741 The Way to Polish the Blood Power (1/2)

A beautiful melody echoed in the restaurant. The peaceful and tranquilizing notes calmed everybody down. However, no band could be seen in the room. There was only one magic gramophone that was slowly spinning a resin disc on a table next to the wall.

After several minutes, the music was over, and the disc had reached the end. The servant nearby hurried to change a new one.

As the music echoed again, John put down his fork and said to Lucien in mixed feelings, ”The common resin disc can only record several minutes of music. It can barely accommodate a complete symphony unless the pure-magic discs of higher levels are adopted, but they will be unaffordable for ordinary people in such a case.”

He did not forget his past and therefore paid much attention to the life of the ordinary people.

”The problem is that ordinary people cannot even afford the magic gramophone.” Lucien cut the foie gras while he joked. ”But of course, the pure-magic discs are indeed expensive. They are almost equal to the level-two alchemical items. The small nobles can only buy one of them occasionally and use the resin discs most of the time. However, it shouldn't be a problem in Viscount Wesley's house.”

Because the simplification was based on magic, Lucien did not have a mature plan and could only redesign the magic circles from scratch. He had to achieve his purpose step by step.

After being nominated as a manager of the Musicians' Association in Rentato, Joel was so rejuvenated that he seemed to have stopped aging. ”However, the small nobles are much greater in number. Also, since most restaurants are using them, the resin discs are the unquestionable mainstream nowadays. It is an important source of income for most musicians. Therefore, it appears to me that they are more and more inclined to create simple songs with only a duration of several minutes. It is both easy and pays well.”

Unlike in Aalto, the musicians of Rentato did not have many concert opportunities. Their income mostly came from the service for the nobles in the past as the music consultants or teachers for the nobles. After the magic gramophone was invented, they got another important source of income, which was song royalties. According to the sales of the resin discs and magic discs that recorded their music, they would earn a certain ratio of money.

Thanks to the ”patent fee” that was applied to magic exchange and usage earlier, and since Mr. Atom Controller was himself a great musician, the sorcerers did not quite reject the royalties. Besides separating the musicians into different levels, which were given different ratios, the Bill of Intellectual Property that the Parliament of Nobles passed and the queen signed was regularly carried out.

Although the magic gramophone was only an entertainment for nobles right now, it was quite expensive and added significantly to the musicians' revenues. So, stimulated by money and under the influence of ”light music”, most musicians were more and more inclined to the simple verses that lasted only several minutes. Such simple, unsophisticated ”recreational music” was popular among the citizens, too. As a result, the music in Rentato was developing in quite a different direction from that of Aalto.

According to Lucien, Rentato would become a place where pop music and songs were born sooner or later.

Hearing Uncle Joel's concerns, Lucien smiled. ”Sometimes, the reform of instruments, means of communication, and means of carriers will all change the course of music, just like how music was changed in the age of the heptachord, after the violin and the piano were invented. Only in such reforms can music be forever invigorated instead of getting dry. So, Uncle Joel, there's no need to worry that the capacity of the resin discs will be a bad influence on the development of music. It will show us even more different types of music that is beyond what we can imagine right now.”

The most famous musician today had expressed his opinion firmly. Joel, as a bard and a street performer, had a natural fondness for short music. So, he had no more concerns and directed the topic to the food. ”I didn't know that you were also talented at cooking, Evans. This sweet and sour meat is truly delicious!”

”Yes.” Aunt Alisa nodded her heady, her mouth occupied all the time. Instead of being talkative as usual, her attention was completely on the food.

On the table, except for foie gras and some other cuisines in the Tria style, she had never seen most of the food before. They were different from the cuisines of other countries. She found it barely possible to stop eating.

”Thank you. Natasha loves the food, too.” Lucien accepted their compliment straightforwardly. There were many Chinese foods, but not all of them were attractive to the people of an alternate world. The dishes on the table were selected after Natasha tasted them as ”experimental mice”. Naturally, Joel, Alisa, and John enjoyed them so much that they were almost biting their own tongue.

Lucien, on the other hand, was adept at magic and identifying animals and planets, and since many bizarre items that did not exist on Earth could be found here, the range of the Chinese cuisines was further expanded, and the number had been increased by at least three times.

Now that Lucien mentioned Natasha, Joel asked, feeling it strange, ”Why did Her Majesty not come tonight?”

Normally speaking, as long as Lucien was in Allyn, he would come to visit Joel at least twice every month, and Natasha came with him most of the time.

Before Lucien replied, John answered for him, ”Recently, Rentato is being modified and expanded. The divine power circles and the magic circles have to be rearranged. Since the villas, manors, and other real estates of many nobles are involved, the Parliament of Nobles wrangles all the time. So, the queen is quite busy mediating in the matter.”

”Rentato is changing too fast. All the changes in my twenty years of residence in Aalto were not as many as what happened to Rentato during only a couple of months. I truly wonder what Rentato will be like in the future,” said Joel with mixed feelings.

After dinner, Lucien and John stood next to the window in the small drawing room on the second floor, each holding a cup of wine.