Chapter 5: The Bards
“…Nice to meet you, Rosie. My name is Amadeus Rosso. Please take care of me.”
When I smiled brightly, Rosie looked surprised.
It was hard to tell because of the slightly shabby appearance, but there was no doubt he was handsome.
The shape of his widened eyes was especially nice.
And despite looking like a homeless person, there was no foul odor coming from him.
Maybe the dirt that wouldnāt come off was just leftover grime, and he still washed his clothes from time to time.
Maybe he just didnāt have anything to comb his hair with, but he still washed it.
As for his beardā¦ maybe he just ran out of shaving tools?
Maybeā¦ he had done his best to clean himself up before coming hereā¦
Thinking that, I steeled myself, deciding that even if I felt he looked a bit unclean, I would absolutely not show it on my face, and turned to face him properly.
“Then, I would like you to start teaching me right away. Is that alright?”
“…Is it really okayā¦ for me to do this?”
“…Werenāt you invited here by my household?”
Maybe he wasnāt hired yet and thought this was still an interviewā¦?
“Thatās true, butā¦ I thought Iād be turned away anyway. No oneās ever properly hired me beforeā¦”
Rosie muttered softly, his voice tinged with exhaustion.
“Is that because of your appearance?”
“Of course it isā¦ it is. This is the only kind of clothing I haveā¦ and Iām an outsiderā¦”
“I have no problem with it, so I would very much like you to become my music teacher. Iāve heard that you are a skilled bard. Iā¦ I want to be able to play an instrument as soon as possible! Ahā¦ but if it turns out youāre not actually skilledā¦ then I might have to dismiss youā¦”
Rosie stared blankly in disbelief for about ten seconds, but when I waved my hand and said, “Are you alright?” he snapped back to his senses, his brows drooping.
His eyes were slightly teary.
I thinkā¦ he was happy to be hired.
Then he took a breath, straightened his brows, and said firmly,
“Iām confident in my skillsā¦ I am. Then, do you know how to read sheet music?”
The typical instrument used for debut ceremonies is a small string instrument called a āLute.ā
The thin textbook only contained a simple explanation of how to play and sheet music for a few songs.
There was no way I could learn just from that.
“I do! I have my older brotherās old textbook. I just need to learn how to play.”
“Then, Iāll demonstrate a simple beginner pieceā¦”
“āAā¦ Amadeus-sama, are youā¦ a genius?”
“Eh~? If I were, that would make me happy though.”
When I grinned foolishly, Rosie looked at me with a mixture of confusion and joy.
In my previous life, I had dabbled a little in mandolin and violin, and I had done a lot of mental practice, so I seemed to pick things up quickly.
Plus, my brain was that of an adult.
Even in other subjects, I was often praised for learning quickly.
Of course I wouldāitās because I know how to learn.
The lute was capable of producing a wider range of sounds than I had expected.
I wanted to master it as soon as possibleāI had toāno, I absolutely would!!!!!
With that determination, my motivation was more than enough.
Since acquiring performance skills was urgent, we had scheduled three hours for the first lesson.
In those three hours, I managed to roughly play two simple songs.
Rosie and even the servants standing nearby were astonished, so it didnāt seem like mere flattery.
“Itās because your teaching was good. Please come again next week.”
“Y-Yes! Iāll bring the sheet music I have. I think we can raise the difficulty further.”
Rosie was blunt and spoke in a low mumble, and I wouldnāt say he was particularly good at teaching.
From my perspective, having learned from various teachers in Japan, he wasnāt as skilled as the better teachers there.
And since the other tutors werenāt particularly great either, this might just be average for this world.
But Rosie had passion.
I could tell.
He was good at both singing and playing instruments, and when he sang, his voice carried properly.
It was the kind of skill that made you feel he had seriously dedicated himself to music.
I wanted someone like that to become my music companion.
So even after the time came when I no longer needed to learn from Rosie, I began to think about whether there was a way to keep him employed in my household.
With the salary he received from us, Rosie gradually became more presentable.
His light brown hair with soft waves was neatly combed and parted 6:4, and his beard was cleanly shaved.
There were still slight dark circles under his eyes, but light had returned to his gray eyes.
When we first met, he had seemed dull and lifeless.
Now, he had the air of a somewhat melancholic but handsome young man.
So it really was just that he lacked the means to take care of his appearanceā¦
When I told him, “Now that youāre cleaned up, youāre quite handsome!” he thanked me with a shy expression.
“Playing on the streets was barely enough to survive, and my master fell ill, so we needed medicineā¦ I couldnāt find anyone willing to hire an outsider, and I thought weād just end up dying on the streets. Iām truly grateful, Amadeus-samaā¦ I can never repay this debtā¦”
There was an area lined with buildings like ruinsāthe slums.
Apparently, no one complained no matter who occupied the abandoned houses there, and all kinds of people with circumstances wandered about.
Rosie had been staying there with Badol, his master as a bard, with whom he had traveled for a long time.
Both of them were used to traveling and physically sturdy, but Badol, due to his age, had suffered from a lingering cold he caught in winter.
Even if you have medicinal herbs, without nutritious food, itās hard to recover.
Even though we were lower-ranking nobles, our wages were quite high from a commonerās perspective, so they were able to get nourishing food, and his condition improved significantly.
A coldā¦ really isnāt something to underestimate.
Once he recovered and could take care of his appearance again, Rosie brought him to meet me.
Badol looked to be around 70 or 80 years old, a bald old man.
So people in this world go bald too, huhā¦ well, even bald, some people are still handsomeā¦
That was the kind of silly thought I had.
His back was slightly bent, his body thin and wrinkled, but he had a gentle smile that made him seem kind.
At that age, I couldnāt really tell whether someone was handsome or not, but his skin was fair and clean, and he carried a certain elegance.
“Thank you very much for employing my disciple. I will never forget this kindness for as long as I live.”
Badol bowed slowly, then raised his head and spoke in a clear, strong voice with fluent polite speech.
Such a good voice!!!!
Unlike Rosie, commoners who had never served nobles were not used to speaking politely.
I wondered if Badol had served somewhere in the past.
Rather than my doing, it was surely thanks to Rosieās own effortsāworking diligently and taking care of himāthat things had improved.
But still, if my desire to meet a bard had helped the two of them move in a better direction, then I felt good about it too.
Later, I learned that it was not uncommon for bards to die on the streets.
There must be various circumstances that lead people to become homeless, and I couldnāt possibly save all of them.
If I appealed to those in power, could a system be established?
That was something worth considering, but for nowā¦
It felt like a waste for skilled singers to disappear unnoticed.
I began to vaguely think about whether there was a way to find struggling singers and employ them.
I was thinking about many things, but for now, they were just thoughtsānothing more than castles in the air.
Meanwhile, I practiced music from various countries that Badol had written down, and I practiced different instruments that I had begged Anhen to buy for me.
I also schemed about whether I could somehow recreate the piano, which I had been best at in my previous life, in this world.
For about two years until the debut, I continued to enjoy refining my performance skills together with Rosie and Badol.
And then, the day of the debut arrived.
I ended up attracting an unbelievable amount of attention.