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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.