CHAPTER 84: TO A PLAY

Once Lucen woke up, it was already quite late. So, after thanking Faust once more, they headed back to the Thornehart mansion.

As they were walking through the lower districts, somehow it felt different from what it was during the day.

Unlike the upper districts, the lower ones had only a few mana lamps and still relied heavily on torches.

The blend of mana lamp glow and torchlight gave the streets a strangely charming look. You get the gentle light of the mana lamp and the warmth of the torch.

The scent was also slightly different, as there was a mix of ale and some form of perfume. Lucen could see several drunkards already. There were also people getting into fights, but the main difference between the day and night in the lower district was the women.

There were several women with a bit of make-up wearing rather seductive clothing. He could see them enticing men, and his three bodyguards quickly moved to block his view of them.

"Well, not like you’re too young for this stuff," Harlik said, half-laughing. "But I’m betting your Father would want your first time to be in better company than this lot."

"Young master, despite their allure, you must not take them. Many here look like flowers but are, in truth, they are snakes that would devour everything until you have nothing left." Sir Thalos spoke as he continued onward.

"You sound like you’ve got some experience, Sir Thalos," Mark teased with a grin.

"I, too, was young once," Thalos replied with a nostalgic smile.

Lucen couldn’t help but chuckle at their antics. Even though he wasn’t that much of a ladies’ man in his past life, he remembered having several relationships despite being something of an otaku, so it’s not like he was innocent.

The group quickly moved through the lower districts. There was more activity now than there was during daylight. Even a few merchants were selling some random things.

’Better check that out next time.’

"Young master, did you notice? There are more flies now than before."

"Of course, there are. I sent everyone in the Caelhart a message. Now a lot of eyes are on me."

’This is preparation. It’s to show those b*stards hiding in the dark, waiting to strike, that the Thornehart household is not about to fall. If they still dare come, I’ll put holes in all of them.’

***

Upon returning to the Thornehart estate, Lucen was made to report everything that happened in the underground arena to his father, Vardon.

It didn’t take long for Lucen to finish recounting the events of the tournament. Vardon nodded his head in approval.

"You have upheld your honor as Thornehart."

That was all Vardon said, and the conversation with him ended, or so Lucen thought, but Vardon asked him a question.

"What will you be doing tomorrow?"

"I wanted to watch a play."

"A play?" Vardon was surprised to hear such an answer. He never expected his son, who seemed focused on strengthening himself and getting ready for battle, to want to watch a play.

"Yes, I’m quite interested in them. In the north, the only entertainment we have is training and listening to bards. There’s also the Territory War I invented, but I wanted to know if the plays were interesting to watch."

When Vardon heard Lucen’s answer, he remembered that his son, just two years ago, was a sickly young man who only trained and never went out.

’I truly am a failure as a father. I wish you were here with us, Veyra...’

"Do you need money to watch the play?"

"I have enough money from the underground arena."

"... What kind of play are you going to watch?"

"I don’t really know. I haven’t checked what kinds of play are happening right now."

The second Vardon heard what his son said, he was stunned for a moment and then sighed.

Vardon was once again reminded that, despite Lucen’s intelligence, his way of dealing with things made him seem like he knew more than he let on. He is a child with little experience of the outside world.

"My son, plays just don’t happen every day. There might not be a play tomorrow."

Lucen was visibly shocked. In his past life, he had been to a few plays, and they happened every day. So he thought that it was the same in this fantasy medieval world. Seeing Lucen’s reaction, Vardon sighed.

"If you wish to see a play tomorrow, we can arrange for that, but it will be a private play."

Hearing his father’s suggestion, Lucen started thinking about it.

"... There’s no need for that, if there is no play tomorrow, then I’ll just do something else."

"Is that so..."

With that, the conversation between father and son ended. When Lucen exited the room, Sir Thalos was there waiting for him.

"Young master, the fried chicken you wanted has been prepared."

Lucen headed to the dining room, where the chefs made a lot of different styles of fried chicken as requested. Lucen ate a few, and as he expected, none of them were like the ones in his past life.

’I guess this is good enough for now.’ Lucen thought to himself as he continued eating.

Once he was done, he told the servants that they could eat the remaining food if they wished to. After that, he headed straight to his room, and even though he had just woken up, the second he got into his room, he fell asleep.

***

Unlike when he was in Faust’s house, Lucen did not have any more dreams and woke up the next day feeling refreshed. After cleaning himself up, he was about to look around the city to see if there was any play about to start, when someone came into his room.

"Lucen! Why did you go to the underground arena and fight, instead of continuing to experiment with me?!"

Of course, it was none other than Robert who came into his room uninvited. He was looking at Lucen with fiery eyes.

"Well, I got to exercise, get some money, and even learned a secret technique," Lucen replied while shrugging his shoulders.

"Did you say secret technique?" Robert, who was upset a while ago, changed his mood quickly. "What kind of secret technique is it?"

"It’s a technique that enhances one’s aura, mana, and other bodily functions for a short burst. Once you end the technique, your body will feel like it was torn apart."

"Show me," Robert quickly said.

"Sorry, I don’t want to."

"Come on, show me just once."

"No," Lucen replied flatly.

"Why?!"

"Using that technique is painful, and I don’t want to use it. Also, I have other things I want to do."

"Other things? Are you going to that barbaric underground arena again? I just can’t understand you, Lucen. You have such a wonderful mind, but you keep on holding yourself back with all these distractions like training and fighting."

Robert kept on complaining for a while. Once he was done, Lucen was finally able to talk again.

"I’m not going to the underground arena, I want to watch a play."

"A play?... Come now, Lucen. At least when you went to the underground arena, you got something from it. In a play, simply watching others act doesn’t get you anything."

"Didn’t you say something similar about Territory War?"

"That’s entirely different!"

"... Have you ever watched a play before?"

"No, I’m too busy trying to pry open the truths of the world."

"Are you really going to judge something you haven’t even tried doing before? What kind of alchemist does that?"

"Fine! I will come with you and see if watching plays is worth giving time to."

Now with Robert as company, Lucen headed out, and of course, Sir Thalos as his bodyguard came with him. This time, though, Lucen didn’t bring Harlik and Mark, since they said they were tired from morning training with Sir Thalos.

***

The trio headed out of the Thornehart mansion, and similar to the previous day, the second they stepped out of the mansion, they could already feel the presence of numerous spies following them.

Unlike yesterday, these spies were not even bothering to hide their presence much, and any competent knight would have noticed them. Sir Thalos clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Tsk, using these amateurs to hide the presence of the true spies, how irritating. Young master, are you sure we don’t need to at least warn these people not to be excessive?"

"If you want, I can capture a few of them. They should be good experimental subjects. I do have quite a few things I wanted to test out," Robert chimed in.

"There’s no need to do anything. It’s not like I’m trying to hide anything. Also, Robert, stop thinking about experimenting on people without their consent."

"Tsk, how can we advance if we hesitate to do such things?" Robert said while pouting a bit.

"We can find a way to advance without doing such things. Also, Sir Thalos, If they wish to follow us and watch a play, then they could do so," Lucen replied while shrugging his shoulders.

When Sir Thalos and Robert heard what Lucen said, they had nothing more to say and continued walking through the streets, no longer bothering with the spies following them.

The three then started asking around to see if there were any plays that were going to happen today. It turns out there were several theatres in the Caelhart, since many nobles like watching plays, as it was one of the few sources of entertainment.

It was true that there were days when a play was not held, but due to the number of theatres in the Caelhart, that happens fewer times than expected. Today, Lucen was lucky since there was a play that was about to start in an hour.

Despite it being last minute, the three of them were able to buy tickets to the play.