Silent Crown

Bai Xi stared at the ring of light on Ye Qingxuan’s fingertip. Through the ring, she could see the youth’s black eyes. There was a faint smile in those eyes.

“It worked?” Charles murmured.

“You used three days to make a ring?” Bai Xi stuck a finger through the light and the ring shattered, breaking from the outside force. But when she pulled her finger back, the deformed shape bounced back like tallow, turning into a ring again. It was bright as before.

Charles nodded. “The shape is a little weird, but it’s very stable. It must have taken a lot of hard work to reach this level.”

Properly saying the syllables should have created a smooth ring equal on all sides, but at least Ye Qingxuan was able to improve the quality of the aether structure, and it was no longer a mess like it had been before.

“It’s okay. You’ve worked hard to do this.” Bai Xi sighed. “Remember to let us know before you lock yourself up. No one knew anything. Others might have thought you went to rob the church’s bank.”

“Don’t be so impatient.” Ye Qingxuan slowly raised his finger. “This is just the beginning…” Saying that, he blew. Along his breath, a weak breeze went through the ring and ran into an invisible wall, turning back. The breeze seemed to have blew away the dust, revealing its true nature. There was a thin membrane pulled taught across the ring. It seemed like it would tear with the slightest touch.

But as Ye Qingxuan blew, it slowly inflated. As if blowing a giant soap bubble, Ye Qingxuan carefully and patiently increased the strength of his breath. A bubble slowly appeared from the ring of light on his fingertip. Finally, with a slight push, a perfect bubble popped out from the ring and floated up toward the ceiling.

Bai Xi watched, frozen.

—

The breeze blew in from the window, and the delicate bubble slowly floated toward the girl. It reflected the sunlight and surrounding colors. The semi-transparent bubble emanated a magnificent glow, as if it were reflecting the image of another world.

Bai Xi could see Ye Qingxuan’s face through the thin membrane.

As if sensing the shock in her eyes, the youth smiled.

“What is this?” Bai Xi carefully reached out to hold it, but was scared she would accidentally pop it. When the bubble floated over, she retreated, afraid she would ruin that beautiful thing.

Charles reached out. The lightest touch caused ripples. It floated an inch above his finger, rotating lazily. This was another coherence technique, and it had been executed was amazingly.

Charles studied the bubble on his fingertip. Seeing something unexpected, his eyes lit up with a pleasant surprise. “This is a variant of the Rune · Light. It’s the School of Illusion’s favorite effect—Bubble. You’re already able to use it in battle. If you can make this, then you should know the other twenty-three uses of Light, correct?”

“The others are pretty easy, but I had to try this many times.” Ye Qingxuan rubbed his belly and sighed. “I had wanted to make Old Phil’s shape, but the precision it needed was too high. Halfway through, I ran out of energy and almost died. That was so scary…”

“You learned the note and all twenty-three uses over three days? But three days ago, you had no interaction with the aether at all. How did you do it?”

“A stupid method that everyone can think of.” Ye Qingxuan pointed at the papers on the table and chuckled. “Practice.”

—

“In the end, a musician controls the aether by chanting. The aether joins together and creates the structure of the rune. Different runes have different effects. The principle behind it is complex, but since the proper syllable can achieve the proper result, I just needed to pronounce the correct syllable,” Ye Qingxuan said.

“As you all saw, I don’t have the genius so-called ‘feeling.’ So when I chant, I can’t tweak the syllables according to the outside environment and the aether’s reaction, so that’s why the result was weak, right?”

“That’s right,” Charles nodded. “How did you fix it?”

“It was easy.” Ye Qingxuan snapped his fingers. “As long as I can anticipate outside disturbances beforehand, then there’s no problem.”

—

In the silence, the youth spread out the papers with a smile and gazed at the scrawled handwriting. “All I did was find the proper syllable from different records. The theories used now, and corrections to pronunciation all come from each individual’s ‘sense’ of the Originator. Then they adjust their Sound of Heart and perform the rune. But it was noted in ‘Ten Basic Problems in Casting,’ there’s a non-mainstream School of Behavior. They don’t believe in the existence of a soul, and only believe in action and reaction. It can be applied to Phantom Beasts, which are created from aether. So there should be a set mechanism to force a reaction from the aether too.”

There was a long silence following Ye Qingxuan’s words.

After a long time, Charles processed Ye Qingxuan’s words with difficulty. “So you’re saying that you read everything that had anything to do with Light, chant records, the aether environment at the time, the timbre, frequency, pitch, pattern of change, and everything else?”

“That’s right,” Ye Qingxuan nodded.

“Everything?” Charles felt like he was hallucinating.

“Everything.” Ye Qingxuan nodded again.

His voice trembling, Charles asked, “That’s what you did for three days?”

Ye Qingxuan thought for a moment and shook his head. “It took one day to organize all the material, and half a day to find the pattern of change of notes. Memorizing it all took the shortest amount of time.”

He paused and added, “There’s not much, give or take six-hundred variations. If you take out the two-hundred or so rare circumstances, it’s easy to remember the rest. The changes are complicated, but once you get the pattern, it’s not hard.”

“…” Silent, Charles looked at the youth, his eyes wild like he was looking at two different things. His left eye was looking at an idiot, while his right eye was looking at a strange creature. “I can’t believe it. Your *ss really used force on the runes!”

Ye Qingxuan smiled. “If using force works, then I don’t mind.”

Charles looked up to the sky and sighed. “Other people use their experience and look for shortcuts when trying to pass a mountain. I can’t believe I met a lunatic who would try to flatten the mountain!”

—

“The Royal Academy of Music has more than ten majors. Most are more specific divisions of the four major schools. This includes our school, Music History. It is considered a branch under the School of Revelation. But because the material we cover overlaps too much with other majors, and all of the professors left, the major was basically eliminated.” Abraham sighed with a sense of loss. “When I first came to the academy, the principal saw that I wasn’t good at anything else and put me in charge of this major. There’d never been many students. There’ve only been you two in these recent years.”

Here, his expression became bitter. “I’m not the best at teaching and no one is interested in research-oriented studies, so it has never been popular. It probably won’t even exist in a few years.”

“Professor, don’t worry. You have a genius like me!” Charles comforted him. “Wait for me to take care of my problems at hand, and then it’ll be our time to shine!”

“Don’t be ridiculous. A major is a serious branch of study that needs the blood and sweat of many people. It’s not just you getting attention!” Abraham knocked on Charles’ head and returned to teaching Ye Qingxuan. “Do you have any thoughts?”

“Basic criteria of ancient writing, exploration of the sources, and changes of major language branches, the history of the Dark Ages…” Confusion was written all over Ye Qingxuan’s face. “Why do we have to learn this stuff?”

“These are our professional courses, my friend,” Charles drawled. “Music History’s strong points are deciphering ancient literature, music scores, and runes. They produce scholars and archeologists.”

“So we can’t fight?” Ye Qingxuan asked.

Charles patted his shoulder. “It’s okay, junior. We’re different from the hooligans from the School of Modification. At least scholars don’t have to go to war, right?”

“Other than our professional courses, the classes aren’t much different from the other majors. And we have our own field in music scores too,” Abraham said. “There are similarities between the ancient language and runes. You’re talented in deciphering runes and analyzing data. This major suits you.”

Ye Qingxuan’s was still somewhat confused. “Professor, you saying this makes me happy, but I still feel that the future is just bleak archeology.”

“Why don’t you look at this?” As he spoke, Abraham placed a notebook before the youth. “These are Charles’ notes from when he first started. I think you’ll find something you like in it.”

“Huh?” Ye Qingxuan opened the notebook, flipped through a few pages and froze. It was clearly Charles’s notes, filled with explanations of ancient languages found from archeology digs. Ye Qingxuan had never seen these things before, but it felt familiar for some reason.

When he read the reasoning portion, a streak of light flashed passed through his mind. This book of theories and patterns used when deciphering ancient writing was identical to what he had been doing when looking for the changes in runes and syllables! In fact, the structure and direction was far more complete than his. Just by scanning and comparing, he realized that he had made many mistakes down in the basement. It was just theories and did not include any applications, but they seemed to target his weak spots, and goosebumps popped up on his skin. Compared to these notes, the exhaustive method that Ye Qingxuan had been proud of was like a sieve. If these theories were correct, then he could save at least seventy percent of his efforts when analyzing the runes and changes in syllables. At least seventy percent!

“What…is this?” Ye Qingxuan glanced up in shock, seeing Abraham’s lips curl into a faint smile. He had never seen such pride in his stiff, wooden teacher.

“I told you. Music History is the best at deciphering ancient history and literature. Music scores are part of literature. Most of the scores and techniques we know today were found from archeology sites. No one is better than us at reading music scores and runes.”

“But why have I never seen this in textbooks?” Ye Qingxuan gaped.

“Ah this…” Abraham suddenly seemed embarrassed. “Charles always complained that the textbooks before were too hard, so I created some new methods from my own research. But then this guy wouldn’t learn them, and I didn’t have a student to teach. Would you…”

“Yes! Yes!” The youth practically ran over to hug the professor, his eyes shining. “Professor, please teach me! How about we start with the runes? I have some questions about the variations of Light…”

“Uh, get down first.” Abraham finally pulled the excited Ye Qingxuan down from his body. “I still need to organize the teaching material. How about we start class tomorrow? You still have five days. If you’re only going to memorize it all, then you still have a big chance to pass.”

Ye Qingxuan finally calmed down, but he was still euphoric and would not let go of the notebook. “Hehe, there’s always a road when you get to the mountain!”

“Is that a saying from the East?” Abraham lowered his head, sighing, “I remember an Eastern professor used to say that.”

“Eastern professor?” In an instant, Ye Qingxuan woke up from his euphoric state. Finally remembering the things that Wolf Flute had told him, his eyes lit up. “Who?”

“It was decades ago. You asked me so suddenly that I don’t remember.” The professor’s brows furrowed. “Was it decades ago, or just a few years ago? I remember the academy used to have a professor in the School of Mind from the East. I think his name was…his name…” The more he tried to remember, the more confused he became. “No, maybe he was Burgundian? Did I remember incorrectly? But why do I feel like I went to his wedding?” Here, he shook his head. “I really can’t remember. Is it because I’m getting old?”

“…” Ye Qingxuan stayed silent, not sure what to say. He suddenly realized that everyone had forgotten about his father.

Abraham had lost his memories, and if those people in the academy had remembered him, they would have remarked how similar Ye looked to his father. Even Wolf Flute who had ditched school had started to forget what his father had taught. In this academy, everyone’s memories of the Eastern musician, Ye Lanzhou, had disappeared. It was like he had never existed in this world.

Who did it? Someone else? Or was it…his father himself?

Musicians of the School of Mind were the best at controlling others’ memories. He had surpassed the seventh level of the Scepter Rank, and he did not even need to make any physical movements to erase everything. But he was able to erase the memories of so many musicians, and even put a seal on Wolf Flute’s lecture notes without even so much as a hand gesture. Such skill had surpassed everything.

But with skill like this, why would he still join Satan?

Since the beginning, Ye Qingxuan never believed the crimes that he had supposedly committed, but now…what did this all mean? He sank into contradicting thoughts. No matter what he did, he could not solve this mystery.