Lucien didn’t go directly to the market after leaving. Instead, he went back home for his wood stick and started practicing basic fighting skills as usual. Since Lucien’s spirit was not strong enough, being physically strong was also very important.
Besides, the stronger the person was, the more likely they would successfully get improved by the Crying Soul Potion.
An hour later, in the market.
It had been five days since Lucien came here last time. The market area was busy as usual. Human and other kinds of humanoid creatures were walking around and bargaining. The assorted shops and stores were like colourful mushrooms in the woods.
Lucien was very careful when he was walking on the streets. The gangsters would probably take revenge on him. But Lucien was pretty sure that with his good perception he would notice if anyone tried to attack him.
However, until he finished buying the materials and was ready to leave, not even a single gangster came to bother him. In fact, the gangsters on the street were in much smaller numbers than usual. They were often in groups of two or three, but today most of them were hanging around alone. Lucien was pretty confused.
No matter what happened, Lucien still had to be careful and try to master all the apprentice spells as soon as possible. Although these spells were not very powerful, Lucien believed that they were already enough for dealing with a bunch of gangsters holding daggers.
It took Lucien more than three hours just to buy three of these materials. Worrying that his shopping might bring any suspiciousness, he was very cautious and decided not to buy anything that was not used for common tasks.
He bought some sulphur, which was very useful for disinfestation in the Month of Fire; nightstar, a type of plant that could promote sleep quality; and icestone, that could be used for keeping stuff fresh.
For the materials that could be found outside of the city, Lucien definitely wouldn’t buy them.
The shopping cost Lucien a Nar and twenty Fells, which represented half of his savings, but what he bought was only enough for about a hundred experiments. Among them, the most expensive one was nightstar, followed by icestone, but sulphur was the cheapest, as expected.
Lucien sighed, “I’d better be careful with these experiments… I really can’t afford to waste any material.”
…………
Spells like Acid Splash and Freezing Rays would definitely mess Lucien’s place. And he was afraid that someone would notice it during daytime. So he decided to find a new place for practicing, the sewers.
At two o’clock in the afternoon, Lucien started his study on time at Victor’s house.
An hour later, the class was over. After Renee, Colin and Annie left, Victor asked in a gentle voice.
“Lucien, do you have a job now?”
There were only four students left in the living room - Lott, Felicia, Herodotus and Lucien.
Shaking his head, Lucien answered with slight depression.
“No, sir… I lost my job for some reason. I’m… I’m still looking for a new one.”
It was kind of embarrassing for Lucien to admit, but he was also a bit excited. Did Mr. Victor have a job offer?
“Studying here from two to six in the afternoon everyday can be quite demanding for you. I know you gotta support yourself. Even if you can study here for free, I guess you’re still facing a pretty big challenge with your living expenses.” Victor tried to be careful with his words to avoid undermining Lucien’s self-esteem. He asked Colin and Renee before, so he knew that a poor guy like Lucien had to work at least ten hours a day to barely support himself.
“I know a relatively easy job. You work four hours every morning and you get ten Nars every month. What do you think?”
Lucien felt so touched facing this kind offer. Although he had been through many difficulties and bad things before, Lucien felt he was so lucky to have many kind people helping him like uncle Joel, untie Alisa and Mr. Victor.
“Yes… Sure. That’s awesome. It’s very kind of you.”
“You don’t even know what kind of work it is.” Victor smiled, “It’s a job in the association library. They are short of hands now. Another good thing is that when you work there, you can have access to many music or theory-related books. I think it’ll be pretty helpful.”
Not being sure of Lucien’s music talent, Victor wanted him to be a basic-level musician first to support himself. Then Lucien could advance forward to the next step if he was really born for this.
That was another surprise for Lucien. He never thought he could have a chance working in a library. He was so excited and happy that the only thing he could do was say “thank you” to Victor many times.
Victor was the only reason why Lucien could get this job. People in the association knew that this job was mainly for Mr. Victor’s student. Lucien was working like a dog all day long for just three Nars a month. Now Lucien could work for a salary similar to what a common citizen could earn every month. That was another reason why so many people wanted to be Mr. Victor’s music students.
“Great!” Victor clapped his hands with joy, “This afternoon, I’m gonna take Lott, Felicia and Herodotus to the association for rehearsal. You can come with us together and sign the contract, then you can start working tomorrow.”
When Victor went back upstairs to find some of his music work, Lott came and smiled to Lucien.
“Hi, Lucien. I’m Lott, Lott Griffith. We haven’t really talked to each other before. I’m here to say that Mr. Victor is a very, very nice teacher and a very kind man as well. I hope you won’t let him down as his music student.”
Lott was pretty unhappy with this newcomer suddenly becoming one of Mr. Victor’s music students. In his eyes, there was definitely no position in the world of musician for a poor, uneducated and ignorant boy like Lucien. As a noble from the Griffith family, he felt ashamed of studying with the poor.
But from Mr. Victor’s words, Lott found out that Victor was expecting Lucien to be a common musician first, not really a music master. Therefore his anger and dissatisfaction turned into noble’s arrogance and pride, looking down upon the poor and miserable guy standing in front of him.
“Mr. Victor must be happy so I’m willing to accept him.” Lott thought to himself. He always tried to give a good impression to Victor, in order to become his most outstanding student.
Lucien was not very interested in Lott’s intention, because he knew that he had a different path to go - magic. He just replied politely, “I won’t. Thank you, Lott. I’m Lucien Evans.”
“I’m Felicia Hayne.” Politely but also coldly, the red-haired girl nodded to Lucien. She didn’t believe Lucien would achieve something in music. Besides, she couldn’t allow herself to get too close to a poor guy. It was bad for her reputation.
And Herodotus, who always disliked Lucien, also did just a simple self-introduction like Felicia.
…………
The hall of the Musicians’ Association.
Stepping on the thick and soft carpet, Lucien was following Mr. Victor to the reception counter, while the other students were practicing upstairs.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Victor.” The cute girl, Elena, slightly bowed and greeted him.
“Good afternoon, Elena.” Victor was always kind to everyone, “This is Lucien, my new music student. From tomorrow on he will be working in the library. Can you kindly help him sign the contract and hand it to Mr. Hank later?”
She nodded and took out the already prepared contract and a quill. When she was passing Lucien the contract, her green eyes were opened with surprise.
“Lucien! It’s you! No wonder I just thought it was a familiar name!”
She couldn’t believe her own eyes. About more than a week ago, Lucien, the guy from the slum, was rummaging through trash from the association. Today he was standing here as Mr. Victor’s music student! What a crazy world!
“Hi, Elena. Nice to see you again.” Lucien took the contract and started reading it. Still not very good at reading, it took him quite a while to understand the few lines on the paper, during which Elena finally calmed down and was staring at Lucien with great curiosity.
“You can do fingerprint or sign here, either way is fine.” She smiled, “You changed so much since last time I saw you.”
“You know Lucien?” Victor asked.
“You were there at that time as well, Mr. Victor…” Elena started explaining to him. Lucien finished reading and wrote down his name slowly.
“I see…No wonder I feel I’ve seen you before somewhere. You’re always diligent, Lucien. You’ll be successful if you keep working hard in music.”
“Succeed in music? Victor, are you prepared for the concert?” A sharp voice came from behind them.
It was Wolf, the brown-haired musician with a protruding jaw. Lucien still remembered him.