Choosing an Instrument
Because Luke wanted an instrument that would be easy to carry around, Emma pulled out the lightest ones currently in the music room.
"The easiest to carry would have to be something like a harmonica or an ocarina."
A small rectangle and an instrument shaped like a duck's silhouette settled into Luke's hands. They fit snugly in one palm—tiny and rather adorable.
Luke had seen instruments of a form similar to the ocarina before. Its shape was simple and convenient to carry, so he had occasionally spotted spirit mages toting them about in the past as well.
But the instrument called a harmonica was a shape he had never seen.
"How do you play this one?"
"Ah, it's simple. Put your mouth there and try blowing once?"
"Like this?"
"Yeah. Now blow hard."
Whoosh—he pushed breath into it, and the air vibrated into sound as it escaped the instrument.
Pai went whoong and mimicked the tone.
Luke roughly grasped how the notes were controlled, and from low to high he ran a huru-ruruung of sound through the instrument.
"How about it? Think it's alright?"
—…….
Pai shook her head as she echoed the notes.
Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti……. But Pai produced tones above and below everything the harmonica could make.
Was this a matter of insufficient range?
Well—when conversing with a spirit who could theoretically generate every note for speech, the range of this little instrument might well fall short.
"Is there something with a slightly wider range than this?"
At Luke's request, Emma thought carefully, then drew out another instrument.
"If that's what you want…… how about this?"
"What is this?"
"It's a flute. For a wind instrument, it has a pretty wide range."
"Oh-ho. I see."
Luke took it, turned it this way and that, then looked at Emma.
Mana Sight was of little use in a situation like this.
Meeting his gaze, Emma smiled faintly and took out her own flute.
"I'll show you. Hold it like this, shape your mouth like this, and go phuu……."
The flute produced sound with ease.
Luke watched carefully, then stretched his mouth the same way and shot out a phuu of air.
Squeeeak—!
"……."
After several failures, he did manage to produce a sound.
It was a squeak, but still.
He tried for a better tone, yet it refused to come as easily as he wished. Playing an instrument he had never touched, with a technique he was hearing for the first time—honestly, how could it be easy?
But after a few more attempts, he was soon able to produce proper sound. A slight sense of accomplishment rose in him, and Pai offered a light congratulatory chirp for Luke, who could now make noise.
"How is it? Want to go with that?"
"Hmm."
Luke glanced at Pai.
But Pai shook her head as if to say they should look a little further. Or perhaps mouth-blown instruments simply weren't to her taste.
Well—they still hadn't even picked up most of the instruments. He decided to look a bit more.
Ah. Come to think of it.
From the very start, Pai had shown quite an interest in the guitar. The first instrument he had played using a mana barrier had been a guitar, after all. And Luke was fairly familiar with its appearance as well—similar-looking instruments had existed in the past, too.
After carefully handing the flute back to Emma, Luke approached the guitar.
"Oh my, are you interested in the guitar too?"
Emma was a little excited by a Luke who was showing interest across so many instruments. Given how he had played the piano earlier, it seemed clear he had musical talent as well. As a teacher, Emma naturally found joy in helping a gifted child discover that talent.
So the moment Luke laid a hand on the guitar, she immediately put it into his arms and taught him the posture. Luke found himself holding the pose before he quite knew what was happening, a bit dazed—but Pai giggled with pure delight.
With no choice left, Luke plucked the strings.
Twing. Ting.
—……!
This time Pai seemed to like it. She mimicked the notes and snickered. Apparently her preference lay with string instruments that made sound with strings.
Watching Pai thrash, spin, and flip about as if dancing to the tones, Luke kept plucking. Doing so, it did seem rather fun…….
But he was only scraping the strings haphazardly, so the sound wasn't particularly good. Seeing that, Emma adjusted his fingers so he could form basic chords, and a reasonably decent harmony came together.
Oh my—quite good finger strength?
Young children usually lacked grip strength, so proper sound often failed to come out—but Luke seemed to have rather solid grip strength for a little girl. Maybe because she was a beastkin. Perhaps there was talent for the guitar as well?
Having been deeply impressed by the piano performance earlier, Emma passionately instructed him, thinking even at the slightest show of skill that this child might be a prodigy. Thanks to her passion and Luke's own memory, he quickly learned several chords and notes, and became able to play a very simple accompaniment.
Objectively speaking, that was certainly a fast acquisition—fast enough to deepen the misunderstanding that he was a prodigy even further.
"What do you think of the guitar? Think you'd like to play it?"
"Hmm. At present it's the one I'm most drawn to. String instruments really do look appealing."
Whether the sound of plucked strings was a bit more pleasant to spirits than the sound of vibrating tubes, or whether only Pai showed that tendency, he couldn't say for sure.
Maybe spirits place importance on harmony.
Wind instruments produced sound by blowing with the mouth, so they could only make single notes. String instruments, on the other hand, could sound multiple strings at once—so perhaps they came across differently to a spirit.
For now, maybe I'll learn the guitar a bit, then move on to other instruments…….
Well, he hadn't actually planned from the start to pick one and master it. His thought had been to get decent enough at playing, then try other instruments—he had little interest in seeing the end of a single one. Because what Luke aimed to be was a mage, not a musician.
Just as his heart was leaning toward the guitar, Luke shifted his gaze to where Pai was staring blankly.
That one's big.
Its appearance resembled that instrument he had been unable to play because of his horns, but the size was completely different. To rest that on a shoulder and play it the way that performer once had, wouldn't you need to be a giant at least four meters tall?
"Hm? What's wrong?"
Curious what instrument had suddenly stolen Luke's gaze, Emma followed the child's line of sight. And upon finding it, she went "aha" and said:
"Interested in that one too? That's called a cello."
"Cello? Hmm. How on earth do you play that?"
"I'll show you. Put the guitar down and come sit over here?"
Luke obediently followed instructions, set down the guitar, and went to Emma's side. She took out the cello, stood it in front of him, and gave directions—support it here, hold it here, and so on.
Getting the posture right wasn't particularly difficult. In the past Luke had learned high-level swordsmanship and finicky aristocratic etiquette; he had a certain talent for handling a body as well.
Emma clapped at how quickly he took on a proper form.
"You learn so fast! You really do have talent for music."
And no wonder—so far Luke had never allowed the same correction more than twice. As a result, Emma could only think that he might truly be a genius.
"Well, if I learned quickly, it must be because the teaching was good. Thank you."
In truth, Emma's teaching was good as well. The passionate music teacher had poured out even unasked-for information so Luke could achieve a more perfect posture. Thanks to that, a more precise form had been possible.
But as I saw before, it's quite an unusual playing method.
Producing sound by rubbing the strings with a bow—he had thought it a rather original idea. In the past he had seen a spirit mage from another continent handle such an instrument, but back then the shape had been fairly simple and there hadn't been as many strings as this. So the range wouldn't have been that wide either.
But this instrument is said to have the widest range, isn't it.
Excluding the piano and the harp, it was described as having the widest range. Luke glanced at the piano and the harp.
Certainly, carrying those around would be completely impossible, but…….
The cello, too, was merely "carryable"—it was a massive instrument far beyond the size he had originally expected. Even if someone had invented the cello in the past, spirit-mage bards wouldn't have been able to carry something like this around and play it.
—Luke!……!
Pai's eyes sparkled with tremendous intensity as she waited only for Luke to draw the bow across the strings. Paying attention to that gaze, Luke felt his chest flutter for no reason.
"Hoo……."
He took a deep breath and moved his hand.
And what Luke produced was…….
—Screeeeech—!!!
"Ugh."
A hideous noise.
Having rented an instrument, Luke was waiting for the bus home, sighing.
Why was he sighing, you ask…….
—Screeeeech—!!!
"Oh dear. Again……."
Because Pai, who seemed to like that sound that was a hideous noise to Luke, kept intermittently crying it out.
What on earth did that mean? Was it that funny?
No—more than that.
"I was clearly planning to learn a light, easy-to-handle instrument at first, and yet……."
Luke closed his eyes as if troubled. The gazes he felt from around him were far too bothersome. He almost thought he could hear whispering.
And no wonder—a ten-year-old girl with an instrument case the size of her own body strapped to her back was far too good a subject for drawing every passerby's eye.
This is too conspicuous, and it seems like it'll be hard to learn, too…….
Pai paid no mind to Luke's feelings, crying out screeech—!! once more, and the worry in his expression only deepened.
Was this really okay?