Category Archives: Hero’s Daughter

Hero's Daughter

Chapter 64 – How to Increase Release Rate

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Author: Kaburagi Haruka Original Source: Syosetu Word Count: 2579 characters
Translator: Aurum English Source: Re:Library Word Count: 865 words
Editor(s): Deximus_Maximus

As she started to tell us about a medicine that shouldn’t possibly exist, she had a look that just screamed, “what’ll you do?”
It’s obvious she enjoyed watching our reactions.

“Hold up, wait a sec Tricia! I haven’t heard of a thing like that!”
“…Did I say there was only a single option?”
“Huh?”
“That’s a lie!”
“Well, which is it!?”

Seeing Cortina being led around by the nose makes me feel like this lady doc Tricia and her are pretty close. Before Cortina, most of the other teachers get tense, but she seems pretty laid back around her. Their lack of tension with each other suggests they have been getting along each day.

“That’s right. There are other ways can raise your ability to release magic.”
“Does that mean there are other options? Apprentice magicians would be all over them if so.”
“It’s not like that. As far as I know, there are three options.”
“T-E-L-L M-E!”

With that Cortina started to wring Tricia’s neck.
She too would have liked to raise her ability to release magic so that information was something she’d be interested in by any means.

“Guh… C- Calm down! ‘Kay? Well first off, if common sense fails you, just rely on something beyond common sense.”
“What kinda thing?”
“Frankly, a god.”
“As if that’s an option!”

No, no, it is. I mean, there’s a god just casually walking around.
Actually, Michelle’s got a giant bow gifted to her from said goddess strapped to her back.

“Well, that’s not really a feasible option. So how about the second one?”
“You sure like to drag this on, out with it already!”
“So impatient. What, did you already miss your marriageable age? Oh, right, it flew on past didn’t it?”
“Oi, You! You sure know how to twist the knife…”
“Calm down already. Option two is to take a paranormal being into yourself.”
“A paranormal being?”
“Specifically, you could say a dragon.”
“Bfft!?”

Cortina spurted out at that, but it made sense from the way the conversation was going.
Dragons are the most paranormal beings you could think of, among them Evil Dragon Colchis, Magic Dragon Fafnir, and Holy Dragon Bahamut have power akin to the gods.
As for taking in their power…

“You mean, to eat their flesh?”
“Nicole’s got the right idea.”
“Sorry, but I can’t handle taking another one of those things down. Never again. They can even melt boulders you know?”
“But having defeated one didn’t you bring back some materials from it?”
“If you put it that way…”

Though at the end there, Colchis basically self-destructed, there was no way we could salvage any meat.

The best we could do was take the horns, scales, fangs, claws, and skin. These were all distributed amongst us and kept in our private stashes which we didn’t even tell each other. Though it’d certainly be possible to consume it if you ground it up into a fine powder.

“Even so, that option is impossible. When it comes to the evil dragon, it’s too strong. There’s no way of knowing what would happen if you ingest it. Worst case, you die, actually that’s the most likely scenario.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t want patients to take such risks either. Which brings us to option three.”
“Geez… you’re really milking this aren’t you.”
“And without further ado. This much is fine right. The third option is to drink the nectar of a Queen Blossom.”
“Queen Blossom… The superior variant of a Treant huh?”

Cortina started to contemplate with her hand on her chin.

Queen Blossom, also called the evolved form of a Treant, even above an Elder Treant, is the only flowering monster of the dead-tree-like Treant species. The seeds it makes grow into new Treants. But it’s a rare monster that few have ever actually encountered.

“The sightings of one is so rare, isn’t that just hopeless too?”
“On the contrary. In this country called Raum where the Elves make their home in the forest, treants are hardly rare monsters.”
“That’s true. And they’re not all that aggressive either, so there aren’t subjugation requests for them… Wait, there’s a lot of them?”
“Yes. As expected, your judgment’s good. An area where Treants propagate in large quantities will be sure to have a Queen Blossom, and Raum has a large amount of Treants. In other words…”
“There’s a Queen Blossom within Raum…”

The kingdom of Raum which is uniquely located in a forest is a place where many plant type monsters exist. Plant type monsters are much more common here than in other countries.

Moreover, since Treants show no hostility, they’re not priority targets for subjugation, there are more dangerous monsters that have to be taken down first. Because of that, there are a variety of passive plant type monsters in this country. For example, the Alraune, Treant, or Dryad.
In other words, this country is a perfect haven for a Queen Blossom.

“Certainly, this country is the perfect nesting place for it, it’s not even funny.”

Immediately after Cortina mutters that…

“That’s what I’m trying to say~!”

And then the door to the infirmary was thrown open with a loud thunk.

References

Hero's Daughter

Chapter 63 – The Source of My Weakness

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Author: Kaburagi Haruka Original Source: Syosetu Word Count: 2579 characters
Translator: Aurum English Source: Re:Library Word Count: 1190 words
Editor(s): Deximus_Maximus

After finishing up their height or weight measurements, the students moved on to the next one.
While in line for the weight measurement, I looked at the file in my hands to check the height measurements and secretly heaved a sigh.

“…I haven’t grown much.”
“Nicole is pretty tiny.”
“Don’t call me tiny!”

Peeking at the file in Letina’s hand, I noticed she’s 10cm taller than me.
She’s pretty tall in our class, so when lined up alongside me, she seems very mature, older than her age at least.
Conversely, I just give off the sense of being a doll.

Well, I’d be grateful if the thorough examination revealed that my poor growth up to this point was a result of some underlying problem.
It wouldn’t have been Maria’s fault, but naturally, this still makes me uneasy about the future.
Standing next to Letina, who is tall for our age, I have to crane my neck up. This is fine…. not, it seriously grates on my nerves.

Everything should be ready for the full checkup after school today.
It can’t be helped that I have to come here twice.

“I hope I can at least grow as tall as Cortina, it’s probably asking too much to reach Maria.”
“I don’t see that happening…”
“What was that!?”

As a cat person, Cortina was slightly shorter than the average person. Maria had a dainty physique, but her stature was pretty average. She’s filled out fine while at the same time being eye-catchingly slender.
It goes without saying Lyell’s physique is good. He’s tall and toned, but not to the point that he seems sinewy.
Despite still being a child, I’ll have to drop my expectations of reaching their heights.

“Wait, Letina!”
“No way!”

I left the line to chase down the smart-ⓐⓢⓢ Letina.
However, I was stopped by being picked up from my armpits. Suffice to say, it was my homeroom teacher, Cortina.

“Hey now! Line up properly.”
“But Letina…”
“No excuses, get going.”

And with that, I was lifted onto a weight scale like a doll.
As expected, the numbers were below average for a child my age.

“Haaaa…”
“How odd. I’m feeding you quite a bit at home though.”
“You put out plenty, but my appetite can’t handle it.

This body’s stomach is so small. Just half a piece of toast is enough to fill me up.
It’s like I’m only able to eat the bare minimum required to maintain basic activity.

“Yeah, I’ve heard you’ve only been eating a little, but you still seemed to have put on weight.”
“Don’t call me fat!”

I struck my fist at Cortina’s belly, but it seemed to have as much effect as a gentle breeze.
It felt like a solid smack, but it just sounded like a silly thunk.

And so, after school, I once again went to the infirmary.
In addition to myself, I was being escorted by Cortina, Michelle, who had just come over from the adventurer’s school next door, and behind her was the add-on Letina.

Upon entering, there were various measuring devices strewn about.
Most likely everything was set up in a hurry after the physical measurements today.

“Welcome. How about we get started immediately.”

As soon as she saw my face, the doctor picked up a syringe with a ⓢⓗⓘⓣ-eating grin.
It seems she was showing an unnecessary large syringe off on purpose, which made Michelle take a step back.

“Is that on purpose?”
“Yup.”

I looked at the doctor who was showing a satisfied smile from seeing Michelle’s reaction.

“Normally, kids get a little scared when I show them that… but you’re fine with it?”
“I’m pretty used to the pain.”
“While impressive, isn’t that pretty bad?”
“I’m aware.”

Pain is an important signal alerting you to life-threatening danger. Getting used to ignoring pain is like becoming indifferent to death.
Previously, I’d grown numb to pain. The result was that brash decision… the decision to face off with the demon.
With a sigh, the doctor grabbed my arm, smeared it with alcohol and thrust the syringe into me.
She took advantage of a slight bit of carelessness to draw blood with a practiced hand.

“Oww!”
“They say carelessness is one’s greatest enemy. Sit still for a bit.”

At that point, I had several tests done.
A blood exam, a magic power exam, and finally an eye exam.
At the end of it, she seemed to mull over the results for a bit.

“So, how about it?”
“Yeah, I think I’ve pretty much got it.”
“Then! What is it?”
“Probably Magic Buildup Disease.”
“Magic Buildup Disease?”

Apparently even Cortina, with her extensive knowledge, hasn’t heard of it.
Judging by the sound of it, an excess build-up of magic power was the cause?

“It’s a result of storing too much magic power inside the body. In other words, you’re building up more magic power than you can handle.”
“So, how do we fix it?”

I urged her to keep explaining.
Now that I knew the cause of my poor health, I felt impatient.

“Ordinarily, people have a balance between their build-up of magic power and their release rate of it. However, that’s not the case with you.”
“Uh-huh.”

“It rarely happens in children, and normally as they grow up, their ability to release magic increases, so the symptoms naturally abate and eventually disappear as the child matures.”
“Mhm, mhm!”

“In your case, the difference is too great to wait until you reach adulthood. You’re storing up so much up until you pass out and then balancing it out by releasing it slowly during your fainting spells.”
“Hm, hmm?”

“This kid is too cute. Let me have her a bit.”
“No way.”

The doctor suddenly turned toward me while I clenched my fist listening to her talk.
While I was completely lost in thought, Cortina quickly blocked the doctor.

“At any rate, if this goes on it’ll be dangerous.”
“Dangerous? She just has to expel excess mana in her sleep no?”
“There’s no immediate threat to her life. The rate of release is greater during her fainting spells than during normal times.”
“Then…”
“But that’s the limitation. She’s more likely to increase her absorption rate than her release rate. If it keeps up she may spend all day passed out.”
“That’s…”

I’m still young so it’s manageable right now. But if this keeps going it’ll only get worse over time.

“Can you fix it?”
“Nothing can’t be cured. In short, everything will be fine if we just increase her rate of release by a greater degree.”
“If we could just do that, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Cortina said with a look that seemed to scream “What the hell are you even saying right now”. She too was frustrated by her magical release rate. You could say her small rate of release was a major problem for her, so she knew full well the difficulties involved.

“Normally speaking, you only improve it by constant training and natural growth. However, there is just a wonder drug for this.”
“What?”

Saying that, the doctor gave us a sickly sweet smile.

References

Hero's Daughter

Chapter 62 – Day of the Physical

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Author: Kaburagi Haruka Original Source: Syosetu Word Count: 2579 characters
Translator: Aurum English Source: Re:Library Word Count: 968 words
Editor(s): Deximus_Maximus

From then on I went to school while using my thread manipulation to reinforce my body and kept exercising like that.
After being sent to the infirmary on the first day so suddenly, it seems I’ve gained a reputation as a frail sheltered girl.

“Lord Lyell raised her too carefully after all…”
“Hey, I’ve seen her frequenting the music room after school.”
“The music room?”
“A short while later you could hear a beautiful violin ring out.”
“Ohhh? As you’d expect, the hero’s daughter is quite refined.”

Somehow the violin performance Letina gave that day was accredited to me.
As first years, our musical education only got as far as learning the basics of a recorder, if I tried to play it’d just be a mess.

Fixing each of these misunderstandings would just be a pain, so I didn’t. I just kept knitting in my seat.
Knitting helped increase my dexterity with my fingertips, thus it was effective training for my thread manipulation.
Anyways, the scarves and sweaters make good gifts, so it’s killing two birds with one stone.

Therefore, there’s a ton of scarves and sweaters laid out around the house.
There are even mittens in some of the more elaborate spots.

Well, you could say the main reason I’m knitting right now is cause I lost to Cortina’s greedy gaze.
The cause was pretty simple, thanks to Lyell and Maria showing up suddenly and bragging to Cortina about them, she suddenly decided she wanted one too and pressured me into making her one.
Of course, she’s not extorting it from me, but it’s hard to decline a request from your landlord.

Thanks to that though, I’ve been stuck knitting since the morning.
Seeing me diligently knitting at my desk, Letina gave me a curious look, “How strange, seeing you do something so lady-like.”
“How rude. Or rather, knitting isn’t especially a feminine thing.”

Even in my previous life, I’d always work on training my dexterity like this outside the public eye, mainly mending clothes along with Maria.
By the way, this is beyond Lyell, Gadius, and even Cortina.
Maxwell can’t even thread a needle with his presbyopia so it’s not feasible for him either.

Meanwhile, the whole time I’ve been sitting here knitting I feel like everyone’s been eyeing me enviously.
Speaking of, for some reason they don’t seem to be looking right now?

“By the way, do you not have to get ready?”
“Huh? What do you mean?” Hearing her say that, I looked up.
That’s when I realized everyone was restlessly changing out while waiting.

“Uh… Why is everyone changing clothes?”

Boys and girls are changing in the same room but they’re all under 10 so it’s not a big deal.
Letina who came over to talk was just wearing her underpants. Yup, they were a splendid pair of pumpkin shorts.

“Today’s the day of the physical isn’t it?”
“Oh, was it?”

The content of our lessons were just general education, history of the country, and studying the alphabet, so I often ignore class, I might’ve skipped any mention of a physical as a result of that.
I didn’t want to be the only late one, so I quickly put up my knitting equipment into my bag and started changing.
It’s pretty easy since it’s just a jacket, shirt, and skirt.

For a girl, it’s a slightly immodest behavior but I’m a kid anyway.
Since we don’t even get a changing room at this age, I’m not worried about it.

“Speaking of, don’t you have your examination after school today?”
“Examination… Oooh, from the other day.”
“Yeah. The complete physical.”

After hearing about me having a full checkup, the other students started getting noisy.
The girls started approaching nervously to ask me about it.

“Ummm… Nicole, are you unwell?”
“Err… I get tired easily, so we decided it would be a good idea to get checked out at least once.”

She had a worried aura standing in front of me with her hands joined together, she looked like a little puppy, but not the cheerful kind like Michelle, more like a spoiled pup.

“Um… Sorry, what was your name…?”
“Ah, right. I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name is Matisse Holton, daughter of the Holton group.”
“Oh, them.”

They’re a big company in Raum. I relied on them several times in my previous life when I visited the country.
I see, this is the daughter of the young master’s daughter from back then.

“Feels like so long ago.”
“Huh, excuse me?”
“Oh, don’t worry. Thank you for your concern though.”

I offered her my right hand for a shake, she timidly reciprocated.
Hmm, her pale white skin was soft, she shows great promise but for now she’s out of my strike zone though.

“Umm, is it fine if we become friends?”
“Of course. I’d be glad, my only friend so far has been Michelle?”
“Hey, and me?”

Letina started kicking up a fuss behind me. If I had to say, I consider you a troublesome henchman.
At this point, Cortina busted through the door.

“Alright, you guys. Looks like you’re good and ready. Let’s go take your measurements now!”
“Miss Cortina, why are you so hyped…”
“I’ll be sure to properly take you girls’ bust sizes.”
“No, I’m still not that big.”
“You boys better get a good look now while you can, you won’t get a chance in the future.”

And immediately following Cortina’s statement all the boys’ eyes converged on me.
As expected, their gaze caused me to break out in goosebumps and I reflexively covered my chest.

“…Cortina, don’t say unnecessary things.”
“Ahaha, my bad.”

She’s as noisy as ever, except when she’s on the battlefield.
We started moving towards the place we’d get our physicals as I heaved a sigh.

References

Hero's Daughter

Chapter 61 – Special Training That Night

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Author: Kaburagi Haruka Original Source: Syosetu Word Count: 2579 characters
Translator: Aurum English Source: Re:Library Word Count: 1281 words
Editor(s): Deximus_Maximus

That night I used my gift to sneak out of Cortina’s house.
Of course, it’s so I can practice with the piano wire I stole that afternoon.

The only way out of the city is through the gates or over the wall so this will just be an experiment conducted inside the city.

Namely, the lumberyard where the battle with the kidnappers took place.
The guards already concluded their investigation so it remains shut down.

Thanks to that there aren’t many people around here and many obstacles. It was the perfect place for some training.

That god said, my gift could become the strongest.
Up to now I’ve used my ability to manipulate the thread as it is.
However, it’s a far cry from the strongest. Perhaps there’s some way of using it that I haven’t considered yet.

And so, I thought about wrapping myself in thread.
I lack strength and stamina, but there’s no stamina lost in manipulating thread.
If I can manipulate my limbs with thread, I might be able to compensate for my lack of stamina.

So I came to this place to test out that idea.

“Well then, let’s…”

First, wrap my arm in thread, and grab hold of my katana.
With my own strength I can’t hold the katana in one hand. However, if I use the threads to manipulate myself, I can use the same muscle strength to achieve the same effect.
I thought I could use the threads to support my own strength and swing the sword one-handed.
If I lift the katana slowly at first, I can hold it one-handed.

“Oh, this is surprising…?”

I thought it felt light so I took a swing. You have to swing the sword, not just hold it up after all.
And like that, in a single swing… I tore my arm.

“Aaah!?”

The sleeves of my jacket are torn with blood flowing out in a helix pattern.
And it’s pouring out pretty violently.

“Fi- first…”

I cancelled my thread manipulation in a panic and tore off the piano wire from my arm.
The gash on my arm was pretty deep, so much so that wrapping it in cloth wouldn’t hamper the bleeding.

“This is bad. This… How do I…”

I can’t use healing magic, hiding this is impossible.
Finia will notice in the morning without a doubt.

“Ahh, the stronger the gift, the stronger the backlash, do take care.”
“Who’s there!”

I suddenly heard a carefree voice from behind me. But it sounded somehow familiar.
As I expected, standing there was the self-proclaimed god in white.
She appeared like a peerlessly beautiful girl, the same as always. However, she gave off a strange impression wearing a slightly unfashionable pair of glasses and a collar for a large dog.

“You…”
“Look, please hold out your hand. Normally intervening like this is bad.”
“What do you mean?”
“Now see here, even if I look like this, I am a God. It’s not good to show myself to the public.”

She took my hand and gave it a light tap. And with that, my wound vanished.
Without chanting or creating a magic circle. No wait, did the magic circle shine for just a split second there? Even so, to form a magic circle in an instant like that would require incredible skill.

“Like a normal wound, you have to avoid overdoing it. Right now you’re very unstable.”
“Unstable?”
“Because for you who’s soul couldn’t use magic previously to suddenly be dropped into a body with magical power, of course there would be some growing pains.”
“…Why are you going so far to look after me?”
“Hm~ that’s a secret,” replied the god with a cutesy wink.
Despite looking like a little girl, that gesture was quite bewitching.

Putting that aside, using thread to improve your kinetic power isn’t the wrong idea, but isn’t that just thread still?
“Wha?”
“It’d be a problem to give out too many hints, so I’ll leave it at that.”

With a hard step, she leaped back and put some distance between us.

“Well then, take care from now on. Reid Albain.
“You know my last name?”
“Of course I do.”

Albain, that’s the last name I had before leaving my home country to exterminate the evil dragon.
Although I wasn’t a noble, I came from a wealthy family, but because I was born as a half-demon, I was abandoned at an orphanage.

After dropping my name correctly, the god took another leap back, and instantly disappeared into the shadows without a trace.
No, you could say the recovery of my arm is the only trace left of our encounter.

“You might as well have repaired my clothes while you were at it, Goddess…”

My jacket was completely shredded by the piano wire. What’s more, it’s soaked in bloodstains.
This won’t come out with a wash, I’ll have to throw it out.

That said, I don’t want to return home topless, so for now I tore off the sleeve and put it back on.
I had to look over what the goddess just said.
She said something about it not just being for thread, but I’m not sure I understand. However, she said it wasn’t wrong to use thread to assist my muscle movement, so it seems my train of thought is not far off.

If I use wool in place of piano wire and try to do the same thing.
This time, due to the wool being much softer than the wire my arm didn’t tear.

“I can actually swing the sword….”

However, on the second and third swing I could hear it start to tear and before long it completely snapped.
It seems that wool’s tensile strength isn’t enough to use it for muscular support.

“I see… 1 of Scarlet, 1 of Ultramarine, 3 of Gold… Strengthen.”

After strengthening the wool with magic I gave swinging my sword another shot, twice, thrice… ten times. After over 20 practice swings the wool finally started to show signs of wear and tear.

“This isn’t good enough to go into battle with, but being able to swing my sword one-handed is a big step forward.”

Being able to do one-handed sword-strikes gives me freedom of movement with the other hand, that said, I have to use one hand to control the threads, so the end result is basically the same.

Next up, I wrapped some wool around my leg and started doing exercises.
My gift gives me free control of the thread I’m in contact with, which means with one hand I can use my fingers to control up to 5 threads simultaneously.
So by using my left hand to control my legs and my right hand I can exponentially increase my fighting capabilities.

I increased the amount of wool threads, strengthened both legs with wool and took a light step, and then my body leapt faster than I had imagined.

“Whooooaaa!?”

I failed to put on the brakes and plunged face-first into a stock of lumber.
With a loud crash, I slammed into the wood nose first and started seeing stars.

The next morning, I headed down to the dining room for breakfast.
I went down after washing my face and changing clothes, at which point Finia raised a shout in surprise after seeing me.

“Lady Nicole, what’s wrong with your nose?”

My nose was so swollen and red that you could call me Rudolf.
Seeing my face like that, both Cortina and Finia flashed me looks of amazement.

“I just took a little slip out of bed,” I replied with a glum expression and took a drink from the hot milk Finia brought me.

References

Hero's Daughter

Chapter 60 – Mystery of the Music Room

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Author: Kaburagi Haruka Original Source: Syosetu Word Count: 2579 characters
Translator: Aurum English Source: Re:Library Word Count: 1135 words
Editor(s): Deximus_Maximus

After Dr. Tricia pointed out that I might have a physical ailment, Cortina was quick to give her approval for a thorough checkup and an appointment was scheduled.
The Magic Academy was primarily a shrine of knowledge and so had the requisite medical facilities, but it would still take time to make preparations so the appointment was scheduled for another day.
Dr. Tricia said that the day of the physical checkup for the new term would be a likely candidate for the examination.

Well, even if I say I had a scheduled appointment, I still had to take my classes like normal until then.
After finishing up our morning classes, I spent the rest of the day wandering the school with Letina.
Our freshman classes were done after the morning, but we were free to look-in at the senior classes as long as we were quiet.

“Is your body really alright?”
“Yeah, I’m used to it.”

After returning to class from the infirmary, the kids in the class greeted me with a sigh of relief.
As expected, seeing your classmate pass out suddenly on the first day of school must have been nerve-wracking.

At the time, I pretended to not hear the remarks of “Of course, she’s just so dainty, she doesn’t have much strength.”
For the rest of the day, it was just general studies so I was perfectly able to rest up my body during those classes.
Since my body healed up, I asked Letina to accompany me to the special classrooms after school.
The rest of the students were also heading over to check out the possible clubs and such, so nothing about it would stand out.

“Well, what business do you have with the special classrooms?”
“I just want to check them out a bit.”

We finally entered the area with the special classrooms, among them we found the music club room.
A large piano was lined up along with a bunch of stringed instruments against the wall.
While it’s just considered music here at the academy, but music has had many similarities to chanting spells since the olden days, there’s even a genre dedicated to charging your voice with magic to elongate the sound.
In order to study such things, the necessary equipment had to be gathered.

“By any chance, are you interested in learning the piano?”
“Yeah.”

I gave a frank answer with a nod.
During the battle with the kidnappers, I came to the realization that my determination alone wasn’t enough.
The thread-spinning gift I carried seemed like a cheap party trick but on the other hand, that self-proclaimed god guaranteed that it could become the strongest ability.

No, looking back at it, was she talking about my thread manipulation? Since I have three now, it’s hard to say which gift we were talking about.
For the sake of making effective use of my thread-spinning gift, I needed to gather the right material for it. Something strong like the piano wire was what I desired for this.

“Wanting to play the piano is an unexpectedly girly pastime coming from you.”
“Huh? I have no interest in that.”
“Come again? Then, the violin?”
“N-no way.”

While we were having that exchange in the hallway, the teacher who was in the middle of tuning the piano while on their tiptoes turned to look this way as if finally noticing us.
Seeing freshmen standing in the hallway looking hungrily at the music room, of course she would be curious. That teacher called out to us in a friendly voice.

“Good day. Are you two freshmen?”

At her question, we both nodded.

“Could you be interested in instruments?”
“Very.”
“Then, how about playing for a bit? Right now there aren’t any other students around.”
“Is that really fine!?”

At the teacher’s invitation, we entered the music room in high spirits. The teacher seemed to be expecting a musical performance, but that’s not worth worrying about right now.
After trotting in, I went straight to looking around the piano.
Since she was in the middle of tuning the piano, there was a roll of piano wire laid out.
I secretly pilfered it.

With a broad grin… “Just according to plan.”
“What is?”
“Hiya!?”

As she drew up behind me, Letina instantly got a violin set up.
It seems that few students actively use the music room but the teachers happily take good care of it.

“You can play Letina?”
“It’s good etiquette for a lady!”

I couldn’t help harboring doubts even as she puffed her chest out in pride while replying.

“Are you serious right now?”
“Actually it’s my Mama’s specialty….”
“I don’t care what your motivation is. If you’re interested, please just play something.”
“Are you sure?”
“I already told you there aren’t any students around. What’s more, this room has soundproofing so you’re free to make some noise.”

At the teacher’s urging, Letina put on a performance with a simple etude.
From my point of view, the tone quality was beyond a child’s skill level. It’s possible she might actually have some talent for music.

But my admiration faded in the next instant.
After reaching a good stopping point, Letina turned toward me with a smug look all but screaming “how’s that?”
That face futilely sparked my spirit of rivalry.

I already got what I came here for so I might as well play along.
I placed the violin on my shoulder the way I saw her doing it and held the bow reverently.
And then I pictured a tune to play and gave it a go.

— screeeeeeeeech -no, seriously.

“Noooooo!? Stop, stop I say, Nicole!”
“Uhyauwaaa!?”

A noise similar to some giant monster’s cry reverberated around the room causing Letina and the teacher to be in agony.
Receiving that mysterious sound wave at the point-blank range since I was the one playing caused me to almost pass out.

“Th-this is… how to say this, hearing that sound after so long…”
“That bad?”
“This… surely, with diligent practice, it could become music right?”

I have to be careful, I tried to get the teacher to gloss over it. Yeah. I know, hearing that sound just now, there’s no way I can play.
After coming to, Letina came up to me and put her hand on my shoulder.

“Nicole, you’re as uncultured as you appear, aren’t you?”
“What do you mean? I’m from the boonies anyway.”
“Yeah, considering your parents, that fact shines through.”

Well, any more than this and we’ll just become a hindrance. In the first place, she stopped working mid-way through tuning the piano.
What’s more, since I snuck some of the wire into my pocket it’d be a problem for her to find out.

With that, we gave the music teacher a polite bow and hastily ran off.

References