Classes at the academy were over.
My footsteps felt light today, as I planned to explore various parts of the royal capital.
“Heirat!”
“Euiya!!”
As I passed the training ground within the campus, I could see students immersed in their practice.
Every one of them was sweating profusely, wearing training robes engraved with the kingdom’s emblem.
Among them, I even saw some whose swords emitted a blue light.
“So that’s Aura…”
The swords of those emitting Aura were engraved with seals representing knightly families.
With their expressions so dead serious, I stood at a distance to watch, worried I might disturb them, when a familiar face caught my eye.
“Young Master Zalz is training too.”
Young Master Zalz, whom I had seen in the lecture hall, was also working up a heavy sweat.
He wore a serious expression that I hadn’t seen during class.
Anyone watching might mistake his family for a line of Royal Guards rather than a family of chancellors.
However, despite such effort, the possibility of him becoming a Sword Master was likely slim.
In the Kingdom of Delos, the only person certified as a Sword Master by the Empire was King Lonas.
Since kingdoms usually had an average of five Sword Masters, it wouldn’t be strange to call the Kingdom of Delos a wasteland for Sword Masters.
It was quite an ironic situation.
More than half the personnel of the academy were occupying the training grounds, yet it was a wasteland for Sword Masters.
Dien clicked his tongue at the paradoxical situation.
“I’m going to spend this life enjoying myself.”
What was the point of straining oneself like that?
Since I was provided with the environment of a noble, I didn’t have to worry about making a living.
Therefore, I could enjoy life while doing everything I wanted to do.
Also, I had absolutely no intention of making something like a bucket list.
As I walked along lost in various thoughts, I saw Nue waiting for me in front of the main gate.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“No! About an hour?”
“You’ve been here a long time! I’m telling you again, I really can go around by myself.”
“What are you talking about, Master Dien! This is my job as your personal attendant.”
Was Nue right?
Looking around, I saw servants camped out in front of the main gate.
They were waiting for their masters along with the coachmen.
“It’s a luxury that doesn’t suit me.”
Sure enough, Nue gestured toward the distance, and a carriage engraved with the seal of the Portran family approached us.
“Please get in, Master Dien,” Nue said as she climbed into the carriage.
“Nue. Let’s just walk. I want to walk.”
“Master Dien! That goes against the dignity of a noble. Please get in quickly.”
“Just what exactly is the standard for that dignity?”
Despite Nue’s urging, Dien did not board the carriage. In the end, it was Nue who got out of the carriage.
“The carriage is fine, so send it back.”
“Yes.”
Was there really a need to move by carriage for a distance that only took ten minutes?
Dien wanted to walk leisurely to explore the rest of the royal capital.
“I’m going to the central plaza today. Nue, you can go back first.”
“The central plaza? I’m coming with you, Master Dien!”
Nue followed closely behind him, as if she didn’t dislike the idea of a stroll with him.
***
The central plaza of the royal capital was a place where a large statue of a former king stood, and a massive market was established nearby.
Because of this, it had the highest floating population within the capital, and since branches of every merchant guild were gathered there, it was also the place where the most wealth flowed in the kingdom.
“Master Dien! Look at this!”
Dien was the one who suggested coming to the central plaza, but Nue was the one who was more excited.
As soon as they entered the market, her feet began to move with high spirits.
Dien was simply being pulled here and there as Nue led him.
They stopped in front of stalls displaying local specialties from various regions, and also lingered at shops displaying artifacts and shops selling weapons.
As they reached the heart of the central plaza, other attractions appeared.
“Master Dien, shall we go over there?”
He shifted his gaze to where Nue was pointing.
There, he saw a troubadour reciting poetry and a street musician playing an instrument.
“Master Dien. Isn’t it so beautiful?”
A musician holding an instrument similar to a violin was producing a beautiful melody.
“Hmm… I guess so.”
However, Dien was indifferent.
It was because the music was far inferior to the music he used to listen to in his past life.
His interest faded and he was about to turn away when Nue grabbed him.
“Master Dien! Isn’t your sense of art too dull? Violin performances aren’t something you can hear often! Violins are difficult to handle, so there aren’t many musicians. Let’s listen a little longer. Please~”
“Alright.”
To Dien, the performance felt like nothing more than noise.
Since his only hobbies in his previous life were listening to music and playing the guitar, Nue’s comment about him having a dull sense of art was quite annoying.
“I was among the top three even within the club.”
Dien had been quite active in a guitar club before his work got busy. But what could he do?
Since this was a place without guitars, he couldn’t show off his playing skills, so he had no choice but to let Nue’s words slide.
“Wow! Master Dien! Let’s go there!”
Nue grabbed the hem of Dien’s clothes again and stomped her feet.
“Pick one, pick one! Pick anything~ If you get it right, it’s triple!”
Where she led him was near a shell game operator who was soliciting customers while spinning cups.
“Master Dien! Shall we try that?”
“A shell game?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm.”
Thinking his silence was an affirmation, she grabbed his hand and approached right in front of the operator.
“Welcome, welcome! It’s triple if you get it right.”
As soon as Nue and I approached, the operator raised his voice even louder, as if he were delighted.
“Hmm.”
Nue silently stared at the cups in front of the operator.
The operator was quickly spinning two cups.
He even gave hints by lifting a cup in the middle to show which one the ball was in.
“Congratulations! You bet 4 Bronze Coins, so I’ll pay you 12 Bronze Coins right away!”
Just then, the person in front of them guessed the cup containing the ball and won a large sum of money.
“Wow!”
Nue saw the person in front of her win triple the money they had put down.
Her eyes flipped.
“Master! I want to do this too!”
“It would be better if you didn’t…”
“Why! I can get it right! Just watch!”
It seemed useless to try to stop her now.
After rummaging through her pockets for a while, Nue held 10 Bronze Coins in her hand.
“I’ll do it too!”
“Welcome!! Customer!! It’s triple if you get it right~!!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the operator’s hands became busy.
The speed was manageable even if one blinked, but she glared at the cups until the capillaries in her eyes showed, terrified she might miss the cup with the ball.
“Now! Please choose, everyone~!”
“The right!! It’s the right one!”
She shouted in a voice full of confidence.
“Just looking at it with your eyes, it’s the right one.”
Even a passing dog could see that the right was correct.
As expected, Nue confidently placed her 10 Bronze Coins in front of the right cup.
However,
“The cup with the ball was the left one!”
When the operator lifted the right cup to confirm it was empty, Nue let out a scream.
“No way!! Master Dien, it was clearly on the right!”
“It was.”
Nue made a miserable face and clutched her head as if she couldn’t believe it.
And Dien patted her on the back as if her appearance was cute.
“The tricks they use are all the same.”
He knew their shallow tricks all too well.
They were things that had already been exposed in his previous life.
Looking at Nue, who had become stationary, he said,
“Nue. Let’s go now.”
“Master… I still have 2 Bronze Coins left…”
“Even if you do it again, you won’t be able to win the money.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Because the ball isn’t in either of the two cups.”
“What do you mean, Master Dien! Why is there no ball! I clearly saw him put the ball inside the cup before starting! And he showed the ball by lifting the cup in the middle.”
Nue raised her voice.
It seemed she was very frustrated about losing her money.
“The ball disappeared from the cup at the very last moment.”
“At the last moment? Please explain it in a way that’s easy to understand…”
Dien’s lips curled up into a smirk.
“Do you want to know?”
“Of course.”
“If you’re curious, that’ll be 10 Nim~”
“Master Dien!”
“Haha, alright. Nue.”
When Dien gestured to Nue, she leaned her ear in.
“Listen carefully, Nue. While spinning the cups, the operator moves the ball into his own hand at the last second. The balls they use have good elasticity, so if you drag the cup hard against the floor, the ball contracts and easily pops out. At that moment, he’s secretly holding the ball in his hand.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. At the same time he shows you the empty cup, he moves the ball in his hand into the opposite cup.”
“Is that true? Then was I scammed?”
“To put it badly, you were scammed, and to put it nicely, you gained some life experience. The person who won money earlier is probably an accomplice of the operator. They’re bait set up to deceive you.”
“These people!”
At my words, Nue’s face turned red.
It looked like she was about to confront the scammers right away, but Dien grabbed her firmly.
“Master! Let go! Those scammer bastards!”
“Calm down, Nue.”
“But still!”
“If you make a scene without evidence, you’ll only look like a fool.”
The angry face soon turned miserable, and Nue clutched her face and sank to the ground.
“That was money I was going to send home for the Harvest Festival. What do I do…”
Dien watched Nue for a long time as she wiped away tears of distress, and then sighed as if he had made a decision.
No matter what, she was his servant. If not stopping her properly from the beginning was a mistake, then it was a mistake, so he should help her.
“Nue. Shall I get that money back for you?”
“You, Master? Are you going to call the guards?”
Dien wore a smile at Nue’s words.
“No. What’s the point of calling them when there’s no evidence.”
“Then how…”
Dien smiled as if amused by her bloodshot eyes.
“I have to win it back through the shell game.”
“Through the shell game? What are you talking about, Master Dien! You’re the one who told me the shell game is a scam. So how are you going to win money!”
“Nue. If you know the method of the scam, you can use that method.”
“What?”
Nue, who had stopped crying, narrowed her eyebrows and tilted her head.
“Do you have any money left? Let’s increase the funds first.”
“2 Bronze Coins…”
“That’s enough. Follow me.”
Dien took Nue’s coins and strode toward a general store in the market.
For the first time since coming to the central plaza, Nue followed behind Dien.
***
“Sir, may I borrow your instrument for a moment?”
Dien used one of Nue’s Bronze Coins to buy a faded helmet.
And then, holding the remaining Bronze Coin, he walked toward the heart of the central plaza.
It was a place where street musicians and acrobats provided entertainment with their respective skills.
“Hey, kid. Do you know how much this is worth before you say that??”
“I apologize if I have been disrespectful. I will pay a rental fee.”
One does not touch a musician’s personal equipment carelessly.
Therefore, Dien showed the remaining Bronze Coin to the street musician.
“Ahem… what is a shrimp like you going to do with it?”
The street musician took the bronze coin Dien offered.
It was a way of saying he would lend the equipment.
Coincidentally, his audience had been drawn away by an acrobat, so it was a profitable situation to lend the instrument and earn a bronze coin until the acrobat’s performance ended.
“Handle it gently…”
The street musician handed the instrument to Dien.
“Sir, what is the name of this instrument?”
“You asked to borrow it without even knowing its name? Ha ha ha ha, this instrument is called a violin.”
“A violin, I see…”
The name of the instrument was the same as what Nue had said.
“The size is similar to a violin… or is it a bit bigger?”
The size of the four strings and the body were similar, but the neck was longer.
*Ting~*
Dien plucked a string of the violin with his finger.
The sound was duller than a violin.
It meant the pitch was lower.
That made it a relief.
*Ting~ Ting~ Ting~ Ting~*
He plucked each string once and let out a sigh of relief.
From the bottom, the strings were tuned to E, A, D, G. It was tuned in perfect fifths.
It meant the basic scale was exactly the same as a violin.
“Grandpa. May I try playing the violin?”
“Were you a performer too? Do as you please. Just don’t break it.”
The musician held out the violin bow to Dien, but Dien shook his head and answered.
“I don’t need the bow.”
“What? Hahaha! Sure, sure.”
The musician clutched his stomach and laughed heartily as if it were funny.
It was because he thought Dien’s actions were just a child’s prank.
Slowly taking a position in the plaza, Dien placed the old helmet he had bought for one Bronze Coin down in front of him.
Now, this helmet would become his coin bowl.
And the coins in the coin bowl would become his betting money for the shell game.
“Shall I try earning just 10 Nim?”
He recalled the memory of playing a violin like a guitar just for fun.
A guitar played with four strings.
He knew very well that the sound was quite listenable.
At least more so than the melodies produced by the street musicians.
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