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After the stampede was over, we made our way back to Sannois at a leisurely pace. Carol assured us that news of the incident should have already spread throughout the town and that it shouldn’t be too chaotic upon our return. I was skeptical, as the stampede was still ongoing when Carol arrived, but she was surprised by my doubt and exclaimed, 「Do you really think they wouldn’t know after all that?」

To fight off a stampede, there should be preparations done outside of town, where they’ll fend it off. Since there aren’t signs of that happening, I guess this means that there were instructions to stop.

We passed through the gate and entered town but for some reason, things felt different from usual. The people seemed awkward, looking at me but then quickly looking away. Did I do something? Well, sure, resolving the stampede does count as doing something, but that reaction wasn’t what I expected.

Just when I couldn’t stand it anymore, Carol seemed to have noticed something, saying 「We’re going to Celia.」 and then leading me by the hand.

◇

In the Hunter Guild, most of the gazes felt more friendly but it’s still uncomfortable. However, knowing that we would become C-rank soon, we wouldn’t have to stay in this town for long, so it wasn’t really a problem. We found Celia and headed towards the familiar booth.

「What happened here?」
「While I can’t say the same for you, Carol, you should be informed about this, Cielmer.」
「If it’s something that concerns me, I’d really like to know.」

With that preface, Celia began explaining. To cut it short, it seems that the people with a grudge against me —with Alejo at the center— were working together to try and frame me for today’s stampede. I expected that part, but it looks like they tried to set me up by saying that I’m a Song Princess or something. Their motive for that was because they lost face and were demoted in rank because of me.

However, since they tried to damage my reputation without any valid evidence or reason, it’s been decided that they will be punished by the guild.

Besides that, due to illegally producing and using a monster lure —the drug that attracts monsters— they were arrested by the territory knights. It seems like the Hunter Guild also noticed Alejo’s suspicious movements, but he surprisingly used his head and had his accomplice gather the ingredients needed to make the monster lure only one at a time.

Since most of the materials are either herbs or used for magic items, there weren’t any issues in having just one of these materials by itself. And so, due to the lack of solid evidence, the guild couldn’t take action. This time, it seems like they were able to arrest them thanks to the flask I sent them. Incidentally, if a merchant were to carry all of these ingredients, they would need a special permit to do so.

While they were able to produce a monster lure in secret by taking all of that into consideration, their plan as a whole was just plain sloppy.

They’re still in the middle of questioning but it seems that the plan was to surround me when I come back after running away from the stampede, threaten me by putting the blame on me, and then take my money or something. When I asked if it was actually possible, I was told that if they could make me out myself as a Song Princess, it’s likely that the townspeople would side with Alejo’s gang and they might be able to succeed.

This time, however, it seems that things didn’t go as planned because I didn’t head back to town, but since the townspeople sided with Alejo after he screamed that I was a Song Princess, they now feel awkward around me. While I really am a Song Princess, I’m sure that I didn’t do anything that would expose me. As expected, I became nothing more than a victim of unjustified slander since there wasn’t any evidence of the matter.

It looks like Alejo and his gang will likely be sent to the mines as crime slaves.

「And so, it’s about the next topic but…」
「I can now be C-rank, right?」
「Of course. Since you saved an entire town, that wouldn’t be much of an issue. However, since there are procedures needed to be done, we would need you to wait for a whole day.」
「In that case, please do so.」
「Concerning the stampede resolution reward, it will take about several days’ time but will that be fine with you?」
「It won’t be fine at all.」

After all, I know that even if we stay in this town, we’re only going to be treated with caution. I’d rather have comfort than money.

「It won’t be fine, so I’ll only take what can be prepared until tomorrow.」
「So you will be leaving the town tomorrow then?」
「Naturally. After all, I’m already C-rank and it would probably feel uncomfortable to stay in this town anyway.」
「Understood. Then please come to the Hunter Guild tomorrow morning. Thank you for your cooperation to the resolution of this stampede.」

After receiving Celia’s orderly bow, I left the guild building with caution. It wasn’t like we had any plans in the first place, but now we can’t do anything in the afternoon. Since strolling around town probably wouldn’t bode well anyway, I decided to just hole up in our room.

◇

As I returned to our room, I gave the body back to Ciel and, after seeing some hesitation on her face, she jumped onto the bed. The mattress is pleasant as always. I felt Ciel’s body gradually loosening up and, thinking that she might have felt the same way as I did, it made me ticklish.

「So we’re leaving the town tomorrow, right?」
『It would be better to leave. We don’t have any reason to stay after all.』
「It does feel a bit… unwelcoming. To begin with, we settled on staying here just to reach C-rank, so it can’t be helped.」
『Do you want to stay awhile longer?』
「That’s not what I mean. I’ll be the one mainly moving in the next town and beyond, right Ain?」
『You’re feeling nervous then.』
「Will I be able to do it as well as Ain did?」
『Ignoring the issue of whether I truly did well or not for now, you don’t need to imitate me, alright Ciel? While you shouldn’t indiscriminately kill people, destroy things, or cancel requests, if you don’t want to talk to people Ciel, you can choose not to do so. Besides, I’ll support you if needed. And, let’s see… I’ll be in charge of conversing with men, alright?』

With Ciel’s aversion of men, just abruptly leaving everything to her would be complicated. Even though she still looks somewhat nervous, she seems to have agreed with it and our conversation ended there. After that, Ciel and I were free to do as we wanted to.

While we’re always together with each other, it’s not like we talk all day long and always do the same thing. Since all I do is research about sorcery, and I just can’t help singing while doing so, it’s pretty common for Ciel to naturally move her body to the song.

◇

「Somehow, it’s been a while since we’ve passed time like this even for just half a day.」
『Though it should’ve only been some time ago when our everyday lives were spent like this.』

Ciel started a conversation with me and I guess she was surprised that it turned into evening in no time. We spent the day not much different than how we did at the mansion, but I’ve never seen Ciel look as peaceful as she does right now and it made me a bit emotional. After all, we constantly had to brace ourselves back at the mansion. Even with that said, I’m not really that much different than what I was back then.

While idling around on the bed, Ciel continued chatting with me.

「It’s going to be a long time before we become B-rank, right?」
『It’ll probably be best think that it won’t happen until we’re 15 years old.』
「During that time, would that man be behaving himself?」
『Most probably not. I don’t know what his objective is, but it seemed to me that we were simply one of his ways in achieving it.』
「I’m not really sure of how countries work, but is this country alright? That man is on a considerably high position, right?」
『Judging from the rumors, it should be alright since he doesn’t seem to be doing anything bad recently, on the surface at the very least. This is only based on my image of them but it’s common for nobles to be doing something behind the scenes in my opinion. What that man is planning to do might not necessarily destroy the country. And even if it is something bad, this country likely wouldn’t collapse before we can escape.』
「Rather, wouldn’t this country collapsing make it much easier to escape?」
『That’s also very possible.』

At worst case, we might get arrested from this conversation but I already confirmed that there’s no one around us. I want to be strong enough to win against a country someday, but as we are now, it’ll be Game Over if we encounter several Carol class people. I think being like a dragon or something would be ideal to some extent. Since, even though they have the power to destroy a country, they’re left alone because they don’t attack people.

Regardless of the dragon thing, as long as we become powerful enough that we can’t be arrested and killed even after commiting lèse-majesté, it should be enough. If I can make a barrier so strong that no being would be able to touch her, Ciel should be safe no matter where she is or what she does.

I know that it’s absolutely excessive, but there’s nothing to lose in having a goal.

「Come to think of it, Ain. You’re not a god, are you?」
『I’m not, but why the sudden question?』
「I was just a bit curious.」
『I see. Still, if I was a god, I would’ve been able to save Ciel in a much cooler way, I think.』
「Then in that case, I’m glad that Ain wasn’t a god.」

Ciel flashed a smile, but I’m really not sure how I should react to that.

◇

The next day, just as when the sun was about to rise, I left the inn. Being enlightened to the absolute comfort of the bed, Ciel was still drowsy but her dazed blinking was just adorable in and of itself, so it’s all good. Although from Ciel’s perspective, there probably wasn’t anything good about it.

Despite no prior arrangement, the Hunter Guild was already open, and Celia and Carol were already waiting inside, even though it was still early and hunters wouldn’t usually arrive until later.

「Sorry to keep you waiting.」
「Me too, sorry for troubling you this early in the morning.」
「Don’t worry about it. It’s a problem on the town’s part after all. Now, without further delay, this will be your C-rank card.」
「Thank you very much.」

The card I received had the letter C written on it. The magic circle on the back doesn’t seem to have any major differences. Then after a closer look, the two of them seem different than usual. They look as though they’re going to leave.

「Celia, Carol, are you going back to headquarters?」
「That’s right. We already finished what we needed to do in this town after all. With that said, Cielmer, the next time we’ll see each other would be after you get promoted to B-rank.」
「And thanks to a certain someone, we’ve got a lot of things to report, you know?」
「While there’s absolutely nothing I can do about that, please do your best.」

Their work is none of our business after all and it’ll really help if the two of them go back to headquarters.

「Also, this will be the reward for handling the stampede.」

The pouch handed to me seems packed but I ignored that and shoved it in our purse. Checking the contents won’t really increase the amount after all, and we don’t have any money issues anyway.

「Right, thank you. Well then, I should be going now.」

I wanted to leave before the other hunters arrived, so after a short goodbye, I left the Hunter Guild. It’s only going to be a bother if we get a send-off party and all, but most of all, this is just how hunters are after all. It’s pretty common to hear people going town to town in search of work. You’re not going to last long as a hunter if you keep worrying about each and every goodbye.

『It’s been awhile since we were last together alone, Ain.』
『That’s true. So, what shall we do then?』
『Just being with Ain without anyone interrupting already makes me happy, though? I can talk with Ain as much as I want, right?』
『We can sing and dance as much as we can too.』
『That’s so wonderful.』

While I’m glad to see Ciel looking delighted without any lingering thoughts about leaving the town, I couldn’t help but feel irresponsible for not letting her develop an attachment to it. This nagging thought persists in my mind: “Isn’t this also a problem?”

Volume 2: The Town of Sannois: The End

Hiya~! First of all, it seems like I missed a part as I was translating Chapter 29. There should be a:
“Also, when I think of how bothersome she can get when it comes to sorcery, I just don’t feel like having a serious conversation with her. In addition, I guess this time’s stalking wade it worse.

Besides, concerning the party earlier, there shouldn’t be any reason to be upset about what happened since I did actually save them.”
During the part when Ain reflects on how worse she’s been treating Carol. Like, she’s not a bad person, but she did almost kill me and she can get annoying when it comes to sorcery, so yeah… was Ain’s general opinion of Carol that time. Lol. I’ve already fixed it properly, so for future readers, please don’t worry about it. And for my current readers, I’m really sorry about this. Since it’ll be a chore to find what I added at this point in time, I’ve written it above as seen… above…

Now then, back to the current chapter! The bois might have lost the battle, but they have won the war… Actually, no, they just figuratively poisoned the water supply and made problems for everybody. Curse you, Scum-bois!

Still, it shows how easily manipulated the people are and, again, how bad Song Princesses are treated. It’s definitely awkward, one wrong move and they could’ve stoned AinCiel and hear the real news while in the act of being, you know, terrible terrible people for believing a known scum and putting the blame on a child just because they mistakenly thought that she was the cause which was also because they were prejudiced against, again, a child just because of her Job that she didn’t actually have (that she did actually have). So yeah, awkwardddddddddddd~

However, the veterans did a good job defending AinCiel. However again, it’s awfully uncomfortable to be faced with guilty glances for, well, the rest of your stay in town, so yeah. Still, that shut in part was really precious, AinCiel Fluff always welcome~

Anyways, our C-rank babies are now off to a new adventure! With C and C also leaving for Headquarters, it seems like we’ll be seeing them again in the future. Although I do feel really bad for Perla. Poor girl couldn’t even see her Teacher doing well one last time.

Now then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to comment. Stay clean, stay safe, and have a nice day~!