Early in the afternoon, I once again met up with Bruno in one of the palace’s parlor rooms. As I settled into one of the generously padded couches, I realized that this—as well as the table between us and many of the expensive furnishings in this city—had all been procured by Bruno.
“What may I help you with today?” asked Bruno.
I shook away my idle thoughts. “Actually, I was hoping to ask you for some advice regarding the venue.”
“The venue...?”
I nodded as I looked him in the eye. My desperation was probably clear in my gaze. “I tried asking Lardon, but she said she wasn’t an expert in this matter.”
“Ah, but how could I possibly know something that even the divine dragon—”
“Oh, no,” I interjected, figuring he was about to put himself down as always. “It’s because she doesn’t know anything about human entertainment.”
“Entertainment, hmm...” With a nod, he fell silent and waited for me to continue.
“I want everyone in the city to attend Amelia’s concert, but for that we’d need a venue, wouldn’t we? We can’t just hold it inside a house... The plaza in front of the palace isn’t big enough for everyone either.”
“Yes, I agree.”
“So, I tried making one in an empty plot of land outside the city, and it looked something like this...”
I took out some fist-sized stones from my item box, cut them into twenty-five thin slabs with a spell called Slicer, and set them down on the table between us in a five-by-five square.
“Of course, this is just a miniature example,” I clarified. “I’ve never made a stage or a performance venue, so I’m stumped. Lining up a bunch of slabs was the best I could do...”
I let out a dry laugh. The stone slabs I made outside the city were much bigger, and I’d arranged four hundred of them in a twenty-by-twenty formation. However, all I’d succeeded in making then was a huge platform. I guess it kinda looked like a stage, but...
“Even I can tell that this isn’t the type of stage Amelia should perform on,” I told Bruno. “So, I tried asking Lardon for advice, but she said she didn’t know a thing about how humans construct entertainment spaces.”
“Ah... My, my...”
Bruno looked like he was stumped on how to respond, so I simply continued, “It may be surprising for a divine dragon to not know something, but it made sense when she explained it. Anyway, I decided I was better off asking an expert. I figured you might know someone.”
“As presumptuous as this may be...I have some knowledge regarding this matter.”
“You do?” I asked in surprise.
He replied with a nod. “It was unlikely for me to inherit the Hamilton house, so I directed my attention to the performing arts instead.”
Just as I was curiously cocking my head, Lardon explained, “By focusing on his hobbies, he was making an implicit show of his lack of interest in the succession dispute. A clever hand.”
Ahh, I see. I nodded.
Bruno continued, “At the time, I learned that, broadly speaking, there are two options when constructing a performance venue: to make the sound bounce well, or not at all.”
“Okay...” I could somewhat understand what he was saying. Basically, our choices were on extreme ends, and which we selected would depend on our needs. “Which is better?”
“It depends on the type of music and song. The biggest difference is the reverb.”
“Reverb...” The word didn’t click right away for me, so I could only parrot it in confusion.
“Reverb,” Bruno repeated. “No matter how good the reverb, the sound will always gradually get quieter. Given that, there are some types of music that are best performed in structures with good reverb.”
“I see...”
“Plays, for example, prefer less reverb because the sound must always come from the front. With good reverb, some sound would echo from the back as the actors speak onstage, making for an uncomfortable experience for the audience.”
“Wow... You sure know your stuff, Bruno.”
“Thank you very much.”
I fell silent as I thought back to all the performances I’d heard until now. Among them, which did I enjoy the most?
“I liked the reverb,” I decided. “I’d like everyone to hear that kind of performance too.”
“Then we shall proceed with that in mind.”
“Uh-huh. Do you know someone we can entrust this to? I, uh... I doubt you’re an expert in the construction side of this too.”
“You are correct,” Bruno replied. “I know a firm of skilled artisans. I will call them over right away.”
“Thanks.”
That was another item off my checklist. A performance venue that could fit ten thousand monsters—this would surely become quite the large-scale project, but it was worth it if it meant everyone would get to hear Amelia’s best performance.
I knew next to nothing about construction work, but surely they’d need a lot of manual labor. That I could help with by speeding things up with my magic.
We’re one step closer to experiencing the best concert of our lives!