Translator: Dragon Boat Translation
Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
At 1 a.m. on Thursday, Xia Yu sat up straight as he played “The Pope’s Dancer” in An Siyao’s house.
The song was named after a folk tale in the Middle Ages.
The Pope, who betrayed the Dark Moon Society, and stole power, had a most trusted subordinate—a knight in armor who held swords in both hands.
No one had ever seen the knight. Legend had it she never took off her helmet. She led her fighters in conquests for the Pope, enjoying victory everywhere.
Because of her light armor, because of her agile movements, because of the pope’s trust in her, she was known as the Pope’s dancer.
Legend had it that she was a member of the previous royal family. After getting captured by the Pope and receiving brutal training, she went from an elegant royal to a ruthless killer.
The song depicted the progress from peace, to turmoil, to madness. The song was composed during a time before the world was unified. It was an accusation by composers against the drafting of minors in the 9th district.
Part 1 of the song was slow-paced, depicting the dancer’s royal lifestyle. Part 2 described the changes during the tumultuous revolution. In Part 3, the rhythm was almost chaotic, expressing the dancer’s madness and distortion, which really tests the performer’s hand speed.
Xia Yu’s hands shook as he played the last note.
“You’ve learned this song,” An Siyao said happily. “What do you want to learn next? The Betrayal of the Double Princes? Or the Salutation of the Sun?”
“It’s okay. I’ll take a break.” Xia Yu didn’t want to learn any new songs yet.
He played the Pope’s Dancer again, then paused the 5x experience prop. He silently said, “Skills panel.”
His Music skill was at Lv 3, and his Cleverness was at Lv 2.
He was good enough to apply as a pianist now, right?
By now, he’d learned to play Gulda’s Play Piano Play, The Blind Saint, The Tower of Lothric, Before Rosario’s Bed, and The Pope’s Dancer.
He didn’t know very many songs, but he knew enough to play at a coffeehouse.
Smiling with satisfaction, Xia Yu stood up and left the piano room.
The game would end in an hour, he should go to the girl’s room to rest a while.
His early exit from the piano room flustered the maid waiting by the door. It took her a while to react and greet him.
The maid was feeling anxious about her lack of manners. She grew scared when she noticed Xia Yu staring at her.
Xia Yu’s control of the housekeeping chief recently had made all the maids frightened of him.
“What were you doing?” Xia Yu asked.
The maid’s heart leaped into her throat at the question.
Did the young miss know she was playing on her phone?
Xia Yu added, “I’m asking what chore you were doing earlier.”
“I was organizing the storage room.” Seeing that Xia Yu wasn’t asking about the phone, the maid wasn’t relaxed. The unknown was even scarier than the known.
“Oh, I see. No wonder.”
The maid was confused. Then, Xia Yu reached out his hand. Remembering how some maids would be abused by arrogant masters on TV shows, the maid closed her eyes in fear.
Yet, Xia Yu’s hand didn’t connect with her cheek, instead, the hand was on her head.
Xia Yu picked up a small grey fuzz ball from her hair.
Picking up the maid’s hand, he put the fuzz ball in her palm.
“Wear a hat when you clean.” Then, Xia Yu walked away.
The maid was stunned. After putting away the fuzz ball, she caught up with Xia Yu. She wasn’t afraid of the young miss anymore.
After following Xia Yu to her room and making sure she didn’t have any needs, she took out her phone and sent a message in the maids’ chat group.
“The young miss stroked my hair today!”
There were quite a few maids still up. Soon, one reply came.
“What happened?”
“You’re sure she stroked and didn’t hit your head?”
“Yes. I got some dust on my hair while cleaning the storage closet, and she took off the piece of fuzz ball.” The maid smiled, remembering what just happened.
“Really?”
“Really. I smelled her too. She smelled amazing. Her hands looked so beautiful!” The maid blushed.
“Hmm. Are you under a lot of stress?”
“You’re the crazy one. Don’t you think the young miss looks incredible at night lately?”
The maids’ chat group grew silent.
“Yes, it’s true.”
A heated discussion ensued.
After some messages, the topic changed.
“I heard the madam’s birthday is coming up.”
“So what. The party won’t be held here.”
“Wouldn’t the young miss need to go?”
…
In the bedroom, oblivious to the excitement he created for the maids, Xia Yu stood on the bedroom balcony, eating the white jade meatballs while looking at the night.
Too bad he couldn’t take away the meatballs, or he could have had Youxue try these foods.
Thinking of the price of these things, Xia Yu sighed.
The recipe wasn’t that hard, it was the ingredients that made the meatballs incredible.
The recipe required a kind of octopus Xia Yu had never heard of, found only on a small island.
“You’re not coming tomorrow?” An Siyao asked him.
“We talked about this. We do two days on, one day off,” Xia Yu said.
When An Siyao’s body was fatigued, his mental state was affected too.
“What song are you planning to learn the day after tomorrow? There’s a song that I don’t know either. If you want to learn, I can have Auntie Dong find a piano tutor,” An Siyao said.
“It’s alright. I don’t want to learn new songs yet.” Xia Yu wanted to take a break. He’d been playing the piano for eight hours a day lately; he was kind of tired of it.
Hearing Xia Yu’s words, An Siyao became panicked. Xia Yu had been learning piano whenever he logged onto her body. If he didn’t want to learn anymore, what would happen?
“Are you really coming the day after tomorrow?”
“Relax. I won’t stand you up,” Xia Yu said.
“OK.”
Then, Xia Yu and the girl talked about something else, where he learned a lot of upper-class society gossip.
By 2 a.m., Xia Yu returned to his own body.
When he sat up in bed, a string of text appeared.
[You have received an award for reaching Lv 3 of a skill for the first time.]
[Body search 1/1: Pick bodies based on features.]
This was a surprise. Xia Yu was amazed. Body search was quite useful.
Also, now he knew that once he met certain conditions, he would be rewarded with more.
Since he just reached Lv 3 of a skill for the first time, he’d probably get other rewards if he reached Lv 4 for the first time too.
Given that he wasn’t logging onto An Siyao’s body today, he was conflicted about picking the black cat or someone else.
He already learned Cleverness from the black cat, so there’s no point in going to the black cat now, but he didn’t have another suitable target with the free search.
Well, he didn’t need to worry anymore. He could find a suitable body-swap target with body search.