Chapter 1149
The reason Lee Han was awake in the middle of the night was simple.
The giants could sleep soundly at night, but a mage who had accepted a commission could not do that.
Checking whether there were any problems with the magic carried out during the day, sending progress reports to the members of the capital’s stonemason guild, making food for the giants, soothing the complaints of a fifth-year senior who seemed to be aging backward, checking whether the quality or quantity of the procured supplies and materials was insufficient...
And then he came face-to-face with a siren that suddenly emerged from the water with a bubbling sound, so even Lee Han could not help but be startled.
“...What is it? What brings you here?”
-......
The siren Parthenope blinked.
Normally, Parthenope would have immediately sung to put the other person to sleep and then fled, but unfortunately, the mage before Parthenope was a monster upon whom a siren’s song did not work.
Having suffered from that several times already, Parthenope did not dare take the gamble.
“Wait. Your face looks familiar... Ah. Are you perhaps Parthenope, the siren I met before!”
Lee Han was greatly delighted to meet a siren he knew for once.
Unlike the other sirens, Parthenope was acquainted with Lee Han.
When Lee Han had secretly moved the giants through an underground passage last year, he had needed the sirens’ help, and Parthenope had served as the bridge between them at the time.
Since Parthenope had granted his request, Lee Han thought he was somewhat close to this siren. At the very least, it seemed about the same as how close he was with the mountain giants.
...Of course, Parthenope did not think that at all...
Shake, shake!
Parthenope hurriedly shook the head from side to side. Lee Han asked in confusion.
“You are not Parthenope?”
Nod.
“Oh... I am sorry. It seems I have mistaken you again.”
Apparently, distinguishing the facial features of an unfamiliar race one did not normally encounter required a little more skill.
Lee Han had mistaken one siren for another last time, and now he had made the same mistake again. Lee Han felt ashamed.
“What should I call you? Ah. If your name is difficult, I was going to give Parthenope the human nickname ‘Gainando’ last time. Perhaps you could take it instead...”
Shake, shake, shake!
Parthenope shook the head frantically. Parthenope could not be given that disgraceful name again after rejecting it last time.
The siren hurriedly took out a stone tablet. Then Parthenope wrote ‘Penotherpa.’
“I see. Miss Penotherpa. Could you perhaps call Parthenope? We are acquainted, so it would be easier to speak.”
-......
The tips of Parthenope’s fins trembled.
Parthenope wanted to scream a song of rage and pain directly into Lee Han’s ears.
dontknowwho
However, the siren would be at a disadvantage if Parthenope tried to settle this through song. Parthenope endured it and wrote on the stone tablet.
“I see... That is unfortunate. But Miss Penotherpa.”
-?
“What brings you here?”
-......
Parthenope nearly hiccupped without realizing it.
Lee Han thought for a moment, then asked just in case.
“Did you perhaps come because building the lighthouse was too noisy...”
cametohelp
“Ah. Is that really true?”
Lee Han was surprised by the unexpected answer.
Sirens were beings close to spirits, so he had thought they were angry because of the construction, but to think they had come to help.
“I thought you had come because it was noisy. Thank you for this. Did Parthenope perhaps recommend it?”
-......
Penotherpa, no, Parthenope, felt like sinking beneath the sea forever.
How had things ended up like this?
“Then I look forward to working with you.”
The siren weakly nodded.
***
-A knight goes, dies from an arrow!
-Dies from a mace, dies from a sword!
When morning came, the giants began working while singing energetically.
The sirens, who had been working since dawn even earlier than them, suffered as they covered their ears with both hands at the pig-squealing sounds coming from the surface.
-♪♩!!!!!
-♩♩♪!!!!!!
'Hmm. I have not learned the siren language yet, but I can tell those are curses.'
Lee Han worried that the sirens might become enraged and begin attacking.
The sirens looked at Parthenope with tears in their eyes.
They could accept that they had come to teach the mages a lesson, only to end up helping with the work.
They feared that mage just as Parthenope did.
But was this not too much?
Look at that melody that seemed to insult even the pride of the sirens!
-♪♩♩♩♪...
Unable to endure it any longer, the sirens launched a counterattack under Parthenope’s command.
When the sorrowful song unique to their race rang out, the students around the lighthouse also raised their heads in surprise.
“Those are sirens? Why are sirens here?”
“Did they not come to attack because they were angry?”
“...No, they are helping with the work? They are pulling that ferryboat over there. Of course, right now they are singing in chorus with the giants...”
Had the sirens heard the word chorus, they would have strangled themselves.
To call this scene a chorus!
This was a sacred struggle to drive back the giants’ hideous singing.
-Hmph!
-Fish! They are interfering with our song!
-A knight goes, dies from an arrow...
-Dies from a mace, dies from a sword!
Surprisingly, however, these giants did not back down easily.
Ever since an anonymous mage had taught them a song last year, these giants had become deeply interested in singing and had practiced steadily for a long time.
They sang while herding sheep, sang while moving rocks, and sang even when the old yaksha came and begged them to let him sleep...
That chorus practice was bearing fruit here today.
Astonishingly, they succeeded in holding their own evenly against the melodies of the sirens, the race of song.
The Einroguard students quickly responded.
“Cover your ears!”
“Anyone who does not know hearing-protection magic, hurry over and receive it!”
Whether the sirens’ song or the giants’ song won, nothing good would come of it for the students.
If the former won, the students would fall into a half-hypnotized state, and if the latter won, the students would come to hate music.
“Stop! Stop!”
When the musical competition between the two races showed no sign of ending, Lee Han quickly stepped in to mediate.
“Both sides, please focus on the work again. We do not have time right now.”
Parthenope wrote on the stone tablet that if Lee Han forbade the giants’ curses, the sirens would truly do their best to work.
“Curses? Ah. The song.”
-How dare you call it a curse!
-The fish are always like that! They make the waterside noisy every day!
Naturally, the giants flew into a rage. They joined their voices and conveyed their demand to Lee Han.
-We will work with song!
-No song, no work! ...That does not mean there will be no cooking, right?
Lee Han had never expected a racial dispute like this to become the problem instead of magic.
The people from the stonemason guild had been right. At an actual worksite, wisdom other than magic was always more important.
Lee Han frowned as though his head hurt and made a new proposal.
“What about working while listening to the sirens’ song?”
-Blech!
-......
Parthenope ground the teeth.
If only the water would not overflow, Parthenope would have dropped those lumps into the lake!
“Hmm. Then what if I play for you?”
-That... Hmm. Can we request a song?
“No. And you may not sing along either.”
-Aww.
The giants were disappointed, but Lee Han remained unyielding.
The moment they sang along, the war between the two races would begin again.
After persuading one side, Lee Han returned to the sirens and spoke.
“I have agreed to play for them. This should be all right, correct?”
-......
Parthenope stared at Lee Han with eyes full of suspicion and distrust.
Come to think of it, had this mage not been the one who taught those giants that savage song last year!
Parthenope could not believe that such a person would play in their place. If they had to work while listening to horrible music, there was little difference whether the giants sang it or a human mage played it.
While the sirens were hesitating, Lee Han took out the ominous violin. At the sinister aura coming from it, the sirens became even more wary.
What kind of instrument was that...?!
Feeling the sirens’ gazes, Lee Han concentrated.
'I can do this. My skill has improved greatly as well.'
The only musical magic he could play was something like or , but considering the nature of musical magic, this was impressive enough.
More than anything, with musical magic, what mattered was how well one could play a single piece, not how many pieces one could play.
'I will play with all my heart!'
Just as he had gained inspiration for after witnessing the duel between the insane duplicate and the Skull Principal.
Lee Han played with the single-minded intention of mediating between the sirens and giants.
It was truly a magnificent march.
Even the giants, who had been trying to sing along quietly in secret, stared with their mouths hanging open, and the seniors who had been covering their ears quietly released their magic.
More than anyone else, the sirens were astonished.
A mage who lived alongside those stupid giants and possessed the culture and sensibilities of a giant could play something like that??
The intertwined mana, not merely the melody, drew in the people around them and breathed vitality into the work.
When the performance ended, the giants applauded excitedly. They were completely satisfied with a performance like this.
And only after the performance ended and Parthenope regained the senses did Parthenope ask a question without realizing it.
whatonearthisthatsong???
“It is the song the giants were singing earlier.”
-......
The sirens felt such shame at having been moved by a song like that that they wanted to bite their tongues.
***
The members of the capital’s stonemason guild who had visited Einroguard this time were responsible people.
As such, it was only natural that they were worried about this commission.
Carrying it out inside Einroguard already involved a certain degree of difficulty, yet the mages had boldly declared that they would shorten the schedule even further and finish it...
Unnecessary interference could be rude, so they had only offered advice, but they could not help worrying.
“Would it not be better to go and see?”
“We cannot do that. What if they misunderstand and think we do not trust the mages?”
It was not good to give mages too much freedom, but interfering too much was also rude.
Either one should not entrust the work to them, or once it had been entrusted, one had to have faith.
“Ah. A letter has arrived. It says they gathered the students as planned.”
“That is fortunate! Since they gathered as many Einroguard mages as they wanted, one could say they are already halfway to success.”
And some time later.
The next letter arrived.
“What does it say? They must have begun construction, correct? Considering the date, they should have started immediately.”
“...It says they borrowed the power of a dragon to clear the site and borrowed the power of giants to begin construction.”
“???”
Mages often wrote things in codes or metaphors so that knowledge could be passed only to those who sought it.
Could this perhaps be one of those cases as well?
“Well... We will know once we see the result later.”
And some time later.
The next letter flew in.
“Hand it over! I will read it this time. Hmm. The sirens are helping, so it seems the construction period will be shortened. They quarreled with the giants, but I reconciled them through a performance...”
“Are you playing a joke on me right now?”
“Read it yourself!”
The guild member, who thought the colleague was joking, snatched away the letter and read through it.
Then the guild member spoke.
“...Let us go and see it ourselves.”
All the guild members nodded.
Customs and everything else aside, this truly seemed impossible to endure without seeing it with their own eyes.