Theme of Paganini was born.

Only once.

The listeners were swept into the vortex the two of them created.

Soupun’s family, his retainers, and even the horses.

Music affects all living things.

A great power that crosses every boundary.

A great power created by the two of them.

And it made all who heard it happy.

The day after the impromptu concert, the two of them departed from Count Soupun of Vivi’s residence.

“Ahh, music truly is wonderful!”

“It is.”

“I think music is the key to world peace.”

“World peace, huh. That’s a grand statement.”

Ryo declared it, and Abel answered with a wry smile.

“One day, when King Abel sets out on the path of world conquest, music will be the key to making it succeed.”

“First of all, the moment you call it ‘conquest,’ I think you’ve already moved pretty far away from ‘peace.’”

“A king must not concern himself with trivial details.”

“To begin with, I prefer peace.”

“So that’s how you lower the neighboring countries’ guard and then strike unexpectedly. What a strategist.”

“The only thing I know for certain is that if you’re the one saying it, it’s definitely wrong.”

The Premier Duke and the King were always thinking about the safety of their nation.

“I think we’re pretty far from the center of Darwei here.”

“What brought that on all of a sudden?”

“And yet the piano has already spread even this far.”

“Because it’s a wonderful instrument, isn’t it? Provided someone can actually play it.”

Abel shrugged.

Playing an instrument was by no means easy.

A piano did produce sound when a key was pressed...

but that was certainly not the same thing as “performing.”

“But eventually I feel like it’ll cross cultural boundaries and make its way all the way to the Central Countries.”

“It will.”

For Ryo it was only a feeling, but Abel sounded certain.

“Why are you so confident about that?”

“Because people like good things.”

Abel said it flatly.

“Even if they’re difficult things to master, they’ll become common eventually. I think that’s simply part of human nature.”

“You really are good at grasping the essential part of things, Abel.”

Ryo nodded, sounding impressed by Abel’s words.

Because he completely agreed.

“It’ll come by the same roads we’re traveling.”

“That means we have to keep walking toward the Central Countries too.”

Abel said it, and Ryo voiced his resolve.

At that, Andalusia and Feiwan whinnied.

And so the two men and the two horses kept moving toward the Central Countries.