Silent Crown

Chapter 121 Good Friend

It was dusk. The last bit sunlight slowly faded away, but the basement light was still on. Charles studied the leather robe on the hanger, mending the tears and holes. The design had been perfect enough, but now he could see that once something was actually put in use, there would be problems. Many problems had arisen in just one night.

Charles opened the lining, checking the ‘steel bone’ structure inside. He muttered to himself, "The shoulder’s shock absorbance isn’t good enough. There might be metal fatigue as time goes on. There are problems with the force guidance too, but it should be easy to fix. Its own stability… junior’s really good at coming up with hard questions. I have to make it lighter, but still strong…"

"Still working?" a voice sounded behind him.

"Professor?" Charles turned around in shock, "Shouldn’t you be teaching?"

Abraham shrugged, "The only student who’s willing to come also ditched today."

"What about junior?"

"Still sleeping. Maybe he’s tired."

"He can get tired too? Sounds like a joke." Charles shook his head, "Sometimes I feel like he’s made of steel. But even if he’s steel, he shouldn’t put so much pressure on himself. He can get metal fatigue too. He’s already reached the Rhythm level in one month…"

"It’s already been one month? It feels like only a few days have passed." Abraham sighed, "I had worried that you two wouldn’t get along, but now it seems like you two are good friends."

"Good friends?" Thinking of something, Charles laughed.

"What’s wrong?"

"Nothing, I just heard a joke a few days ago," Charles said. "Good friends are like stars. No matter how often you see them, you know that if you look up, you’ll see them watching you from afar, not doing anything."

"…Charles, why do I find you more and more annoying?"

"Professor, I try not to be," Charles said helplessly. "Once I dreamed of a really interesting comic about a bat knight. He would fight against the evils in his city and had many powerful enemies. While he was fighting for justice, he met a group of powerful friends.

"Some of them were able to fly, and their eyes could shoot lasers. Some were female warriors in bikinis, others had green light, and another one could talk with fish. They united and even became members of a tight-clothing club together. But no matter how many friends he had, the bat knight always fought by himself. When he faced powerful enemies, his good friends were useless…just like Yezi."

Looking back at the robe, Charles’ eyes darkened. "Professor, look, I want to be a superhero that can shoot lasers with my eyes too, but sadly, I’m just a pile of useless trash. Sometimes, I really feel like I’ll become the useless friend too."

Abraham was silent for a long time. Finally, he patted Charles’s shoulders, saying, "Some people are not destined to receive help."

Charles shrugged.

--

"But anyway, I feel like Junior is a little weird these days."

"Maybe he grew up?" Abraham nodded, "You were like this too. You’d always hide under the bed to look at porn."

"Uh, I’m not talking about that," Charles quickly explained, almost choking on his spit. "I mean that he looks the same as before but he looks scared of something."

"Oh." Abraham nodded.

"Professor, do you have any solutions?"

Abraham shook his head.

"You can’t do anything either?"

"From what I see, just let him be scared. Why should you force yourself to stop being scared?" Abraham looked at him, "Charles, didn’t you have many nightmares when you were little?"

Charles’s smile froze and he looked away, "That’s all in the past."

"Yes, everything will pass," Abraham said. The room fell silent again.

Charles studied the steel bone structure in the long silence. He suddenly asked, "Professor, are you scared of anything?"

"Yes, many things." Abraham nodded calmly, though his eyes were bitter. "A few days ago, I was scared the academy wouldn’t pay me… You know, you owe too much money. If you can’t pay them back, it’ll be hard for you to stay here."

"Uh…"

Seeing his expression, Abraham laughed, "The older you get, the more things you worry about, and the more things you fear. When I was young, I kept thinking how great it would be if wasn’t scared of anything, but is that really better? Do you really have to force yourself?"

As Charles thought, Abraham reached over and lifted the robe. "Did you make this? It’s good."

Charles shrugged, "I can’t be a musician, so I can just make these small things."

"There’s nothing regretful about not becoming a musician. If you are a renowned artisan, you can be respected too. There’s no problem as long as you can live well. There aren’t any rules about what you must do. I had wanted to train Yezi to become a scholar, but sadly, it seems like he probably doesn’t want to. I can only help him in a different way."

With that, Abraham reached into the air, slowing opening his prosthetic fingers as if grasping something. Then the "Requiem" enchantment over the academy cracked open.

The omnipresent enchantment in the air began turning secretly. Thick and solid aether rushed through the crack, flowing into the basement. It shimmered with a beautiful glow. A black violin appeared in the black metal hand. The strings vibrated, playing a graceful and quiet melody. The entire world seemed to hush.

Everything stopped rushing around, entering an indescribable peace, as if falling into a beautiful dream. There was no more death, no more uncertainty, no more confusion. Everything returned to a calm state.

This was a fragment of the legendary Wyrmrest Kekkai. It came from the calming Requiem and could make all Musician level scores ineffective—Resonance level music score: Tranquility!

The aether rippled with the melody. Everything in its path fell asleep. Abraham stood within the ripples, conducting the melody. He guided the aether onto the black robe, transforming into music notes.

Layers of complex music scores shimmered on the steel bone structure before dimming. In the end, they disappeared with the melody, reverting back to its original appearance. The music score of Tranquility had been sealed within.

Abraham was not an alchemist from the School of Modifications, but he had used his studies in the School of Abstinence to turn the score into a seal implanted into the robe to become alchemy equipment.

"Compared to professional alchemists, the seal I’ve made can only be used once." Abraham shook his head regretfully, putting the robe back on the hanger, "But it should be enough for now."

Charles felt the power within the robe, discerning it, "Once the Tranquility Enchantment is activated, everything within ten meters will become a silent aether zone. It’s only for half a minute, but all music scores under the Resonance level, and musicians who haven’t gone past the Barrier of Knowledge will be unable to manipulate aether. No matter what, he can at least stay alive with it."

Abraham remained silent, glancing at his steel arm. The constantly flashing rune on his inner arm seemed to be reminding him of something. He reached over, feeling the easily-activated rune and the power it held. The ‘music score’ was enough to turn the entire building into ash—that was his shackle.

Abraham looked away, sighing, "That is all I can do."

--

Ye Qingxuan awoke from his dream, his entire body sore. The over-manipulation of aether made him nauseous. Jiu Xiao Huan Pei could help him with precise manipulation, but performing complex notes still exhausted him. Even if his father had made Black Friday just for him, he needed to create each interval by himself.

He needed to overlap the music notes and put them into the structure of an interval. It was like putting words into a phrase, phrases into a sentence, and then making a paragraph—that was the ‘measure’ of a music piece. Each measure needed his total focus. If he had not hid in the coffin beforehand in the graveyard, he would have been found easily.

"Hopefully it won’t be so tiring today." Rubbing his face, Ye Qingxuan climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom for a shower. When he saw himself in the mirror, he almost freaked out.

--

Under the dim light, a white-haired youth stood silently in the shadows, staring at the mirror. There were dark circles under his eyes as if he had a lack of sleep, but his gaze was sharp, like a sword becoming sharper with use.

He no longer looked at the forgotten friendships and indifferences. He was no longer full of enthusiasm. He had received some things and lost others.

Maybe Charles was right. The classroom was where one learned by shedding blood and tears. The best way to learn was pain. Downtown was a good school, even if he learned things he did not want to.

Ye Qingxuan looked at the mirror. After a long time, he sighed.

"Junior, do you think you’ve gotten so attractive that you can’t even recognize yourself?" a voice came from the side.

Ye Qingxuan shook subconsciously. "Senior, can you not scare me like that?" he sighed.

"I know, I know. It’s annoying to get interrupted when you’re drunk on your own beauty." Charles came closer. He fixed his hair, his eyes full of adoration. "To be honest, I get that feeling a lot. How can the handsome man in the mirror be me? Whenever I see that someone can be so handsome, my knees get weak. When I looked at the mirror a few days ago, I almost kneeled down to myself!"

"Senior!" Ye Qingxuan seriously wanted to slap this guy.

"Okay, I know. Shut up, right?" Charles shrugged and patted Ye Qingxuan’s shoulders. "But Junior…"

"Huh?" Charles played with the soap by the sink and whistled, "You’ve been out of the shower for so long. Haven’t you noticed that you’re not wearing pants?"

"…" Ye Qingxuan looked up into the sky, sighing. He did not care who was listening to his prayers, but he just wanted someone to strike this guy with lightning.