Today is the first day I'm attending one of my new classes, Music.

Since this Academy is meant for noble students, such classes exist to help students increase their marriage potential. It's more attractive to marry a person that's proficient in the arts. Mostly, it would be lower nobles who attend hoping to marry into higher-ranked houses.

That's why Music, Painting, Poetry, Etiquette, and other similar classes exist.

Still, the reason I'm attending this class is to learn how to use my Blessing. Or more specifically, Songs of Joy.

I sigh a little, remembering the half-week that lead to this point.

Yermen had ordered me to not use my powers to create wine again. I know it's hurting me, but if I can't use my Blessing, then my goals might become much harder to accomplish.

When I argued that I still need to learn how to control it properly, Yermen reluctantly allowed me to continue to practice my Soul Sight, since there seems to be no cost involved.

The only thing about it, though, is it makes me disoriented and nauseous if I use it too long or move too fast.

Imagine suddenly gaining an extra eye at the back of your head. The eye sure helps you see behind you, but the information sent to your brain that's accustomed to only having two eyes at the front will easily confuse you.

Well, Soul Sight is like that but also not.

I can sense Auras in a sphere around me (around 15 steps?), so it's not wrong to say that I have eyes at the back of my head, but the sense is muted if I don't pay attention. Sometimes, I might miss an Aura, only to be surprised later when they move closer to me.

But if I try to focus too hard, I will begin to analyze the emotions of other people around me automatically, overloading me with information and making me feel dizzy.

I need to find some sort of middle ground, so I can both be aware of all the Auras while also not analyzing them.

Still, even not focusing, keeping it up for too long is still hard. And more people make it harder. I can continuously use Soul Sight for half a morning, or about 6 hours if I'm not focusing. That's not good enough. I want to be able to use it all day without any discomfort.

That's my goal for it.

With such thoughts, I reach out and push open the classroom door.

The sight of the sparse interior greeted me. Instead of the standard rows of desks, there are individual stools that sit behind thin metal stands. There are also multiple keyboard instruments sitting in a corner with a larger one in front of the whole class. A side door leads into what looks to be a storage area, no doubt holding even more instruments.

On the stools sit around 6 different students from different divisions and years. It seems that older and younger students study in the same class. The teacher is not here yet, so I just sit down on an empty stool away from the others.

Thankfully, they ignore me in favor of messing around with their instruments. I have no idea what they're doing or what I'm supposed to do, so I just sit there and shift around to find a more comfortable position on this small stool.

After a while, a couple of other students begin to file in behind me, bringing the headcount up to 10 students in the class besides me, making it a total of 11 students in the class.

The door suddenly bursts open with a heavy slam.

Behind the door is the most ridiculous outfit that I have ever seen. Made with garish reflective red fabric accented with white, the costume that the teacher is wearing hurts the eyes of anyone looking. Puffy arms and flared collars alongside a large feathered hat complete the whole extravagant noble look, or is it the court jester look?

Anyways, it just hurts to look at.

The man himself is rather dashing, with a thin mustache, long wavy black hair that is cut perfectly to stop just below the shoulders. His sapphire blue eyes are limpid and seductive, his nose high and noble, his chin strong and manly. He walks in with a dazzling smile that would no doubt strike the hearts of men and women alike.

If compared to the protagonist's party, the man wouldn't lose out in terms of look. It's a shame that his fashion sense is atrocious.

He walks to the front of the class and addresses us with a deep and reverberating voice, yet his tone is jovial and happy. Even his voice is beautiful.

"Good afternoon, class. Today, we have a special new student joining us in our journey of reaching the apex of musical arts. Let us give him a warm welcome and a big round of applause. May I introduce our resident Blessed, Alean Steelight!" He said dramatically while waving his hand towards me like I'm some big shot.

Uhhh. What? I have no fucking clue what's going on right now.

A polite round of applause rang out around me, making me even more confused. Not knowing what to do, I can only stand up awkwardly and bow in thanks. Curious gazes linger on me, but it feels much less malicious and objectifying than the ones I get every day now. I learned to keep those out of my mind.

The applause quickly ended, and the teacher continues.

"For those who are new to this class, I am Professor Norete Eegil. I shall be your Music teacher for as long as you take this class. I also teach Poetry and Etiquette, so if you're interested, you may contact me after class."

He claps his hand loudly to get all of our attention.

"Now class, before we begin, you may continue to inspect and tune your instruments. As I always say, a good show must be perfect, and the first thing to make sure the show is perfect is to have the perfect instrument. Mr. Steelight, if you would come with me."

I stand up quickly as he leads me towards the side door. Opening it and leading the way in, the flashy professor then closes the door behind us. The interior is dark, but a magical light starts to shine just above, providing sufficient lighting.

The storage space is surprisingly clean, with multiple boxes and shelves containing a multitude of instruments that I can't begin to remember. There are also different drawers containing supplies such as metal strings, blocks of wax, or bottles of oil for what I assume is to do maintenance on the different items.

After gawking at the new room for a while, I feel the professor tapping me lightly on the shoulder. Since I'm taller, I look down at him, finding his eyes now burn with anticipation.

"I have heard from our esteemed Headmaster that your Blessing has something to do with music. I don't mean to pry, but such a thing is unheard of before you. I've been searching my whole life for such a Blessing, for music is my truest passion. I hope that you can show me what your Blessing can do, so I may satisfy my burning curiosity."

His eyes are sparkling, and his smile seems even more genuine than before. I scratch my head in embarrassment. This man seems to have pursued music his entire life, yet standing before him is me who doesn't even know how to hold an instrument, and it is me that is blessed by a musical God.

It makes me feel guilty.

Turning on my Soul Sight, I was expecting to find his Aura flaring in anger, but I only see it shivering in excitement and curiosity. Is he truly not jealous? I decided to ask.

"Umm, are you fine with it? Me having such a blessing must make you feel uncomfortable, right?"

Professor Norete laughs hearing my question.

"Haha. Oh heavens, are you asking me if I'm envious? Of course, I am! But that won't make me any less curious. You're a student. How can I, as your teacher, punish you because you have something that I don't have? Then what about all the higher nobles that I have to teach sometimes? Do I harass them because their houses have more influence and money than mine? No, so you don't have to worry."

He continues after calming down a little.

"I believe the Gods have given you this Blessing because they see in you the potential to be a great musician. So I'm very excited to be the first person to lead you on this journey. Besides, if the Gods haven't chosen me, then that means that I'm unworthy of their attention. But your existence proves that the Gods still cast their gaze on us musicians, so I feel even more motivated to gain their approval."

I blush a little. I seem to have misjudged him.

"I see... Thank you for accepting me."

"No problem! The Headmaster also told me about how honest you are, but I didn't expect you to be this honest," he said with a smile.

"Um, the Headmaster seems to talk about me a lot to you, huh?"

"Of course! We're family, you know. Eegil is my mother's name, my father's last name is Dawn."

I'm at a loss for words. "Huh!?"

===

I'm currently rifling through the many instruments in the room to look for something suitable to start with.

I look back towards the professor, who is now currently entranced while admiring Genesis in guitar form. He is touching and holding it with such care and reverence that it looks like he's holding a priceless relic of a God. Well, that might be true, in some ways.

He explained that he's merely a bastard of a side branch of the Dawn family. His existence wasn't even known until he was fully an adult at the age of 16 and requested a bloodline test to confirm it. His father was reprimanded harshly, and his mother, a commoner barmaid, obtained a lot of compensation money and was brought in to become a mistress.

It became a huge commotion that lowers the prestige of the Dawn house somewhat. Because they punished the father and gave the mother a lot of money, the damage is rather small.

He was then brought into the Academy and spent many years learning about aristocracy, but he mostly stick with his music passion. When he graduated, he was asked to remain as a Professor by the Headmaster himself.

As for why he's wearing such flashy clothes, his explanation is rather funny.

Because he's very handsome, he tends to attract looks of admiration anywhere he goes. He feels that this is trampling on his pride because the people only see him as a beautiful man, not the talented musician that he is. So he chooses the most ridiculous outfits that he can find to turn their eyes away from him, and only leave their ears to hear his true calling.

It's both admirable and amusing.

Either way, I need to find a good instrument for me to start learning.

I want to one day venture out and seek powerful items in dangerous areas, so the instrument I choose must account for combat and travel.

The guitar is nice since I'm somewhat familiar, but it's too big and bulky to carry around easily. Since I have some combat training, I know that a balanced weight is key in keeping you mobile to dodge enemy attacks. The guitar would change my center of gravity too much, so it's a no.

I thought about using wind instruments, like flutes and horns since they tend to be smaller, but having to expend your precious breath to play them is also very bad. That might exhaust me even faster than holding a heavy instrument because I also need to move and dodge. Running out of stamina in the heat of battle is a death sentence.

So a string instrument is still the better choice.

Looking around, I find some string instruments that seem promising and bring them back to ask for Professor Norete's advice. I also said that I prefer to learn something easy so I can quickly use my blessing.

The instruments I brought back are a violin, a lyre, and a lute (which looks like a smaller and more manageable guitar). I learned their names and all of their properties from the Professor.

The violin is most likely out since it's too hard to learn. Professor Norete says that it takes three to five years to competently play it. I don't have such luxuries. The Professor recommended that I take this because it has the widest range out of all the instruments I brought, so it's much more versatile. Still, three years is already too long.

The lyre would be the opposite, being the fastest to learn, but has the lowest range. With only six to ten strings max that is also unadjustable, the lyre would be the choice if I want to use the Blessing as fast as possible. It's also rather compact, and I can hold it with only one hand without any issue.

The lute is like a balance of the two. With medium range and difficulty, I can see that this is an excellent choice if I want a little of everything. Besides, I'm already a little familiar with its shape, so learning it might be a little faster. A downside to it is its size, as it is the biggest among the three.

After pondering my choices for a moment, I finally reached out and pick what I think is best.