Throne of Magical Arcana - Baron Habearo

2The baron’s castle was a typical representative of the architectural style in the later period of the War of Dawn. The lobby on the first floor was spacious and magnificent, and in contrast, the windows high above were narrow. In general, Lucien felt this place was dark and mysterious.
    

“Lord Habearo’s waiting in the dining room on the second floor.” Kaelyn raised her right hand and pointed at the stairs to the upper floor, “The first floor is mostly for parties and sometimes used for court.”
    

While Lucien and Wise were behaving themselves decently, Joanna and Simon were looking around out of curiosity, not to mention Betty. They had never entered a castle before, and this one was even bigger than what castles looked like in their imagination.
    

After the set of stairs, they came into a long and narrow corridor. Along either side of the corridor, a line of candles partially lit up the space, and beside the candles, there were several portrayals of Lord Habearo.
    

“This is Lord Habearo I,” explained Kaelyn. “Habearo family was first granted fief for the contribution on the War of Dawn. I heard that the Blessing of the family is powerful… something like turning themselves and their enemies into stone. I never witnessed the lord’s power, though.”
    

“Is this Blessing for close or ranged combat?” Lucien murmured subconsciously.
    

Hearing Mr. Evans’s question, Simon became more certain that Lucien was a noble young man who received formal knight training before.
    

“Sorry, I’m not sure, Mr. Evans.” Kaelyn smiled, “I don’t know how to fight.”
    

Lucien nodded and kept walking toward the dining room following Kaelyn.
    

Although no one ever mentioned, all of them, including Lucien, felt that those vivid portrayals were staring at them from both sides of the wall.
    

Kaelyn pushed the door of the dining room open. The door was made of redwood, behind which the dining room was decorated in a very luxury way.
    

At the center of the dining room, there was a long dining table, on which lay several sets of fine porcelain tablewares. Several servants were lined up beside the table, waiting for order. On the other side of the dining room, a chamber band was playing decent music.
    

They were asked to hand their weapons to the guards standing beside the door. Lucien untied his sword and left Alert outside of the dining room. He did not feel concerned, since he still had a dagger with him.
    

The elder noble man sitting at the far end of the table stood up from the chair to welcome them. Although there were some wrinkles on his ruddy face, his hair was still black. If Lucien had not known that baron Habearo was already in his seventies, he would definitely be unable to tell this man’s true age.
    

“Welcome, welcome!” Lord Habearo was wearing a brown robe of old style. “My guests! Your arrival has brought me, an old man, a lot of new energy!” His voice was resonant and his eyes were bright. The big, green jade ring on his right hand was quite eye-catching.
    

“Baron Habearo.” Lucien took the lead and bowed to him.
    

“You must be Mr. Evans.” Habearo’s eyes scanned Lucien, “Um… young and elegant. Arms and legs look pretty strong.” As he was talking to Lucien, Habearo was glancing at Lucien’s face, chest, arms and legs.
    

“…” Lucien felt very uncomfortable with Habearo’s comment, and he wondered if this old lord actually liked men.
    

Lucien was just about to directly tell the baron to stop looking at him, but Habearo turned around and started to greet other people.
    

When he was greeting Betty, he started to stare at her in a lascivious manner. Betty almost rolled her eyes. As if he had realized his gaffe, Habearo apologized with an awkward smile, “Sorry for my misbehavior. I’m an old man, weak both physically and mentally. Every time I see young people, I often appreciate their youthfulness. I miss my early years very much, and I wish I could regain the fine skin, strong hands and legs again. We shall toast for youthfulness later.”
    

“You still look very young in your age.” Lucien responded, although he still had the impression the baron was very suspicious. After sitting down beside the table, Lucien laid the napkin on his legs and asked, “Lord Habearo, is your steward not around tonight?”
    

Lucien could not help but ask the question, since he had felt that there was something wrong there, and he was trying to figure out what it was. Without a doubt, if the master was entertaining the guests, the absence of the steward was not normal.
    

“Yes, Mr. Cork is out for some other business tonight.” Habearo’s face was partly hidden by the shadows, “If you’d like to stay here tonight, Mr. Evans, you should be able to see him tomorrow morning.”
    

Then the baron introduced the elder man who was playing piano on the other side, “This is my music consultant, Mr. Mars, a famous musician in Korsor.”
    

Although Mars was just in his early sixties, he looked obviously much elder than the baron.
    

After getting each other, Mars complained to the baron, “My lord, the musical instrument that you just bought… piano, yes, piano… is not even close to harpsichord. The sound quality is not very good.”
    

After being invented about a year ago, now piano was gaining more popularity. Even the baron, a noble in this remote place, started to pursue the trend as well.
    

“It’s the pedals… you did not use the pedals properly.” Betty murmured.
    

She disliked the fact that someone was criticizing the music instrument which her favorite musician, Lucien Evans, was best at.
    

“Such a young lady, I think you’re simply not a professional.” Mars frowned, “I did use the pedals.”
    

“I’m not professional, but Mr. Wise is!” Betty disputed, “He’s a musician!”
    

Wise looked rather embarrassed when Mars turned to look at him.
    

“Well… actually, I don’t understand music completely. It just so happens that I’ve been studying piano recently.” Wise waved his hands a bit, then he started to introduce some really professional theories about this new music instrument, which confused all the people present, except Mars and Lucien.
    

Holding a glass of water, Lucien listened to Wise’s thoughts with interest. Some of his concerns were raised by some musicians and critics over the newspapers before, but finally these concerns were all proved unnecessary by Lucien’s successful playing.
    

“Now, the era of traditional symphony has ended. The splendid era has ended.” Habearo sighed, “I still remember the thunder-like applause over that Aalto music festival many years ago, when traditional symphony established its supreme status. Mr. Christopher, Mr. Leandrinho, Ms. Rania, Mr. Ionescu and all those other great musicians created a great era, and now, that era has ended, sharing the fate of every human being, who will eventually die.”
    

“I don’t think that the passing of this era is something that we shall feel regretful. Now we have brand new music styles, themes, ways of presenting, and countless possibilities lying in the potential of music. Right now music is bursting out more of its energy than ever before! What is passed is passed. We shall look to the future!” As Betty was expressing her idea about music, she totally forgot that the person sitting in front of her was a baron.
    

Later, all of them joined the music discussion, except Lucien. Finally, someone turned to Lucien and asked, “What’s your opinion, Mr. Evans?”
    

He considered for a bit and said carefully, “I understand both sides. Lord Habearo missed the passing era because he was part of it, and he experienced the glory himself. Likewise, it is also reasonable that Mr. Wise and Betty, as the younger generation, would like to pursue the new trend of music.”
    

Both Habearo and Wise nodded.
    

“So, I think that, although revolution and change is always unavoidable in any era, as people witnessing the changes right now in the trend, we can hardly comment whether the changes are good or not. Maybe… maybe people who live a few hundreds of years later can have a better perspective talking about the features of different music eras.”
    

Lucien’s comment summarized their discussion well. The baron sighed, “Mr. Evans’ point of view is really persuasive.”
    

However, Mars still did not want to let the topic go.
    

“Mr. Wise, can you play the piano for us to show me how am I supposed to utilize the pedals?”
    

“Yes, please, Mr. Wise!” Betty agreed with excitement.
    

“I also want to have a chance to appreciate Mr. Wise’s playing.” Habearo also nodded.
    

Wise had no choice but to nod, “All right. I’ll try.”
    

Lucien recognized the melody immediatly when Wise started to play. It was Pathetique. Wise’s performance was unexpectedly good, and everyone present was listening to it very carefully.
    

Lucien took a glance at the baron when Wise was playing, and he noticed that the baron’s face was twitching a bit, as if he was suffering from some painful emotion, which made Lucien feel suspicious again.
    

As if the baron had noticed Lucien’s gaze, he forced a smiled on his face and leaned forward to talk to him, “Mr. Evans, do you know Mr. Wise’s full name?”
    

“Burt Wise.” Lucien disguised his suspicion.
    

“No wonder… Burt Wise! The talented musician who’s gonna hold the concert in Korsor!”
    

Mars, who was standing beside them, was very surprised as well, “I thought he was just a common young man who was a music fan. It turned out that he’s the most professional one among us all!”
    

“Really!? I… I never thought about asking Mr. Wise’s full name!” Betty’s eyes were shining with great excitement, “He always said that he did not really understand music, and thus I never expected that he was the famous musician, Burt Wise!”
    

Lucien was surprised as well.
    

Wise came back to his seat under warm applause. He shrugged a bit when he sat down beside Lucien.
    

“I mean, really, I don’t really understand music.” Wise smiled a little awkwardly.
    

Lucien was amused. He raised his glass of water to Wise, “Me neither.”
    

…
    

When the dinner was about to start, the uneasy sense of foreboding in Lucien’s mind started to become more and more torturing to him. Thus, Lucien found the excuse to use the bathroom and left the dining room following a servant.
    

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