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The coachman was so experienced that Lucien did not feel the road bumpy at all.

Having lots issues troubling his mind, by the time Lucien stopped thinking, the coach was already in front of Lord Venn’s manor.

"Mr. Evans, we’ve arrived. Do you need me to tell the guards?" The coachman turned around and asked Lucien politely. An elegant gentleman usually did not talk to ordinary guards.

"No, thanks." Lucien smiled, "My friend is a squire here. We’re equal."

With his awakened Blessing, Lucien was only a step away from becoming a knight. However, in his mind, he and John were simply good friends, and there was no level or class difference between them.

It was Ian and Durago who were guarding the gate today. Immediately they puffed out their chests when they saw the fine coach with the coat of arms of Fire Bull, ready to welcome the guest.

They were very surprised when they saw Lucien again. They still remembered him: in their memory, Lucien was only a pauper who did not show much respect to them, and now in the white shirt and black suit, the young man looked like a decent noble.

They did not come to themselves until Lucien was standing in front of them, "So... sorry, are you looking for John?"

"Yes, please." Lucien did not recognize them.

When Ian was about to go into the manor, Durago asked with a bit hesitation, "Excuse me, sir. Are you... are you Mr. Evans?"

After the great success of the concert, even John, as a very moderate young man, could not help himself sharing what he knew about Lucien and all the praises his good friend received from the grand duke, the grand cardinal and princess.

"Yes, I’m John’s friend," answered Lucien.

"Your work, Fate, was played on Lord Venn’s banquet several days ago. It was fantastic!" Durago said to Lucien with great excitement, "I’m so sorry that I was being really rude to you."

This big tough guy was very sincere and excited. Lucien sort of recalled the conflict that happened between them before and was quite surprised that Durago was this enthusiastic about music.

Soon Lucien realized Aalto was indeed the City of Psalm.

"It’s okay. I’m glad you like my work," answered Lucien politely.

Standing beside Durago, Ian put on an embarrassed smile.

After the concert, Lucien experienced a big change in the way many people treated him. Durago’s sincere apology and all the flattering words triggered Lucien’s thought. The sudden upgrade in his social status turned what happened several months ago into a distant dream.

"Mr. Evans, can I invite you to my place?" asked Durago, rubbing his hands nervously with excitement.

Finding a random excuse, Lucien refused him politely, but he felt quite awkward.

Soon John came following Ian, looking a bit confused, "Lucien! I’m going back home later this afternoon. Has anything happened?"

"Yes, but it has been solved. No worries." Lucien pulled John’s arm, "Let’s get on the coach first."

The old coachman was smart enough to know that he should not be listening to the conversation. So he tied the horses firmly to the hitching post, walked away from the coach, and took out his tobacco under a big tree.

When John was listening to Lucien, his face darkened and his brows knotted. His knuckles turned white as he gripped his hands so tightly that his whole body was shaking. When he heard that his parents’ fingers were cut, his teeth were gnashing. However, John did not say even a single word. He remained silent and listened carefully.

"I’m terribly sorry, John," said Lucien, whose heart was full of guilt.

Lowering his head, John did not answer immediately.

Lucien knew that his friend needed some time to recover from his pain and great anger. So he remained silent with John.

After a while, John finally started to talk,

"Lucien, it’s not your fault. I don’t blame you."

That was the first thing John said to Lucien. Instead of venting his frustration, John chose to comfort his best friend to free him of his horrible guilt.

Lucien was quite surprised, and he was touched, "Thank you so much, John. What you just said means a lot to me."

When John was about to go back to ask for a longer leave from his duty, Lucien stopped him.

"Wait, John. Here’s twenty grams of Moonlight Rose dust." Lucien pulled out the small black bag and handed it over to his friend.

John had heard just now where did the Moonlight Rose come from. After more than ten seconds, he firmly took the small bag from Lucien’s hand.

"Thank you, Lucien. I’ll awake my Blessing. Only this way I can protect my family and friends," said John seriously.

"No rush. Follow Lord Venn’s instruction and take your time." Lucien nodded, "Also, can you keep this a secret? After all, I lied to the princess about how I got these roses."

"You know me, Lucien. I’m more reliable than a dead man." John patted his friend on the shoulder and promised seriously.

...

The arrival of the House Hayne’s coach caused a stir in Aderon, the poorest district in the whole city. Although most of them could not name all the coat of arms of the big families in Aalto, they still registered in mind those of the few most powerful noble families.

Joel, Alisa and Iven had been sent back home by the Church. The pastors did not find much valuable information with them.

Seeing John and Lucien getting off the coach, Iven suddenly burst out crying, as if the little boy was trying to wash away all the horrible memories with his tears.

John gently patted Iven’s head and gave him a firm hug, "It’s okay, now, Iven. You’re already a grown-up man and you did a great job. God bless us."

Lucien hugged Joel and Alisa. His apology, worry and joy were all in this big hug.

"It’s not your fault, Lucien." Joel and Alisa comforted him, "And you see... we’re fine now."

As the hostages of the vicious heretics, they did not expect that they could survive in the end. When they were saved, they were so grateful to the God of Truth that now they became even more understanding and tolerant. After all, nothing else really mattered when facing death.

Then Alisa and Joel told Lucien what the Church and the intelligence department of the duchy questioned them. The thing that concerned the pastors and the intelligence the most was why Alisa and Joel passed out outside of the cell, but were found by the knight inside of the cell later.

As the great thunder caused by lady Camil’s power knocked them out instantly, no hostages present could provide any valuable information. In the end, the people from the Church and the intelligence department were guessing that it was probably because the heretics first locked the hostages back in case they would escape, and later on they did not have enough time to come back and kill them all.

"We got really lucky there. Thank God!" Drying her eyes, Alisa was telling Lucien the story.

At this time, there came a knock on the door.

It was Corella and a church guard that Lucien did not know.

Lucien was a bit more relieved seeing that the Church only sent a knight squire there, which meant he was not really suspicious to the Church.

After a short and regular investigation, Corella stood up and thanked Lucien on behalf of the Church, "The bishop appreciated what you did. Without your information, we would have suffered a greater loss."

Lucien’s musician identity made it almost impossible for the Church to draw a link between Professor and the princess’ personal consultant. However, there were still some coincidences which involved Lucien that they were unable to explain right now.

...

Lucien finally came back to his normal life, busy with studying music and magic. He also asked Joel and his family to move into his new house temporarily, since Gesu was way safer than Aderon.

In these days, Lucien did not take even a single glance at the broken wall where he usually left secret messages to communicate with the apprentices. To be prudent, he also left aside his plan of destroying his magic lab for the time being.

This day Victor started to teach them "canon", a contrapuntal compositional technique that employed a melody with imitations of it played after a given duration.

With just a few rules, even beginners could achieve much with canon.

"Actually, you’ve subconsciously employed cannon in your Symphony of Fate, Lucien," commented Victor. "It looks like you learned a lot in the library of the association."

"Um... yes, I guess. Thank you, Mr. Victor," answered Lucien, a bit absent-minded.

His mind was occupied by the thought that he needed to come up with enough music works for holding a concert to meet Rhine’s requirement. Eighty years ago, someone produced a piece of music work which was very similar to the well-known Pachelbel’s Canon, or Canon and Gigue in D, in his original world. However, he could still rewrite Pachelbel’s Canon into a piece of piano concerto.

Although he still needed some more "original" pieces of music for a personal concert, recomposing was definitely the best time-saving way for Lucien to have his repertoire as soon as possible.