CHAPTER 30: THE PUB AND A SONG

While looking somewhat exasperated, Carol-san brought us to an abnormally rowdy pub.
Even from outside the building, I can clearly hear boisterous laughter and the sound of mugs smacking together.

「So, are you going in? Or rather, what are you planning to do inside?
Even if it is the authorised pub, I wouldn’t be surprised if they kicked out an underaged child like you, you know?」
「Why are you saying that now?」
「See, now that I think about it, practically no one below the age of 15 ever comes to this place.
More so, a regular 10 year old child definitely wouldn’t come here.
Because of that, even I can’t tell how they’ll react to you.
Well, some heckling will likely be involved at the very least.」
「Then, will it be hard to ask them to let me sing at the pub?」
「People who earn the money they need by amusing people at pubs isn’t anything new.
Particularly, since hunters have too much spare time, it’s more welcoming here compared to other pubs.
However, whether the pub master allows it or not is another issue altogether.
Don’t expect me to help you in that regard too, alright?」
「As long as you can introduce me to the pub master, I’ll handle everything else.」

But even though I said that, I still haven’t gotten Ciel’s permission.
Ciel might even say no here but somehow Ciel almost never disagrees with anything I want to do, so I can’t say for sure.

『Umm, Ciel?』
『If Ain wants to do it, then I don’t mind, alright?』
『But it may end up causing us some problems, so……』
『When that happens, we just need to run.
We can do that, right?』
『If it’s just running, then it shouldn’t be that difficult, but…』
『Then it’s fine.』

So I got her permission, but will this really be okay?
Well, since we’re already here, I follow Carol-san as she goes inside.
It’s just a normal pub with a counter.
The only difference here is that there are only adventurer-like people inside.
Most of them are well-built and more importantly, all of them have some sort of weapon.
The people with no weapons are… probably sorcerers.
The gender ratio is maybe about 7:3 with more men than women.
The first thing I heard as I got inside was the words「Oi, the B-ranker is here.」and the like.

They’re probably talking about Carol-san, but if they’re looking at her then they’ll end up noticing the one next to her, me.

What I heard next was snickering.
Words like 「She has a child?」and「Why bring a kid to the pub?」were thrown around.
But listening closely, however, I noticed that only thirty percent of the people reacted like that, and all of them came from the obviously crude looking bunch.
From a glance, they don’t seem very strong.
But to begin with, can a person’s strength really be judged just by looking at them? Still, I consider my risk detection abilities to be pretty high, mostly because we’ve been exposed to life-threatening danger for a long time.
And based on my experience, the most dangerous person in this building is the one next to me, Carol-san.
In other words, the people in this pub aren’t scary at all.

The bearded pub master at the counter seems like a hearty person and although he gazed at me with a confused look, there’s probably still room for negotiation since I don’t feel any sort of hostility from him.
Well, today I have Carol-san, an adult, with me, so it might just be that he doesn’t have the choice of immediately kicking me out.

「It’s been a while.」
「The Ice Witch here along with her child, this some sort of joke?」
「Would you stop calling me that? Also, this isn’t my child.
Look at how old she is.」
「Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, this isn’t a place for kids, hear me? Though she won’t be in danger, it’s just that and nothing more.」
「Well, she said she has something to do here.」
「Well then little miss.
What did you come here for?」

Just as I was caught off guard by his rather unique way of speaking, they suddenly shifted the topic to me.

「Nice to meet you, my name is Cielmer.
I was wondering if you could let me sing in this pub today.」
「Sing…… is it? So in short, you’re here to earn some coins, yeah? Well see, I can’t just let you do your gig here for free.」
「Then in that case, I’ll pay for one glass, so would you let me sing just one song?」
「With all this noise around still?」
「And after that, I’ll give half of what I get to pay for the venue fee.
If nothing happens after I sing one song, then I’ll go home immediately.
It won’t take much time, so there’s nothing to lose, right?」
「If you’re fine with that then sure but you woudn’t really get much from that, wouldn’t you?」
「It’s safe here, and there are people.」

Right now, I just want to learn how to gather information rather than actually earning money, so it’s not a problem.
Rather, if money’s the problem, then I only need to do more requests.
Even with just the standing requests, Ciel can probably earn enough money to reach the worth of gold coins in a single day.
For that reason, that magic bag thing will probably become necessary.
Also, it’s bothering me that I rely too much on Ciel.
Still, since we’ve chosen to work as a hunter, there’s no helping it that fighting becomes more frequent, which is mainly Ciel’s role.
When the time comes for Ciel to choose the requests she wants to do and earn money on her own instead of doing what I ask her to do, will this feeling of guilt in me also disappear?

Regardless, if I can get even a little bit of money just from singing, It’ll be satisfying enough for me.
I’m a modern child raised by the Internet.
I’ve seen a lot of people singing online, selling their first CDs, and becoming famous overnight.
It was even something I yearned for.
After all, I really love singing.
Maybe I might have even succeeded if I actually tried, but I couldn’t take that first step.
That’s why it’s not an exaggeration to say that being in a place where I can earn money by singing was my dream.
I’m not sure if it’s because of the Song Princess, because I continued singing for a long time, or because Ciel is really talented, but I do feel that I’m better at singing now than I was before I died, so I should be able to win the people over if they hear me.

After telling the pub master that I’m fine with those conditions, I moved to the space next to the counter.
It was the only place I could sing at, so I had no other choice.
And so, the people that are paying attention to me right now are about half of all the pub’s customers.
From here on, it’s going to be a matter of catching the attention of as many people as possible.
Nevertheless, it’s noisy.
Will they even hear me?
I can get them to listen to me with the power of the Song Princess but if I do that, they’ll know that I’m a Song Princess.
So from here on, it’s going to entirely depend on my singing.

With that, I took a deep breath and raised my voice to fight against the clamor.

◇

After singing a lively song, I bow down my head.
Since I sang completely in Japanese, there were people that were puzzled at first and even some still making merry on their own even after I finished my song.
But since there were some that threw their coins after I finished, I consider it a success.
The coins were mostly copper coins but I can see some silver too, so this should have earned quite a lot.
At the very least, even after deducting half to pay for the venue fee, it’s still a lot more than what a lower ranking hunter can earn in a day.

「Hey little lady, give us one more song.」

A hunter sitting nearby who seemed to be about the same age as the pub master requested, so I quickly looked at the pub master.
Since he nodded his head, I got really happy and sang one more song.
This time, a lot more people listened to me.
Even though they should have no idea of what I’m actually saying, they seemed to enjoy listening to me, so I’m feeling really good right now.
And before I noticed it, I ended up singing about five songs.
The money has piled up into a small mountain and my throat is parched too, so I bow down and go to where Carol-san is.
Carol-san was drinking a wine-like red liquid at the counter seat.

「As usual, you’re really good at singing.」
「I’m glad that you enjoyed it.」
「It seemed to me that you also enjoyed it yourself.」
「That’s true.
It was really fun.」
「Still, you actually act like your age when you’re singing.」

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Saying that, Carol-san takes a gulp of her wine.
That said, however, if what she meant by that was that I was acting like a 10 year old, then I actually wasn’t acting my age.
Still, it is true that I enjoyed it and I certainly do look like a 10 year old, so I don’t mind it.

「I see.
The little miss being that confident while negotiating earlier makes sense now.
I’ve never heard of those songs before, but it’s popular with the crowd.」
「Like I promised earlier, please take this half.」

Since the pub master talked to me, I pushed the small mountain of money in his direction.
With a troubled look, he shook his head and pushed the mountain to a stop.

「Say, you’re troubled with money, aren’t you? Then I can’t take this.
The drinks are selling because of your singing too, so I already got enough from you.」
「I’m not really troubled with money, so please take it.
That’s what we agreed on after all.」

As I once again pushed the little mountain, the pub master turned his head to Carol-san to ask for help.
After shooting a glance at me, Carol-san made an exasperated sigh.
I’m not the one who dragged you into this problem, so please don’t look at me like that.
Well, sure, this wouldn’t have been a problem if I just obediently accepted it, but, at least while I’m still in this country, I don’t want to accept charity.

「Well, you don’t need to worry that much.
This child is a hunter, you see?」
「Even if she’s a hunter, she’s at G-rank, yeah?」
「Nope, she’s E-rank.
Moreover, she’s an E-rank that can go solo.」
「Haah? This little girl…… is an E?」
「To begin with, I’m taking care of her, so you don’t worry about it.
I only took her here today because she wanted to come after all.」
「O-Okay.
Then, I’ll take it, I guess……」

With that exchange, the pub master finally accepted the money.
I put the remaining half inside a pouch, but it’s pretty heavy.
I wonder if that pig man had a magic bag on him.
If he did, then I really wasted the opportunity.

I actually wanted to gather some information from the hunters since they’re in a good mood now, but Carol-san was letting out a “hurry up and finish already” aura, so I decided to leave the pub for today.
As we left, the hunters told me「Come back again.」so it should be fine even if we go alone next time.

On the way to the inn, after we parted ways with Carol-san, Ciel talked to me with a slightly sulky tone.

『I’m glad that you enjoyed it, Ain.』
『Why are sulking?』
『I’m not sulking at all.』

Although she said so, Ciel sounded somewhat displeased.
I generally sing my songs for Ciel’s sake, so she might have felt possessive over it.

『That’s right.
It’s the most fun I’ve had other than when I’m singing for you.』
『Really?』
『Yes, really.
The happiest I felt while singing was when you first heard my song.
I am how I am today because you enjoyed my song back when you were a baby.
Even now, the one thing I look forward to the most is singing for you, Ciel.
And it’s because you’re the one that listens to me singing the most.』

After all, Ciel has been listening to me singing continuously for more than ten years without getting tired of it.
With that said, there’s no doubt that my greatest pleasure is having Ciel enjoy my songs.

『I enjoy listening to Ain sing the most too!』

And even though she was still sulking just moments earlier, Ciel is already back in a good mood.
So with that, I decided to sing her a song.

Hiya~! We’re here at the pub and it’s the debut of our beloved song princess~! Yay~!

I really love how it shows how much Ain changed from how she was before.
In my opinion, you don’t need the MC’s past memories in reincarnation or transported to another world stories unless you do something with it.
However, some of these stories just leave the MC’s personality and character depth for some reason and use the memories as an excuse to make trendy jokes and pop culture references.
It’s not bad in of itself but having, for example, Frodo talk about pop culture jokes in Lord of the Rings really doesn’t fit the mood.
Unless you immediately destroy his hopes and dreams, that is.
Sometimes, we tend to forget that the reincarnated individual is reincarnated because of how much of their past we never explore, which is prevented by some novels because of how much they want the “food from home” almost irritatingly so.
This is what I like about Ain, she has little nonsense quirks that can be traced to her past.
The weird talent that mostly serves no purpose tends to be forgotten but… don’t we all have that weird thing we do because we like doing it but it doesn’t really help much for your daily life? Her singing is an important part of the story and even the fact that the language she is singing in being different is addressed and might even become a problem since no one knows about it.
Her being a fan of singing also naturally comes out here since, if you think about it, she doesn’t actually need to sing to gather information, she just wanted to sing in public and for her voice to be recognized, something that she didn’t have the courage to do in her past life regardless of the various media she could have used.
Still, maybe this difference I see is because of the fact that she didn’t actually have any wish to be reincarnated.
Maybe it’s because she didn’t really daydream of redoing her life better in another world.
She just loved singing.
And likes making really foamy bubbles.
And doing the plain but relaxing herb gathering quests? Yeah, but it’s mostly characters that are driven by what they want to do but aren’t given some op power regarding that that I like the most.
Well, she does have the song princess though, just doesn’t want to use it.
Also, I may just be a bit too biased but still.

Also, jealous Ciel be always cute.
I love both of them.
I need more jealous Ciel…