(22) Once dead

At dinner time. 

Syuzia woke Lucas up as he had instructed.

Brushing the hair blocking his view backward, Lucas breathed out slowly. Looking at Syuzia with his still drowsy eyes, he involuntarily measured her height. 

Syuzia's head almost reached Lucas's chest as she stood before him. 

'How much will she grow in a month? I am oddly interested in that question.' Lucas moved to the bathroom basin to wash his face. 

Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Lucas quietly thought to himself: 'I need to get a haircut soon. From the way it is right now, it's just lowering my charm.' 

On this subject, Lucas couldn't reject that he appeared like a delinquent right now. From his memory, it seems like he bullied some students in the school too. And, it was not a poke fun type of bullying. 

'Making them eat alcohol with socks and spit on it...Not to say that they were underage, it would be problematic if it got found out. I have a lot of connections to that kind of group, huh?' Lucas wasn't disturbed by his past self's actions. He didn't think it had anything to do with him. 

'My school in the past had people like this too, thankfully I wasn't involved with them in any way.' Lucas remembered a fragment of his school life. 

Contemplating deeper on his memory, Lucas could see clearly as day that someone was using the past host of the body. Their aim was definitely the money he owned. 

'There's some fishy organization behind the bullying too. In running such an organization, money is a must. I should consider how I can benefit from this connection, I will cut it if it is useless.' Deciding like this, Lucas wiped his face and moved to the food table with Syuzia. 

Not to say that there was a chance that a protagonist might appear in such an organization. 

Being bullied and then taking revenge after growing stronger through a cheat was a famous troupe. 

Finishing the medium lunch filled with a pot of unknown meat soup, Lucas and Syuzia returned to his room, which was comparable to a normal hall of a home. 

Setting up the camera and mic on the piano, Lucas comfortably sat down and practiced a few times with his vocabulary and piano skills. He optimized the piano's notes along the way, to fit his needs and imagination. 

Being an advanced electrical piano, it was easy to adjust. 

The next moment Lucas opened his eyes, the atmosphere around him changed. The calm and concentrated look affected the surroundings when a note began playing. 

The piece or more specifically, the song's name was — Once Dead.

🎹

A single note of the piano reverbed through the room. Having gained some experience, Lucas felt that he could surpass the song he played in the mall. It was a kind of confidence that gave no room for doubt. 

The camera was on the left side, recording Lucas's expression along with the song.

Because of this, Lucas had to keep his expression in check the whole time. 

🎵🎵🎵~ 

The tone of the notes rose in a calm atmosphere.

Lucas's fingers moved gracefully as more and more notes were added, creating a heavy atmosphere. 

As if responding to Lucas's emotions, the notes sounded more and more depressive. 

Family, friends, and everything, all that he held value in vanished as if nothing. Driving many emotions to accumulate within Lucas, they found their way to escape through this song. 

'Ah...I didn't expect I would ever miss my family...' A thin smile spread across Lucas's face. 

He was someone who people called a runaway kid. In truth, Lucas's past life family was very complicated, a father with a second marriage and a stepmother, taking the place of his deceased mother. 

The second wife of his father already had two children, and the treatment he received from them was the worst. 

His new mother's children were typically called school bullies. Bullying and one-sided abusive games had become the norm for Lucas at one point. 

Having bottled up tons of emotions, Lucas had stabbed one of his step-brother's stomachs with a knife. 

It was a surprising event that turned his life upside down, becoming an outcast immediately. His father disowned him in anger. It was funny how his father had listened to his new wife till the end.

Having lived in the street for a while, Lucas was of course aware and accepting of worldly matters compared to others. He was still in high school at that moment.

That was also the moment he learned to fight against others, who want to take anything precious to him. 

Enduring is never the answer, hence Lucas fought for his future, giving his all in everything. Working at a part-time job and studying. In the end, he graduated from a good university. 

Flirting with girls was something he picked along the way, making tons of visits to brothels. 

'It's good that I repaid them before I died...' Lucas sighed. 

Of course, it would have been very hard with him alone, some people helped him by providing a place called home. They would pool money whenever he was low in cash too.

These people were runaway kids too, who grew up in the slums. Living there, fights were very frequent, so his life wasn't stable either. But they were still his second family formed from a series of events of him saving one of their lives. 

At this point, the piano's notes had reached the peak of its play. It was so attractive that anyone hearing it would find their focus only on it, ignoring the surroundings. Like Syuzia, who was staring at Lucas's back with a mesmerized expression. 

"I can't talk again, neither about the past nor to the people in my past." Lucas brought his mouth near the mic, singing with his voice enhanced by his trait. 

Having singing supreme mastery, his voice was perfect and he instinctively knew when to adjust his voice according to the song. 

The piano's note was toned up in life.

"Lonely for the talk of my past friends and family." Lucas changed his pacing to normal. 

"Meeting the face of reality, all I can say is that it was enchanting."

Lucas's eyes rolled open, "Dead, a word perfect on paper, but the second you figure it out, it pushes you into the deepest abyss." 

The melancholy in the voice was by no means a lie. 

The sound of the notes increased to a high pitch. 

"Oh! Past life is enchanting, but this life is sparkling too. Don't let it go." Lucas sang with a louder voice.

"Life in the past was everything, I'll spend my life remembering it, they won't ever leave me." 

"Moving into my new life, I hope that I can find precious things like the past..." 

"Once dead, but never stop!"

A mind-boggling song continued playing. 

A song that Lucas gave his all, leaving aside any song he creates in the future, not many others could contend with it. 

People had individual moods, so it depended on which circumstance they heard Lucas's song, to Make it something unforgettable their whole life. 

And after two minutes, a song that would shake the whole media was created.