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After seeing her lose her temper after suddenly starting to cry, Mira felt a bit out of place, but she became relieved after seeing them hug each other. Rihanna was still crying, but her tears now were different, they seemed warmer somehow.

「No, I really shouldn’t. I know you’re a very kind person and you’d never abandon me, but that’s why I shouldn’t just give in.」

Saying that, she pushed him back as if trying to resist something. Her limbs were trembling, conflicted and afraid of throwing her feeling of guilt away. She turned her vacant eyes straight at him, countless tears dropping from them.

「I’ve never once thought of you as a burden, and I’m happy just being able to help you. So, it’s really nothing you should be worried about.」

It had subsided for a moment, but their discussion resumed again. Mira was unsure on how to react since she always had problems talking in matters of love or romance. She would just remain silent and hope that if they did decide to go their separate ways, at least it would not be in a place that would leave such a bad aftertaste like this. But considering the matters involved, there was no telling how things would go.

In either case, the first thing Rihanna should do would be to calm down. It was obvious she was letting her emotions get the best of her.

Mira decided to deploy a Binding Arcana Circle on the empty seat beside her. Seeing the soft glow of the magic circle, Emilio closed his mouth and looked at it instinctively. Mira rolled back the Binding Arcana Circle and morphed it into a Rosario Summoning Circle, then in a chanting voice, Mira spoke:

『If you can hear my voice and if my thoughts reach you, I pray for you to wake up. I want to hear your voice, I want you to sing for me. So I may hear that voice that’s sweet like a bell once more, I wish you to be here.』

When her summoning voice reached the magic circle, a sparkling shine like fragmented sunlight came forth from it as the High-Class Spirit Leticia, skillful in songs and melodies since her time in the academy, materialized from it.

「It’s been a while, Master.」

Once her eyes met with Mira’s, she said that together with a cute smile. On the other hand, Emilio stood dumbfounded looking at her, while Rihanna felt bewildered suddenly hearing an unknown voice from so close. To top it off, the other people in the wagon, mostly men, began stirring up noise again at the sight of Leticia’s sudden arrival and her scantily clad body.

「Umm, Mira. Who is this…」

After a moment of confusion during which it seemed he had forgotten how to speak, Emilio asked as he looked at Leticia.

「She is Leticia. If you’re a troubadour you should know about her, she’s a spirit of sound.」

After she said that, Mira turned to Leticia and quickly requested a song. The song’s name was 『Nocturne of Lovers』. It was a song composed to express the grief of two lovers who were unable to meet each other.

「Your request will be fulfilled promptly.」

After her reply, harmonically overlapping melodies began coming forth from her wings, then her singing voice that’s soft like a whisper but still clearly projected resounded through the wagon. Seeing the solo concert that suddenly began, all the other passengers stopped talking and listened in silence with their minds charmed by her.

「So this is the song of the sound spirit called the Oracle of Harmonics…」

Amongst the troubadours, sound spirits were regarded almost as gods. When Mira explained who Leticia was, Emilio felt like it had to be some sort of joke, but after hearing her performance, it placated all doubts in his heart with overwhelming certainty.

Unconsciously, Emilio began shedding tears as the music penetrated deep into his heart and those colorful melodies painted with their tones everywhere they could.

「Sound… spirit? This song is truly beautiful.」

Rihanna’s eyes could not see Leticia, but the song had poured into her heart that was shrouded in darkness, slowly releasing gentle beats there.

(It looks like that managed to calm her down a notch or two.)

Her mind lost in the song, Rihanna’s hand began tapping the rhythm on her lap once again. On the other hand, Emilio took out a piece of paper and began writing something down. His expression looked serious but also slightly embarrassed, and from time to time, his eyes would shift to Rihanna with a kind look on them.

When Leticia’s performance was over, the wagon was filled with claps and cheering. Some passengers from the floor below came up wondering what was going on and just stood there with their heads tilted.

「Thank you so much, thanks a lot.」

The spirit with a voluptuous body and thin clothes smiled brightly as she looked around, waving her hand in return to the claps. A really puzzling scene if one were to watch only the end of it.

「Alright! I got it!」

As the wagon was still filled with cheering for Leticia, only Emilio said something else as he lifted the piece of paper high in the air with a satisfied look on his face as he nodded.

「What did you do?」

Rihanna asked after distinguishing Emilio’s voice through all the other voices around them. Emilio gently took her hand and replied,

「A song for now and times to come.」

Emilio looked straight at her as he said that. He let go of her hand and took hold of his lute before beginning to play again.

Like before, it started with just the lute before Emilio joined with his voice. His words were full of strong emotions even with all the noise around, the isolated verses coming one after another like frames in a slideshow.

His new song, filled with his feelings for Rihanna flowed nicely and felt good.

Then at one point, a new melody took over, the inspiration for which had come from Leticia.

All the sound coalescing one after another formed a beautiful harmony which elevated his singing all the more.

This song was one he had made by simply putting all the emotions he felt during his train rides and the sceneries he saw until then together.

As if it had been around him all that time, always circling him, even in the sceneries that floated in his mind when he closed his eyes. A song which represented that.

The end of the song arrived. There was clapping again, this time for Emilio. There were many passengers, so Emilio looked a bit embarrassed as he bowed in thanks.

「Your songs are beautiful after all.」
「That was a very pretty song~」
「Yes, you came up with something nice.」

He looked glad after being complimented by Rihanna, indebted for being complimented by Leticia, and embarrassed being complimented by Mira. He said 「Thank you.」 while accompanied by the plucking of his lute.

「I was able to write this song because you were with me.」

Saying that, Emilio took hold of her hand again as he put his other hand on her shoulder. He looked straight into her eyes, even if they could not see him back, he still stared into them.

「I saw the world this way because you were with me. It doesn’t matter how colorful a scene is. If you’re not with me, all the colors will fade and grow dull. That’s why I want to be with you forever.」

Those were the honest feelings Emilio had been amassing until now, since even before they went traveling. At last, his feelings were finally transmitted to Rihanna as well.

「But there’s still your dream! I can’t allow myself to hinder you from it, that’s why!」

Even then, Rihanna pushed his hand away and turned her head, telling him to cast her aside. But her face expressed her powerlessness as well as her true feelings and how much she actually wanted to be close to him, fear caused by her conflicting will. Her lack of sight put her at a heavy disadvantage.

But Emilio ignored all the excuses Rihanna came up with, already resolute in his decision as he held her shoulder with more force and smiled trying to remind her of all the happy memories they shared.

「I don’t know the hardships of not seeing as well as how insecure you must feel. But please listen to my feelings. I’ll repeat it as many times as I have to, I want you to be with me. I’ve always been by your side and if you can’t see anything, then I’ll just sing to you the things my eyes see. So please listen to me. I want you to always be here listening to my songs.」

Emilio kept telling her of his pure and honest feelings. He then took his lute and slowly began to sing.

This time he was improvising, a very simple and common, but still very sweet song in which he kept telling her he wanted to marry her.

Leticia began singing as well, playing a hymn. It was one of the typical wedding songs in that world.

It was a song that sounded completely different from Emilio’s improvisation, but somehow through her powers as a sound spirit, they mashed well together and sounded like a single, cohesive song. The two songs revolving around each other like a double helix of warm and gentle melodies.

Mira’s Mood:

I feel like listening to
Horie Yui – ♪Kimi no soba ni (At your side)!