Lily came over in no time at all.
"Young master!" she called out.
I smiled and grabbed her hands as she came over to calm her down.
"You shouldn't run like this, my precious healing slave—I mean, maid."
Lily nodded while panting. Her hands trembled slightly and so did her voice.
"Lily, what and where are the lessons I have to attend, huh?" I wasn't uninterested in the lessons.
The world had an undeniable fact, just like abs, Knowledge was Power! The strongest man in the world should naturally also be the most knowledgeable.
It was the natural course of events. Natural, natural. Learning the different subjects and history of this world was integral. Even if 7 chapters had passed, this was still my first day in the world of this damn Eroge after all.
"I'll take you there, Young master... you shouldn't have run off."
"Don't worry about it, just lead the way."
At my words, Lily bowed and started walking. I had already let go of her hand, but she hadn't left mine, so I give it a quick little shake and pulled it back.
Lily and I passed by the mansion walls, from the paintings and sculptures to the marble stairs and finely carved gothic railings, we ignored them all and reached the third floor of the mansion. She led me to a room at the furthest corner of the floor that was a bit smaller than the two below.
The room she opened up was a decently sized room with a red carpet placed on the ground and beautiful paintings on the walls again.
The closets and desks were clean without a speck of dust and the giant window right across the door gave the view of the backside of the mansion, stretching into the rows of woods behind the place. Smack dab in the center of the room, a beautiful white piano stood loftily.
My heart raced when I saw the instrument.
"Is the first lesson Piano?"
"Correct. I know you dislike it... but please be patient—"
I scoffed and walked over to the piano.
"It'll be a bit before the teacher arrives, right?"
Lily nodded slightly. "He should be here any minute."
I grazed my hand over the piano, the touch of it making my heart beat faster.
Eugene Hall hates the piano... huh?
How strange that was.
There was nothing that Yujin loved more, after all. I sat down on the seat and lifted my fingers above the keys, taking in a deep breath. Something calming...?
"Lily, be a good audience and sit still, alright? I'll play a neat song."
"You can play a song already? Aren't you learning scales?"
"Pfft. Tell me if you recognize this one."
I had made my decision. A good start, had to be.
Fantaisie Impromptu.
***
Maria was wiping down the dining table. Despite the lack of manpower, it went against her conscience to not take care of places her master visited, drifted apart as they were. Her black eyes shone in the reflection on the white marble table as she spread her hands over it.
Today, that very young master of hers had changed. He was acting mature, unlike he had ever before.
She suspected he was even more dashing than his eldest brother, or even the count, not like those were big bars. Deep within his eyes, she could see the same spirit that she had seen in her first master and the child's mother.
She recalled that person as her eyes fell on her reflection. Her pristine face and jaded skin were beautiful to the point that even noble ladies would double back after looking at her, it was a natural form of beauty that people rarely seemed to see with perfect features.
But she herself wasn't aware of her beauty that would make even pure ascetics reconsider their values for a chance to talk with her.
The only thing she could see was the mixture of guilt and hatred that she had been seeing for the past years in her eyes.
She disliked the young master that had troubled her so, she disliked her young master who showed no signs of being redeemable, she disliked her young master who disliked, she disliked her young master that took away her first master and his mother by being born.
But she also loved him all the same. She couldn't stand herself disliking him. She was guilty and disgusted at herself who thought that way about the child she raised herself.
Maria could feel her eyes filling up.
—DUN
She heard it.
The sound of the piano.
Soft notes started filling the silence the first one had made.
High-pitched sounds of the treble clef came rushing out of the piano, slowly picking up speed. The bass seemed to be shaking the air in the mansion, and with it her heart.
The intensity of the sounds grew with measure after measure. Like a tempest rising through the ground and evolving into a storm, the music etched itself into her mind and soul.
Maria's hands weakened, and she dropped the rag. Her back straightened as her heart made her stand still in place. The music thralled her, and not just her as even the birds and animals outside had shut up.
The first act went to a crescendo... and then followed a drop.
Like an eclipse forming above the skies, the mood completely changed. The previous tempest settled into a calming breeze reminiscent of the cold wind of spring. The corner of her lips tugged up as her head swayed to the music.
As if entranced by the sounds, Maria moved. Her heart pulled her closer to the sounds. She found herself stepping out of the dining room and then up the stairs. Even when the sound intensified, it would calm down.
The second act reminded her of the past.
Scenes of the years gone by breezed through her eyes. When she held her young master in her hands when he would cry, and when she would lightly pat him. Like a mother calming a perturbed child, tension filled the music only to be sated the next moment. Her feet carried her up.
The music teacher that had been assigned to her lord was also there on the stairs. He had stopped in his tracks, his eyes widened at the sounds.
Their meeting broke them out of their slight trance, or it seemed as if it had, for the two of them didn't share a word but rushed up the stairs. They passed through the floors, careful to not have their feet be loud. As they reached the top floor, they ran into the red-haired charming hunk of a man named Keith.
That person who seemed aloof and uninterested was now smiling wildly in front of the room with the piano. The teacher and Maria walked over to the end of the passageway and in front of the room.
The music picked up pace. The eclipse was gone and tension filled the notes that came gushing out of the piano keys. Their eyes widened and their feet stuck to the ground at the call back to the first act of the music, and then the variation leading up to the change.
The piece was coming to a climax.
The tension-filled notes went deeper.
The sated child had started crying again, and the mother was nowhere to be seen.
It went faster and faster leading up to the final crescendo of the piece.
And then, just as suddenly, the sounds calmed down.
A streak of tears dropped down from Maria's eyes as the piece came to a calming end.
The child had stopped crying.
After two long years, the child had stopped crying.