Chapter 290: – Gaze (Long Chapter)

Backstage. Bishop Darco quietly looked onto the stage in front of him.

Standing on the stage, the female knight Messai had finished her performance. As the judge, Sir Weissenasche was so pleased with her performance that he even applauded her.

Following her growth into adulthood, Messai’s singing voice has also ascended to a higher level. She had chosen to sing a simple poem from the ‘Radiant Light Canon.’

Having received the acknowledgement from Sir Weissenasche, the female knight successfully advanced to the next round.

“Who would’ve thought Knight Messai who was known as the ‘Shield’ would have such a gift.”

Vulture also applauded Messai’s performance. Among the templars, the female knight was not someone unknown and obscure. After all, she was the personal disciple of a legion commander. Whether it be her swordsmanship, her talent or her attainment with the Holy Light system of magic, they were all excellent.

It could be said that Messai was the person who was most likely to succeed as the next Ecclesiastical Templar Army’s Fifth Legion Commander. Regretfully, Messai was recently conferred as the saintess’s personal knight. That foreordained her to be unable to step foot onto the battlefield as a legion commander.

“While it is true that knight Messai has a very beautiful sounding singing voice, her voice is unable to compare against the children of the choir.”

Bishop Darco shook his head. Earlier, that mercenary was able to gain the judge’s approval with his boorish yellings. From that point on, Bishop Darco realized how ‘amatuer’ the World’s Singers was.

If Messai’s earlier performance was placed before the choir, she would definitely not be up to par.

“I’m unable to tell any difference.”

Vulture shrugged his shoulders. To him, all choir songs sounded the same. The only difference was the fact that the choir’s singing was capable of healing injuries and believing relief to pain and fatigue.

“Knight Messai’s singing was filled with perplexity. But, it is much better than the senseless and random singing by those commoners.”

Bishop Darco watched as Messai slowly descended from the stage to return to Saintess Herolia’s side.

Before Herolia could even congratulate Messai, Sir Weissenasche ordered for the next contestant, Lia, to ascend the stage.

Lia was Herolia’s alias. She immediately grabbed her dress and jogged onto the stage.

“Vulture, be on the alert of the surroundings…”

Bishop Darco held his crutch. He felt the urge to rush onto the stage himself.

Even though ‘World’s Singers’ was extremely amateurish in his eyes, it remains that the people here would enjoy the fortune of being able to listen to the saintess’s singing.

In the Nation of the Holy Church, Saintess Herolia’s status was second only to their God of Holy Light, Monicar.

Thus, to the believers of the Holy Church, being able to hear the Saintess’s singing voice would be akin to receiving God’s illumination.

Whenever Herolia would bless the Holy City’s citizens with her singing, Bishop Darco would always be the one to personally conduct the orchestra to accompany her ceremonial singing.

Through that means, he had safeguarded the saintess for over fifty years. There has never been an exception. Likewise, he was not planning to allow there to be an exception this time either.

Even though this was a foreign land and his orchestra was unable to follow them here, he still planned to accompany the paramount performance even if he was alone.

“Please… excuse me,” Supporting himself with his crutch, Bishop Darco squeezed through the people around the stage.

Unfortunately, it was impossible for this aged bishop to transcend the crowd. At the moment when he was about to force his way into a crack in the crowd, someone subconsciously moved their elbow and knocked him with it.

Bishop Darco lost his balance. When he was about to fall, Vulture extended his hand and supported him from behind.

“Look at your age, why are you still trying to rush up there with all those people?” asked Vulture.

“I have always been the one in charge of the musical accompanies for Lady Herolia’s sung performances.”

Bishop Darco stood up with the support of his crutch. He raised his head to look past the crowd and see Herolia standing on the stage.

If only he had a strong build like Vulture. He would’ve forced his way past the crowd to stand behind Herolia already.

Unfortunately, Bishop Darco was simply too old. He had grown so old that he needed a crutch to support himself walking.

The youth who would sneak peeks at the Saintess’s beautiful figure through the window became an old man about to be buried.

The only thing that didn’t change after all this time was… Saintess Herolia’s youthful appearance.

Standing on the stage, Herolia saw Darco staggering as he tried to walk toward her.

She turned to him and shook her head…

At this moment, Bishop Darco came to a complete realization that ‘youth’ had departed him. Fortunately, he was still able to witness Herolia’s beauty from afar.

“Could we start now?”

Seated on the audience stand, Sir Weissenasche rubbed his eyes.

He was trying his hardest to conceal his sleepiness. He refused to allow himself to yawn while a contestant of the World’s Singers was performing.

If he did, it would be a sign of disrespect toward that person.

“Mn.”

Herolia slightly nodded her head. She also took a glance at the crowd present. In the end, her eyes were turned toward a good-figured individual standing at the back. It was not her female knight Messai… Instead, it was an elf.

She soon retrieved her gaze. Then, she slowly opened her cherry-red lips and began to hum and sing the most tranquil chapter from the ‘Radiant Light Canon.’

The instant her voice emerged on the stage, Sir Weissenasche shivered. His sense of sleepiness disappeared instantly. With eyes wide open, he stared at Herolia.

Even though there wasn’t any magic amplifying her voice, Herolia’s voice was still able to slowly enter everyone’s ears.

It was a voice capable of rinsing one’s spirit, a wondrous voice that caused all the backstage discussions to cease.

Perhaps to amatuers, their evaluation of the song would only be something along the lines of sounding good or refreshing. But, Sir Weissenasche knew that the person standing on the stage was a professional singer. No! A master singer!

In the past, he was fortunate enough to witness the performance of a renowned female singer from Farucci. That woman’s singing was deemed as the Voice from the Skies.

The performance of the person on the stage before him was of the same level as that renowned female singer. Most importantly, there was no accompanying music; it was all her own voice!

Lia? A nun from the Nation of the Holy Church?

Since when did the nuns from that nation become such great singers?

Sir Weissenasche took a glance at the contestant information for Lia. He also glanced at her appearance. Alas, he was unable to find any recollection of her from the renowned singers he knew.

Herolia’s performance was not long. It was only roughly a minute. When her voice gradually diminished in volume and finally stopped, a tide of applause followed suit.

“Thank you,” With a gentle smile on her face, Herolia expressed her thanks to the crowd before walking toward the backstage.

Bishop Darco watched Herolia from afar absentmindedly. It was like he had returned to the past.

Oh how outstanding of a girl she was. She was so outstanding that one will definitely tell one’s mother ‘Mom, I’m going to marry her!’ should one meet her in one’s youth.

Regretfully, Bishop Darco was a mere missionary back then. He was not qualified to even converse with Saintess Herolia.

Even though he became a bishop now, he still remained a person who would only watch her from afar.

“Bishop, do you plan to bring your regret to your afterlife?” Vulture quietly asked Bishop Darco.

Bishop Darco knew what Vulture meant by ‘regret.’ He shook his head and sighed.

“I’m already old. Even if I do what these youngsters want to do now, it’ll be meaningless. Truth be told, it’s not bad the way it is now…”

With gratification on his face, Bishop Darco looked at Herolia walking still exiting the stage.

“Once Her Lady Saintess obtained victory in this competition, those people that heard of her singing will definitely realize the existence of the Holy Light,” Bishop Darco fully believed that Saintess Herolia’s singing wouldn’t possibly lose in such an ‘amatuer’ competition.

Even if the singers from Farucci were to participate in this competition, he still believes that Herolia would be able to easily defeat them with her singing.

Vulture didn’t respond to Bishop Darco’s declaration. At this moment, his ice-cold gaze suddenly turned to a location covered by shadows.

“I felt the aura of undeads,” said Vulture.

“Undeads? Is that Chaos Demon finally planning to act?”

Bishop Darco stopped being sentimental about the past. The light-golden runes on his crutch started emitting a faint light.

He was prepared for a battle.

“No, those undeads… are not hostile,” Vulture instructed for Darco to not act rashly.

“Not hostile?”

Bishop Darco was able to sense the cold and gloomy sensation filling the theater. When Sir Weissenasche announced for the next contestant to ascend the stage, an elf with a figure as excellent as the female knight before walked onto the stage.

The sudden appearance of an elf caught the attention of everyone backstage. Norland was a city composed mainly of humans. Following behind the human population were the dwarves… As for the other races, one would only be able to occasionally encounter them around Squirrel Street.

The elves were an even more uncommon race. Currently, the only elf the citizens of Norland were familiar with was the Voice of Norland’s broadcaster, Frost Elf Tylene.

The elf standing on the stage was clearly not a frost elf. Her free-flowing hair was pitch-black like the night.

“The undeads are behind that Blackwood Elf. They’re high level undeads that seemed to possess self-awareness.”

Below the stage, Vulture discovered the specters hiding behind the Blackwood Elf.

The specters had used concealment abilities to hide themselves. Yet, they were unable to escape from Vulture’s perception.

“Those specters showed no intention of attacking that Blackwood Elf,” Bishop Darco felt the situation to be strange.

He did not feel the feeling of hatred and hostility toward the living that undeads should have from those specters.

Those negative emotions would generally make specters attack the living with no reason or cause.

“Is that Blackwood Elf unable to sense the undeads behind her?”

“She might have sensed them… They’re accomplices,” Vulture was unable to understand why an elf that worshipped nature and life would associate herself with the undead.

Nevertheless, runes were faintly glowing on his scar-filled hands. If those undeads were to act improperly, the legion commander will immediately act to take care of them.

None of the audience backstage noticed that there were several dangerous undead hidden behind the beautiful elf. This included Sir Weissenasche seated on the audience stand.

“You’re… Luvita?” Sir Weissenasche recognized the Blackwood Elf Priestess.

Before the audition even began, Joshua had compiled a list of participants that must definitely enter the final competition. Among them were the Blackwood Elf Priestesses.

“Yes.”

Luvita nodded her head. Many of the Blackwood Elves were already selected for the final competition. The reason why Luvita came to the audition was so that she could perform an all-new song.

It was a song that she learned from the Lich Overlord after four entire days of effort.

At the beginning, Luvita was afraid and hostile toward the Lich Overlord. But, over time, after getting along with Selonica, Luvita discovered that she… got along unexpectedly well with the Lich Overlord.

This was especially true in regards to movie discussions.

Furthermore, Luvita must admit that even though the Duke of Bones had a very strange method of performance, her musical performances… were very pleasant to the ears.

“Then… you may begin.”

Sir Weissenasche was looking forward to Luvita’s performance. Joshua had revealed to him already that the Blackwood Elf Priestesses had epoch-making singing voices.

Under the gaze of all these humans, Lutiva appeared slightly hesitant.

It was the specters behind her that began their performance first. When the accompanying music sounded on the stage, Luvita soon regained her composure from the time she rehearsed with the Lich Overlord.

Without a microphone, she followed along with the music and started singing the first ‘pop song’ of this world.

“It’s not… an opera?”

Sir Weissenasche began to carefully listen to the music. Luvita’s performance was very… lively. It was completely different from the operatic song performances he was familiar with.

The accompanying music he heard in the past was very serious in nature. Some tunes sounded very emotional and divine.Take the operatic singing from the contestant Lia earlier, her voice was filled with a feeling of sacredness.

But, Luvita’s performance was completely different. It sounded like a cheerful and lighthearted musical play. Yet, it was completely different from the sung performances from those musical plays.

All in all… Sir Weissenasche could only describe this music as ‘something that makes people want to join in and dance to the tempo.’

He was not the only person feeling this way. The other contestants backstage were also feeling the same. Following Luvita’s voice and the tempo of the accompanying music, some people had begun to subconsciously tap their feet or nod their head.

Some of the more musically inclined competitors were already dancing like they’re in a ball.

“This… is not music for the devout-hearted,” Sir Weissenasche carefully captured the rhythm of the music. He wanted to distinguish what sort of musical instruments were being used.

Regretfully, the only instrument he could tell from the music were ‘drums.’ But, even the drums sounded different from normal.

Once he recalled how this was a song written by Joshua, Sir Weissenasche decided to stop analyzing it anymore. Instead, he began to carefully listen to Luvita’s lyrics.

The tempo of the music was truly lively. Even though he was seated, Sir Weissenasche still couldn’t help himself from tapping his feet. But, the meaning behind those lyrics…

‘Got a long list of ex lovers.”’Cause you know I love the players.’

Wait wait wait… this does not sound like any positive lyrics at all! But, it seemed like the lyrics weren’t that important?

Both Sir Weissenasche and the contestants backstage were already affected by Luvita’s song.

The elven girl had used her song to transform the audition to a party!

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