"What?"
Tracy, Eleanor, and James asked the messenger simultaneously. As of now, Mithor King and Allen Bower were not present.
"Y-yes captain. It happened 5 days ago. It took some time for the information to pass, but we rushed to you as soon as we learnt what happened. While it's unknown what exactly happened, 'Steel' Maveti and Admiral Senor's sixth captain 'Blood Brambles' Hendry were hunted by Blazing Danitz and his helper, who's name we learnt is 'Gehrman Sparrow.'
"Since Danitz is not strong enough, everyone believes this new guy must have been the one who killed Maveti, but not much is known about him. We only learnt his name because he'd recently come on a ferry from Loen, and was spotted with Blazing once."
"What did the Mandated Punishers do?"
Tracy asked the messenger unhurriedly. While the news was a slight surprise to all four of us, due to various reasons known only to each, we all went past it quite quickly.
"According to sources, Mandated Punishers only found scraps of Maveti and Hendry, even their corpses were not left intact."
"Anything else?"
As the messenger briefed Tracy and the other two over the smaller things related to the crew, and the seas, I couldn't help but feel wistful at the news. One of my favourite volumes of my favourite webnovel was unfolding right in front of my eyes, in real life.
It's no longer just a story though...
I had to remind myself, lest I lose touch with reality.
Soon after, the messenger floated back to the third ship, and we were left to our own.
The dark night lit only by the crescent crimson moon was no longer silent. The news the messenger conveyed wasn't something private, and soon the chatters started among the few crew members loitering around the deck.
I watched as Tracy stood in thought, before moving past us towards her cabin.
"I will see you all tomorrow. Lorenzo, tomorrow we will pass by Tiana port. You can go off in the morning."
"Yes, captain!" I saluted behind her back as she walked on to her side of the deck.
"I am going to sleep too. I will not see you tomorrow, so good luck li'l Lorenzo, hope you come back alive."
James said to me with a shit-eating grin. He turned to Eleanor, bid her good night, and went to his room by the kitchen.
I wish I lived beside the kitchen too, I'd eat whenever I felt like.
"It's just us left now."
I was pulled out of my fishy thoughts by Eleanor. I turned to her, only to see the corners of her mouth upturned in a teasing smirk.
This woman...
"What happened to your face? Why is your face all white suddenly? Don't worry, I'm not gonna eat you up or something, I'm not a Rose Bishop after all."
Miss, clearly there's a level of misalignment with our understandings of each other.
It's not like I was afraid of her, but experiencing unwanted, and embarrassing physiological changes repeatedly wasn't something I was a fan of.
"N-nothing, I'm fine. Is there something you wanted to tell me? I feel a little sleepy, and I need to wake up early tomorrow."
I put on an expressionless, nonchalant face. It would only serve me well to be a good actor and be able to control my reactions to a degree...
"Hmm," Eleanor leaned to a side for second, and then straightened up, as if she'd lived through thousands of thoughts in a second, and had come to a concrete decision at the speed of light. Looking up at me, she said with a serious face, "Come to my cabin, there's something I'd like to give to you."
Hmm? What is this woman upto?
"A-are you sure? Right now?"
Eleanor affixed gaze on me, staring at me in silence.
"It's an order," she slowly let out, with little volume. Raising her right hand, she beckoned me with a smirk, and turned around to walk up the stairs for the upper deck, where her and mine cabins were. Though hers was obviously way more spacious than my 7x5 sq feet box with a bedroll and a chest.
Sigh... I guess there's no choice.
If I was a seer, right now I'd be flipping a coin to see if following Eleanor presented any danger. But since I lacked the capabilities to perform things that required spiritual affinity, I could only pray.
Oh great Mr Poor, the bane of Demoness' and Lord of the Virgins, please protect me.
Uncertain of the future, I couldn't help but jest in my heart. Just to be careful though, I used the parody name instead.
While I did plan to pray to the Fool soon, having learn a significant amount of Hermes, and a certain amount of Ancient Hermes, I couldn't do it right now, lest I give him a very good view of Black Death, and make it easier for Gehrman Sparrow to kill Tracy. Now that is something I would never want to see happening.
Good thing, though, was that, since I was leaving tomorrow, Tracy had let me copy some of her books of Hermes, including dictionaries, which meant I could now translate Mr Fool's name from Loenese. The day Mithor king's death's news would come, I'd immediately pray to Mr Poor. I'll try my best to make a good impression so that I can get recruited as soon as possible.
Having already learnt the sentence structure, all I needed to do was refer the dictionary and translate certain words I still didn't know, and I'd have all of Fool's honorific name.
Shaking my head, I tried to control my rushing thoughts and followed after Eleanor. I couldn't help but wonder what she had in the store for me.
...
"This? For me?"
I stood gobsmacked, looking at Eleanor's hand holding a curvy structure of wood, not much unlike a banjo. Scratch that, it was very much an enlarged Ukelele. It even had six strings. In fact, it was less an Ukelele, and more a Guitar? Indeed, it was a Guitar.
"How did you get one this fast?"
Seeing me frozen in shock, Eleanor brought her extended hand back, and put the guitar's bottom above her right toe, rather than the ground, while she held it in her hand from the neck. That was very cool, like she was holding a cane. This woman could look strangely cool in unexpected situations.
"It's no trouble. This is an old one I first started practising on. It's already ten years old, so I hope it can survive the experience of another novice learning through it."
I exhaled audibly. This world had guitars, acoustic guitars. Not only this one had a thinner fretboard compared to a classical guitar, it also had six gleaming strings that shone in the light of the lamps. Indeed, steel strings.
"What is it called? When I requested a stringed instrument from captain, I didn't expect something so... something like this! Are these metal strings?"
"Heh," Eleanor snickered. "It's actually quite a unique one. While the instrument itself was first created in Feynapotter, Emperor Roselle improved it greatly with a better design."
She lifted up the guitar and pointed at the bridge, "See those pegs? Originally strings of sheep gut were tied there, but Emperor Roselle came up with that design, allowing tighter wound steel strings to fit into structure without bouncing off. This one was originally not with pegs though, and used gut strings instead, so I had to get it modified by an Intisian luthier."
She turned it around to show me the back of the guitar's neck which was covered in a layer of wood different shade than the rest.
"To put in these strings, the luthier had to put reinforcements on the back or it would bend or crack when wound too tight.
"As for what is called, well the Feynapotter people first called it Flamenco," she giggled like a little girl talking about her greatest hero, "but emperor Roselle gave it a new name. He called it the 'Guitar'. So now they're all guitars, but those made in Feynapotter with gut strings are called Flamenco Guitars. The luthiers there, those stubborn old farts are very prideful of their instrument."
She really is a Roselle fangirl...
"This is incredible. Emperor really was a genius..."
Hearing me, Eleanor's face beamed with a wide grin. "Indeed he was, was he not?!"
If I ever piss this woman off, first thing I'll do is start glazing Roselle...
"Are you sure you want to give it to me? It seems very important to you, what if I end up damaging it... or lose it?"
Eleanor's smile suddenly gained a certain edge. "No, you wouldn't do that. I'm sure you'll bring it back unharmed. You would, right? Right?"
I could almost bet there was bead of sweat currently sliding down the back of my head.
"I- I'll... I'll do my best!"
"Good good, I trust you will, you're a good boy after all, li'l Lorenzo. Are you not?"
...come on, not that!
Unwanted blood rushed to my cheeks.
"Hm?" Eleanor tilted her head for a moment, as if thought.
"I will, I will!" I nodded in quick succession, and willed my heart to channel the blood rather to my nether regions than anywhere near my head. I'd rather be embarrassed physically than emotionally.
"Do you want to try playing it? You told captain you have some experience playing instruments with strings?"
Ah, maybe she didn't catch it.
...
While the Lorenzo of present coped, the Lorenzo of future knew that she did not, in fact, not catch it.
If he had an ability to read her mind right now, he'd have heard something along the lines of, 'That's an interesting reaction.'
Alas, he had no ability to read minds.
...
"O-only a little. I can play songs I know." I nodded. It seemed like my answer had delighted her.
"I've never heard someone else play here, in the whole crew across the ships, there's no one else who plays a stringed instrument. How about you play something for me?"
Eleanor stepped forward and put the guitar in my hands. Holding it, I could now truly feel the very unfamiliar, yet quite familiar instrument. It instantly felt heavier than the two I'd played in my old life. Pulling it up, I looked across its width. It's action was higher than any guitar I'd ever played. Even my first guitar, known among my friends for having a notoriously high action and being a finger killer, paled in comparison.
Seeing me look at it, Eleanor nodded in approval. "Good good, you can notice things. Yes, this thing does not have much life left. So make do with it what you can."
Ah, I could see why this lady was willing to lend her instrument to me. Nodding my head, I sat on a stool just behind me. Seeing me sit down, Eleanor also sat on her bed, her legs crossed. The men's trousers certainly made sitting that way quite convenient, and so did the red linen shirt, instead of a dress that would come in the way.
Putting my right foot on the footrest of the stool, I placed the guitar's body on my right thigh. I brushed my left hand across the fretboard, and the smooth, polished strings, and my right hand over the sound box, and the bridge. While the guitar was old, and scratched, it's finishing was still smooth and clean. A testament to great care by its owner.
I strummed the six strings once, from the top one, the thickest, to the bottom one, each getting progressively thinner and producing a shriller and higher pitched sound. The familiar notes of the standard tuning rang in my ears.
"Have you played something like this before? You almost seem familiar with it," her brows raised in enquiry.
I smiled wryly in response. "Yes, there was a similar instrument I played back home, it was thicker though, with same number of strings."
"I see."
Eleanor nodded, her raised brows settling. That was a white lie, li'l Lorenzo had never seen something like this in life. At least from the memories of his that came to my mind, there seemed no such instance.
Just so it looked real, I acted unfamiliar with the instrument, playing certain notes and frets on the strings, as if I was trying to accustom myself to what scale started where, and ended where-else on the fretboard.
After a few minutes random plucking, I turned to Eleanor. She was quietly watching me, her lips almost imperceptibly rising.
"There's a certain song that comes to my mind. It's not really popular, but I've heard it often at home."
Eleanor gruntled, nodding with a smile.
"Go on, I wanna listen."
Enthusiastic.
I couldn't stop my face from forming a grin. Her enthusiasm was infectious.
Taking and releasing a long breath, I put my fingers in the orientation of the familiar C chord, and plucked. Progressing through a cycle of B7, Em, G, C, B7 and Em, I went back to C, and this time, strummed.
[AN: Play "Just The Two Of Us" by Grover Washington Jr, feat. Bill Withers]
"I see the crystal raindrops fall, and the beauty of it all, is when the sun comes shining through.
"To make those rainbows in my mind, when I think of you sometime, I wanna spend some time with you.
"Just the two of us, we can make it if we try.
...
"We look for love, no time for tears, wasted waters all that is. And it don't make no flowers grow.
"Good things might come to those who wait, not to those who wait too late, we gotta go for all we know.
"Just the two of us, we can make it if we try.
...
"I hear the crystal raindrops fall, on the window down the hall, and it becomes the morning dew.
"And darling when the morning comes, and I see the morning sun, I wanna be the one with you.
"Just the two of us, we can make it if we try.
"Just the two of us, just the two of us.
"Just the two of us, building big castles way up high.
"Just the two of us, you and I."
...
When the resonating hums of the guitar ended, I put it beside me, leaning against the wall behind.
With an anticipatory glance, I looked at Eleanor, "So, what do you think? I hope it wasn't too bad?"
She didn't answer. Eleanor stood up from the bed, her face unreadable. Whatever reaction I expected, it wasn't this.
"Was I that bad?"
I couldn't help but wonder, and ask out loud.
"Mhm", she only shook her head, and walked towards me. Taking my hands, she pulled me up to stand, and turned us around.
"You said—'good things might come to those who wait, not to those who wait too late'. Is that right?"
I wasn't sure what to say. On one hand, this beautiful lady, a demoness, but still a beautiful lady was holding my hands and looking at me with a certain expression I had maybe half witnessed in my life only once, if ever at all.
So, I tried to give the most neutral answer I could.
"W-well, it's just a song... but it's mostly correct... right? You can't always wait for something, I mean?"
While I tried to give an objective answer, what came out was a string of words I wasn't too certain of.
"So, 'we gotta go for all we know', do we? Is that right?"
There was strange intensity to her words, and the way her eyes searched mine for a particular answer.
I has no idea what was going on. I tried to search in Lorenzo's memories if he had ever met this woman before, or any beautiful red-headed woman before. There was no recollection though.
"Answer me, mister Fontaine."
"How- how di-"
How did she!
"Answer, mister Lorenzo Fontaine!"
How did she know!? I've never seen her in my life before.
Eleanor tilted her head in almost annoyance... her breathing had turned heavy, as if she was trying to control something. Some way and somehow, it seemed like her control over her charm had slipped too, for suddenly she looked way more alluring than she had the whole time before.
Her face though, it was almost angry. I felt like she might snap at any moment.
"Y-yes. I'd say so. It's only common sense after all. If you want something and you've waited patiently for it, and worked for it, surely it would come to fruit someday? And if you have, and if it does, then surely you have to be ready to pounce when it does! You don't want to miss it after all? A circus you've been waiting to see the whole year, but if you keep waiting that one week too, won't you miss it? The job you were patiently hoping to get while making connections and finding sources, won't you miss it if you don't go for the interview and only keep looking, and waiting, and preparing..."
"Pounce, huh?"
Her face that was filled with annoyance just a moment ago now blossomed into a big smirk.
"Huh?"
"Pounce, you said. Pounce on the opportunity? Shall I?"
"Wha-" before I could even finish the word, my world turned around.
What happened next had happened so fast, that it did not register to me until it had happened.
The world rotated, and I felt strange winds blow. I felt an impact on my back, and another on my chest, knocking the air out of my lungs.
The same moment I felt my back the touch semi-soft mattress, I tasted velvet like soft and mulberry like sweet lips on mine own. I felt my body compress, between the most beautiful red-headed woman I'd ever laid eyes on, and the somewhat warm bed below me, which belonged to the said woman.
What is happening?