Half-step Purgatory

Durin stroked the black cat on the armrest of his chair, sitting on the black leather sofa. Through the glasses perched on his nose, his gaze passed over the long table in front of him and settled on the man kneeling on the carpet:
"I understand, you've made money in Naples, your business has been very successful, and you've led a happy life. You've had those secret police, friends in both the law and the underground, and even the Royal Family speaking on your behalf."
"You don't need a friend like me, I know that. You're afraid of owing me a favor, and you don't want to get involved in troubles."
"But now you come to me and say, 'I beg you, Mr. Durin of the Corleon family, please help me seek justice, so that my life and my family will not suffer and sink into despair.'
Yet, in your eyes, I was nothing more than a second-rate artist involved in movies and music. Even at the brink of death, you still show me such disrespect, not even willing to call me by my title... Keeper of Secrets."

Durin's Diary

Karl Chelney, this high-hoofed elder was thin and gaunt, with half-moon gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose. In the entire Western Lands cultural circle, he could boast that half of the esteemed music mentors of today were his apprentices, including Teacher Mason.


So, there wasn't much for Mentor Mason to say—after all, he couldn't just grab a colleague and start wailing about how his own musical ancestor was poaching students from him.


Born into the Sidney Union, Karl Chelney taught at the Union's Arts Academy for fifty-five years, and he hadn't taken on a new apprentice in twenty years. Now, nineteen years into his retirement, he suddenly decided to settle in the Northern Kingdom and join the Northern Kingdom Arts Academy, specifically to guide one child.


Chapter 99: This is Also a Side of Magic Cheese