I could feel the children's hearts slowing down.
'Why is this interesting?'
I moved my fingers busily over the keyboard.
Faster and faster.
'Why am I fascinated just by watching people's reactions, even when I can't hear any sound?'
In this world, breath was limited. The performers and the audience had already divided the total amount of breath among themselves. As my fingers sped up, the children's breathing slowed down, and as my fingers leisurely swam, the children finally let out their breath.
'How far?'
I hit the keys.
"■■...."
"■■■? ■■■?"
Pedestrians going up and down the large staircase stopped one or two at a time.
I expanded my aura. Not only the six children but also the young man who had just stopped, and the woman with dark circles under her eyes, I sensed the rhythm of their heartbeats.
'How far can I go?'
Soon, my thoughts became faint.
'The smell.'
I smelled the scent flowing beneath the World Tree. Sniffing. Even though I couldn't hear, my sense of smell, enhanced by the aura, caught the most trivial scents and the most vulgar smells.
The inside of my nostrils turned green.
'The smell of animals… the scent of beasts.'
Not only humans hesitated on the large staircase and began to listen to my performance. The beasts did too.
On the low branches of the World Tree, owls, robins, jackdaws, birds with long ears like goblins, birds with thick lips like hippos, birds with atrophied forelimbs like dinosaurs, and birds whose nationality I didn't know so I could only call them by their appearance, stretched their necks and drooped. I was performing right below where their beaks were about to drop.
'…The scent of life.'
Not only the beasts blinked and stared at my piano from the World Tree. The flowers did too.
Rhododendrons, hydrangeas, lycoris, mountain hydrangeas, hibiscus, cherry blossoms, pear blossoms, flowers with eyes full of frost, children who bloomed their finely trimmed nails as petals, those who clenched their fingers to tightly hold a handful of sky, beings that had color before they had names looked down at me.
'The scent of aura.'
So, this place was a paradise.
Even a single petal that did not know how to hear had aura lingering on it. Who had given it as a gift? In the world of Musical Heaven, flowers knew how to drink rainwater as if they were born knowing how to listen to sounds through aura.
[Activate skill]
Unknowingly, I used a skill. [Salvation of a Torn Goddess]. Salvation Sword. A technique that temporarily amplifies my aura in exchange for losing my memories.
I had resolved not to use this skill carelessly, but now it was activated unconsciously. However, I couldn't help it.
'More.'
Even I, who had reached the throne of constellations, lacked aura to sense all the children, passersby, beasts, and flowers immersed in the shade of the World Tree.
I simply wanted the hearts of all those who listened to my performance.
'More.'
I missed the memory of the performance from 3 seconds ago, so I caught the next 3 seconds of the performance.
Aura was, the more you abandon yourself, the more infinite it became.
[Activate skill]
Even if I were born a performer who couldn't hear, a painter who couldn't see colors, a poet who didn't know what poetry was, I would surely have written songs that I couldn't hear, painted pictures that I couldn't see, and written poetry that I didn't know.
That's how I would have lived.
'…Good.'
Maybe that was, compared to someone who was given the sound from the beginning, who knew what harmony was and what music was, and just wrote down the song as they knew it, a less fortunate life.
But that was the only way I knew how to live.
'Yeah, good.'
And I liked being alive.
'Everyone… is beautiful.'
If there was something I realized after throwing away my life more than four thousand times, it was that I liked living.
If it were a stone allowed only a life of breaking apart, I would have liked the breaking too, and if I were a flower that had to abandon the white nurtured from spring as winter comes, I would have loved the touch of shedding petals.
['The Maestro Singing the Heavens' opens its eyes.]
Blink.
['The Maestro Singing the Heavens' looks down at you.]
The wind stirred.
It wasn't a wind that blew on its own. The branches gently wriggled, and countless leaves moved like feathers on wings. The World Tree. When the tree that covered the sky of this place nodded slightly, a benevolent wind blew.
['The Maestro Singing the Heavens' listens to your sound.]
And then, I knew that the wind flowing through the tree rings was the heartbeat of that tree, and the rustling sound of the leaves colliding was the body temperature of the tree.
The blooming flowers were the gaze of that tree.
['The Maestro Singing the Heavens' begins to sing along to your sound.]
Plunk.
A flower whiter than the white keys of the piano fell onto it.
Plunk, the petals fell from a far place. From somewhere up high. From the sky. The World Tree shook its branches and dropped the flowers hanging from its fingertips. Plunk. With the speed of the sky blue and the gravity of green, the white flower fell, and as it fell, it pressed a key.
Again, a flower fell.
Each time a flower fell, it hit a key. It was a performance. As my body leaned to the left and I played from the left side of the piano, the flowers fell thickly on the right side. The World Tree was accompanying with its flowers falling onto the piano keys.
"...."
Petals scattered over the keys like raindrops.
I moved my fingers. White mirrors bloomed with white flowers. Pressing the keys, I inadvertently crushed the flowers someone had already dropped there. It happened to be crushed.
When I played the piano, fingerprints were left on the petals. Pressed between fingers and keys, the flowers were slightly crushed. Squashed. Smashed. Juice-like moisture flowed from the petals. Just a bit. A hint of scent, a very slight, scent, scent… scent.
The crushed fragrance must have been the tears of that tree.
On the white keys, white petals, and a whitish scent flowed, and if you noticed, it was a pile of flowers in full bloom everywhere.
Before someone pressed them, the petals didn't know how to release moisture, and even when spewing water, they released not a stench but a fragrance of whiteness.
There was such a tree blooming in heaven.
'Beautiful.'
What was the person who first planted this tree here thinking?
"■■■...."
"■■...."
The child, passersby, and beasts opened their mouths. Probably, they too sang along with the flowers. Unfortunately, I couldn't hear the world's chorus.
It didn't matter.
Really, it was of no concern.
['The Maestro Singing the Heavens' blesses you.]
[Hidden Stage Cleared.]
In the midst of the falling pile of flowers.
['The Maestro Singing the Heavens' says you should not stay here long.]
[You will be transported to the 70th floor.]
['The Maestro Singing the Heavens' sees you off.]
[May luck be with you.]
I opened my eyes.
5.
The place I opened my eyes was the 70th floor lobby.
"...."
Patricia silently looked at me. Patricia opened and then closed her lips, pondering what to say first.
Finally, after a long pause, Patricia spoke, "Hmm."
"Kim Gong-ja."
"Yes."
"Aura is a despicable trick, so I don't acknowledge it."
"Why were you even pondering what to say first? Huh?"
"It feels somewhat embarrassing to praise you. Should I bear the embarrassment to praise you? That would be your selfishness, arrogance, and conceit."
"I didn't say anything!?"
"Ha."
Patricia sighed.
"There was no need to try that hard. Didn't I tell you? Even if you did nothing, I would willingly acknowledge your stage clear. In fact, when you disastrously messed up your first performance, I immediately granted you a clear."
"You really say some harsh things so casually, huh…?"
"Your last performance was… hmm. How should I put it?"
Patricia fell into thought and then slowly nodded.
"Until now, I thought it was good to live with a human like you. But, well… When I heard your last performance, I thought that dying together with you wouldn't be so bad."
"...Ah."
Isn't that an overwhelmingly more embarrassing thing to say? Your subtle emotions, I just can't comprehend them, my friend.
"Yeah. As a task of undoing the first button, it was excellent."
While I hesitated, not knowing how to react, [The Wand Of Ages] interjected.
"It was a splendid act, even in a field not your own. Congratulations on gaining your first follower after becoming a constellation."
[You are seeking a follower!]
[The Crusader becomes your follower.]
[You currently have no blessings to bestow upon your followers.]
[You currently have no powers to grant to your followers.]
Messages came one after another, but it still didn't feel real. Blessings or powers. Perhaps after defeating up to the 79th floor, and once my position as a constellation solidifies, only then something might become possible.
Even if it becomes possible, I have no intention of exercising divinity over Patricia, let alone wanting to be treated as a deity.
"Then, take care. Kim Gong-ja… Cheer up."
Patricia's ankles were wrapped in white light.
Her role as a judge ended, and she was about to return to the 1st floor.
If you look closely, Patricia was wearing a bitter smile.
"I was told by this person. I won't remember anything about this incident."
"...."
"Memories are islands that each person possesses. It troubles me to leave you on a deserted island, but I believe you would swim across the sea at will and come and go as you please."
"Patricia."
"Hmm."
"If you're planning to assassinate me, 17 plans won't be enough."
"...."
Patricia looked taken aback.
What happened next was as follows: In less than a second, Patricia realized she momentarily lost control over her expression. And for another split second, she pondered what to do next. It was only for a moment, but the deliberation was evident in her gaze.
And she made her choice.
"...Indeed."
What Patricia chose was [to leave her taken aback expression as it was].
"Are you disappointed…?"
"No. I knew you were that kind of person, what else. I just understand you a bit better now."
"I'm sorry. But I have seen people change. Witnessed it. Experienced it. The Sword Saint, the Black Dragon Witch, and many hunters from the past who are now dead… I simply cannot believe in someone who never changes their heart, forever. Therefore. Just in case."
"Yes."
I smiled.
"I understand what you meant by [I wouldn't mind dying together]."
"...."
"It's an honor."
"Really,"
Patricia let out a hollow laugh.
"You're a creature without any cute qualities. You are."
Splash!
The ground beneath Patricia turned squishy and swallowed her up. She was teleported by a magician.
In a space where cubic blocks like Rubik's cubes continuously rotated, only the magician and I were left.
"So. Shall we move directly to the next stage? Or would you like some time to rest?"
"I'm fine with either."
"Then let's move on right away."
The thin wand tapped the white floor.
"Musical Heaven was somewhat a battlefield that worked in your favor. Even though music wasn't your specialty, it wasn't like you had no aptitude for it at all. But what about this time?"
Where Patricia had disappeared, light burst forth.
"The next place you must go is [the World of Money]."
Beyond the dazzling pillar, the shadow of a person flickered.
"And the top expert related to money in your tower seems to be this child, after all."
It was a face familiar to me, just like Patricia.
The judge newly summoned to the 70th floor blinked.
"...Hmm? Oh. What is this situation?"
A hunter deeply connected to the recently disappeared Patricia.
"How curious. Can you tell me where this is, Death King?"
The Merchant Union's Leader.
Count.