Chapter 342: Absolute Music (3)

The Guardian clicked his tongue.

—It’s an incredible stroke of genius. Think about it. If you didn’t manage your social connections properly and you were on bad terms with the Paladin, then you would have been utterly fucked on this floor. How are you supposed to clear a music world if you can’t hear?

You can say that again...

I walked slowly toward the World Tree Town. The town was pretty. Even to me, someone who had seen many worlds and sights, the town built around the World Tree felt mythical, like it belonged in a fairy tale.

“■? ■■ ■ ■■■■■?”

On the way, I met a resident who waved and smiled at me. Though I had never met him, I felt no hostility. Maybe the concept of hostility didn’t exist in this paradise.

Uh... Um...

The problem was that I couldn’t understand a word he said.

I said, “H-hello?”

The resident tilted his head. “■■■■ ■■■■■■. ■■ ■■■■ ■ ■■■■?”

What the heck was he saying? I strained my eyes to try to read his lips. It seemed like the resident was saying, “Your voice sounds weird. Are you okay?” His pronunciation was a bit odd, so I wasn’t exactly sure what he said.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

“I’m sorry. I can’t hear you well...”

The resident stared at me for a bit before leaving without a word. Why?

Only the Guardian was having the time of his life.

—Hahahahahaha!

I frowned.

What’s so funny? Are you discriminating against deaf people? Huh? You are a rotten-tempered guy who only knows how to swing a sword.

—I guess you don’t know this because you can’t hear, but the resident who just greeted you was singing as he talked to you, like he was in a musical.

So that was why his pronunciation was odd.

—But you tried hard to speak plainly, stammering all the time, while he kept talking to you in a tenor tone. Gosh, I’ll have so much fun watching you this time.

It still doesn’t change the fact that you have an awful temper. I’ll ignore you from now on.

The world was a wide musical stage. The dandelions sang, the white horses sang, and all the residents I met sang. Most important of all, at the center of this grand chorus was the World Tree.

[The Goddess of Protection is amazed by the World Tree’s song.]

[Your Exclusive Music Box admits that this is quite a sight.]

The Constellations told me that each leaf of the World Tree hummed. The green leaves sang baritone, while the white flowers sang soprano. Many leaves and flowers of the tree joined to add a small chord. More branches joined to form a big chord. Like a choir of many voices, the whole World Tree sang, sometimes softly, other times loudly.

I had no means to enjoy the majestic fairy tale.

I’m the only one who can’t hear it. If people talk to me, I can at least try to read their lips, but that’s it. What a shame.

—

Well, there is nothing you can do about it. What are you going to do now, Zombie? Your friend said that she’ll give you a pass no matter what you do.

Yes, so I just have to do something.

The snake squirmed around my wrist.

[The Labyrinth-Dwelling Eye says that the only kind of meaningful acts in the Musical Heaven Realm are related to music.]

[The Labyrinth-Dwelling Eye says that anything musical you do will be justification for the examiner to give you a pass.]

It all came down to music.

Hm.

I looked around. The town of the Musical Heaven was sloped like the slum where I had lived. Clinging to the World Tree, the slope became higher along a wide staircase that also served as a plaza.

“■■ ■■■■.”

“■■■■. ■■ ■■■ ■■ ■ ■■■ ■ ■■?”

“■■■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■■■■.”

The people went up and down the staircase. Their chatter would have the rhythm of melodies. Instruments were installed everywhere on the staircase, seemingly for those who found the real-time musical odd or just didn’t like to chat.

If any act is okay...

I climbed the big staircase and checked each instrument. Most were foreign to me as they originated from worlds and civilizations I was not familiar with, probably played by the reincarnated souls before they died.

Would it be okay to play a short song?

Luckily, I found a piano after searching briefly. The instruments had no owners. Anyone could sit down and play. A child was playing the piano. Some even younger kids stood near and clapped.

“■■■■■?”

The kid looked at me and asked, “Would you like to sit down?” Well, that was what I thought she said, at least.

“■■■ ■■ ■ ■ ■■ ■■■■.”

I felt like the child spoke Spanish or French. She may have used an entirely different language, but I had a feeling that it wasn’t from outside my world. The child had died in a Tower where a piano existed, so she was probably from my world, though her soul had forgotten her past life. This place drew those who wished to abandon everything—their views and possessions of their old lives—except the instruments.

“Thank you for letting me use it,” I said.

The kids buzzed when they heard me.

“■?”

“■■■■ ■■■.”

“■■■ ■■■.”

“■■■■? ■■■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■■ ■■■.”

“■■■...”

Here, my voice sounded really odd. How strange... Raviel said she liked my voice...

Oh yeah. It’s been too long since I saw Raviel. I’ll play a tune about longing.

I sat down and decided not to bother tuning the piano since I couldn’t hear anything anyway.

Well, this is literally the heaven of music, so the world will take care of the tuning.

The six kids sat on the stairs and looked at me with sparkling eyes. After my Cavefire play days, this was my first concert, and those kids were my first audience in a while.

I pressed the mi note.

Mr. Sword Emperor, can you hear that mi?

—Huh? Why are you asking me that?

I was an idiot to expect anything from you...

The Guardian didn’t seem to plan to be my ears on this floor. Maybe I had to clear this kind of floor on my own. Slowly, I started to play the piano.

“■? ■■■ ■■■.”

“■■.”

“■■■.”

The kids blinked. I was too busy playing the piano to read their lips, but I could tell what they thought from their moods. Their reactions were probably “He’s good,” “Not bad,” or something like that. They were good reactions, but not as good as I wanted them to be.

I felt like a knight who went into battle with no armor.

Hmm, it’s hard because I can’t control the sound with my aura. In the past, when I felt that my voice was weak, I would use my aura to boost it. When I wanted to sound more emotional, I would grab and shake the sound with aura, but now I can’t hear anything. Well, I brought this upon myself, I guess.

What I had been playing so far wasn’t really music; it was just a form of sound art. The Guardian had said that if one slacked off in mastering basic swordsmanship and focused on aura mastery, it would all come back to bite them. My piano skills were exactly like that. I was like a mercenary who knew tricks but lacked actual skill.

“■■■■!”

“■■■, ■■■ ■■!”

“■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■■.”

When the short song ended, the kids clapped. Judging from their mood, it was like they had come to a diner not expecting much, but they had a pretty good lunch that lifted their mood.

It’s a humble debut stage.

I flashed a sad smile. The kids had grown used to hearing the World Tree’s choir all day, so they probably had high standards. Getting a pretty good assessment from them was still a big win.

[You have done a valid act in this world.]

[Your examiner has given you a pass!]

Patricia didn’t seem to expect more either. She was probably watching me from the seventieth floor lobby because she gave me a pass right away.

[You can clear the stage now.]

The seventy-first floor was cleared with ease, though it had been known as a difficult trial for most top Hunters.

[The Goddess of Protection says that the path the hero has walked so far led to today’s win.]

Hmm. I guess so.

From what I had heard so far, top Hunters rarely got along. A few were friends, but all top ten Hunters trusting each other was unprecedented. Our tower would be the first to set this example.

So these quests are difficult for the majority of Hunters.

Otherwise, there were normally a mix of bitter grudges, obsessive jealousy, envy, and contempt that got in the way of climbing the tower. It was like how the Black Witch and the Sword Star had been before I came in.

—Yeah, I also can’t keep track of ranks below second place. Why waste my brainpower on that? Who cares if one ranks third or fourth? I’m the best.

Yes, you’ll be the first and last of your kind...

[Do you want to clear the stage now?]

“■ ■ ■ ■■! ■■■!”

“■■ ■ ■■■■ ■■ ■■■ ■■!”

“■■! ■■! ■■!”

As I was about to nod and say yes, the kids clapped and chanted something. It was rather hard to understand what they were doing.

Wait. They were shouting encore.

I offered an awkward smile.

Well, one more song won’t hurt anyone.

There was no need to rush to the next floor. I cleared this floor, which was supposed to be inconquerable, in less than half a day, so I had lots of time. Instead of rushing, I chose to stay with the souls who had died in the same Tower as me. I didn’t know why they had died, but I wanted to stay with the kids who had thought in their last moments that if music had truly been taken away from them, then they no longer wanted to hear or say anything.

I kept on playing the piano.

“■■...”

“■ ■. ■■■■ ■■■?”

“■■■, ■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■.”

I couldn’t hear what I was playing. Even though I tried hard to boost my hearing with aura, it seemed that the Tower’s system was interfering with my efforts. Perhaps the Constellation of this world was using their power in some way, so I had no way of knowing if my piano-playing skills were good or bad, let alone how the song sounded.

“■■.”

“■. ■■.”

“■■■...”

“■■■.”

While playing the piano, I watched the children’s faces, my only clue to how I was doing. When they shut their eyes and tilted their heads from side to side, it meant I was playing without a hitch. They sometimes looked confused and blinked rapidly at me, so I probably played a slightly off-key note. At some point, instead of thinking of the notes in my head, I watched the children’s faces as I played.

The children laughed.

“■■■!”

“■■, ■■! ■■ ■■!”

It meant I made a funny mistake, though I didn’t know what I did exactly. Maybe my off-key notes were funny. When I saw the kids laugh, I laughed too. To see if I was doing a good job, I continued staring into the kids’ eyes.

That was when I realized something.

Yeah, I’ve always been like this.

It was a simple realization. Immediately, I understood everything. The performance I was putting on and what I had done so far were somehow related even though that didn’t seem to be the case at first.

I didn’t learn swordsmanship because I was charmed by it. When I swing my sword, people react and that makes me feel accepted. That’s why I took swordsmanship more seriously over time.

Even now, I was playing the piano although I couldn’t hear anything for the same reason I practiced swordsmanship. I wasn’t charmed by the piano, nor did I have a perfect score in mind to play. Other people would have pursued that, but not me.

I judged whether I was doing well or not by the kids’ giggles, the small movement of their brows, and the way the corners of their mouths curled. I simply stretched this method to the extreme and steered aura through my entire body.

It doesn’t matter if I can’t hear the notes.

I’m used to this anyway.

Though I was unleashing my aura, I didn’t focus it on me like I had done on a Cavefire play. I did the opposite, enveloping the children with it.

“■?”

“■■, ■■■■.”

The kids felt ticklish. The aura didn’t hurt them. I let it seep into them so I could sense their physical states.

Hmm.

Where were they looking? At my fingers on the keys, or around the area to see if it was okay to chat with a nearby child? They trembled slightly at my song. The children’s heartbeats and their bloodflow reacted differently as my melody went on. Those reactions were minuscule, but the aura’s touch was more intricate.

The children’s faces weren’t my only guide. Everything had an expression. The question was whether I had the ability and the experience to read and understand those expressions.

This is what I’ve always wanted to do.

I could do it.

Let’s try it.

I saw which notes made the children stare at my fingers and which ones made their hearts beat the hardest. The kids couldn’t hide their reactions. Not that they tried hiding them in the first place.

“■...”

“■■...”

The children’s whispers faded away. At first, it was difficult to tell how well I was doing because each child reacted to a different note, but it was fine now. The children had one thing in common, something that was stronger than their differences. These kids had left their previous world and sought the same paradise. Therefore, even though I still couldn’t hear anything, I could press the keys that made the hearts of the kids beat the loudest.

In that moment, the children’s hearts beat as one.