"I can't... sigh. It's somewhat difficult to explain, but phonk is about beats unlike most songs. Miss the beat, then you miss the whole thing! Ughh... I don't know how to fully capture the beauty of such great art."
Evelyn dramatically slumped to the young miss after listening to the recording she had made of herself singing phonk with nothing but her voice.
It was abysmal, to say the least. A human's voice could only do so much.
Days passed since their one-time night arrangement, and it somehow evolved into a daily routine. And while the young miss enjoyed seeing Verity bust out strange but fun dance moves for the most part, Evelyn soon ran into a problem.
Dancing without music was awkward as hell.
At first, she didn't notice this at all, since the music was fluent and booming in her head, fluidly directing all her dancing, and the young miss enjoyed it regardless.
But then she missed her beats once, and it fully dawned on her how awkward it really was.
So she tried using her voice. Her rhythm was decent, and her voice surprisingly good enough to capture the charm of phonk, despite its squeakiness. But a person could only imitate so much before their shortcomings were exposed.
"This won't do." Evelyn tapped the third recording crystal with a frown.
Recording crystals were a one-time-use thing and the recording couldn't be erased to make space for a new one.
The crystal could only be destroyed.
Its only functions were recording, playing, and pausing.
For more advanced features such as fast forward, volume manipulation, restart, or play in queue, one would need to purchase an "orb player".
Rosanna shook her head sadly.
"Oh, what else can we do, Verity? As fun as this music of yours is, it truly is too strange to replicate."
Evelyn sighed. It truly was. Even worse was that she didn't know anything about the technical aspects of music, like music keys, and merely relied on the music in her head.
This truly seemed like a lost cause. Perhaps giving up would have been a more convenient choice, but when the only thing of interest you had was at stake, stepping up was a matter of fact, not choice.
Evelyn smiled at the young miss confidently. "Don't worry, young miss, I may not have it now, but eventually I will show you the full beauty of phonk."
"But," she winked, "I'll be needing all the help I can get. Will you help me?"
Rosanna's eyes sparkled.
"Definitely!"
***
Although Evelyn knew the Castellans absolutely spoilt Rosanna, she still couldn't withstand her shock when, despite the incredulity of her request, it was sorted and delivered to her within three days.
A prestigious magic mage genius was invited to aid them as well, and thus their activities shifted from night to day.
The first thing Evelyn did was try as much as she could to explain phonk to their aid, who surprisingly listened patiently, but couldn't resist giving her a weird look every now and then.
After all, music in this world was mostly classical and folktale-like, with a couple of other types, while her musical idea was as bizarre as it was confusing.
Despite it all, the aid managed to procure a selection of instruments that he thought were close enough to capture the beats spoken of.
Instruments in this world really were like those of the Victorian era, but a bit more advanced due to magic, and Evelyn found it surprisingly easier to learn than she thought it would be.
She learnt how to play drums and spent a month messing around with the different types of drums the aid had recommended, till she found a match which she thought was close enough to the vibes she sought after.
Then she learnt the piano-like instrument, which she was told was a magical harpsichord, also recommended by the aid.
She also learnt the tambourine, cymbals, and a bunch of other instruments, till she was left wondering if the aid actually knew what he was doing, or was just having her randomly experiment.
Meanwhile, the young miss, due to her sheer stubbornness, was allowed to learn at least one instrument—the piano-like one—due to it being less noisy, befitting of her frail state.
Evelyn wasn't sure if it was because she had stuck her hands into many instruments at once, while Rosanna simply focused on the harpsichord, or if the young child just had a natural talent. But in the span of the one year it took her to round off her instrument learning, along with the technical aspect, Rosanna's playing skills had nearly reached expert level.
Even the aid was shocked and called her a music prodigy, and seeing Rosanna beam with joy whenever she played or got praised, Evelyn couldn't help but feel immense satisfaction.
Was this what gamers felt when they mistakenly completed a side quest with unexpected, bountiful rewards? Ah, this must be it!
By the fourth month of the second year, Evelyn, Rosanna, and the aid, who had somehow been roped into all of this, began their main quest—making Victorian phonk.