5
On the predicted night, the gig was fantastic.
Everything seemed to shine somehow. It was hot, and her heart beat fast, and it all seemed much too precious—even the stains on the wall and the homely innkeeper.
Isuzu’s voice was far more relaxed than usual, and An Die Freude was loyal to her.
Eighth notes paraded across a musical staff as uniformly as if they were wearing matching hats, joining the rhythm Touya drummed. Serara’s foot-pedaled porta-organ provided an astonishingly expansive accompaniment. This might have been because the white wolf cub was pushing on the pump as if its life depended on it. Even the number where she let Minori handle the lute was fun.
They made mistakes, but all of the errors melted away into a joy that was like a fizzing, carbonated sea. It was simply wonderful.
Roe2’s eyes were round, and she applauded until her hands ached. Dariella complimented them, looking thoughtful. Most of all, the People of the Earth who’d gathered at the inn applauded and cheered. As a Bard, she felt almost unbearably lucky.
Sighing with delight for the umpteenth time, Isuzu basked in a happiness so intense she thought she might burst and vanish.
“Oh, geez. Oh, geez!”
“Mademoiselle Isuzu, don’t struggle.”
“I’m not struggling.”
“Yes, yes, all right. I know.”
Rundelhaus had lent her his shoulder and helped her to the café terrace behind the inn. He sounded mildly exasperated, but even as he spoke, he lowered Isuzu’s skinny body into an oversized chair. For some reason, he looked even more effervescent than usual, but that was undoubtedly because that night’s gig had been incredible, and certainly not because she’d accidentally drunk something alcoholic.
It was already near midnight.
The moon had climbed high into the sky, and a cool wind was blowing.
This place—the Noble Mountain Snowdrop—was a big tavern, even for Saphir. Its facilities were complete, and it had a big terrace facing the road out front as well. Today’s show had been such a huge success that all the shutters had been thrown open, and crowds of guests had looked into the tavern from outside. That feverish atmosphere and commotion still lingered in the tavern like a glowing ember, and it reached Isuzu’s ears faintly.
That said, at this hour, the enthusiasm was ebbing. The sun had set more than five hours before, and Minori and Serara had run up white flags long ago and retired to their borrowed rooms.
Isuzu, reluctant to let it end, had plucked at her lute even after returning to the audience seating area, had drunk liquor the townsfolk had pressed on her, telling her it was their treat, and had been escorted out into the cool back garden.
“Here, Mademoiselle Isuzu.”
“Uh-huh.”
Isuzu, who was feeling a little repentant, took a swallow of the water Rundelhaus had drawn from the well. This village was located to the south of Sacred Mount Fuji, and at night in early March, its well water was so incredibly cold that it made her temples ache.
“Heh-heh-heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh-heh-heeeh.”
Feeling entertained, Isuzu slumped over onto the wooden table that had been set on the terrace. Her cheek was pressed against the wood, and it was chilly, but her body was flushed, and it felt nice. Rundelhaus had pulled over another chair and sat down, and having him nearby felt good, too.
Still sprawled over the table, she looked at the back garden.
Even if this was a town, unlike in Akiba, the houses weren’t crowded close together. Some structures made use of ruined buildings, but there weren’t many of them in Saphir; the Noble Mountain Snowdrop was about the only one.
Nearly all of the rest were wooden, single-story buildings, and ample space had been left between the houses. They had things that corresponded to yards and hedges, but in terms of scale, it seemed better to call most of them vegetable gardens and stands of mixed trees.
This back garden, no exception to the rule, held a kitchen garden and an untended space where wildflowers bloomed, a large well, a shed for livestock, and a grove of trees. The orange light that bled from the tavern’s open back door and the moonlight that streamed down from above gently illuminated the nocturnal landscape, which would otherwise have been pitch-black.
She wasn’t sleepy, but when she closed her eyes—just for a moment—the world seemed to spin, and she felt exhilarated. She didn’t feel the cold as much as she’d expected; wondering if it was because the wind wasn’t very strong, she opened her eyes a crack and saw Rundelhaus, raking his bangs up with his fingers as if they were a nuisance. He’d wrapped himself in his mantle, and he was sitting upwind from Isuzu.
Their eyes met, and Isuzu suddenly felt embarrassed.
Ordinarily, it was nothing at all, but every now and then, she’d start to feel this way. Still, it was probably just his puppy-dog magic. Pretending not to notice it, she lightly kicked Rundelhaus’s chair with her toes.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing.”
“Really?”
“Yep, mm-hm.”
“That was a good show today.”
After the gig—
An outdated phrase rose to her lips.
The party was over, it was after the gig, and all the heat that had been packed into Isuzu’s body was unraveling into the night. It was a melancholy, lonely feeling, but it wasn’t unpleasant. She’d been in high spirits for today’s show, but it had ended. All gigs ended. That was certainly sad, but this interval existed so that they could begin the next one.
She could hear the sound of Rundelhaus’s gentle breathing.
Isuzu’s belly was full. Both her stomach and her heart were full.
“‘Today too,’ you mean.”
“Yes, today too.”
There was a wry smile in Rundelhaus’s voice, and Isuzu closed her eyes again. She spread her arms out, hugging the table. Its size was almost the same as a wood bass. The thought naturally brought a smile to her face, and her fingertips moved involuntarily.
Because today had ended, tomorrow would come.
Because this gig was over, she’d be able to play the next one.
“You really do like instruments, don’t you, Mademoiselle Isuzu?”
“I love ’em.”
“And yet you won’t become a professional musician? You were very insistent about this tour, you know.”
“Yes, that’s because…”
Isuzu sat up, gave a satisfied sigh, and looked at Rundelhaus.
The glow from the tavern filtered through the window, edging his golden hair with light.
Facing her companion, who looked puzzled, Isuzu began to speak, slowly.
“It’s my dad. I might have told you already, but he’s a pro musician. It’s something called a studio musician; I’m not sure how to explain it… Um, when it comes to playing instruments, he’s a professional among professionals. That sounds about right. He performs at a place where they record sound, and he helps all sorts of people do things with music.”
“Hm. Then your excellent skills must be due to your father’s blood and training.”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Noooo, it’s nothing like that. My dad is, umm, a free spirit. A rock ’n’ roller. He’s really cool. He’s got long hair, and he wears a leather jacket. His legs are thin, too! He lives in a town that’s sort of out in the country now, but even so, he’s pretty famous. He has groupies, too—er, fans from a long time ago.”
Isuzu took another swallow of water.
This wasn’t something she normally talked about. My father is a musician. It sounded like something out of a girls’ manga, but she didn’t think it was really such a good thing. After all, it meant that her father was practically unemployed. She’d even gotten teased about it when she was little. Just being different from the people around you created friction. That had been common sense, at least in the world where Isuzu was born and raised.
However, in this world, it was the night of a gig, a night with all sorts of secrets inside it, and her listener was the other-dimensional puppy dog she was so proud of. She’d always had these thoughts, and there wasn’t a single reason for her to hold them back now.
“When I was a kid, my dad bragged to me all the time. I’m not sure what you’d call them—heroic exploits from when he was younger, maybe? Stories about when he worked part-time and bought a junker van, loaded his instruments into it and went on tour. See, my dad toured, too. He said he did it all the time after high school. He was in a band as a kid, and when he got out of school, he worked part-time and went long distances to live music venues, and when he ran out of money, he’d pick up another part-time job. He said he based himself in Tokyo and traveled around to all sorts of places.”
“The way we’re doing now?”
“Yep, exactly! The way we’re doing now!”
It had been something Isuzu had longed for when she was a child. He’d seemed to be a genuine hero.
“Back before he was famous, even when he played gigs, they didn’t pay very much, so he said he had to work a lot of part-time jobs.”
“What are those?”
“Um, things like working at a restaurant or being a security guard.”
“Hm.”
“Still, if he was going to tour, he’d need to take a lot of time off from those jobs, so in the end, he had to quit them. He’d quit his job and go traveling.”
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