Chapter X. Musicians' associations

　　Recalling the various schemes to make a fortune inside countless travelling novels, Lucien sadly realized that he knew too little about this world to know whether these methods were useful or not, and that no matter what one did, the first bucket of gold was especially important, and he only had seven copper felts. 　　Therefore when the nine o'clock sun shone in the market area, Lucien was already carrying a heavy bag of goods and heading towards the city gate area, after all, many times, survival came first. 　　Sweat couldn't stop sliding down his face, burrowing into his neck and soaking his linen clothes, the not-so-intense sun shone on Lucien, making the heavy-footed him more and more miserable, at the same time, the straining Lucien had to put up with the chatter of the fat man next to him, Gucci: 　　"Damn, who found such a kid to come here, you walk steadily, don't break my goods!" 　　Looking at Gucci who was wiping the sweat from jumping up and down with his handkerchief, Lucien belabored, "It's all because you're stingy enough to only invite one person." 　　Of course, in this way, Lucien's payment was mentioned from three copper fel to four. 　　It was hard to reach the city gate area, Lucien placed the goods securely onto the waiting cargo wagon. 　　Fatty Gucci fondly took out his money bag, took out four copper fel and handed it to Lucien: "Your payment, young man, I didn't expect that your strength is really not small, in the future if there are any more goods that need to be carried, I'll look for you directly." 　　Lucien's strength is actually not comparable to the young people of the same age who have gone through the exercise, but it is better than the cheap price, one can be used as two, the miserly Gucci naturally wants to praise one sentence like this, completely forgetting how he cursed before. 　　Just after getting the Copper Fell, Lucien saw two men in linen coats with a very menacing look coming up to the side. 　　"We are Boss Aaron's men, you can call me Andre." The brunette man who spoke identified himself with a light scar on his face. 　　Lucien understood what they were here for and had prepared for it in his mind, and not intending to be a maverick, he took out a copper fel and handed it to the man called Andre. 　　The other burly man glared at Lucien, "Two copper fel!" 　　"Didn't we agree to only give one?" Lucien was now poor, and even though he knew that he was currently incapable of fighting against the gangster beaters, he still couldn't help but argue. 　　"If you hadn't tried to show off yourself, Gucci would have had to hire two people, and each of them would have given us a copper fel, a loss that, of course, can't be borne by us." Andre smiled like a proper businessman. 　　It was just one copper fel, it hadn't touched Lucien's survival and bottom line, therefore, Lucien hesitated for just a second between being hunted by the gang later and one copper fel, then he held back and took out another copper fel, handing it to the man who was walking around Andre as if showing off his toned body. 　　"Well done, boy, you see sense, there were always some hairy boys in the old days, who liked to challenge us, but, as you can see, we're still here, while some of them have sunk to the bottom of the Belem. Well, Mag, there's someone coming that way." With the usual intimidating words, Andrei joined Mag and turned to the other side. 　　Lucien looked at the backs of the two of them and held his heart a little, although he knew from the beginning that he would be exploited by the gangs, he still couldn't help the change of emotions when he actually encountered them. 　　After cursing himself for not being hot-blooded enough, Lucien understood that in order to get out of this situation, one either had to have a very strong personal power or a certain social status. 　　Of course, in this world, very strong personal power often meant high social status. 　　"I wonder if there's a potion to grow strength and physique inside the magic notes?" Lucien couldn't help but think towards this aspect, even though he knew very well that it was a sign of danger, a sign of not being able to resist temptation. 　　※※※ 　　The Musician's Association near the Chanting Hall in the administrative district was famous for its unique architectural style, so Lucien, who was pushing a rented four-wheeled cart, found the building called "Jumping Flame" just by asking for directions once. 　　The extensive use of vertical lines, small spires, fly-overs, stained glass, and windows shaped like flames gave the entire five-story light-colored building an asymmetrical, exaggerated aesthetic that was both light and complex. 　　Seeing Lucien coming over, a middle-aged man who was obscenely thin and had a goatee walked down the steps quickly, ''Why are you so late? Look at the clock of the Golden Cathedral, it's already almost one o'clock!" 　　After Lucien took the commissioned task, he had already met this middle-aged man once under the arrangement of Dwarf Koen, knowing that his name was George, and that he had some connections within the Musicians' Association. 　　"George, there's still ten minutes left." Lucien pointed to the golden cathedral that towered high and majestic in the noble district in the distance, seemingly controlling the entire city, the hour hand on it, still had a good portion of time before it pointed to the very top. 　　George grumbled, "The servants hired by the association finished cleaning ahead of schedule, so you'll have to come in with me and hand it over quickly, or the mountain of garbage piled up behind the association will affect the mood of the musicians who come over to do their work, and that's going to be a problem." 　　Lucien was curious about Uncle Joel's dream path to becoming a musician, so without arguing with George, he set the cart aside for the guards to watch, and mounted the steps toward the door. 　　As soon as he pushed open the door set with shards of stained glass, Lucien saw the bright, hallowed, wide hall. 　　The floor was covered with a fluffy, thick carpet, and there was no sound of footsteps walking on it, and with very few people coming and going, the whole hall seemed quiet and cool. 　　Led by George, Lucien walked to a half-human high wooden platform in the middle of the hall. 　　Behind the wooden platform, there sat a beautiful young girl with brown hair and blue eyes, with a sweet smile and a clear voice: "Uncle George, the person you are looking for has arrived?" 　　As she said, she took out a jingling money bag and handed it to George, according to Lucien's visual estimation, there were at least forty copper fel, he couldn't help but curse in his heart, after removing the money for renting the cart, he could only earn eight copper fel. 　　George received the money bag, revealing two rows of yellow teeth, smiling with his eyes squinting into a line, "Elena, you find someone to take Lucien to the garden in the back, don't look at him as young and not strong looking, but his strength is great." 　　After saying that, he added to Lucien, "Your money, I will leave it at Andre's place in the city gate area, you can get it when you come back." 　　Lucien nodded, not worried that George would renege on the money, although the Aaron gangsters were ruthless in collecting money, they were very reputable in this regard, according to Koen, there was once someone who tried to renege on the hiring fee, but ended up obediently paying double the amount. 　　Elena was about to greet the servants in the hall to take Lucien to the back garden to carry out the garbage, when she suddenly saw a middle-aged man wearing a wide red coat walk in, and she busily stood up and bowed slightly, "Good afternoon, Mr. Victor." 　　This middle-aged man was dressed simply and elaborately, with a light eight-pointed beard and black curly hair, and his sea-blue eyes had a melancholic color: "Good afternoon, Elena, give me a copy of the Music Review." The voice was mellow and deep. 　　Seeing Elena take out a brand new newspaper from the cabinet under the wooden platform, Lucien couldn't help but be surprised, "Alto has developed a newspaper? And it's still a specialized type." 　　Associated with the condition of the slums, Lucien sighed in his heart, "The polarization of this world seems to be very serious. Still, there shouldn't be many people who know how to write, how much does a newspaper have to be sold to recover its costs?" 　　Victor first took the Music Review in his hand and casually flipped through it, then gave Elena ten copper fees, nodded politely to Lucien and George, turned around with the newspaper in his hand and walked towards the stairs next to the hall. 　　"This Mr. Victor has good manners." Lucien commented quietly in his mind. 　　Waiting for Victor to go up the stairs, Lucien curiously asked Elena, "This Music Review is only ten copper fees?" 　　Knowing that people like Lucien, like himself before, had no chance to get in touch with high society, Elena couldn't help but flaunt the insights she had gained from working in the Musicians' Association for the last year, "Although the price of paper is getting cheaper and cheaper after the Cardinal of Adelaide invented a simpler and more versatile method of paper making in the 426th year of the Sacred Calendar, and nowadays a few Copper Fells will be able to buy a stack of it, but only members of our Musicians' Guild can buy the Musical Review for ten copper fels, while everyone else, even the nobility, needs a silver nal." 　　"Because this 'Music Review' and also 'Symphony Herald' are the two most authoritative newspapers in the field of music in the entire continent, representing the direction of music development, and every piece of sheet music and review article on it is a crystallization of wisdom. This month's issue of the Music Review even has a review of the music played by last week's Symphony Concert at the Hall of Chant by His Highness the Grand Duke and Her Royal Highness Princess Natasha on the top." 　　One had to admit that in addition to Elena's desire to show off for being so loquacious, Lucien's dark hair and eyes and rather clean-cut looks also played a large role. 　　"A silver nal?" Lucien suddenly wanted to rob these newspapers, as long as there were only five copies, his dilemma could be easily solved, but considering that even if he got his hands on them, he wouldn't be able to find a buyer, Lucien glumly extinguished this thought. 　　Elena's bragging got Lucien's cooperation, more and more happy: "Oh, don't mind the price of one silver nal, in Tria, in Antifol, in Efe, in Diris, in Anhadur, these two newspapers are the most sought-after good things, the most expensive can be sold for a price of one gold taler. The nobles of these countries are proud to follow the trends of Aalto's music, even if the newspapers are long out of date." 　　Lucien took another look at the remaining newspapers inside Elena's cabinet and resisted the urge to rob them, while generalizing and speculating some information from them, "The currency of the entire continent should be unified, eh, the church with divine magic must be very strong. Something like a spatial teleportation array most likely does not exist, and even if it does, the conditions for using it must be very harsh, or else with so many nobles needing it, how could they only see outdated newspapers." 　　Lucien sponged and absorbed his most lacking insights from Elena's words, until after ten minutes had passed, Elena snapped out of it and greeted the hall maid to take Lucien to the back garden. 　　"Lucien, be sure to be quiet, don't talk loudly, don't make loud noises when carrying the garbage, Mr. Victor will have his first symphony concert at the Sacred Chant Hall in more than three months, he's under a lot of pressure during this time, and he's mentally, well, mentally more sensitive." Elena kindly reminded Lucien. 　　Lucien nodded gratefully to her, then carefully followed the servants towards the back garden.