Chapter 181: (Side Story) The Legendary Bard [1/2]

The only interest he took in the game 'Living Jade Empire' at first, was that his adoptive son played it.

They had come into each other's lives late, but Ryuske felt that that just made the time that they spent together even more important, so he made an effort to take interest in the things Shinichi was interested in. The boy who had been a head shorter than him at their meeting was now a head taller, and counted as an adult throughout most of the world, so Ryuske was actually a little surprised that Shinichi still lived with him. Not at all displeased, just surprised.

When Shinichi told him about the cursed or haunted harp that he and his girlfriend had run into, Ryuske had only thought that it was a bit cool that the game had included musical legends among it's story line. And then Shinichi had mentioned that the harp had been forcing the players hands into the motions of playing it, with its promise to teach the player to master the harp. Ryuske hadn't tried VR yet, but he'd listened to Shinichi's amazed descriptions, and he was suddenly very curious about whether or not this game was actually teaching music.

Shinichi had to reset his VR system so that Ryuske could try it. He felt a little bad about that, but Shinichi was eager to share the experience and insisted that he didn't mind. He even advised Ryuske to submit his accounts with those music apps that he used that were published by gaming companies for 'Living Jade Empire' Karma. Ryuske felt a little smug about the surprise Shinichi showed when he discovered how many of those there were, and how large of a Karma balance those years of use had given Ryuske.

Ryuske was surprised by how 'Living Jade Empire' felt through VR. Old age had crept up a while ago, and had been making his body creak and pop ever since. While he was in good health for his age, he wasn't free of the little accumulated pains that time gifted one with, to remember the experiences by. But in this virtual reality, he felt young.

He paced around the Emperor's throne room experimentally, using the excuse of examining the different races portrayed as paintings on the walls. His reflection in the tall mirror that stood beside the throne showed the same aging figure that he saw in the mirror at home, but, he flexed his fingers again, he was free to move more easily than he had in years.

He asked the Emperor if his body could reflect the youth his mind felt from it here. The Emperor obliged, but the face in the mirror looked subtly wrong. It was still obviously recognizably him, it just, didn't seem quite like the face he remembered. He asked to see himself as different races instead, stipulating only that the character must have hands dextrous enough and of a size to play the harp.

The elven version made him laugh. He'd been considered attractive in his youth, but he'd never really seen himself that way. The elf looked the way fans had described him. Inhumanly beautiful, with the long hair that he hadn't worn in well over half a century.

He chose it. The smooth skin and bright eyes looked as young as he felt here, and the long pointed ears made the unfamiliar but familiar face feel more normal, like a costume or stage make-up. Having chosen his skin he headed out to the beginner's vale.

The vale beneath the vast tree looked familiar from his time watching Shinichi start the game about a year before. He chose a character name that obliquely referenced both himself and the band that he'd poured most of his life into, Mirage. Ryuske's illusion, Ryullusion, it sounded a bit like real illusion.

Since he knew the path that he wanted to follow in this virtual life, that of the bard, he was able to progress fairly quickly. He found that he was really looking forward to meeting Shinichi's girlfriend too. The boy had been talking about her pretty regularly for months now, even though they'd only very recently actually begun dating outside the game.

He was a little shocked to discover that she was playing the tiny dragon with sparkly fairy wings. He'd actually seen her quite often on Shinichi's screen before, and she'd been there the one time that he'd been asked to log into Shinichi's character and move it to a better spot. He just hadn't connected the cute little character to the cute green eyed girl that Shinichi had described. The little dragon did have green eyes and rounded cheeks though.

Hearing her talk about "your son" and say things like "he said his dad" was another shock. There were none of the "adoptive" qualifiers that most people used either. Shinichi's closest friends knew him as Ryuske, as Shinichi had more formally addressed him for the first couple of years. It made him feel very emotional.

He forgot about all of that when he met the harp though. And that's literally what happened. The harp was definitely the haunted variety, not cursed. The ghost within the harp was still awake when they found it, and it offered to teach him right away.

Shinichi had told him that as a bard he should be able to put it into his inventory. He hadn't expected to be able to accept its challenge right away. But it really offered, and so he accepted without thinking of the consequences. When the NPC and ZipZing, the little dragon that Shinichi's girlfriend played, began to circle him he realized his mistake.

The girl quickly rescued herself and the NPC, and he was relieved until the animals and then more NPCs were drawn into the circle. It was difficult to be very concerned about the game characters though, because the ghost had already begun both its story and its teaching.

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