episode_0038

When was it?

It was probably around episode 35.

There was a time when I was confident that ‘there was no one who could touch me’.

“Be quiet, if you don’t want to get your pretty face hurt.”

A rough-looking female hyena smirks and brandishes a dagger.

I sit quietly on the uncomfortable, dirty, closed-room floor with a ‘okay’ expression on my face. I should add that I have been quiet ever since I was caught.

Yes, that’s right.

I’m currently being kidnapped by a huge fan.

“Wow, everyone is going to eat!”

“Of course it is a food alley.”

Thanks to Hoyo’s enthusiastic support (and because Bam and Bandi also like to eat), the first place we went to was the endless food alley selling festival food.

“There are so many things that look delicious.”

Maybe it was because of my mood, but I decided not to ask about the fact that there was a nut snack shop every three stores (of course, I also picked up a lot of nuts at night) and we started walking down the food alley.

“Oh my, Miss Night! Looks like the rumors were true! Miss Hoyo and Miss Bandi, come on in!”

A male otter vendor with a squeamish personality greets us warmly and gives us a skewer each.

“Mr. Moon, how’s the festival going?”

“The festival is always fun. This year, it’s busier than last year because there are more visitors.”

The night laughs and talks to the male named Moon.

“Wow, this is so delicious!”

Hoyo, who tasted the skewer he handed her, screamed in surprise, and Bandi’s eyes also sparkled.

“Mr. Dal-i is from the artisan industry. But he likes skewers, so he runs a skewer restaurant in Yeongji.”

As the night he spoke pointed to his stall, an automatic doll that looked like it was made of clockwork was busily turning over skewers while making sounds like ‘push slap’ and ‘kick kick’.

“Oh my, Miss. You’re an artificer? I just learned it from over your shoulder.”

The festival went something like this.

Many people in the territory came to know that the territory was always active at night, and many people recognized Hoyo and Bandido as a set.

Besides, this was a food alley, and everyone was pretending to know each other and giving us something, so by the time we reached the end of the food alley, all four of us were full.

“Mmm~ It’s delicious. I want to go around one more time.”

… Correction. Excluding Bandi, the three of them were about to burst.

Since we had already filled our bellies from the start of the festival, we headed to the performance street through the food alley to help with digestion.

“Performance distance?”

“Yeah. Whether it’s music, magic, or theater, anything that can be seen, heard, and enjoyed, all come together in the performance area.”

“And at some festivals, they boast a high level similar to the food alley.”

I tilt my head at the description of the night and the bandit.

“Is there a special reason?”

From the entrance of the performance street, a group of bards playing lively and cheerful music welcomed us.

“Artists have a hard time making a living just as audience members, so they need sponsors. That’s why they put more effort into festivals.”

“Aha.”

I heard that in this world, artists also received support from nobles and the wealthy.

As for the arts and physical education, I have gained knowledge because I have no knowledge in either that or that field.

-Acquires the [Listening] trait.

-Art, Elegance, Friendliness, and Attunement statuses slightly increase, and the limits of those statuses increase.

– It becomes easier to obtain the [Mars] trait. If you already have the [Mars] trait, you will get a synergy bonus.

-Acquires the [Eyes] trait…

-[Performance] It’s easier to get traits…

-[Choreography] Get the characteristics…

“Oh my goodness.”

As soon as you enter the performance area and try to see anything, system messages start to appear noisily.

“What’s wrong, Ain?”

As I wave my hand like a mosquito swatting away the system messages that are overwhelming me, Hoyo asks.

“Uh, no, it’s just. It’s just… it looks kind of familiar.”

Since I couldn’t say, “As soon as I entered the performance area, all sorts of characteristics started to appear,” I just answered, “It feels familiar,” and the females responded in an unexpected way.

“Oh, familiar? Is it Ain’s ‘talent’?”

“Wow, Ain-i is truly a blessed male.”

“What are you talking about?”

I close the system messages one by one and ask as I watch the night and Bandi making a fuss.

In response to my question, Bam throws a silver coin into the instrument case of the lyre player who was playing the music he had just been listening to, and answers.

“Talent is something like an innate disposition. Besides the original dictionary definition of the word talent.”

As Night explains, people are born with a talent, but when they do or see something related to that talent for the first time, it feels familiar even though they have never done it or heard of it before.

“In my case, I got that feeling after watching my mom practice.”

“Um, I think it was when my dad was organizing the ledger.”

“This was when my mother took me on a tour of the Yeongji building.”

Hoyo, Bandi, and Bam talked about their talents in that order.

“But I thought Ain had a talent for recovery.”

Well, since the character setting says he used recovery magic since he was young, you could guess that.

“Recovery… I just had to do it. It feels different here.”

I expected a reaction of ‘I see’ when I said that, but the miscellaneous study group looked saddened by my words.

“That’s right. The North is a dangerous land.”

“It’s so sad and bitter to hear the words, “I had to do it.” ”

“That’s right. Who would want to do that before becoming an adult?”

As I was embarrassed by the unexpected reaction, a hastily made sign that said ‘Musical Instrument Performance Experience’ suddenly caught my eye.

“Musical instrument performance experience?”

“Ah, that’s something artists who teach children of nobles or wealthy commoners often do at festivals.”

Even though the night explained it that way, somehow the musical instrument performance experience was just a waste of time.

A hamster with a squat, looking mischievous, male… or female…?, holding a sign in his hand, made eye contact with me and gave me an incredibly pitiful look.

“But there’s no one.”

“Well, artists who mainly teach are hard to hire. There are limits to the number of nobles, but there are so many artists that you can almost run into trouble.”

Leaving the night’s explanation behind, I approached him…? her…? with a heart half curious and half pitiful.

“Oh, welcome!!”

It was only after I got closer and took a closer look that I realized that this hamster artist was a male.

In this world, if a male were to do poorly in business, people would flock to him, so I wondered why he was alone, but the three who followed me started making strange noises.

“It’s not easy to find a female hamster around here.”

“That’s right. There are a lot of hamsters in the western part of the empire or the western kingdom.”

“It looks soft.”

“What are you talking about…? This guy…”

Just as I was about to say something like, “What are you talking about?” the male hamster artist started shaking his head frantically at an angle that only I could see.

“…I don’t think he’s a bad person…”

“A hamster? What are you talking about, Ain. Hamsters are not good at that by nature.”

The night raises a question mark above your head and answers it. How did it get through?

“Excuse me… Would you like to learn how to play an instrument?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then let’s try it too.”

“Oh, that would be fun.”

Suddenly, four guests appeared, and the hamster, male or female (I decided to do so), became happy and took out four small lutes in excitement, recited a spell, and then returned it to a normal-sized lute.

“Oh, that’s amazing.”

“Hehe, it looks like this is your first time seeing this. Since instruments are inconvenient to carry around, if there are many kinds, they are made smaller and carried around like this.”

The lute he gave me was old and worn, but it didn’t feel old at all; it had a classic, cozy feel to it.

“Okay, first I’ll tell you how to break it.”

When the hamster showed us how to play the lute, we tried to play it as similarly as possible.

“The male here is doing well. This young lady here is doing it like this… This one is doing it with her hands a little more…”

Despite his shabby appearance, the hamster was quite teachable.

As he clung to us for a moment, our posture became quite plausible.

“Okay. Then let’s start with the basics…”

As the hamster demonstrates the hand gesture by making the basic sound of ding, ding, we follow along.

It wasn’t that difficult, so I followed along right away, and Hoyo followed along better than I expected with his overwhelming physique.

Bandido was just following along, but Bam was the hardest.

“Ugh, that’s why I didn’t invite a music teacher when I was young.”

After struggling for a while, Bam decides that it can’t be helped and quietly returns the lute to the hamster.

“Ahaha, that’s possible. The male is better at it.”

I looked like I was in love with his compliments, but the females seemed quite excited.

“I think Ain has a talent for art. She said she was familiar with it when she came here.”

The hamster seemed surprised by Hoyo’s words.

“I see! From the method of breaking the strings to the way you plucked the strings, it seems like it was your first time, but you did it very well.”

The hamster decided that I had talent and started teaching me intensively. I followed along diligently because I found it more fun than I thought.

At first, Bandi and Hoyo somehow managed to keep up, but they soon fell behind.

“Wow, you really are talented. You’re following all of that.”

“Still, Hoyo, we can still feel a moral victory by finding Ain’s talent.”

Hoyo and Bam nodded at Bandi’s words.

“Well, we can see that we have done a good job of fulfilling our duties as a group of females. We can see that we have been one step ahead of ‘three of them’.”

It’s true that I forbade competition for rank, but there seems to be a subtle temperature difference when the females gather together. The three members of the Jabso Research Group tend to refer to Elfin, Ion, and Lulu as ‘the three over there’ or ‘the popular ones’.

The problem is that those popular kids think of the three members of the study group as ‘just a bunch of female friends from the same group’ without thinking much about it.

In particular, Elfin, who had no friends to begin with, showed more affection for them than for Ion or Lulu.

It’s a sad fact that the three members of the miscellaneous study group have a sense of entitlement because they are far from the standard image of beauty.