"What are you writing?"
On the green hill grew a great tree, on the great tree grew a great canopy.
Two boys hid under its shade, the sunlight spilled, filtering through the canopy and casting a notebook silhouetted against the vast emerald grass.
"Sorry?"
The notebook belonged to the boy with golden hair and eyes, as he gazed at the newcomer to his little sanctuary.
"Oh sorry." The boy who had just arrived scratched his head.
"I didn't mean to scare you, I was just a little curious about what you're doing."
"My name's Aurora, what's yours?"
"Ka… Kael." The blonde boy froze, then as if realised something, he hurriedly moved over, creating a spot for Aurora.
"I'm… I'm writing…"
"Is that so?" Aurora sat down beside him, smiling as he stared at the notebook.
"You're the first person I've met that could write! What are you writing? A Story? A Song?"
"...I, I'm just practising…" Kael hid his face in his knees, face flustered.
"You mind if I take a look?"
Before Kael was about to reject, Aurora had already snatched the notebook out of his hand.
"Woah, your handwriting is so nice!"
"He—Hey!" Kael snatched it back in a hurry, face as red as a tomato.
"Oh, sorry." Aurora apologised, lowering his head.
"But I think you should be more confident in yourself, your handwriting is the best I've seen."
"...You really think so?" Kael looked at Aurora, his eyes glistening with hope.
"Do you think I could become a teacher?"
"Ofcourse! Wait, a teacher?" Aurora frowned.
"You're an odd one, all my other friends said they want to become a String Master."
"...Even if I have an Instrument, I would still like to be a teacher." Kael murmured, then turned his head to ask:
"I think teaching is beautiful! What would you like to be, Aurora? Teacher or String Master?"
"Ha." Aurora laughed.
"Neither."
***
[
31st of March
Wednesday
Sunny
Dear Diary,
Today, I met a new friend. His name is Aurora, and he has black hair. He is very funny, his hobbies are eating and sleeping. I hope we can continue to get along.
Kael
]
Aurora closed his eyes.
That was the fifth time he had read through the page. From the inherited memories of this body, one of the greatest treasures in today's world is Kael's diary.
It was said that if one collected all the pages, then great blessing will be bestowed on that individual.
When Aurora first heard something like this, he denied it with his heart. Their friendship, even could be called brotherhood, lasted for hundreds of centuries; yet never once had Kael mentioned to him that he's writing a diary.
However, after reading it many times, each time carefully scanning even the slightest details, he had come to the conclusion that this was Kael's handwriting.
Therefore, it must've been his diary.
'Why did you not tell me this… and why did you leave this beside my tomb?'
There were many questions inside his head, yet none could be answered currently.
Aurora took a sip of his coffee, then diverted his attention to his new ability.
Spells were manifestations of Tuning every String Master could perform, yet Remnant Art was unique to each Instrument, a "special" Tuning technique.
String Masters could have several Instruments, yet their first one was their "core" Instrument. Depending on what stage their core Instrument had progressed to, the String Masters were separated into 8 ranks in the Tuning hierarchy.
Currently, Aurora would be at the lowest tier, a Prelude rank String Master.
The black snake swimming inside his soul will serve as his core Instrument, which he named it [Kuro]. [Kuro] was currently only at stage I, yet its nature as a divine grade Instrument has already bestowed it a powerful Remnant Art.
An Instrument that fed on lies, had the ability of lying.
From the previous encounter Aurora had with the Queen beast and Simon, he realised that the Remnant Art of [Kuro] was similar to mind manipulation. It was able to instill a lie inside his opponents head, which would become a reality in their perspective.
He did this with the Queen beast, making it believe he didn't exist so he could sneak up behind her.
He did this to Simon, pretending he was his distant cousin. That way, he will write Aurora a recommendation letter as well as listen to his order, so that he would kill everyone there and probably himself once he tired himself out.
Aurora's command was to hold the defence, there in the wild, many String Monsters roam so the survival chance for Simon was zero.
To kill two birds with one stone, the String Monsters will also help Aurora to get rid of the evidence.
However, just because you've become someone's relative, doesn't mean it's enough for them to do you all that favour, such as writing a recommendation letter and risking their life. Which means on top of the reality manipulation, [Kuro] also contained acts of authority allowing the user to command those inflicted by its Remnant Art.
Different from traditional mind control, which completely destroys a person's mind, forcing them to become puppets; [Kuro] created a lie inside the target's mind, the actions they later would perform will still be to the best of their belief. If Aurora had told Simon to kill himself right away, it would've been unreasonable, thus the lie could be potentially broken. Yet if he had a cousin, would he not have written a recommendation letter or protect him until his last breath? The chances were slim, but it never was zero, and [Kuro] only increased the probability through a little authority.
'But… I guess this is it for now.'
Indeed, although the Remnant Art had a potent effect on his power, Aurora recognised its weakness.
Firstly, its power will be limited when battling against those who have a higher rank than him. A progression of your core Instrument does not only grant enhanced Remnant Art, but also improves one's physical and mental strength, to an extent.
Simon and the Queen beast were all a rank above him, if it weren't for their grave conditions at the time right after a death battle, [Kuro] would not be able to control them, and the outcome would be way different.
Second, was its tremendous demand for resonance. Stored inside a core Instrument was a finite amount of energy required for Tuning, which was known as resonance. Just like how if you run out of stamina then you cannot run, once the resonance becomes depleted, a String Master cannot perform Tuning.
Usually, because of the nature of Spells and Remnant Art, the latter would require more resonance. Yet, every time Aurora used [Kuro], he felt like there was a pump stored inside his soul, draining his resonance out.
At his current stage, he could only use 3 lies before emptying his resonance. However, he deliberately limited it to 2, because resonance depletion would welcome dire consequences.
"Sorry to disturb you, Sir." A man wearing a tuxedo approached Aurora.
"May I ask if you could pay for that coffee?"
Aurora frowned, then noticed a lot of people in the cafe were staring at him.
He looked down on the outfit that belonged to a slave boy, then realised what was wrong.
"Here," he took out a silver coin and placed it on the table.
"This thing is called coffee, right? It's good, I'll be back."
Aurora left the cafe, and walked onto a busy street.
He was currently at the Kingdom of Ledra, the largest, and the most powerful Kingdom on this land.
Right before bidding his "farewell" to the knights and Simon, he took their map, a sack of coins, some food and water before going on his journey.
By using a simple spell that allowed him to navigate through observing stars, he arrived at Valentine, the capital of Ledra within two days of walking.
This wrecked outfit of his was a miscalculation, but he didn't want to steal the clothes from dead people.
Which was why, after stopping at a cafe for a warm drink, he came straight to the tailor shop.
'I had expected more change after one hundred thousand years…' Aurora thought quietly.
'But the buildings, although looking more fancy; the people, although wearing more stylish; the food, although tasting more flavour — it's all fundamentally the same.'
'Was it just Kael that thought humans could reach the stars, or is it not one hundred thousand years yet…'
'No.' He shook his head as he held onto the wooden handle, and pushed the glass door.
'Kael himself said he could only see that far into the future, to not expect my return, it meant that truly a thousand centuries had passed.'
*Ding Ding*
"Welcome! …Sir." A young woman originally joyful when she heard the bell signalling a new customer, but the contentment soon went down after seeing the visitor's outfit.
"...May I ask what you need."
'I need you to not look like I ruined your day.' Aurora complained in his mind, then spoke.
"I need an outfit for a job interview…"
He paused, as he saw the woman continuing reading her book, not even bothered to look at him.
"...at the Grand Noctis Academy." He decided to add this part to grab her attention, and it worked, but not to what he was expecting.
"Ha." She laughed.
"Why don't you pick an outfit for me too? I've got a job interview today to work for our Lord and Saviour Kael."
Just then, she saw a piece of paper slide on top of her book.
"What's this? …Dear Admission Committee, it is my great pleasure to recommend Aurora for a career pathway to the Grand Noctis Academy…"
"Oh my god. OH MY GOD!"
She screamed as she ran to the back of the store, leaving Aurora frozen in place.
'She better not run off with it…'
Two minutes later, Aurora saw an old man half his height come from the back, along with that young woman who had an attitude earlier jumping up and down.
"Please forgive the rudeness of my daughter, prestigious guest." He bowed, and the daughter too.
"It has just been so long since we had someone with a status as high as yours."
"You are too kind." Aurora said softly, yet confused.
"But I am only applying for a job, the outcome is not guaranteed."
"Ho, ho." The old man smiled, as he returned the letter.
"How modest of a young man you are. Everyone knows a recommendation letter means a guaranteed entry, it is a true sign of competence."
"Mister…"
"Aurora."
"Mr.Aurora, do you know your measurements?"
"No."
"That's totally fine." The old man turned to the young woman.
"Faye, go grab my toolkit, let's get this young man sorted."
But Faye did not go, instead, she stood in place as she watched Aurora hold on to the letter, then it disappeared the next second.
"Woah!" She did not hide her surprise.
"Is that [Inner Storage], the spell you use to store belongings into your soul? Are you a String Master?"
"Yes." Aurora nodded.
"Where did you learn about it?"
"I'm self taught." Faye smiled, playing with her stranded hair.
"I also have an Instrument, but I don't know how to use it yet. I want to go to a Tuning academy like Noctis, and have already handed in my application."
"Is that so?" Aurora looked at the girl, then calmly asked.
"You didn't just tell me this so I could help you get in, right?"
"No, no!" She shook her head with strength.
"I'm just glad to meet a person my age who is also interested in Tuning, even to the point they want to apply for an academic career!"
"Many Spirit Masters started off young learning Tuning together, so their social circle kinda revolves around each other already... Because I'm self taught, I never had the chance to meet someone like me!"
"I respect that."
"Really?" Faye looked at Aurora, her eyes glistening with hope.
"You think I could become a great String Master too?"
"Yeah." Aurora said gently.
"You wouldn't get far inside this field without passion, or even obsession."
"Every Gods I knew became Gods because of it."
"Haha, you're funny!"
Aurora stayed silent as he watched the girl laughing, his eyes gradually became darker, as he began to cast a spell.
'[Inner Vision] through practice, could be used to gather information of other String Masters, such as the grade of one's core Instrument…'
'To think she already has a mystical grade Instrument… Although it's one grade below divine, it's still one grade below the divine.'
'If I have said our encounter was not random… No, I wouldn't be called crazy.'
'Because I am certain, our encounter was not random.'