Luke wanted an instrument that was easy to carry, so Emma took out the lightest instrument from those available in the music room.
“It seems like something easy to carry would be a harmonica or an ocarina,” she said.
On Luke’s hand lay a small square instrument resembling a silhouette of a duck. It was quite small and cute, fitting perfectly in one hand.
Luke had seen a similarly shaped instrument before. It was quite simple and easy to carry, so he had often seen spirit mages carrying them in the past. However, he had never seen the instrument called a harmonica before.
“How do you play this?” he asked.
“Oh, it’s simple. Would you like to try blowing into it?” Emma replied.
“Like this?”
“Yeah, now blow hard.”
As he took a deep breath and blew, the air vibrated, producing sound that came out of the instrument.
Py mimicked the sound, “Whoosh.”
Luke understood roughly how to control the pitch and let out a series of notes, starting from low to high.
“How is it? Does it sound okay?”
-…
Py shook his head and followed the notes.
Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Si… but Py was producing notes beyond those the harmonica could generate.
Perhaps the range was insufficient.
After all, theoretically, this small instrument might lack the range needed to communicate with spirits that could produce every sound for conversation.
“Is there anything with a bit more range than this?”
At Luke’s request, Emma pondered for a moment before taking out another instrument.
“How about this?”
“What is it?”
“It’s a flute. It has quite a wide range for a wind instrument.”
“Oh, I see.”
Luke accepted it and examined it, then looked at Emma.
Magic sight wouldn’t be much help in this matter.
Receiving Luke’s gaze, Emma smiled slightly and took out her own flute.
“I’ll show you. Hold the instrument like this and blow like this.”
The flute produced a sound easily.
Luke watched intently and then stretched his mouth as instructed, blowing into it.
“Phew!”
Screech—
“…”
After several failed attempts, he finally managed to produce a sound, albeit a squawk.
He tried to make a nicer sound, but it wasn’t as easy as he had hoped.
Playing an instrument he had never touched before with a method he had never heard of was, frankly, not simple.
However, after practicing a few more times, he soon managed to produce sound correctly.
Luke felt a slight sense of accomplishment, and Py made a light congratulatory sound for Luke being able to make noise.
“How about it? Do you want to stick with that?”
“Hmm.”
Luke glanced at Py.
But Py shook his head as if suggesting they look for something else.
Or perhaps he just didn’t like wind instruments very much.
After all, most of the instruments had yet to be thoroughly examined, so he decided to keep looking.
“Oh, come to think of it,”
Py had shown considerable interest in the guitar from the beginning.
The first instrument he had played using mana barriers had been the guitar.
Moreover, Luke was somewhat familiar with its appearance.
There had been similar-looking instruments in the past.
After carefully handing the flute back to Emma, Luke approached the guitar.
“Oh my, are you interested in the guitar too?”
Emma was a bit excited to see Luke showing interest in various instruments.
Seeing how he played the piano like that, it was clear that he had musical talent.
As a teacher, it was only natural for Emma to be happy to help a talented child discover their abilities.
So as soon as Luke touched the guitar, she immediately handed it to him and showed him the proper posture.
Finding himself in this position without much preparation, Luke was taken aback, but Py laughed happily.
With no other choice, Luke strummed the guitar strings.
Ting, ting.
-…!
This time Py seemed to enjoy it, following the notes while giggling.
It appeared that Py had a preference for string instruments that produced sound by plucking strings.
Luke continued to strum while watching Py dance in rhythm, shaking, spinning, and flipping around.
It seemed undeniably fun…
But since he was just randomly strumming, he wasn’t making very good sounds.
Seeing this, Emma adjusted his fingers to help him grasp basic chords, and that created a reasonably pleasant harmony.
“Oh my, your finger strength is quite good, isn’t it?”
Usually, young children lack the finger strength to produce proper sounds, but Luke seemed to have surprisingly good finger strength for a girl.
Perhaps it was because he was a hybrid.
Maybe he was even talented with the guitar?
Impressed by Luke’s earlier piano performance, Emma enthusiastically guided him, considering even the slightest improvement as evidence of genius.
Thanks to her passion and Luke’s strong memory, he learned several chords and notes quickly and could play a very simple accompaniment.
Objectively speaking, his acquisition was certainly rapid, leading to further misconceptions of him being a prodigy.
“What do you think of the guitar? Do you think you could play it?”
“Hmm, for now, it’s the one that attracts me the most. I really think I like string instruments.”
It wasn’t clear if the sound produced by plucking strings was more pleasant for spirits, or if it was just Py who had that tendency.
“Maybe spirits prioritize harmonies.”
Wind instruments produce sound by blowing, so they can only generate single notes.
On the other hand, string instruments can resonate multiple strings simultaneously, so perhaps it feels different to spirits.
“For now, I think I’ll learn the guitar to a decent level and then move on to other instruments…”
Well, he never thought about mastering just one instrument from the start.
Once he could play it decently, he had intended to try handling another instrument.
Considering his goal was to become a mage and not a musician, that was the plan.
As Luke’s focus shifted toward the guitar, he cast his gaze to where Py was staring at intently.
“That one is huge.”
It resembled the instrument he couldn’t play back then because of its horns, but its size was vastly different.
To play it like that musician from back then, wouldn’t one need to be at least a giant over 4 meters tall?
“Hmm? Why is that?”
Emma, curious about what instrument had caught Luke’s attention, followed his gaze.
Upon discovering the instrument, she exclaimed, “Are you interested in that? That’s called a cello.”
“Cello? Hmm, how on earth do you play that?”
“I’ll show you. Can you put down the guitar and sit here?”
Luke obediently followed her instructions, placing the guitar down and approaching Emma.
Emma took out the cello and positioned it in front of Luke, instructing him on where to support it and where to hold it.
Adjusting his posture wasn’t particularly difficult.
Having honed his physical abilities through high-level swordplay and complex noble etiquette training in the past, Luke had some talent in handling his body.
Seeing how quickly he picked it up, Emma clapped her hands.
“You learn quickly, don’t you? You really have a talent for music.”
Indeed, Luke had never allowed the same comment more than twice.
That’s why Emma couldn’t help but think he was truly a genius.
“Well, if I learned quickly, it’s because you taught me well. Thank you.”
In reality, Emma’s teaching was excellent.
As a passionate music teacher, she provided explanations that included even the information he hadn’t specifically asked about, which likely resulted in him achieving a more accurate posture.
However, he thought, “But this is quite a unique playing method I’ve seen before.”
Producing sound by frictioning the strings with a bow was quite an original concept to him.
In the past, he had seen spirit mages from other continents handling such instruments, but back then, they were quite simple in design and didn’t have as many strings as this one.
So their range couldn’t have been very wide either.
“But this instrument is said to have the broadest range among string instruments,” he recalled.
Except for the piano and harp, it was noted as having the widest range.
Luke glanced over at the piano and harp.
“Indeed, it would be completely impossible to carry something like that around…”
While the cello could be moved, it was still a huge instrument that far exceeded his earlier expectations.
Even if someone invented a cello in the past, it would have been impossible for wandering bards like spirit mages to carry it and play.
-Luke!…!
Py was eagerly waiting for Luke to rub the strings, his eyes shining with anticipation.
Feeling Py’s gaze directed towards him made Luke’s heart race nervously.
“Phew…”
Taking a deep breath, Luke moved his hands.
What he produced was…
– screech!
“Ugh.”
It was a horrible noise.
———
Luke had just borrowed the instrument and was waiting for the bus to go home, sighing.
The reason he sighed was that…
– screech!
“Oh no, again…”
Py seemed to enjoy the sound that was terrible to Luke, intermittently letting out cries of delight.
What could that possibly mean? Was it really that fun?
No, more importantly.
“I was clearly thinking of learning a light and easy-to-handle instrument from the start…”
Luke closed his eyes, feeling troubled.
The gazes from those around him were too distracting.
It almost sounded like whispering.
Of course, a ten-year-old girl carrying an instrument case the size of her body was too good a subject to divert the attention of passersby.
“This is too noticeable and seems like it’ll be hard to learn…”
Yet Py, seemingly unaffected by Luke’s mood, shouted out another screech, further deepening the worry written on Luke’s face.
Was it really alright?
