3.
The Black Dragon Master and the Crusader seemed to have reached a mutual understanding.
"Death King. Let us participate in this performance too."
"It's been a long time since I stopped composing, but I still have a number of scores in my head. We can incorporate our world's music. I'm getting excited just thinking about it…"
Why were they so eager?
Why were their eyes sparkling?
They were starting to seem unfamiliar.
"The music you made is great, but let me be in charge of the music… No. It would be better if you made me assistant director."
"Then I'll be the screenwriter. Since it's a dance play, should I call myself a director instead of the screenwriter? Senior Director? Hmm. Since it's a new art, I'll need to think of a name for my role."
"Huu."
I slowly let out a breath.
Somehow, I'd managed to calm myself down.
Though my head still felt hot.
"Alright. I'd be happy to have your help with the performance if it would increase the level. It is the cultural heritage that will be engrained in the blood and flesh of those goblin kids…."
"Right."
The Black Dragon Master smiled softly.
It was like the sunset on a watercolor painting.
"I like that about you."
"Huh?"
They weren't going to bombard me with more compliments, right?
I cautiously looked at the Black Dragon Master.
But she only giggled.
"After finding the correct answer, you take advantage of it. Always."
"What are you talking about?"
"I mean you always set up flags and dig up sand first. When watching from the side, it feels like you are full of tricks. I wonder if your soulmate is like that too."
Her words were confusing.
When she saw the confusion on my face, she laughed.
"Nevermind. Let's pick a name for your guild."
"That's a good idea."
The Crusader agreed.
"The name is important."
"Hmm, as far as I remember, there are only a handful of art guilds in Deungcheon City… Perhaps there are about 30 jazz performance guilds?"
"There are 26. There is one chamber orchestra, and 11 quartet bands. The number of guilds that stopped their activities shouldn't be above 50. Even then, most of their members went to other guilds."
"It's so little, so little…."
The Black Dragon Master sighed.
"Can you think of a good name?"
"Well."
Ah.
"How about the [Raviel] Theater Company. I think that's perfect."
"Umm. I can't think of anything good…."
"It's hard to come up with an original name."
"How about Black Dragon?"
"Me either. How about Order Watch?"
Wait. Weren't they ignoring my opinion too naturally?
It was so natural that I almost didn't realize I was being ignored.
"Raviel has a nice ring to it…."
"If you keep going, I'll name it the [Kim Gong-ja] Theater Company."
"Let's seriously think of a name."
The three of us put our heads together and tried to think of something.
Several suggestions came up. Coming Day, Ink Sound, Babel, Aura…
"That's not good either."
After the name meeting stretched on way too long, the Black Dragon Master finally made a decision.
"Usually, for cases like this, it is standard to just use the names of the founding members. Let's combine the names Black Dragon Master, Crusader and Death King to make something nice."
"We can do that?"
"Mhm. We should use the Death King's mother tongue. Since he is the founder, we should show him this bit of consideration."
The Black Dragon Master asked about my mother tongue.
We were all speaking Ukrainian, Venezuelan, and Korean. But it was being automatically translated by the Tower. (TL: Venezuelan is basically Spanish)
"Fine."
After hearing my explanation, the Black Dragon Master nodded.
"So we'll take [흑] from Black Dragon Master(흑룡주), [기] from Crusader(성기사), and [사] from Death King(사왕) to make [Black Knight(흑기사)]."(1)
"Wow."
I felt numb.
"Black Dragon Master. Hey, Black Dragon Master."
Feeling a shiver down my spine, I tapped my companion and new best friend's shoulder.
"Can you take a look at my hand?"
"...It looks fine to me. Why?"
"My hand feels tingly right now. Please stretch my hand."
"Alright. As you wish."
The Black Dragon Master grabbed my finger before bending it backwards.
"Kuuaaack!!?"
"Is that enough?"
"It's so bad!"
I jumped up.
"What kind of theater company would be called Black Knight? It's embarrassing! Shameful!"
"Death King. Your title is 'Death King'. Literally [King of Death]. Can you still afford to call something shameful?"
"No, you mean [Black Dragon Master] shouldn't say things like that to me!"
"Don't say it in English!"
The Black Dragon Master grabbed my collar.
"Do you wanna die!?"
"You started it first!"
"If you can't do it right, then don't do it! And for English speakers, my name is translated to Queen, not Master!"
"Ahh. So you're not the Black Dragon Master, you're the Black Dragon Queen. You must be proud. Wouldn't the abbreviation be BDQ? Hey, if I ordered chicken, you think I could get it in 30 minutes?"
"Fine. Alright. Let's call in [Kim Gong-ja] Theater Company."
"Black Knight is good enough."
I surrendered.
"Should I say it sounds high class just from the name? I don't think there's any other candidate for theater name that sticks to the tongue quite like that one. As expected of the Black Dragon Master. Not only is her guild the best, but her naming sense is also the best. Black Knight, so good. Let's go with Black Knight."
"Right. You surrendered right away."
The Crusader watched our dog fight with a strange, bitter smile on her face.
The mermaids tail fluttered, sending ripples across the surface of the water.
"You guys are really close… I'm amazed."
The Black Knight Theater Company.
I would be the Guild Leader and the Black Dragon Master and the Crusader would be Deputy Guild Leaders.
It was a guild founded jointly by the 2nd, 3rd and 7th in the rankings. It had quite a luxurious composition.
'Even if it's arts. With this group of people…'
My lips subconsciously curled upwards.
Perhaps when the guild officially launched, the world would go crazy.
I was starting to find this interesting too.
"I wonder how people will react."
"Huh. Me too"
The Black Dragon Master grinned like a naughty child.
Even though she currently had the appearance of an old vampire, her playful smile suited her well
"I bet a lot of people will be upset. Ah. Naturally, we'll keep it a secret from the others too. Let's invite the old man when we have our first performance. I really wonder what kind of expression he'd make."
All of a sudden, I got the urge to see the Black Dragon Master make that smile with her original face.
I wasn't sure why, but I just felt that it would look cool.
"Fine."
I smiled too.
"Fine."
We talked all night about the performance we'd have.
The play that we decided on was [Raviel and Kekerkker].
According to the Black Dragon Master, Kekerkker was too strange, so the name was changed to [Heart of Silver].
"The main character must be Duke Ivansia. There's no room for argument. Instead of choosing characters and letting them appear, let's display the Duke's psychological changes with the choreography."
"We should portray the moment of falling in love dramatically. We'll turn the stage into a [Ballroom]. We'll also cover the stage in white rose petals and have the actors dance upon them."
"Ah. That would be pretty!"
Everyone was excited.
Several empty wine bottles lay beside us.
We were having the meeting while drinking.
"Mm. The moment they fall in love, the flowers being stopped on by Princess Ivansia will change from white to red. One, two, three… That way, a red bridge will be created on the white sea. The Death King would have to walk step by step in order to cross over the flower sea to the Ivansia Hall."
The Black Dragon Master got up.
"I can't do this anymore. I like this too much. I wanna start on it right away"
"Is there any place with nice flowers around here?"
"We look for them with teleportation. Let's go!"
The Black Dragon Master and I got into the Crusader's bathtub and we all held hands. The three of us were transferred somewhere. We didn't know exactly where we were, but it didn't matter.
It was a place where white flowers were in full bloom.
We followed the scent of the flowers while walking around the foot of the mountain. It was night. Beneath the bright moonlight, the flowers released their fragrances. There were valleys with yellow flowers, and ridges with purple flowers. We smiled for a moment before beginning our search for white flowers
'Good.'
We laughed like drunkards.
"Do you realize we're flying in the sky in a bathtub?"
"Humans are born from water."
"You've lost your mind…."
"We're drunk. This is bad. We can't let people from the tower see this…."
We stopped at a meadow.
It was filled with white flowers that were bowing their heads because of the wind.
As soon as we landed, the Black Dragon Master swiftly left the bathtub and took off her shoes.
"This is more than enough, Death King!"
"Haha."
"He became a fool. Crusader!"
"Right."
The Crusader smiled helplessly and raised both arms.
Her fingers grew closer.
Slowly.
A bit more slowly…
As her fingers stretched into the air, the Crusader's face became expressionless.
___________.
Music filled the night sky.
The Crusader's fingers danced in the air.
It was as if an invisible piano was laid down before her.
The flowers shifted. Every time he touched an invisible white key, the aura in the night sky vibrated.
"As expected, your skills didn't rust!"
"So noisy."
"You need to understand your possessiveness for your lover."
The melody became intense.
The sound of the piano buried our words.
The chatter subsided and only the vampire's laughter could be heard over the music.
"It's been so long since I've heard Libertango(2)!"
The Black Dragon Master stepped on the white rose petals with her bare feet.
The petals beneath her turned black.
____ , ____ , ________.
The Crusader's fingers seemed to awaken the night. The Black Dragon Master's footsteps dyed the flowers. Different colored aura flowed from the petals as though they were bleeding.
A dance according to the melody.
One step with each gesture.
Like this, black footprints spread across the white flower field.
"Death King!"
"Pretty…."
"You look stupid!"
"I like white…."
"Ah, you're pretty quick for a half-wit!"
"So noisy."
The sounds of our laughter, music and footsteps melded together.
The Crusader hummed.
"I really like the Tower"
The Black Dragon Master spoke while she danced.
"I wish I had come here sooner. Then maybe my father would have lived with me."
"I like the Tower too."
"Don't be so slow, Death King."
The scent of the black flowers was dizzying.
"You can't always be slow."
"You're right."
"Can we live well?"
"Yes."
"I want to be happy. Forever…."
"We're friends."
"That's right!"
"Everything's gonna be alright."
"Mhm."
The old vampire grabbed my finger.
"Let's dance. Kim Gong-ja."
If you thought life was a single player game, it just meant you hadn't found someone to play with.
Round and round, we danced.
The white flowers that the Black Dragon Master stepped on turned black.
The petals crushed beneath my feet turned red, very red.
Black and red ripples spread out as we danced, and soon the white field was filled with black and red.
"________."
The Crusader played the piano and slowly opened her mouth.
Lascia ch'io pianga
mia cruda sorte, e che sospiri
la liberta—.
e che sospiri
[getid]
la liberta—.(3)
The Tower swallowed the Crusader's song and didn't spit it out again.
It was just left alone in the night air.
We were three people who were left alone in the night, bewitched by the wicked white flowers, and collapsed.
-....
My eyes didn't reopen until late in the afternoon.
The sun shined brightly.
The Crusader laid in her fish tank, occasionally flapping her tail, and the Black Dragon Master had fallen asleep with her nose buried in a rosebud. In other words, they were people who'd gotten completely drunk.
"Uwah…."
Holding my head, I shakily got to my feet.
Ssonia was standing before me.
"Mm?"
-Lord Kekerkker.
His voice was serious.
"What… is it…? Uwah, my head hurts. That alcohol was so bad…."
-I… would like to personally act in the next performance.
I raised my head to look at Ssonia.
An unknown desire shined in his blue eyes.
-I want to be like… No.
Ssonia said.
-I want to live like you.