Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 20: No Music, No Ball (Part 1)

"Jazzy!" Koko ran up to her maid, who was in the process of clearing the mansions large dining hall for the upcoming celebration. "This is terrible! We didn't section off an area for the band to sit!"

"Band?" Jazzy asked curiously. "Oh, do you mean musicians?"

After ten years, it appeared that the maid was finally beginning to understand Koko's Earthen phrases, though Koko didn't see that at all at the moment. After all, Teya was finally returning to the mansion after two years of studying in Goldgate under the priests there, and all of their preparation was for Teya's coming-of-age ceremony. However, the ceremony was going to be a ball as well, and it was now in terrible peril as whoever had planned the decorations had forgotten a place for the musicians.

"Yes, them!" Koko cried. "This is bad, we're going to have to redo all of the decoration plans to make room for them now!"

"But didn't Baron Benson said that there wouldn't be any musicians?" Jazzy asked in a confused tone.

"He said what now?!" Koko asked, shocked by the maids words before shaking herself out of it.

"Never mind, just section off a small corner by hanging a rope from the ceiling and we'll hang a long sheet of fabric over it later. I'm going to go talk to my father!" Koko said in a rushed tone, feeling overworked as she headed for the room's exit before calling out over her shoulder. "Try to make the sheet the same color as the walls if you can! But if you can't, just use black!"

Running through the doors and out into one of the mansion's many hallways, Koko had to avoid several servants that were helping them to prepare until she barged into Benson's office, where both her father and brother seemed to be busy going over the paperwork of the territory.

"Hey! Why did you tell the servants that there weren't any musicians coming?!" Koko asked angrily.

"Because there won't be." Benson sighed. "I know that it's not good news, but a drought has swept over half of the territory and a portion of the population may starve to death this winter if we don't withhold funds to support them. We simply can't afford any unnecessary expenses, even with the increase in trade from the mithril mine."

"This is a ball, right?" Koko asked while stomping into the office. "What kind of ball doesn't have music?!"

"The one for my ceremony didn't." David shrugged.

"Yeah, and it was the most boring ceremony that I've ever had to sit through. And I'm sure that the three people who showed up to celebrate it with you can attest." Koko replied dryly.

"Hey!" David was about to complain before their father interrupted him.

"What would you rather have, Koko? Musicians for Teya's ceremony or the lives of the people that we're supposed to protect?!" Benson asked while looking at her sternly, though Koko wasn't about to back down now.

"Both!" Koko answered. "Teya will have music at her ball, and if we can't have musicians, then we'll just have to think of some other way for it!"

"And just how do you plan to do that?" David asked curiously.

"Dad, you were a bard before you became nobility, right? Do you still have your old instrument?" Koko asked, hoping that the title 'Brute of Bards' wasn't for nothing.

"Well... I still have it's remains." Benson said almost bashfully. "Most bards don't break their instrument by using it to kill an assassin... that's how I got the title."

"Then I'll have to make my own." Koko sighed as she realized that things weren't going to be easy. "If any of the maids stop by, tell them to remove me from most of the events!"

Benson's P.O.V

"Hey, Koko?!" Benson asked, still slightly shaken as his daughter had stormed into his office and left again just as quickly.

"Give it up, dad." David sighed from the side of the room. "There's no use talking to her when she gets like this, you know that."

"Hah... I wonder what crazy idea she'll come up with this time." Benson sighed.

"Whatever it is, at least Teya will have music." David laughed slightly. "I was fine with it, but there really should be dancing at Teya's event at least. And it would hurt your new reputation as a Baron if we didn't have any."

"True." Benson agreed. "Though I suppose that I should help her at least a small amount."

"What are you planning to do?" David asked curiously.

"We bards have more than one way to play music..." Benson explained thoughtfully before he gained a smile on his face. "And if she has an interest, then maybe it's finally time that I can pass something down to her."

Koko's P.O.V

Shutting the door as she made her way out, Koko ran from the room and eventually the mansion before heading towards the village, knowing that time was of the essence. After all, crafting an instrument from scratch wouldn't be quick. Though ,luckily, she knew the perfect pair of people for the job.

"Tim! Bart!" Koko yelled while running up to the lumber mill, causing the two large men that had been cutting down trees to make her training posts turn to look at her. "I have a job for you!"

"Lady Koko? Do you need another tree cut down?" Tim asked as he set down the entire tree that he'd been carrying to speak with her.

"No, I need something made with woodworking this time, and it needs to be done in three days." Koko enthused before heading over towards a nearby stump and slowly tracing out the design that she wanted with a piece of nearby charcoal. "It needs to be built in a lot of parts, but there's no time to make all of them, so we'll make it in three. The back, front and the neck. But there needs to be two curved slots in the front here and here that are both symmetrical to each other."

"Is this a violin?" Bart asked when he walked over to join them.

"Yes it is!" Koko replied, ecstatic that they apparently had violins in Harven seeing as it was the only instrument that she had played while on Earth. And if she could just get her hands on one, then she could make Teya's ceremony more of a success than David's was.

"We can make this, but I don't think that it will sound the same like a normal violin." Tim sighed. "We tried to make one for our ma' years back, and it just didn't sound right unless we glued all of the parts on separately."

"So it's not going to work then..." Koko sighed, suddenly thinking furiously about just what she could do to fix the situation.

"Well, that's not entirely true." Tim sounded thoughtful as well. "We kept a lot of the pieces that  we'd worked on and didn't use. But the problem would be the polishing at the end. In order to get it right, we had to stain and polish our last violin for over a week before it was ready."

"As long as it sounds right, I don't care about it being a little bit sticky from staining." Koko replied enthusiastically, making Tim and Bart look at each other before both of them smiled and casted their heads down.

"Leave it to us and we'll have it ready in three days." Bart stated with a determined tone. "But you'll actually have to pay us this time."

"Don't worry about that, I promise that I'll pay you for it, so thanks again!" Koko said excitedly before running off towards the village again in search of the blacksmith. She knew that she needed his help in order to complete the instrument, as well as possibly the local tailors to make the bow. Though, she only hoped that they would be able to finished the project in time. Because for Koko, making Teya's ceremony a success was more important than anything else.