None of this made sense.
The mana, the alcohol—
If it wasn't that, why did the sake trick work the first time? As chaotic as everything seemed back then, Konrad could feel the mana prickle his veins for at least an hour.
Sure, it was a slow burn, not the familiar rush like in Kasserlane, but—
In the hospital, the same thing only lasted seconds.
The moment he felt that sensation and calmed down, the flow stopped, too.
He recovered two whole points in the ramen place.
With Kaede watching, he only managed a quarter of that.
Was it possible to develop an immunity after a single drink?! No, that couldn't be it.
The dragoness said it did nothing to her, even though she had never drunk before.
What if it only worked on humans in the first place? It would have made a lot of sense—unless she lied. She either drank before or actually felt something. And why would she keep it a secret?
Why not? She was pure chaos through and through, but—
No, it could have been the environment, too. Or something to do with the food he ate.
His new co-worker was there as well.
Was the sake not even part of it?!
Or it only enabled a process of some kind.
He might have needed something else for the recovery itself.
Ugh. Questions. Always new ones. More every day. But no answers. Ever.
He kept racking his brain as he rode the train the next day.
Packed with people to the brim, it was a fast but uncomfortable ride to work.
Yes, work.
The music store hired him for a weekend trial. Ten to four, until he learned everything.
Considering the crazy emo girl's teaching style, it wouldn't be the only one.
"Irassai—Oh, it's you, Kohai-kun," Yuki chirped as he entered the empty store. "Good timing."
Two words that never actually meant anything good.
Not now, for sure.
"Oto-san needs help with the new combos. The hundred-watt Marshalls finally arrived."
For those unfamiliar, it was a code word for a 75 lbs wooden box painted black and gold.
A bunch of them.
To make matters worse, each was worth more than his monthly salary, in case he ever got it.
Morning workout: check.
A heart rate that was aiming for the sky: check.
One blackened toenail: check.
By the time he hauled in a dozen, he was happy to be still alive. He could no longer think of mana or alcohol. Or, rather, he thought about drowning in sake for a different reason.
"Tasukatta, Halstadt-kun," his boss panted, wiping sweat from his brow. "I'm too old for this."
Old. At forty? As if.
Konrad was almost twice that—though his body was another question.
But when he started his day by working his guts out, he felt old, too.
"Yuki-chan, keep teaching our newbie while he rests his back," he said, straightening up. "Call me if there are too many customers for you to handle. But until then, I'll be sleeping upstairs."
"Yeah, because that's likely to happen," the girl scoffed, rolling her eyes behind the counter.
About ten people entered the store during Konrad's entire Saturday shift.
So far, Sunday didn't seem busier, either.
But this crazy emo chick was in a much better mood today.
"Come on, Halstadt-kun. If you brought them in, we'd might as well enjoy their sound."
She yanked a left-handed guitar with the most astronomical price tag off the wall. Then, with a bit of fiddling, she plugged it into the brand-new amp he had hauled in.
Even after she turned everything on, strumming the strings made no sound.
But only for a few seconds.
Once the tubes warmed up, Konrad had to cover his ears or the volume would have ripped his head off. He saw the girl's maniacal laugh, but her voice was all lost in the cacophony.
And here he thought these were musical instruments, not weapons of mass destruction.
The sound alone could have dismantled the entire shop if she kept it up too long.
"Ah, I love the Marshall's overdrive," Yuki-chan sighed after a few riffs, turning down the volume. "It sounds—right. You don't need pedals or pre-amps to make it good. It bites."
Did they pay her to advertise it?
All he knew was that his ears kept ringing long after she stopped playing.
The right sound? It was loud, that's what it was.
But with how much he knew about music, this could have been the best guitar amp ever.
Or the cause of the worst headache.
"You ever tried one of these?" she asked, strumming chords without rhythm or progression. She changed every setting; no knob remained unturned. "It's better than getting drunk."
What a weird comparison.
Though given that she was drinking during her lunch break, it must have meant something.
"Told you yesterday," Konrad tried to outyell the speakers. They weren't at full volume, but there was no way her father could sleep upstairs like this. "I've never touched an instrument."
"Wow," the girl stopped, muting the strings with her palm.
She stared at him as if she saw an alien.
Or at the very least someone from another world. Which was—
"That's like worse than being a virgin," Yuki-san claimed with a serious expression.
What was there to say?
Konrad rolled his eyes, listening to her renewed strumming.
"Don't you play bass, though?" he asked, taking a few steps back in hopes of protecting his ears.
It made little difference—but it was obvious that the guitar she grabbed had six strings, not four.
Judging from the round frame and no horns, it was of the Gibson type.
The two pickups, both doubled. Humbuckers.
And, uh—no, that was all he remembered from yesterday's chaotic lessons.
"Guitars are like bass, but easy mode," she said with a shrug. "You'll see once you try 'em both."
Easier to play on six strings than four?
He couldn't follow her math at all.
But the girl knew what she was doing. A few seconds later, her strumming changed.
She wasn't terrible when she actually tried. With every knob in the place she wanted them to be, she played something that resembled real music, not noise.
A steady rhythm with a progression all too familiar.
Even the lyrics flooded back to him before she opened her mouth again.
From an earlier life, played by an old rock band named after a deep color.
The nostalgia was real. And the sound? It made his skin prickle.
No, it was way more than that.
"We all come down to Montreaux," Yuki screamed into the empty shop, right as Konrad mumbled the same line. It was impossible to miss. "On the Lake Geneva shoreline."
As memories and emotions invaded his mind, so did a familiar buzz of magical essence.
And he didn't drink anything today.
He considered downing the remaining sake when he woke up, but to come to work drunk?
Not that anyone would look at him when this emo chick was around, performing or not.
But no, there was no mistaking it.
He closed his eyes, listening to this weirdo play an old classic in her own way, and—
Embraced the mana flowing through his veins once again.