Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Alto

The sorcery notes that Lucien opened was filled with strange and unfamiliar letters and symbols, neither Chinese nor English, they were not among the languages that Lucien knew before he traveled . And that body he owned now after traveling, lived in the poor area . It was regular that a pauper could neither read nor write . Actually, the fact that he can listen, speak and make daily communications using the language of that world, was already the biggest luck among numerous difficulties Lucien had encountered .

Therefore, Lucien in his current state sadly became a real illiterate . He can only be staring at the sorcery notes, without any idea about any single words on it .

Lucien smiled with self-mockery, “Being illiterate……something really feels wrong . ”

Lucien had already experienced a lot on the first day he traveled; and although such experiences had made him more calm and mature——he even worried about the church’s threat before he opened the notes——his attitude is nonetheless stroked by great disappointment . As an “aspiring, moralized, civilized, and disciplined” college student from the modern era, it felt awful to be illiterate, especially when the literacy was directly related to transcendental powers .

Without any second thoughts, Lucien confirmed his goal: “The most important thing, for now, is to learn the language of that world!”

Even if he later decided to abandon magic, it was crucial to learn the language and acquire knowledge to break away from current social status and living condition as a pauper . Particularly when Lucien was lacking physical strength and combat skills, which prevented him from being a fighter, adventurer or soldier .

Established his objective, Lucien quickly left the disappointment behind, what filled his mind now was to strive for knowledge . He continued to flip through the sorcery notes and looked for other secrets——like treasure maps or stuff like that .

As he looks, Lucien frowned when he saw something familiar on the sorcery notes: many geometrical figures, lines, and the odd graphs they made .

Magic Circle, or magical sigils? Lucien made a hypothesis based on his experience with the “Holy Badge of Truth” . After a while, he also flipped several pages with rows of equations that were similar to the chemical formulas, although they consist of words and phrases instead of chemical symbols . Equations of Spells? Potion recipes?

Lucien made several guesses about those part but had no way to confirm it without know the words and sentences .

Finishes that particular sorcery note, Lucien moved on to the next one . On that one, the words were more distorted, almost like decorative signs .

Not the same kind of language? Having such thought, Lucien curiously opened the third sorcery note, which consisted of drawings of plants, minerals and odd creatures, like a “field guide” in terms of the classification of books . However, the language it used was the same as the one in the second book .

The language I’m using was probably the one the first sorcery note . Lucien drew an inference from its degree of universality .

He looked at the books back and forth for several more times . When he could get nothing more from doing that, Lucien lies on the bed and forced himself to fall asleep .

Lucien had such an intense desire to change his condition . Beginning from tomorrow, he wanted to work hard for better life every day . He wouldn’t be seizing opportunities and accomplishing his goal if he didn’t get enough sleep

Although Benjamin’s healing divine spell completely cured Lucien’s wounds, the physical and mental weariness, from a fierce fight, still helped Lucien to fall asleep in just several minutes .

In the sewerage, the witch’s backroom was completely destroyed .

However, at that time, a black rat suddenly appeared from nowhere, its eyes are blood-red, cold, and dreadful .

It ran around the ruin for one lap or two, squeaks, and moved toward the sewerage in another direction, after a long time, it found a hidden hole, sneaked into it and disappeared .

………………

In the early morning, sounds like people talking and water splashing gradually appeared in the Adrien District . The noises broke through the night’s solitude, giving Lucien a direct impression of life and vitality .

Lucien, who hates to get out of bed, forced himself to wake up immediately . He jumped out of bed, lit the stove, boils water, and bakes the last loaf of breadstick .

He started mapping today’s plan, in order to distract himself from the painful feeling of swallowing sawdusts .

If not, Lucien would never be able to eat the bread .

“First, go ask about where to learn read and write, and what I need for that; Also, go find some work to do, or I’ll probably hunger to death before I learn anything . ” Lucien could only plan based on what he knew about the world, “I don’t let many people know that unless I wanna give the show away . ”

Briefly washing his face with good water, Lucien took out the seven coins in the crate and carried them around . Not much, but I at least feel more secure .

Locked the door, Lucien walked directly toward Aunt Alyssa’s house, he had no clue about the routes in the that “City of Chant”, of course, he needed to ask somebody .

“Morning, Lucien!” A black hair young girl greeted Lucien, with strong curiosity .

Lucien obviously doesn’t know who that was, he made standard smile, and perfunctorily greeted back, “Hi! I’m on my way to Aunt Alyssa”, and acted like he was hurrying .

“Hello, Lucien! How does the ghost look like?”

“Lucien, what it feels to cast a divine spell?”

“I saw guards lost his hand, is it actually dangerous last night?”

It only takes tens of steps on his way to Aunt Alyssa’s home, but Lucien already encountered the question from several neighbors . Seems like he had became a celebrity in the Adrien District since last night .

Lucien knew nothing about any one of them, all he could do was to walk his way through to Aunt’s Alyssa’s house .

Close to the gate, Lucien finally heard a familiar voice, “You woke up early today didn’t you, Little Evans?”

Lucien took a long sigh in his mind, “Good Morning, Uncle Joel . ”

Joel was wearing nice clothes today, with a classically styled harp in his hands: “Little Evans, have you had your breakfast yet? You’re just recovered, there’s no need to rush for a job, Alyssa keeps asking you to have meals with us . ”

That’s exactly the excuse Lucien had prepared for Joel to ask about the city, he felt much better when Joel himself talks about that, “Thanks, Uncle Joel, I’ve already eaten . All my diseases went away yesterday under pastor Benjamin’s divine spells, I don’t need many rests now . ”

Joel nodded and tells Lucien to walk with him, “I’m glad that you received the pastor’s healing . You can move on and find Cohen, the owner of Copper Coronet Pub, he still owes me a good bottle of Rieussec, ask him for some well-paid works . ”

When Lucien was going to leave, Joel thought for a moment, and puts his often playful smile away, and earnestly talks to Lucien, “Little Evans, you are already seventeen now . That’s not a young age, which means that you need to think about your future lives . ”

“Uncle Joel, so you mean…”Lucien already knows what Joel is going to say, but he still asks .

Joel sighed, “If you are using your muscles to work, your body is going to be aging rapidly after the age of forty, and it won’t find you jobs anymore . Without savings and good children, poverty and disease will exploit you in several years . Your Uncle Joel had seen a lot of such guys, they seldom live past forty-five years old . Go learn some kind of handicrafts while you’re still young; although contract of apprenticeship is ten years, if you becomes good at it, such skill can still earn you a better life at smaller towns . ”

While talking, they walked down along the road and passed a guarded gate . All of the sudden things changed: broad roads, clean streets, lively shops on both sides, and people in beautiful clothes and skirts, occasionally they may even be nobles dressing luxuriant coats and wearing decorative jewelry . Indeed the air was filled with pieces of melodious music . It’s like another world in comparison to Adrien District .

“Thank you, Uncle Joel . ” Lucien could feel the earnest care from Joel .

Joel paused for a while, the playful smiles reappeared on his face, “Also, if the master who teaches you handicraft only has one daughter, probably you can go directly from an apprentice to the owner, our little Evans doesn’t look bad at all!”

Lucien could only smile embarrassedly with Joel’s entertain .

While they were talking, Joel stopped and walked toward the corner of the street . He put a hat on the ground, and sat next to it, preparing to play the harp .

Is uncle Joel a street artist? Lucien was pretty familiar with such way of expressing art .

Joel pointed at majestic and luxuriant, Baroque-styled(the one before Lucien travels) building on the far side, and smiled, “I can directly see the Hall of Chant from that position . To me, I have the feeling of performing in the Hall of Chant when I’m performing here . ”

Joel looked touched, without giving Lucien the time to respond, he moved on, pointing at the Hall of Chant, “Four hundred years ago, the church guided the Holy Hièrz Empire to the west and conquered Alto, which was still the capital of Ancient Magic Empire Xìerfānas at that time . They expelled the dark creatures and sorcerous beasts to the depths of Mount Obscurité . Since then Alto had become one of the most prestigious cities of this continent . ”

“Three hundred years ago, under Pope Charle-I, who was still Cardinal Charle at this time; people of Alto gathered the church’s hymns and songbooks of all past generations and established the criterions for future music and chants . When he ascend as the Pope, and officially generalized Charle’s chant and its choir to every other church, Alto obtains its name of ‘The City of Chant’ . ”

“Because its geographical location is next to Mount Obscurité, there’s often elves, dwarves, and kobolds altering their beliefs and join the Duchy . The confluence of diverse music had made Alto the continent’s music capital . The emergence of Polyphony, perfection of Symphony, as well as the invention of instruments like Ghiseu violin, are all over there . Great musicians left their names on the wall called history .

“For every single bard, every single artist and every single musician, it’s the greatest honor for them to perform in the Hall of Chant . ”

“Although your Uncle Joel cannot enter the Hall of Chant, I’m already happy with performing next to it . ”

………………

Saying goodbye to Joel, Lucien experienced the style of this city while asking for directions . Many bards were singing or performing at street side and corners, through open windows snatches of songs and music floated for every now and then, the entire city was shrouded by melodies .

Returning to Adrien district through the inner city gate, Lucien immediately saw the pub with a bronze crown .

Outside of the pub, there’s often young girls and ladies, who furtively peek into the pub, and leave with disappointment .