Throne of Magical Arcana

Aalto in October was like a piece of fruit on top of a cake, sweet but slightly cold. The broad countryside was covered with golden crop fields that formed a sharp contrast to the yellow Laval trees in the city. Together, they formed a picturesque view. Music, which was produced by diverse musical instruments, could be heard from some distance, which added the beautiful background music to the picture. Aalto deserved its title, the City of Music.

“Melzer Black Forest always looks this dark…” said Natasha. She was standing by the Belem River and staring at the trees on the other side of the water. Autumn wind brushed her long, purple hair in the air.

The black forest was full of memories of her earlier years. There was hard work, pain, and joy in the forest. And she would never forget what once happened to her in it.

“Black fir trees, unique to the area surrounding the Dark Mountain Range. Their color can come from the contamination of a specific alternate dimension…” said Lucien in the tone of a professor.

Natasha was amused. “I don’t care why they’re black. What really matters to me is that I was once chased by cynocephaluses, suffered bad pain from eating wrong fruits, banged my head to the ground from paralysis due to poison, got stabbed in my lower abdomen and then someone had to put me on his back to run for our lives…”

She knew that Lucien wanted her to cheer up.

“You got chased by cynocephaluses? I thought they’ve never been a problem to you.” Lucien was quite interested. In his eyes, Natasha must have been a little Valkyrie since she was a little girl.

Natasha curled her lips. “Less than ten of them, yes, I could nail it. But the problem was that there were hundreds of them, and one of them could even cast spells!”

“What on earth did you do to make several tribes of cynocephaluses chase after you?” Lucien laughed.

Natasha hesitated a bit and waved her arm in the air. “Can’t remember!”

“But you’ve been saying that you never forget anything…”

“Not all the time. I just can’t remember!”

Chatting cheerfully, they walked along the river and enjoyed the soft breeze.

At this time, Natasha stopped and pointed at the riverside where lots of garbage piled up. “Is this the place you dug your first bucket of money?”

“Yeah… Many thanks to the princess who dropped the Nightingale veil that helped me take the first step out of the slum.” Lucien saw the garbage piles and got a bit emotional.

On the garbage piles, a couple of poor folks were enduring the stink to look for anything that might still worth something. On the river bank stood a stocky man who was supervising them with his arms folded. Even in October, he was only wearing a thin, brown coat.

Natasha sighed, “This place is still under the control of the gangsters.”

“New gangsters after Aaron Gang.” Lucien was not surprised. The birth of a new gang was no surprise in Aalto. It was just a matter of time.

The stocky man noticed Lucien and Natasha. He was about to warn them and make them walk away, but he turned to look away after seeing the fancy clothes they were wearing. In his eyes, they could be nobles, so he had to be careful.

To his great relief, the couple did nothing but kept walking toward the gate of the market zone.

It was time for high-tea, and the guards standing by the gate were feeling very fatigued. After taking a glance at Lucien and Natasha, who had slightly changed their looks, one of the guards waved his hand and let them in because both of them looked quite decent.

The market zone was still the same kind of busy, and the common tongue in Aalto accent and how people dressed instantly pulled them back to their early memories.

“It feels like we have never left here…” said Natasha. She had many times ridden through the gate and come to the market wearing a veil to find interesting gadgets, so she was very familiar with this place.

Lucien nodded and then took a deep breath. The air mixed with the smell of barbecue, assorted spices, dyes, tobacco, liquor, and stinks pulled him back to the very beginning when he had to bend his back to feed himself.

“I was once a laborer here,” Lucien pointed at one of the shops and said, “but I wasn’t strong enough. A single sandbag could make me fall to the ground.”

Natasha smiled and listened. From time to time, she pointed at a store and said, “This grocery store is like fifty years old. When I first visited it, it was the grandpa who was running the place, but now, it looks like the grandson has taken over…

“…The owner of that place recognized me when I was buying a heptachord there, and he almost passed out…”

Lucien also shared his experience. “… On this street, John and I taught the gangsters a good lesson…”

That was the first step for Lucien to start accepting the world.

The passersby noticed the couple dressing in fancy clothes walking through the market, but Lucien and Natasha did not care.

Lucien and Natasha walked out of the market and entered the administrative district. The street started getting quieter. Only some street musicians and bards were playing wonderful and soothing music.

Serenade for strings in G major, Moonlight, the second movement of New Country Symphony, Pathetique, For Silvia…

As Natasha listened to the music pieces, they triggered lots of her memories. She said to Lucien, “You left Aalto a long time ago, but your music works are still remembered by people. They’re classic.”

“Listen, your march is also being played,” said Lucien.

Natasha was quite proud, but she also said, “If we compare it to a few years ago, I have to say that your music pieces are less popular now. There are many new pieces coming out.”

Both of them paid close attention to the development of music in Aalto, so they were familiar with the new music works.

“It’s good. Things are always under development and progressing. If there are no new pieces coming out, Aalto’s music will have been dead. Fortunately, it’s not.” Lucien did not mind it.

Natasha and Lucien came to a restaurant where in front of the door there was a street musician playing Pathetique. It was very challenging to most musicians, but he was very good at playing it. Many people were gathering because they could appreciate his skills and talent.

The first part of the music was played very well, as the depression, pain, and tragedy in it were all fully presented, and the last movement was even better. The exquisite skills had fully gripped the listeners’ hearts.

Loud applause followed.

The young piano player was a bit surprised by the applause. He was just sitting behind the piano, looking a bit lost.

He was from a small town and came to Aalto a few months ago. He was talented, and he had been practicing very hard since he was a kid. However, the things that he experienced in the past several months had started to make him doubt himself, and the poverty he suffered from had forced him to take such a job playing in front of the restaurant. The warm round of applause was totally out of his expectation.

“Good. There are true feelings in it, not just showing skills and playing.” Natasha also applauded and took out a coin.

Smiling, Lucien stopped her. “Are you gonna give him a queen coin?”

After driving away the South Church, the Kingdom of Holm was also minting new coins. A queen coin was equal to a Thale, but there was the queen portrait on it.

Natasha was a bit embarrassed. “Didn’t notice. You’ve got a Thale?”

Lucien took over the coin and gave it a gentle stroke. The queen coin instantly turned into a Thale.

The young players started bowing to the listeners to show his gratefulness. At this moment, he saw a shining coin falling in front of him.

A Thale? He was shocked. That was too generous.

A soft voice spoke, “You played very well, and there were your feelings in it. Your feelings turned this music piece into your own version. That’s very good. But your understanding of the music piece and some skills are still a bit problematic…”

The young player was very surprised, but the gentleman’s analysis was right. He had been feeling bothered by some problems in his playing but could not find a way to solve them, and the words from the gentleman had taught him a great lesson.

After a while, when he realized what just happened, he found that the gentleman and his wife had left. He could only see them walking away from behind.

He wanted to chase after them to say thank you, but the owner of the restaurant was still watching him.

“Thank you!” he said out aloud from behind.

Such a profound and well-mannered gentleman must be a musician!

Lucien did not look back, but he raised his hand.

“You like being a teacher.” Natasha smiled.

Lucien said, “It’s not really about being a teacher. It was out of appreciation. If it had not been Mr. Victor and his instruction, I wouldn’t have had such accomplishment now. So when I see someone who needs help, if I can, I’ll give them some help. Perhaps some help is the last thing they need to be successful. I’m giving back to society.”

“Giving back to society… Ummm…” Natasha was a bit amused.

Now they had walked to the Musicians’ Association in Aalto and saw the unique-shaped building, which was known for its unbalanced beauty.

In their eyes, the building looked the same to them, as if they just saw it yesterday. But shortly after, Natasha shook her head and looked around. “I’m not sure if it’s a good thing though, that Aalto isn’t changing at all. By contrast, Rentato is under constant change.”

Rentato was during its most rapid development period, just like how Lucien had expected. The entire city was going through great changes.

“If we don’t consider ordinary people’s life, maybe Aalto is more suitable for the current music style…” said Lucien objectively.

“You’re right. I don’t think Rentato’s atmosphere really fits the symphony. I think it should be something else.” Natasha nodded seriously.

“Different cultures and different ages give birth to different kinds of music,” said Lucien honestly. He believed that one day, Rentato would even produce rock music.

Natasha was about to say something, but a surprised look appeared on her face. “Mr. Victor…”

Mr. Victor was walking out of the association building. Surrounded by many musicians, he got on the coach and headed for the Psalm Hall.

Lucien watched Mr. Victor getting on the coach, but he did not do anything.

“Don’t you want to meet him?” asked Natasha.

Lucien shook his head and said in a low voice, “It’s not necessary…”

Showing up in front of him would disturb his peaceful life. It wasn’t easy for Lucien to make the Church forget about Victor.

Natasha grinned and changed the topic. “Then let’s go to the Psalm Hall. I wonder who’s playing there.”

“Sure,” Lucien agreed. The anti-magic circle was of no use to a legendary.