The owner of the house who was in charge of the radio was a magic apprentice sent by the Congress of Magic, responsible for promoting radios and taking in listeners, and now the corner of his lips on his serious-looking face curled up slightly, as he knew what was going on: Obviously, the director of the programme never told Mr. Felipe in advance that he would be asked to talk about p.u.b.ertal development. Cold and short-tempered as Mr. Felipe, it was no wonder that he would react like this.
Hiss… the electric current noise cut off the programme. Before the middle-aged man decided to tune the radio again, Nightingale's sweet voice returned,
"Sorry, my friends, our sincere apologies. Our guest speaker, Mr. Felipe, has left because of his personal emergency. We'll have Mr. Ricardo continue with the topic. Mr. Ricardo is also an expert arcanist specializing in studying the human body…"
The voice was the same pleasant to ear but now there was a slight hint of fear.
"… Mr. Felipe has left…" Scarlet sighed and felt very disappointed. She really liked Felipe's low and charming voice, especially his tone which carried the just right amount of arrogance.
Her friend, the pretty and pet.i.te Selma, shared her feeling, but she soon realized what just happened. "Mr. Felipe doesn't like the topic! No wonder he remained silent and left!"
Then she covered her cheeks with both hands and said in both curiosity and excitement, "… But it must be so cute if Mr. Felipe took the topic! I bet his face would flus.h.!.+ Oh my… He's so adorable just leaving like this! So cold and proud!"
The middle-aged house owner's face twitched a bit when hearing the teenage girl's words. He could not help wondering how Mr. Felipe would respond if he had heard the comments. They would probably disturb him more than the p.u.b.erty topic.
After her excitement calmed down, Selma was suddenly struck by a thought. "What if Mr. Felipe never comes back in the future?"
"I think he will be back… Don't know for sure… But next time the topic's gonna be different," said Scarlet.
Meanwhile, their eyes flas.h.i.+ng, Andy and the rest of the teenage boys had been fully absorbed in the topic. Tonight's topic had answered a lot of questions in their mind which they dared not to speak out. And when it came to how a girl's body would change during p.u.b.erty, imagination seized them.
"… That's too much!" Scarlet covered her ears and moved closer to the other girls, as if she did not want to listen to it. However, her hands were not covering her ears tight at all.
The rest of the girls who were elder finally realized what the changes were and why they took place. When they went through the changes, the girls were scared and very nervous, having no idea what was going on, and it was not until today did they finally figure out and get to know how to take better care of themselves.
The married aunties took a step forward to s.h.i.+eld the young girls. They glared at those men and scolded,
"Hold your eyes back! Go back and look at your wife and mother!"
So those men in the house looked away. Many of them then thought to themselves that extra care should be given to their women just like what the arcanist had just said, as every month's suffering could be this bad…
After the section of Body Secret, followed a voice full of pa.s.sion,
"Apollo magic crystal light! Hold light in your own hand! Have electric wires set to your place now and receive six months of free electricity! What are you waiting for? Grab your wallet and apply! Visit local town halls, branches of Gift from Elements, and Holm Mineral Union Bank for more information!"
Because of today's topic of Body Secret, people in the room today were not as tense as usual. Although they still dared not to talk aloud, the look on their faces was quite relaxed. While the ladies were sitting together, whispering, the teenage boys were also chatting and taking glances at the girls from time to time secretly.
"Jinkela, Jinkela, the best formula! Make your harvest spectacular!"
After several ads, Nightingale's beautiful voice came back,
"Now let's have Music Gallery take the lead for introducing the second half of tonight's programme. Relax in the wonderful melody and put aside all your exhaustion and tediousness from the day. Tonight we have Mr. Evans's latest piano opusculum, Free Mind, a piece of light music but with mild pa.s.sion."
As Arcana Voice started to be known to more sorcerers and n.o.bles, Lucien's music talent was also revealed. Thus, he put forward his principle for choosing and composing music: Get closer to citizens, to farmers, and to all the ordinary people; From the grand, structural symphony pieces, develop more light music pieces which were simple, romantic, short, but still beautiful.
He composed many pieces of light music by himself, and also copied some from the masterpieces of Earth, including Castle in the Sky. The public's response was mixed, but those who were close to Lucien and knew his "great musician" ident.i.ty understood the situation, as it took time for the transition in styles.
Now it had been three years, and the quality of Lucien's own light music pieces had become much better. They had gain wide popularity among common citizens and young n.o.bles who fancied romance. The fine teahouses along the streets had started to play these music pieces to create a romantic and elegant atmosphere to attract guests, and it turned out to be quite useful.
"A new piece from Mr. Evans?" Scarlet said excitedly, her fingers crossed together against her chin.
All the listeners stopped chatting. They were common citizens, and rarely did they have the chance of visiting a concert hall to listen to music played by a real musician, but now Arcana Voice offered them this precious enjoyment. Although they did not know much about music, they were aware of the heartfelt appreciation in their mind when they first heard the light music pieces.
The melody was wonderful and refres.h.i.+ng. The keys jumping like little fairies pulled the listeners into a quiet and peaceful realm surrounded by nothing but mountains and trees, where birds presented their soft chirping and the stream played its crispy splas.h.i.+ng.
The listener's mind was washed and cured, as they were in the gentle and soft embrace of mother nature, where both their body and soul could take a rest.
Leaves and branches revealed the traces of wind. The wind was free, free to travel to wherever it wanted. The wind made these people who had suffered in their lives and were restrained by their religious belief felt that they have this ticklish feeling in their hearts, that their hearts were covered with a layer of dust, so the hearts could not go with the wind freely. But yet they had not realized what exactly this layer of dust on their mind was.
The free wind gradually faded, yet the sweet aura created by Free Mind was still lingering.
"Beautiful…!" Scarlet murmured as if she was still in the dream.
Too excited to say a word, Selma simply nodded hard.
"After Free Mind, let's listen to the light music piece, Streamside, composed by Miss… Louise." Nightingale introduced.
When mentioning the name, Nightingale paused a bit.
Music had relaxed the listeners' spirit greatly, and now their peaceful mind was open to almost everything.
The silvery voice said to the listeners,
"Now, welcome to our section, the Voice of History. Today, our young historian Mr. Pande will unravel some of the secrets in the War of Dawn and the unknown facts about the Inquisition."
"I do have a book compiled by the Church here, called Hunting Sorcerer, and I do believe that the lines in the book are reliable," said Pande in his piercing voice, "… If a person lives alone and rarely talks to other people, he or she is a sorcerer, without doubt; If a person often shows up on parties and is outgoing and cheerful, then obviously, he or she is just pretending to avoid suspicion…"
The listeners' faces turned pale as Pande was talking.
It's so scary! The Church was suspicious of everything!
As the listeners of Arcana Voice, they could never be enough careful! Otherwise, if the Church knew — No! — if they suspect about this, then…
"Alright, I know the history might be quite heavy, so here comes our most favored section, the Thousand and One Nights! Previously, Harry, the poor boy from the slum, finally arrived at the amazing magic school of Pesancho, and then a series of interesting stories followed…"
Listening to the story, Andy said to his friends, "A poor lad can become a sorcerer. What about us…?"
The cheerful story made them long for the life in a magic school.
The adults were also very impressed. "Those sorcerers are living an even better life than the n.o.bles! They are enjoying food from all over the world, and the cheap, practical alchemical items have made their life much easier and pleasant…"
Their hearts were full of admiration, and they had also learned a lot. Their horizons had been greatly broadened. If any upstart merchant dared to show off his knowledge in front of them, heh, after listening to Arcana Voice, they were not that easy to be fooled!
"… You see? Transformation, Illusion, and Necromancy are not as dark and horrible as you think…" said a listener in low voice.
Some sections in Arcana Voice aimed at eliminating people's fear and hate towards magic caused by ignorance.
"Knowing brings understanding; Communicating connects the world" — this was one of Arcana Voice's tenets.
A fruity voice boomed out from the box. "Welcome to Man and Nature… On the savannah in the south, the rainy season has just pa.s.sed…"
...
In the middle of the Boundless Ocean, in the Solar Islands branch of the Congress of Magic.
A young sorcerer couldn't help but laughed when hearing Nightingale asking Felipe to calm down. Leaned against the back of the chair, the sorcerer was listening to Arcana Voice. His spirit had been lifted and now he was in quite a good mood.
He was receiving the signals using the low-frequency band made specifically for long distance transmission. Arcana Voice had made his life on the island instantly became much more colorful and exciting.
When Arcana Voice ended, he sat up straight and switched to another band.
A serious and clear voice came. "Welcome to Truth of the World…"
The young sorcerer named Blake listened to it attentively. For sorcerers like him who lived far away from Allyn and Rentato, getting the most up-to-date information wasn't easy at all. The delivery of the journals including Arcana was much slower than to the major cities, since in most cases, magic steam trains and boats were used for delivery. Transmission magic circles were used only in rare, important cases.
Living on the island, Blake belonged to one of the last groups of sorcerers to receive the journals and messages, which often took a month longer. He could not stay up-to-date with the latest currents in the Congress, and knew nothing about what was going on in Allyn except what were on the journals.
However, the living cost here was much lower than in Allyn and Rentato, and they could make twice more in these remote areas as there were few local sorcerers. They needed money and materials to get promotion, so they did not want to leave.
The birth of Truth of the World solved this big problem.
"… Then, we're going to review the major news in Allyn in the past week."
