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The rising sun

The orange sky was gradually growing darker and darker the more time passed.

I adjusted my clothes and looked at myself in the mirror. There was a reflection of a young man with short blond hair and red at the tips and crimson eyes. I was wearing a simple orange T-shirt and red vest accompanied by red trousers too.

I let out a deep breath before nodding.

"I am ready." I said and reached my hand to the guitar and grabbed it with me. I pushed the door open and walked out of the staff room in the inn I was staying at.

The staff room was directly connected to the dining hall of the inn.

People chatting among themselves suddenly stopped and glanced in my direction before ending up cheering loudly.

"I was waiting for this moment!"

"Go, Max!"

"Let me hear your music today as well!"

I smiled as I waved my hand at them. There were some faces I knew from the Adventurers' Guild, some regulars, some employees of the inn, and also some unknown faces that I presumed to be travelers or adventures that were stopping by.

While I was making myself comfortable in my seat at the 'stage', which was basically a cleared out space with a wooden chair in the middle, and checked on my own progress.

A transparent blue screen appeared in front of my eyes.

______________________________________________________

Name: Maximilian Crownwell

Sequence: Sun - Low Sequence 9: Bard

Acting Progress: 35%

Abilities: [Heavenly Tune - Rank: Low]

______________________________________________________

I sighed inwardly at my slow progress.

It's been a month since I suddenly woke up in Citadel of Roa, a fortress city in Asura Kingdom, the same one in Mushoku Tensei anime. Fortunately, whatever higher being that brought me here was generous to give me the ability to speak this land's language and my own cheat, the LOTM system. I was automatically assigned to the Sun pathway without my consent.

The pathway wasn't bad in itself, but I'd prefer the Visionary or even the Error pathways. Nevertheless, beggars can't be choosers and I should be happier with what I've than with what I don't have.

The only ability I had in my disposal was [Heavenly Tune]. It enabled me to buff myself and others through my singing. It's at a low rank right now, but I am sure it will have a greater effect as I raise my sequence. Speaking of sequence, I had been using the 'Acting Method' since I got here and managed to raise it to 35%.

Acting Method as the name suggests, is a method to digest the potion by acting according to the name of the potion, in my case I had to act like a bard. With this method you can stabilize and advance sequences when it's completely digested without losing control.

It wasn't that simple as just acting though, I had to find a deeper meaning and a set of rules that I must act accordingly to fasten my progress. And until now, these are three rules that I found to act as bard.

–You must always perform in front of an audience.

–You are a bard, so you must have the ability to touch the feelings of your audience, be it positive or negative with your song.

–You mustn't perform unprepared or hesitate on stage.

There was also a very important rule that applied to all sequences: 'Remember that you are just acting, or else you will start to lose yourself until you become a monster.'

It was hard at the beginning, but after spending several days training and overcoming quite a few trials, I managed to get decent enough to sing and not ramble on stage.

Now back to the present, I cleared my throat and silence descended upon everyone.

I took a deep breath and swung my fingers through the cords.

"Once upon time there was a young dragon knight Perugius~!" I sang as I played the guitar in my hands.

Bards weren't just there to sing some random music, they were one of the main keys to pass legends and stories to other people in the form of lyrics. So one of the early days I had to research legends, important historical figures, etc, and it proved to be very useful to learn about the Asura kingdom and other nations.

I infused some of my spirituality in my vocal cords to apply [Stress Relief + Restore Mind] buffs on my audience.

*Truuummn~!*

I finished my song and there was a brief silence before they erupted in cheers and applause.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, all of you!" I shook hands and thanked the kind people who had donated to me. I returned to the staff room for a moment, changed into my casual clothes, and put the guitar in the corner.

I checked my progress and I smiled upon seeing it increase by 8%.

I returned to the dining hall and the place became lively once again.

I greeted some of them and my eyes stumbled upon a blond young woman sitting alone in one of the tables, clearly nervous as she looked around from time to time.

I smiled and ordered two drinks and casually walked towards the blondie.

"Hello, miss." I gently put the mug on the table. "I hope I am not intruding."

"N-No, i-it's fine!" She nervously said and she averted her eyes to the drink, which made me smile even more.

"Don't worry, it's on me." I said and took a seat beside her. She tried to deny it, but I didn't give her a chance. "It's orange juice, but if you don't want it I can order a beer for you."

"Thank you…" She muttered and gulped down the juice.

"So what's wrong? My name is Maximilian by the way, but my friends tend to call me Max."

"I-I am Zenith, a healer and rank E adventurer." She meekly said and I widened my eyes in surprise. "It's nothing actually, I'm alright…"

The fact that she looks younger and a rank E adventurer meant that I was way before the 'canon'. Not to mention that she doesn't seem to have met Paul yet.

'God, how did I miss that?' I wanted to smack myself for not noticing it sooner. I shook my head and decided to think about it later. "Are you sure? It may be none of my business, but I can clearly see some dry blood stains on your clothes and signs of stress on your body."

Usually my performances washed away most of my audience's stress and brightened their days, but in Zenith's case, she had accumulated so much that some of it remained with her.

Zenith bit her lips and looked at the orange juice in her hands. "Actually I am not from here. I came from a country far away from here and am mostly not well known to the common sense. I became an adventurer so that I could be free and travel around. But it's been so hard!" She said the last part in pain and frustration. Then she told me about how she had been joining many parties as a healer and how she has been treated as a meat shield rather than a proper support.

I listened to her story and I couldn't help but pat her back.

"Sorry, it must be unsightly considering we just met." Zenith said as she wiped the tears on her face.

"Don't worry, I should be the one to apologize for forcing you to say it." I said and I felt a bit bad for her. Reading in some wiki and hearing it in person was completely different. I might not be some knight in white armor, but I also wasn't some heartless bastard to help someone. "But now that I heard it, I can't just ignore it anymore."

"Huh?" For the first time since we started talking, Zenith looked me in the eyes.

"To be completely honest with you, Zenith. You should just leave them if they treat you like this. If those ignorants don't know how rare and precious a healer is in a team, then this party isn't worth your time or effort. My suggestion is to break off from the party and rest for a few days for both your body and mind. And after that, if you are looking for a party to join, we could always form one!"

"We?" The blond asked.

"Yeah, I might still be F-rank but that is because I haven't done dangerous missions and stick to the safe ones for now. If you are looking for an accommodation I can say a word to the owner to give you a discount."

"But…"

"It's alright, just consider this as my apology." I said with a smile that I trained to make people hard to refuse.

"Thank you again…I don't even know how to repay you…"

"Jeez, I already told you it's fine." I chuckled at her. "Just rest well and pass by here from time to time to chat a little bit. I will wait for your response."

"Y-Yes!" She said and showed a beautiful smile of hers.

______________________________________________________

(A few days later)

It was daytime, so I didn't have a shift to do at the inn. So I went to the Adventurer's Guild and looked for an F-rank mission that I could do safely. As I planned to take a quest to gather herbs in the outskirts, a blondie suddenly approached me from behind.

"Max, let's form a p-party!" Zenith said rather loudly, gaining the attention from the adventurers nearby.

"Sure." I accepted and chuckled silently at her actions. She was so nervous that it looked adorable.

Anyways, the healer recruited successfully to the party!