Chapter 40

And then the song flowed.

“Along the sacred stream,

That calmly here is flowing;

Enlivened by the songs of birds among the pines.”

At that moment, Hans’s arm, which had been holding Aria tightly bound, flinched and trembled.

‘Are you singing in this situation?’

Is this kid going crazy because she was terrified?

However, the absurd feelings faded as the cold air melted away in an instant.

She sings very well….

“On we’ll ride away;

On the stream we’ll ride away;”

The melodies that were softly wrapped around his ears continued as if flowing through a river.

Then the snake stopped towering.

To be precise, the eyes of the prey, which were controlling the snake’s behavior, became hazy. And he blinked his eyes.

Now, as if he didn’t know what he was doing here.

“Through wavelets shimm’ring brightly,

Carelessly rowing lightly,

We’ll reach soon the steeps”

A song of peace.

It was a song that made one lose all their intentions to kill in an instant.

Even people in a hostile relationship could temporarily hold hands.

“Where warble the birds sprightly.

May the god, keep you from dangers,”

The melodies that soared to the limit fall from the sky like spring flowers dancing in the wind.

Hans stretched out his hand into the empty air.

‘I have a mission to do….’

A gentle melody that gently embraces his whole body.

He felt strangely drained. He obviously didn’t have time to delay until earlier and thought he had to move quickly.

Soon it didn’t matter.

“Till we arrive at the pool just in view,

Where wild swans, those snowy wing’d strangers,”

He didn’t want to do anything.

He just wants to stay in this place and listen to this song endlessly.

This place…..

But where is this place?

Ah, Valentine Grand Duchy.

‘What about that.’

Valentine.

He used to think they were evil and meant to kill, but he doesn’t feel any hostility anymore, and he doesn’t feel like fighting at all.

“Come and join we their meeting!

Ah! come join we their meeting!”

Hans had no choice but to let go of the hand holding Aria.

***

“Why do people split sides and fight and start wars? It would be nice to get along like us.”

Hans, who decided to be a pacifist as of today, muttered lamentably as he tucked his chin.

And the prey of the rat sitting quietly next to him nodded his head as if in agreement.

“You’re on a mission to kidnap me?”

Aria asked a question.

“Huh. I was going to make a threat after paralyzing you with a taxidermist. By offering an antidote, that doesn’t exist, as a condition.”

Then Hans spit out all the truth without hesitation and was speechless himself.

“What the hell of a third-class villain idea is this? Whose idea is this?”

The prey then stared at Hans. Hans murmured as if he had remembered it too late.

“Ah… it was me.”

“…”

“I was the third-rate villain.”

The pacifist Hans looked quite shocked by his personality.

‘It’s my song, but it’s really…’

Sometimes it’s scary to see.

Aria wondered how he would react the moment he regained his sanity. She was convinced that he would spit out swear words out of great anger and shame.

“No antidote?”

“No. It’s still unfinished.”

Then, after 5 years of wandering in the dark on the gutter, it seemed that the taxidermist would be completed.

“It’s not a real snake, is it?”

“Chimera. A created creature.”

“Chimera…..”

Aria thought about it for a moment.

It was kind of weird.

Even though it was his master’s command to keep(?) snakes in his body, he couldn’t show an intention to attack her.

It was because it was a life that was not born naturally.

‘That means you were trying to use an unfinished poison for me that didn’t even have a proper antidote.’

She thought so and looked down at the jaguar in her arms.

Had it not been for this child, she would have been dragged into the gutter by now, and she would have been used as a threat till her death.

She is conscious, but her body is frozen like a doll, and she is unable to move.

She can’t do anything

‘It’s as terrible as a previous life.’

Aria looked around her. She wanted to dig further, but alas, before the crowds flocked, she had to decide how to deal with this.

“Are you going to hand us over to the guards like this?”

But she didn’t want to. She was almost attacked, and she didn’t want to let it go that easily.

‘More than anything else, the gutter rat.’

Even if she hands those two over to the security guards, the gutter rats won’t take any damage.

She couldn’t leave them like this.

‘Perhaps it was because of Vincent’s case that they had proper vindictiveness… ‘

Shouldn’t they be properly informed of what will happen if they make hasty tricks?

“Are you of high rank in the gutter?”

Then he put his hand on his waist as if she was asking the obvious and answered confidently.

“Of course. I’m trusted too, and I have quite a few younger brothers.”

It seemed so.

He came up with a seemingly dangerous plan to infiltrate Valentine’s Castle and kidnap the fiance of the Grand Prince himself, and even put it into practice.

“It means that I am confident in my skills and that I am being trusted.”

He doesn’’t sound like someone who always does things imperfectly everytime.

‘That prey must have been selected for its ability to hold taxidermist in the body, and the limb was…’

Aria glanced at Hans up and down.

He suddenly appeared out of the emptiness where there was no one and knocked her down. She felt the flow of magic overflowing the moment he touched Aria’s hand.

‘He must be a wizard.’

That’s pretty outstanding too. Though he never rebelled and he was beaten by a song of peace, because he had no idea that Aria was a Siren.

“Then let the pacifists do this.”

“Huh? What does that mean…”

Aria remembered the song she once sang to be engraved in the soul.

“Love is a rebellious bird.”

And she started singing.

A song that makes the opponent completely obey.

It was an enchanting song.

***

“Miss! I came running after hearing that you were alone… Uwaaak!”

Carlin, who quickly put out the fire and ran to the garden, screamed.

Because Aria was lying on the grass and she was babbling. Next to her was the jaguar, groaning as it bit her hem to somehow put her in a safe place.

But it seemed impossible to even carry her on its back as Aria couldn’t lift a single finger.

“What the hell is this!”

The shaman was startled and grabbed her quickly.

And he looked thoroughly. Her body was limp as if she had run out of energy, but it didn’t look like anything was wrong.

He was relieved in his heart.

The fire broke out at a coincidental timing, and he ran, just in case, but it was fortunate that nothing happened.

“Thank you. My body suddenly lost strength and I couldn’t move.”

“Wait, did you suddenly become like this while walking?”

He stuttered, pale white. He was making an expression that he did not know that such a glass-like body existed in the world.

Aria added one more word, ‘would that be possible?’.

“You know. I can now sing a song of healing.”

She smiled faintly as she turned her gaze to the healthy jaguar.

It was detoxified before the body was completely hardened with the taxidermist’s poison, so there will be no particular aftereffects.

“Yes? How? No, wait… Didn’t I tell you not to use your powers until you’re all better!”

You used your powers forcibly and this is what happened! I knew it!

Carlin groaned, screaming and nagging.

When Aria, who had been attacked in her eardrum, made a groaning sound, his voice soon diminished.

“You’re in a strangely good condition after something like that? Your energy is pretty stable…”

“I borrowed Carlin’s energy last time, but once I made a passage, it was easier from there.”

It was absurd.

She succeeded in using someone else’s power once, and then succeeded in managing the energy entirely with her own power?

‘Are you saying that you only hear the theory once and apply it at once without trial and error?’

What kind of genius do you have to be to be able to do that?

Carlin stuck out his tongue without saying a word.

‘Is this how other people feel when they see me?’ he thought to himself.

Aria was beyond the scope of understanding him, who prides himself on being a genius.

“Why did you suddenly sing a song of healing?”

Carlin didn’t ask, but he looked around for a moment.

Seeing Aria’s condition, he was so startled that it was too late to realize.

‘.. it smells bad?”

It was too terrible to the point of wanting to vomit, and it was an unpleasant stench as if something unpleasant was sticking to the whole body.

He knew this smell very well.

The smell of the gutter.

“No way, a gutter rat is here? Did they leave?”

Aria looked up at him with a look of how he knew that.

She sniffed a few times and noticed.

It was an incredible dog nose.

“No, his limb.”

“What?!”

Carlin was stunned at those words.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier!”

“I took care of it on my own?”

“Oh my God….”

He was speechless, so he stopped and touched his forehead.

It looked like Aria had no realization that she was ten years old. Even if she had a side effect of knowing the future, that doesn’t mean she becomes an adult.

“So there’s a fire, and the lady sings a healing song… What the hell happened… Ah, am I finally getting killed by my employer?”

I knew this day would come, Carlin murmured.

He was speaking with a serious face.

“No, I’m going to keep it a secret that the gutter side sneaked in.”

“No, you don’t have to. Of course I’m going to get killed, but they’re aiming for the Miss who will be the Grand Duchess of Valentine. As an example, they should be punished.”

The shaman answered sharply.

He hated seeing the gutter rat more than dying because the rats looked down on Valentine.

“I’ll blow up the gutter!”

Carlin, who was thought to be rational, sounded like Tristan and Lloyd for a moment.

Aria thought to herself, ‘It seems like you’re a Valentine too’

“You know what self-destruction means?”

“How can I not know.”

“Self-destruction?”

“Why are you suddenly acting like an idiot?”

Aria shook her head and added,

“It’ll going to be like that soon.”

[Lyrics quote: ‘Flower Duet’ from Delibes’ opera Lakmé]