Chapter 118: The End and the Beginning
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
The light fragrance of the flowers and the unique smell of earth were intoxicating, and the cool breeze was nice and gentle. When Lucien was standing in the garden alone, all of a sudden, the surroundings disappeared, and instead, a broad starry sky with a beautiful silver moon enveloped him.
Lucien once again entered the world inside his soul.
The shining string connecting Lucien’s actual host star of destiny far away in the universe and the star’s inverted reflection in his soul appeared in the air, and the string, as a channel, was eagerly absorbing the power of the host star in order to nurture Lucien’s soul.
Gradually, certain changes happened in the soul, and Lucien felt that his soul was slowly “substantialized”.
A while later, when Lucien reopened his eyes, there were countless stars in his dark pupils.
He blinked again, and then his eyes went back to normal.
Feeling super refreshed, Lucien sensed that his soul was stronger than ever. The most amazing difference he noticed was that some crystal powder was solidified and produced from his soul, just like the fine dust of the revenant.
“How a person’s soul is constituted? Is it constituted of certain special elements, or soul itself is nothing else but a special wave field? Why meditation can improve one’s power?” Lucien murmured, having too many questions in his mind that interested him a lot. He was guessing that the substantiation, or say, the solidification of the soul was the premise to construct a magic model.
Right now, becoming a first circle sorcerer was Lucien’s main goal. For a senior apprentice, this breakthrough to become a real sorcerer was of great significance, since there was a huge difference in power between the two levels, just like moving from being a knight squire to being a real knight.
…
It only took Lucien half a day to finish all the procedures to collect the documents required to travel through the continent, both because of the princess’ special order in advance and his own social status as a well-known musician. For common people, however, it would take at least seven days.
Although many adventurers were also traveling across the continent without any paperwork, it was illegal, technically speaking, and it could put them in big trouble, such as being suspected of being heretics or spies.
Then, Lucien stayed in Aalto for a few more days to plan his trip and also to wait for the upcoming April tenth.
In the morning of April ninth, Lucien’s coach set out for Tiran, a province in northwest of the duchy. Since the coach was hired by the association, Lucien told the coachman to go to the north first and then head toward the Kingdom of Syracuse in the east to hide his real destination.
…
The magnificent city gradually disappeared behind the coach. Lucien stopped looking back from the window and started to casually leaf through some paper works. Then, he noticed that there was a pile of newspapers in the corner of the coach.
Taking a closer look, it was the latest Music Criticism and Symphony News.
The front page of the latest Music Criticism was divided in two. The black and white painting on the left side depicted the scene where Christopher was acknowledging the applause at the end of his concert, while on the right side, there was a colored picture of Lucien playing piano.
On the top of the front page, there was a line of bold letters, “The end of the old era, the beginning of a new era.”
The full passage was on the second page:
“Mr. Christopher bid his farewell to the stages with his magnificent concert. His symphony the War of Dawn shocked every listener and showed us a great musician’s never-ending spirit for further exploration in the world of music.
“In the past seventy years, we have witnessed a tremendous growth of symphony, and the contribution made by Mr. Christopher to the art of composing is more than remarkable. He is a real music master, the representative of the last seventy years. Let us salute Mr. Christopher with our greatest respect.”
…
“Following Mr. Christopher, the great master of music, Mr. Lucien Evans showed us a brand-new direction for the further development of music in his concert. Young and inexperienced as he is, Mr. Evans already launched a few revolutions with his fingerings, composing and conducting. The next era of music has arrived.
“Although not everyone likes revolution, the momentum of innovation can not be stopped. Thanks to Mr. Evans, the colorful future of music has been partly revealed.
“Let us send this young music genius our best wishes! Let us wish that Mr. Evans would follow Mr. Christopher’s footstep and lead us further in this new music era!”
…
“The end of Mr. Christopher’s playing was followed by the beginning of Mr. Evans’ performance, and we shall cheer with heart and soul, ‘music lives forever’!”
The passage was co-written by a couple of musicians from the association in Aalto.
Some of the other passages in the newspaper gave high comments on piano, and some of them analyzed the formats of Christopher’s symphony and Lucien’s sonata. Only a few short articles were criticizing Lucien’s fingerings and his style of conducting as “lunatic and totally not decent”, and one of them was contributed by Wolf.
Lucien sneered a bit and folded the newspapers.
Staring at the bold title on the front page, “The end of the old era, the beginning of a new era”, Lucien sat in the coach and lost himself in thoughts.
…
Around six in the evening, Lucien arrived at the small town called Massawa.
The town was located at an intersection, one heading toward the province named Tiran, which belonged to House Violet, and the other that led to Bonn, the small town sitting beside Elsinore Lake, which was very close to Massawa.
“It’s pretty late now, Mr. Evans.” The leader of Lucien’s guards, Joyce, said to him, “I suggest we stay here for the night and set off tomorrow morning.”
Although nowadays vicious monsters and creatures were rarely seen around big cities, towns and villages, from time to time people could still encounter robbers and small beasts. Therefore, if the common people needed to travel through the continent, they had to pay mercenaries to protect themselves.
Lucien’s mercenary team had six people in total. The team leader and the vice leader were high level knight squires and the other team members were low level ones. Every month Lucien needed to pay them three hundred Nars, excluding meal and accommodation.
Although it was totally unaffordable for common people, money was not a big problem for Lucien anymore. The income of his concert was very decent, and now he had a hundred and five Thales in total with him.
“Sure. You know more about this place than I do, Joyce.” Lucien nodded, “Can you find us a hotel? I want a very quiet room.”
Joyce was tall and strong. At the age of thirty-two, he was still saving money to awaken his Blessing. Joyce was sort of grateful that such a celebrity would show respect to him, since many other wealthy guys who he safeguarded before were pretty much bastards.
Very soon Joyce booked a decent hotel sitting beside a small lake in the town. Lucien selected the leftmost room on the second floor, which was very quiet.
A bunch of tourists were in Massawa at that time. They had just left Aalto after the music festival.
Lucien entered his room from the side door and avoided them. He ordered dinner and ate it inside his room, after which he told Joyce that he did not want anyone to disturb him. Then, he quietly waited for the darkness of the night to come.
