My Wife and I Became Sages in Another World-Chapter 57: Piano Under the Moon

It had been a few weeks since our fight with the black dragon serpent, and the town only kept growing.

One day, while we were in the middle of training with the knights, a villager came looking for me and the princess, saying that a big cart had arrived for us.

Confused, I went to the area where they had the cart with the princess to see what it could be when I noticed her giggling with anticipation.

"Umm, princess? Do you know what this is about?" I asked as we kept walking.

She looked at me with her eyebrow raised. "Did you forget already? Don’t you remember my dad said he was sending us something?"

"Oh, the piano!" I exclaimed, now sharing some of her excitement.

When we got the cart that had been parked right outside my house, it was indeed huge. I deduced it must have been the type of vehicle they used to transport huge and heavy things from one city to the other.

However, this massive cart only had one thing inside once we opened it: a piano.

It looked just as good as the type of piano I was familiar with, which relieved me a little since there was a chance that we would get some other random item.

A group of villagers offered their help, and we picked it up carefully before placing it on the ground. However, my home’s door wasn’t big enough to fit the instrument, which gave me another idea.

I went inside my house and up the stairs. At the end of the hallway where the bedrooms were situated, I used earth and nature magic to open a symmetrical hole in the wall.

Then, using the same types of magic, I built a balcony where I would place the piano.

The group, watching me from outside, wondered how would building a balcony help us get the piano inside. But my plan was never to bring the piano inside the house but to carry it straight to the balcony from outside.

Once the balcony was done, I used gravity magic to raise the piano up to my level slowly and carefully placed it in the center of the new open room.

My entire group stood beside me while they stared at the piano as if waiting for me to start playing. However, we weren’t done with our training for the day, and I didn’t want to have them slack, so I told them that we would play around with the piano after we finished our work.

That night, after dinner, we returned to the balcony where the lone piano had been waiting for us the entire day.

I sat on the long stool while the princess sat next to me and pressed a few keys to make sure they sounded correct.

"So, what are you playing?" asked the princess playfully.

"Umm, I’m not a professional or anything. I told you, I only know how to play a few songs..." I responded, trying to lower their expectations, but the princess’s eyes only showed more anticipation.

I sighed. ("Fine...")

I tried my hardest to remember the songs I knew how to play in my old world. Since I had only learned how to play piano back then because I wanted to play for my wife, I only got so far into it.

I closed my eyes to focus on the notes and began playing the "Happy Birthday" song to warm up, followed by "Fur Elise," and lastly, "Moonlight Sonata" by Beethoven.

When I finished my set, the rest wanted to play with the piano, so I moved for them to try it out.

Surprisingly, Vespera was able to copy my exact finger movements and played "Fur Elise" like a true professional.

("What the hell is the deal with these legendary beasts, seriously?") I thought as she kept replaying it.

I knew that Vespera "learned" from me by simply watching me do stuff, but this was the first time I had seen her master something so quickly.

Even the maids tried playing some tunes, but they proved that they didn’t have much of a musical ear.

Reinar, on the other hand, seemed to understand some of the basics quickly. Although, I wasn’t as impressed anymore at his incredible speed for learning new things. In fact, I was used to it.

As time passed, the people started going to bed while I stayed on the balcony enjoying the breeze when the princess came back out.

Sitting next to me again, I couldn’t help but notice how her eyes glowed under the moonlight.

"Were you going to play again?" asked the princess, snapping me out of my trance.

"Heh, I already played all the songs I know..." I responded, but seeing the princess lower her head with a hint of disappointment made me rethink.

There was one last song that I knew how to play. One that I had written myself in my past life.

However, before I started playing it, the princess said she was going to bed and went back inside.

Finding myself alone with the piano and the moon adorning the sky, I began playing the final song. But halfway through, memories of my past life began flooding my head, making me halt.

"Why did you stop?" said the princess, who had been standing behind me the entire time.

"Oh, Princess... I thought you went to bed..." I responded, a little embarrassed that she heard me play that song.

The princess pouted. "You said you played all the songs you knew!"

"I did. I just remembered this one!" I said, trying to explain myself.

The princess, with a determined expression, sat next to me again.

"It sounded kind of familiar... Is it a famous song?" she asked.

"I don’t think so, no..."

"Well... play it!" she said with a smile. However, I was starting to feel a little shy about it.

Trying to come up with an excuse, I mumbled my words. "Well, you know, princess-..." I elaborated, but she cut me off instantly with another pout.

"Ichiro... Why do you call me ’princess’ all the time?" she said while arching her eyebrow.

"Huh? Because you are a princess, no?" I responded, although that wasn’t the reason I didn’t call her by her name.

"Don’t lie to me. I’ve seen you call everyone by their names, including the commander of the knights. Why?" she asked, her face showing a tinge of sadness.

"S-sorry! I’ll call you by name if that’s truly what you want...." I complied.

With a resolute nod, the princess folded her arms and confirmed that was what she desired.

"Alright... Melina..." I said, making me blush, which I found somewhat annoying. However, her smile made it worth it.

Once she had said what was on her mind, she asked me again to play the last song with puppy eyes that anyone would have found hard to say no to.

I closed my eyes for a moment to focus and started playing my original piano song for the princess. Again, in the middle of playing, memories of my past life flooded my head.

Nevertheless, I kept playing, knowing that the princess wanted to hear the entire song, and turned to look at her expression.

For a quick second, I could see the princess as my past wife. Even though they had completely different appearances, I clearly saw a reflection of her with her long, brown, and braided hair in the place where the princess was sitting.

Grounded in the present moment once more, I could discern the princess’s facial expression as she just looked at me perplexed while I kept playing.

With the song over, the princess asked me for the name, as I had told them the name of the previous songs I played.

I sighed, crossed my arms against the piano, and laid my head down. "Melina..."

"What?" she asked, thinking I was calling her name.

"Nevermind..." I said with a smile, as I had just answered her question about the song’s name.

Melina pouted again, not understanding what I meant. Although this time, it was clearly in a sarcastic form.

She then asked me what city we would visit after registering as adventurers.

I hadn’t put too much thought into it, but I knew that there were a couple of big cities in the Sephyr Kingdom that I hadn’t seen.

The one that mainly caught my attention was one called "Port Town Blue," which was supposed to be a fishing city next to the ocean, and truthfully, I was craving for some seafood.

Melina giggled and said that once we registered, we would be able to travel anywhere, at least for one year, since she would have to go to the academy after.

"Well then, let’s just enjoy the time we have together for now... We can decide where to go once we are real adventurers." I said.

Melina agreed, and we stayed on the balcony for a few more minutes before we went back to our rooms to get some rest.