The next day at dawn, we showed up at the Ascham mansion, where we almost immediately started to escort the Duke's carriage, along with those of a few merchants and their cargo which were coming with us. Unfortunately, some of the other nobles who'd come for the king's announcement of Haru's marriage were leaving at the same time and going the same direction, so we had to travel together. Fortunately, the Ascham lands were some of the closest to the capital, meaning we'd be leaving their group earlier than most, unfortunately, it'd still take four days, so their guards had time to have some... interesting things to think and say about how a relatively small number of rather young girls were guarding a large number of merchants and a duke. Since we were all together, the guards of some earl were the first to come over to us to laugh at us during the first midday break. They didn't do so for long, of course.
"Mind if I ask you girls a few questions? Oh, where are my manners. I'm Grant, A rank and leader of the Blue Spring Wave, a B ranked party. What's your name?" (Grant)
"Haru. Like you, I'm an A rank, one of the three in the party I'm a member of" (Haru)
"What party would that be? Like, what's the name, I mean" (Grant, already suppressing a laugh)
"The Demon Lord's Harem. If that's all, I'd like to continue eating" (Haru)
"What's with that name!? Some kind of joke!? And you're an A rank!? One of THREE!?" (Another in his party)
"Seriously, The Demon Lord's Harem? What kind of stupid party name is that?" (Yet another member)
By this time, we were drawing a small crowd, constituting about a fifth of the people in the group, but Haru, as well as the rest of us, just sat there calmly as we ate. We continued to ignore the people laughing at us, for a while.
"Oi, best b'careful 'f 'em! 'ey might call down de wrath o' de Demon Lord er som'n!" (Member of a second party)
"Yeah, or maybe those three A ranks might get mad and beat us up!" (Third party's leader, while giggling)
"Oh shit! Bozeus! You and your party shouldn't mess with them!" (Baron Istal)
"Eh, why not? They're just-" (Bozeus, presumably. Leader of a fourth party)
"Just an A ranked party that includes the third princess, her fiancee, and an SS rank" (Baron Istal)
"An S ranked party including two SS ranks, actually... Those two being Ryuu and myself" (Ver)
Considering that the two of us were the youngest-looking of the group, that does sound implausible, but... other things called for my attention, and I decided to make a show of it.
"By the way, there's a small group of trash mobs heading towards us from the southeast. I guess we'll take care of them, unless someone else wants to do it? The materials will only sell for a few large silver coins at most, and are bulky as hell. Not worth collecting for those without storage magic" (Ryuu)
"Eh, sure, go ahead. Kill those goblins or whatever. I don't care" (Most of the others who didn't want to watch)
I stood up, walked past most of the group, then we heard a scream.
"Argh! Ogres! Sixteen ogres from the south! We could use some backup here!" (Some other group)
"And there they are. Hmm... someone, name an element. Any element at all" (Ryuu)
"Ice? Just... get going!" (Grant)
"In that case, it'd be the Anthem of the Glacial Split..." (Ryuu)
"The fuck does that mean... uh... why's it getting so much... colder?" (Someone shivering)
"It's a spell. Just watch and listen... and don't disturb her" (Ver)
About two dozen large chunks of ice formed in the air, and one by one, they turned into spears that went through the skulls of the ogres. For every spear that fell, an ogre died. When all of them were dead, there were seven chunks left, which I just had fall into a different area to become a chilly powder on the ground. A few times a second for a while after that, one could hear the ice split further in a melodic rhythm, almost as if it was a song someone was playing.
"That... was... insane. She has that much control over her mana, and that much skill with ice magic?" (Grant)
"Not just ice magic. Still, listen to the sound of the ice..." (Char)
"I don't... wait... is that... the beat of The Royal Procession?" (Grant)
"Why yes, it is. I thought people would recognise it. Normally, I'd go for what I know better, such as 'March of the Dancing Shadows' or 'Firelight Flight' but you probably wouldn't get that very quickly, if at all, and neither of those fits the ice anthem well... though, neither does the royal procession, I must admit" (Ryuu)
"What would have happened had someone said 'void magic'?" (Grant)
"Well... first off, I would have picked a different song, as it really does matter a lot more for void magic. I'd've picked the Song of Silence, probably. It's pretty good, though quite weird when you first hear it. See, it... I'll just show you" (Ryuu)
I snapped my fingers, and the ice all vanished. After that, I asked people to clear an area I marked, and, under no circumstances, enter it until I said otherwise, before casting 'Voidhowl Anthem'.
"I do•'t h••r an•th•n•... •ait... th• fu•• •s g••ng o•?" (Grant)
I snapped my fingers again, which canceled the blasts of void magic that were hollowing out craters from the earth in the area I'd marked, and spoke.
"That's Voidhowl Anthem. It cancels out all sound in the area instead of producing one of its own. That's called negative sound, like the negative space in a drawing... it's hard to pay attention to, but once you start, it's often mind blowing and hard to not notice" (Ryuu)
"Ugh... I'm a mage, and this is... how the hell is this supposed to work? I can't wrap my head around it" (Mage)
"Simply put, Anthem spells create smaller spells of their element based off of the song the caster thinks about when casting it. The clearer and more precise the melody, the stronger the magic. If the song matches the element, it gets better as well. Since I have an ear for music and a great memory as well, I can exhibit great effects with these spells, and... Well, it doesn't matter. My favorites are the Fire, Wind, Lightning, and Shadow Anthems, with Firelight Flight, Whirlwind Waltz, Shocking Sonata, and March of the Dancing Shadows as the songs to accompany them, respectively" (Ryuu)
Grant seemed to pick up on something, so I paused to let him speak.
"I've got something to say... March of the Dancing Shadows is the national anthem for the demon lands, and Firelight Flight is the former national anthem. Why do you know those so well?" (Grant)
"To answer your question, I'm from the demon lands. Also, March of the Dancing Shadows is no longer the national anthem, as of a bit over a year ago. See, the national anthem changes with each Demon Lord, so... the current one is the Song of Silence, due to the fact that there isn't one picked by the Demon Lord's successor. I'd probably pick Shocking Sonata, though Frostflower Fade is a good song too" (Ryuu)
"Well, it's not like what you'd pick matters, right? Anyways, it's time for us to start going, our principals are getting impatient. Shall we ride together for a while?" (Grant)
We discussed more about music in general as we walked back to where our respective employers had been waiting, and the Duke quickly agreed to allow me to ride with another group for a while, since he was probably the most overprotected person in the human lands. As such, I moved to sitting on the driver's bench of the cart Grant was driving, which did leave us open for some other comments... as in, after half an hour or so, an adventurer on a horse moved over to talk to us with some of his friends following suit.
"Hey, Grant, it's great you got yourself a girlfriend and all that, but she's a bit young, isn't she?" (First guy)
"Who's this?" (Ryuu)
"He's Asuna, a B rank in the A ranked party Dragon's Spear, lead by the S rank Tharios. Asuna, for your information, Ryuu is not my girlfriend, and besides, she's 16. She's not too young for me. She's also already taken, if you'll notice the ring on her finger" (Grant)
"Well, whatever. Still, is it wise? You've now got someone else to protect, besides the earl, right?" (Asuna)
Grant laughed once, into his fist, before replying, earning a strange look from Asuna.
"Pfft... if anything, she'd be the one protecting me. She's the one who cast the ice magic that killed all of those ogres in an instant, you know. She's also the leader of the party that Duke Ascham hired" (Grant)
"Her? She's-" (Asuna's party member)
"She outranks you. ALL of you" (Grant)
"You're not including me in that statement, nor many of my absent party members. Asuna, Ban, and Thereil, sure. They're B ranks. She may be A ranked, but I'd be insulted if such a chit was an S rank like me" (Tharios)
"And you don't want to see the boss when he's insulted like that. He gets... nasty" (Asuna)
I laughed, and laughed, and Grant joined in after a second or two. Asuna and Tharios just looked like they'd walked in on a crazyhouse unknowingly, so I laughed harder for a bit and caught my breath.
"Don't worry, you aren't the same rank as me. See, you were included in the 'all of you' because I'm an SS rank. I'm not even the only one in my party to be that rank. Nor am I the only one in my party to have killed a dragon without external help. Ver, the youngest in the group and the other SS rank, is one of the other two, with Mae, Gazef's daughter - oh, sorry, Gazef is better known by his title, the captain of the royal guard - is the third. Hell, she did it with one attack. So what was that about being insulted to be the same rank? What reason would you have to feel like that?" (Ryuu)
As I spoke, they paled, hit snow-white, and skipped right over chalky to reach bloodless, before settling on ghostly white around the time I mentioned Mae's father.
"I... how long have... I mean..." (Tharios)
"I've been an adventurer for about a year, and jumped from A to SS rank... 28 hours ago? I think that answers the question you were trying to ask" (Ryuu)
"It does... it explains why I never heard of your party. What's the party name?" (Tharios)
"The Demon Lord's Harem. It's... haaa... crap" (Ryuu)