"Master, you should take a rest."
A knight wearing shiny silver saluted to an old man, the latter was sitting on a wooden crate, unperturbed by the freezing wind.
"I would love to." Simon smiled, his face was written with wrinkles that spoke of a harsh life.
"But, right now we're on a mission."
"I understand." The knight's tone was nothing but respect.
"However, you're a String Master, a valuable asset to the Kingdom."
"I'm afraid any harm you might ingest, physical or mental, is a dereliction of our duty as knights."
"Hahaha!" Simon laughed with the utmost of his heart.
"You think too highly of me, young man."
"I'm a failure if anything, I just happened to be born with an Instrument, yet wasted all my life to only achieve the second stage of String Mastery."
He stood up, careful enough to not hurt his back, as he picked up a greataxe etched with silver runes with ease.
"I'm just a little more useful than a bum… just a little."
"Master?" The knight stood confused, seeing the old String Master take up arms.
"Tell everyone to get in formation." Simon said.
"We have company."
***
Soul.
The immaterial essence, none could perceive it but String Masters.
Aurora opened his eyes, and was welcomed into a dark, infinite space.
Through a foundational Tuning technique called [Inner Vision], a String Master was able to look inside the dimensionless space within their soul.
Normally, nothing resides here. Yet through progression, a String Master could eventually control this space for their personal needs. A prime example was to use it as a pocket dimension and store their belongings, safe and secure.
A God could even make a new world inside their soul, Aurora had one, but he lost it all due to this space coming from only a fragment of his soul.
Now, floating about five meters away from Aurora, was the only thing remained—
An Instrument.
He walked on the darkness, step by step, as he extended his hand out when the Instrument became within reach.
'Long had passed since I last saw you…'
Hovering softly in his pale palm, was a serpent with black scales currently in slumber. The moment Aurora laid eyes on it, countless memories began to rewind in his mind.
This serpent was the first Instrument he had, blessed to him at birth. He felt its presence when he was five, and was able to use [Inner Vision] just a year later.
However, he did not tell anyone about it. The world was unstable then, with war happening more than times he could be fed. Becoming a String Master was a one way ticket to the battlefield, with no return.
Young Aurora despised war, he only wanted to spend time with his family. Therefore, going against the potential fame and glory, he hid his identity of being a String Master.
Even from his best friend.
But, although he refrained from practicing Tuning, he somehow continued to grow stronger. Only after a certain event had he learned, his Instrument was special, and was able to feed on lies to enhance its grade.
There were three fundamentals of Instrument knowledge: Stage, Type and Grade.
Stage determined what level of mastery your Instrument had progressed to, and grade highlighted the quality of your Instrument, with the lowest grade being [Common] and all the way to [Divine].
A String Master who possessed a low grade Instrument could never hope to achieve greatness, as grade decides the potential of your growth.
Aurora carefully reached out his other hand, and gently poked the sleeping serpent on its head.
As if it had known it'd been called, the serpent had woken from its slumber. After carefully releasing it back on the ground, it began to swim around curiously.
Aurora knew that after all these years of hiding its existence away from others, even from the God of Fate which became the success for his return, had the serpent finally reached the maximum grade possible — Divine from feeding on countless lies.
Another proof for his Instrument's divineness was evident from its appearance, black like shadows, similar to his soul space.
Although Aurora never possessed a divine Instrument in his past life, but Kael had three, and he once said:
"A divine grade Instrument would inherit its color from their master's soul, it's strange really, but I guess that's what made them unique from the others."
'Where were we when he said that…'
'Oh, right. We had a barbeque at the Mountaintop…'
Slowly, Aurora opened his eyes again.
He was back in the cave, along with two dead bodies that began to release a gruesome aroma.
Right now, he wanted to shift his attention on surviving, as it had been days since this body had last savoured a rock hard bread.
The previous owner of this body, along with those grave robbers, were not treated kindly in the army, and they ended up becoming severely malnourished.
Which was why when the short man lost his hand, he had soon passed out from the loss of blood, when it would've usually taken minutes.
But before finding food, he needed to vomit.
"Blech! Blech!"
This new body of his was not yet trained to witness murder, on top of that, it was so weak, so weak!
Aurora held dearly to that page of diary in one hand, and used the wall for navigation and support with his remaining hand as he slowly moved towards the entrance of his tomb.
As he walked, his thoughts lingered back onto his old, yet brand new Instrument.
It was never his intention to keep it hidden for this long, since it started with a [Common] grade, he simply had thought of waiting until it advanced to [Epic] before using it, but this "feeding on lies to enhance" attribute would've been deactivated the moment it had performed its first Remnant Art.
However, his plans did not keep up with changes. He and Kael went on a journey, and he soon found a second Instrument with the inherent grade of [Rare] before his first even reached [Uncommon].
Because there's no limit to how many Instruments you could possess, naturally, Aurora had no use for his first Instrument.
As time went on, he fought, lived and progressed. Two Instruments turned into ten, ten then into twenty. By the time he became God, he already had more than two hundred Instruments residing in his soul.
And the more Instruments he had, the less of a need he had for his first Instrument. Although its grade had slowly advanced, without practising Tuning with it, it was still in Stage I of mastery.
'How ironic, the Instrument which had the most potential, was not even used once in my past life.'
'Or as Kael would say:—'
Suddenly, a voice started to surface beside him.
No, it wasn't just one…
A mix of voices from at least hundreds; it had cries, roars and howls as if from the bottom of hell.
It was the echo of war.
As he approached the entrance, the voices became louder, clearer, and Aurora realised it had come from below.
The cave was located at the edge of a mountain, below it was originally a field covered in snow, but now etched with corpses, ash and blood.
"Hold the defence!" Aurora could hear one man amidst the chaos. His voice spread far and wide, which appeared instantly to him it was an act of Tuning.
Aurora knew from the memories of the young boy, that man he heard was the only String Master in that army — Simon.
He was a professor at the most prestigious Academy in the Kingdom, because he dedicated his life towards String research, he sacrificed his chance of practising Tuning, making him the oldest String Master to only advance to Stage II.
But that was all he knew from the gossip of others. Although the young boy wasn't kept in a cage, who would share more details with a slave?
"DO NOT FALL BACK!!!" Simon sliced off the head of a creature with swift motion.
"These String Monsters are matriarchal! Find out the location of their Queen!!!"
Aurora watched as a loathsome looking beast devoured a knight, its appearance as if multiple animals were merged together in the most vile process possible.
These are String Monsters, just like String Masters, they were animals who too have possessed an Instrument.
A horde of them were hard to come by, especially if led by a Queen. Aurora fell deep in confusion, not because of their existence, but timing.
Right now he was at his most vulnerable state as he had ever been in this life, and after puberty in his past life.
'Surely, Kael did not put a curse on me… right?'
He simply stood in place, watching silently as the battle unfolds. He did not have a lot of time left before his body gave up, even so, Aurora chose to spectate instead of taking matters into his own hands.
He needed a plan, a plan revolving around his new ability and enfeebled state.
'An divine Instrument that had fed on lies… what could your power be?'
Suddenly, his attention was shifted in an instant, towards the direction where someone had shouted:
"It's the Queen!"
Simon, too, reacted simultaneously to the call. He rushed towards the scene with superhuman speed, the Queen was triple the size of a normal String Monster, so it was easy to spot.
Without hesitation, Simon leaped high in the air. The silver runes etched on his greataxe began to glow, its luminance brightened the twilight—
And with a powerful strike, he delivered a devastating blow onto the torso of the Queen beast.
The surrounding knights and String Monsters were blown away by the sheer force the impact had created, when the dust of snow had calmed down, one could see that the attack had only left a small scar on the Queen.
"I knew it would be tougher than that…" Simon laughed a little.
The Queen had a torso of snake, wide wings of ravens and a head — if one could call it that, a "head" of a rose.
A bloody, gruesome looking rose.
Undoubtedly, it had been outraged by the attack. Its wings clapped with tremendous force, also creating a shock wave that knocked Simon back.
Immediately, it followed attacks with precision. The raven wings, although looking feather-like, each "feather" was sharp as blades. Consecutive after consecutive hits, it made unignorable cuts to the snowy ground, slicing the battlefield in pieces.
Some Simon could dodge, others had left slight wounds on him.
Panicking, he grabbed the sword of a deceased knight, and charged right in. After elegantly avoiding the wings, he was able to retrieve back his greataxe that was carved into the beast's body.
In the same wound he had left with the greataxe, he drove the sword right in. Immediately, the Queen bursted into fury from the pain.
Yet Simon did not stop there. Using the sword handle as a springboard, he leaped even higher this time, to the point where his shoulder was on the same elevation as the beast's head.
"You little shit… Go to hell!" As soon as his words landed, so did his greataxe. Giant petals of roses fell to the ground, with purple blood flying all over the snow.
The moment its monstrous body had collapsed, it served as the bell for this battle. The Knights spirit became more heightened, and the remaining String Monsters fled in all directions.
"Did… we win?"
Just as Simon was washed by relaxation, he felt a deep sense of unnerve. In an instant, he struck behind him, trusting his instinct.
Only for the tail of the beast to arrive faster, and teared off his arm holding the greataxe.
The Queen was still alive.
Its condition was grave, yet still alive.
Refused to give up, Simon was about to give his final command—
If not for what he had witnessed next that made him feel as if the world had stopped.
A young boy, hands drenched in blood, appeared from nowhere and was slowly approaching the beast from behind.
Simon recognised him straight away, it was the slave boy he had sent to that tomb.
'How is he still alive?' was the thought that immediately came to his mind, yet what's more worth questioning was, why hadn't the beast detected his presence?
The Queen of any String Monsters were known for their exceptional awareness skills, yet it was as if he was invisible, step by step, the boy shortened their distance without meeting any attacks from the beast.
And when he finally reached it, he simply laid his hands on the cold scale of the torso, and walked right past the Queen.
The beast in all of a sudden, as if losing its vision — or whatever the sense that helped it perceive the environment, it began to look around bewilderedly.
As the giant rose, acting as its head began to wither with unnatural speed, finally, it had collapsed onto the snow carpet.
Simon froze in place from what had just unfold.
Just as he was about to speak, the boy had broken the silence first.
"Master, let's get you some aid first, we can talk inside the campsite."
"...Yeah." Simon stood up, careful enough to not stimulate his wound. Although he didn't show it, he was annoyed by the way the boy had addressed him.
He was a mere slave, yet decided to talk without permission. However, from what had just happened, that boy could be treated as a slave no longer.
The way he behaved, the Queen beast had behaved, showed no reason that could be explained by science.
'That tomb had kept an Instrument… As much as I hate to admit, this boy is now in the same position as me.'
Simon gazed back at the boy as they headed toward his camp, with several other knights accompanying them who had just got back on their feet.
'A slave must bear hatred towards our society. This boy in particular, had his entire family slaughtered by our soldiers during war, I could only imagine his resentment…'
'He can not step foot in our Kingdom…'
"May I ask for some food and water?"
"Slience, you slave!" A knight pushed the young boy to the ground.
"How dare—"
"How dare you!" Simon shouted.
"Release him at once! He saved my life just then, bring him food and water, for from now on he is no longer a slave!"
"...Yes, Master."
The commotion had written confusion on the faces of knights, yet they did not dare to question the decision of a String Master.
However, just before they left, one knight saw Simon staring directly at him. The String Master nodded once, then continued forward.
After some time, the young boy was covered in a fur blanket inside a warm tent, devouring the food that was prepared for him.
"Do you have a name, boy?" Simon asked from across the table.
"Aurora." The boy answered mumbled, his mouth filled with greasy meat.
"Aurora… nice name." Simon exhaled deeply.
"Is there something you would like, Aurora? I would like to thank you for saving me back there."
The boy stopped stuffing his mouth with food like a squirrel, and flushed everything down with some water.
"May I have a letter of recommendation to the Academy you work at, Master…?"
"Academy?" Simon frowned.
"You want to go to school?"
"Certainlly, but as a professor, not student." Aurora nodded.
"In addition, I would also like to ask if you could not kill me?"
"Afterall, I am your mother's sister's uncle's cousin's daughter's grandmother's neighbour's ex-wife's child. We are practically cousins."
"What—" Simon stood up in fury, yet collapsed on to the floor.
'This—This is mind distortion, no, something worse!'
He felt as if his brain was stabbed, although he activated his protection spell, the pain would not fade.
"If I was still the young slave, you would be right to assume I carry great resentment towards your Kingdom." Aurora went back to eating.
"So, killing me would be appropriate. You wouldn't want a String Master full of hatred to wander around the city."
"What…" Simon struggled to even stand, his eyes ran rivers of blood from resisting the spell.
"We… We never had thought of harming you…"
"Lies." Aurora grabbed a turkey leg, trialing his finger on its gold, crispy skin, as if drawing something.
Then, a faint, near unnoticeable purple cloud began to emerge from the meat.
"The powers of Tuning never fails to amaze me." Aurora waved the leg lightly.
"With a simple spell, you could prevent being poisoned by those with ill intentions."
"AHH!" Simon screamed, reaching for his greataxe furiously before striking the young boy.
The attack landed, slicing everything apart. Yet Aurora successfully dodged at the last second, he stood up calm, and his voice spread softly.
"Don't resist, don't fight the lie. Write me a letter of recommendation, for I am your cousin, and your pain will fade."
"I had also casted a silent spell around this tent, no one could hear you."
Simon roared, his fist full of power, driving into the table full of food. The force sent everything flying, the tent cover lifted, and cold air began to invade.
"AH! AHHHH! A—As you wish, my dear cousin."
Simon went to his desk, and soon finished writing the letter.
Suddenly, several knights rushed into the tent, with one of them shouted:
"Master, are you alright?"
To their surprise, the young boy who they thought would've died from the poison, was standing unharmed and staring at them emotionless, as if looking at a group of corpses.
"Simon." The knights only heard him say:
"The traitors of the Kingdom are here. You are to hold this line of defence until your last breath, kill everything you see! Knights and String Monsters, intruders all!"
"For I am your cousin, the one you need to protect, Aurora."