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※Ciel’s Pespective

When we ran away from the mansion, left the forest, and decided to go to a town, I felt excited but at the same time, somewhat uneasy. Perhaps this is the feeling of anxiety. After all, I can’t trust people. I do somewhat understand how human interactions and relationships are like from the stories I’ve read.

Besides, considering my relationship with Ain, I do understand that I’ll definitely be safer if I get to know more people that are just like Ain. Still, I can’t even imagine the existence of any other people similar to Ain, not even a tiny bit.

Ain is a person, but she’s not a human? I don’t know how to describe it but, I definitely think that she’s special. Nevertheless, when I saw the town for the first time, I reflexively called for Ain. And after I heard Ain’s calm voice, all the unease I felt completely disappeared. How mysterious. The fact that I didn’t see any people around even though the town was visible now might have helped as well.

『As I thought, is meeting men bothering you?』
「Eh, well… Yeah.」

As I was relieved with the lack of people, Ain asked me so but… I’m not especially anxious about meeting with men. Rather, I also don’t know about any women other than me, so I’m generally just scared of everything I don’t know. However, just the thought that Ain is protecting me makes my fears disappear. But still, I do feel ashamed that I’m always depending on Ain.

Besides, I understand why Ain thinks that I’m afraid of men. After all, that man did teach me the information related to those acts when he still thought that I was god. I don’t know if it’s because he wanted to be polite with the gods but he was actually frank about various things.

Thanks to that, I was able to understand my own situation, so it helped us a lot. I’m absolutely not happy about that, though.

『I want to confirm this in advance but if you ever need to fight in front of people, will you be alright Ciel?』
「I’ll be fine. In the first place, as long as I’m with Ain, there’s nothing to be afraid of. If that wasn’t the case, then I would have no other choice but to tremble in fear when facing that man, you know?」

I answered Ain’s concerns with full confidence. May it be a human or a monster, with Ain by my side, there’s nothing to fear. After all, I do understand full well how amazing Ain’s barrier is. That’s why I’m confident that I can walk around the town but still, I don’t really know how to interact with people other than Ain. And since I don’t want to keep relying on Ain, before we reach the next one, I need to learn how to behave in a town.

◇

As we approached the town, I was really surprised by the size of the wall. It’s likely not a coincidence but I remember being overwhelmed by many other big things ever since we left the mansion. Still, it’s something unbelievably taller than me and I can’t even see the end of it, so I can’t help being overwhelmed. Besides, Ain doesn’t seem to see this as a bad thing as well, so I want to be open with my own emotions.

After that, before we reached town, we managed to find a way to communicate to each other without speaking out. Listening isn’t really any different than before but speaking needs a little getting used to. Because of this, I can now talk to Ain any time I want to and that’s absolutely wonderful. After all, if we can’t talk because of the people around, there might be a situation where we won’t be able to talk for a whole day.

Still, I’m a bit sad that I can’t hear Ain’s voice. Well by voice I mean Ain’s voice when she uses my body but since she has a gentler tone than me, I really want to hear her sing with that kind of voice.

Once we reached close enough to the wall, we started to see people so I switched with Ain. There aren’t that many people and there were women too, so I tried consciously looking at them but the… discomfort? Or rather the distrust I feel towards them doesn’t seem that different from what I feel with men.

And just as we were about to finally enter the town, rather than letting us enter, we were brought to a different place. We were led to a room and Ain suddenly asked me how someone my age would react to this or so, but I don’t really think that asking me as a reference is the best thing. Still, I do think that she understands that fact.

But while this happened, it gave me a strange conviction that Ain is not actually 10 years old. It’s difficult to explain, but maybe it was because I had never given much thought to the natural reaction in people of different age groups. And while we were talking to each other, we reached the topic of how they might lock us up, so I said that we can just run away.

For me, I’m happy as long as I can stay together with Ain. Rather, I sometimes think to myself, what if we simply live in the forest forever? After all, this way, I can have Ain all for myself. Still, even if we decide to hide out and live in the forest, we might be discovered in the future. Besides, if we did that, I might never experience the excitement of encountering something new, like when I first saw the town wall today, ever again.

And because I feel that it’s a bit of a waste not to experience that, I’ll have to say good night to the selfish me that wants to have Ain for herself. In the first place, the fact is, I do already have her for myself anyway.

We thought of a lot of things this time, but all of those seemed to be just meaningless worries, as we were soon allowed to enter the town.

◇

The town had more people than I’ve ever seen before. And following Ain’s eyes that was moving around restlessly, my field of vision also saw everything around us as well. At a certain area there was a person selling things, a person buying things, and a person entering the building behind them. There was a person walking while eating something. There was a somewhat noisy building. And other than those, there were a lot of colors everywhere.

There was too much information, it made me feel a bit dizzy.

But while Ain is also observing the surroundings, she was walking around like she was used to this. Since it doesn’t seem like Ain’s too busy, I tried asking her about the Hunter’s Guild.

Before we reached town, Ain told me that there is place where we can work and it seems that she was talking about the Hunter’s Guild. I was really curious about why she didn’t tell me about it up until now, but it seems like it’s because Ain herself didn’t actually know their name.

But she assumed that, since there are monsters, there should be an organization like the Hunter’s Guild as well.

Somehow, it felt to me like Ain already assumed that the organization must exist before even adding the fact about the monsters needing to be hunted. Still, maybe I’m just digging in too deeply. And even if that’s true, I don’t really intend to do anything about that. As long as Ain stays as herself, it’s enough for me.

『After going to the guild, what will we be doing today?』

I asked her about it as a change of topic and then Ain answered as though she just remembered it.

『Come to think of it, I didn’t actually talk about it. It will depend on what time we leave the guild but if we still have some time after finding an inn, why don’t we go find you some clothes? Since it seems like we don’t need to hide your hair, why not take the chance to get you prettied up?』
『I don’t really mind staying like this, you know?』
『Absolutely not.』

Unusually for Ain, she denied me immediately without even pausing to think. I don’t really feel the necessity of it, but it looks like this isn’t good. I don’t think we stand out that much right now but, from how Ain said it, we might be getting some eye catching clothes, instead.

We’ve passed by many ladies while walking around, so I do somewhat understand what kind of clothes women wear. Still, on the topic of whether I particularly need to get prettied up, I don’t really understand the necessity.

But yes, I see. If I think of prettying up Ain instead, I completely understand its significance! I don’t completely understand what’s exactly different about them, but I do believe that the ladies walking around town look a lot cuter than I do right now. Considering the fact that I can make Ain a lot more cuter, buying new clothes might not be bad at all!

◇

At the Hunter’s Guild, we encountered some slight troubles but there wasn’t any particular problem. An axe user named something —I already forgot what it was— had a match with us, but it felt more like he was helping me practice magic circles.

Ain was worried about me, but since this showed her that I don’t have any problems with fighting against people, it should be alright. Still, making fun of Ain’s barrier was unforgivable, so I really wanted to punish him a bit more, though.

But when I thought that this was the end of it, we decided to have a formal match with the sorcerer, Carol, that was the referee for the earlier match.

Ain gave me the conditions to fight in a way that Carol won’t find out I’m a Dance Princess, and without using the power of the Song Princess and Dance Princess at the same time; but since it’s also a chance for me to find out how strong I am right now, not accepting it isn’t an option.

Ain told me that 『If it becomes too much, please switch with me』 but I absolutely won’t let even Ain take over my role.

With the barrier Ain put up in the previous battle still in place, we started round 2. Carol broke Ain’s barrier with ice arrows but during that time, I was able to prepare the magic circle as well. Ain was honestly surprised that Carol destroyed her barrier but, in the end, it was just a quickly made barrier. She did it by aiming at weak points made from fluctuation in magic power, or so. In reality, there’s absolutely no way that Ain’s real barrier would have any kind of magic power fluctuation.

After that, we just simply fired sorcery at each other. By injecting magic power into the magic circle I just rewrote, I activated an attack interception sorcery. This sorcery is something that automatically detects the presence of magic power and intercepts it with wind sorcery.

If it’s something at the same level as the ice arrows she used earlier, it can easily intercept it. However, it doesn’t have as much detection capability as Ain does, so Carol’s magic got nearer to us than I expected. It doesn’t seem like they can actually reach me but it might get dangerous if she shoots more of them.

As payback, I used sorcery and shot a flaming ball towards her but it was easily blocked.

So she wouldn’t notice, I carefully made the ground by Carol’s feet protrude towards her as well but this one also failed. Although I am fighting without Ain’s support, the situation doesn’t look very good. So this means that when I’m limited to using sorcery, I’m not even strong enough to reach B-Rank. I need to accept this.

I understand why as well. I’m slowly being cornered because I don’t have enough raw firepower. Even still, I can at least keep it at a stalemate.

I don’t exactly remember how long I kept it up. But suddenly I noticed that Ain is singing inside my head, so I stopped using the Dance Princess’ power. Just as I wondered why Ain sang, I felt a huge presence of magic power from Carol. Certainly, if I don’t borrow Ain’s power, intercepting that is going to be difficult.

What Carol shot at us, was a spear of ice. Since I have Ain’s support, I know that it’s going to be alright; but it was a lot tougher than I expected, so it took some time to destroy it.

There’s still more of them so it’s going to depend on how many ice spears there actually are but it’s very likely that, eventually, I won’t be able to destroy them in time. Still, if I’m asked whether I’m scared of the ice spears that are repeatedly inching towards me, I’d say no.

By the time I destroyed the ninth one, it was already too late for me to destroy the last one. But since I should still have some time to move a bit, I moved just enough so that, even in the unlikely event the spear hits me, I won’t instantly die.

Well, that was completely unnecessary though, since Ain’s barrier was able to block it. They offset each other, so Ain’s barrier broke for the first time in a while. Just from that, I know how powerful that ice spear was. The match ended right after that with me being overwhelmed the whole time, so I’m not very satisfied with it.

More importantly, Ain’s feeling down, I’m a bit concerned. The fact that her barrier broke might have been that much of a shock for her. She doesn’t really need to worry about that, though.

◇

And after that, a lot of things happened and we were able to find an inn to stay at. It’s the first time I’ve had a proper meal but the inside of my mouth is having a lot of fun somehow. It felt very strange to taste a lot of flavors but it’s not a bad feeling. Instead, I even want to have all of them inside my mouth right now, but since Ain is eating slowly and savoring it, I can’t do so.

I asked Ain if this is what people mean when they say delicious and it seems like there’s no doubt about it.

After we finished eating and had some time to relax, I talked about what happened during today’s match. As I expected, Ain was really concerned about her barrier being destroyed, but I wouldn’t have been able to block those ice spears if I didn’t have Ain’s help in the first place.

I don’t really have the right to preach about this, but if we can overcome things together, then isn’t that good enough? There’s no need for Ain to feel responsible for everything. Because if Ain does so, I’ll be crushed by that feeling as well.

And so, since we’re done with the serious talk, I tried asking Ain about something I noticed while she was using the body today.

『Come to think of it, Ain prefers big breasts, right? My size is, unsatisfactory, right?』
『Ummmm, what do you mean? Did I say anything about this?』
『I mean, when you see a person with a big chest, it always caught your eyes, Ain. You’re envious about it, right?』

Unfortunately, everything about me is still very small. Perhaps due to that, every time Ain sees a lady with big breasts, she tends to look at them. Still, I do think that my height being near the breasts is a part of the reason as well.

『I just thought that it seemed very heavy. It’s not that I’m interested about them, I just have a habit of looking at unusual things.』

I see, I do remember Ain looking at tall people as well. Still, does Ain prefer bigger breasts? I tried asking her about it and she told me that having more to some extent is good. I see. Perhaps Ain has had troubles with having smaller breasts before. To begin with, was Ain a girl? Or a boy? Whichever Ain was, Ain will always be Ain.

「I wonder how I can make it bigger?」

For now, back to breasts. And while I was thinking about it, it appears that I accidentally said that out loud. 『They say that massaging makes them bigger.』 Ain replied. Surprisingly, it looks like I can get them bigger in a simple way. For now, I was about to try it when Ain suddenly stopped me.

『It’s only a rumor so it’s best not to believe in it.』
『Have you ever tried it before, Ain?』
『N-no.』
『What about the people around you?』
『They haven’t tried it as well. And even if they have, I haven’t heard them saying they did so.』

For some reason, it feels like Ain doesn’t want me to try it, but it might just be my imagination. As I was thinking so, the bad girl inside me came out. Thinking about a little prank, I asked Ain about how to take a bath.

◇

While we were preparing the bathtub, I suddenly remembered the fact that I’ve never taken a bath before. And even without needing a bath, people usually at least wiped down their bodies, so I must be really dirty by now since I had never done even that. If that’s true, that’s quite disgusting but Ain tells me that I’m not dirty, it seems. Rather, it looks like Ain’s barrier actually protected me from becoming dirty.

And then Ain suddenly said that it’s because I’m pretty. She even said it like it’s so obvious, I was really surprised. I haven’t really seen my face that much but if Ain says so, then I’m glad to hear that. But, does Ain perhaps like the way I look?

「Umm, from Ain’s point of view, I’m pretty, is it?」
『You are. If I was as beautiful as you in my past life, it would’ve changed my life.』
「Are you happy about me being pretty, Ain?」
『That’s right. Well, I am looking forward to seeing you become prettier in the future and I do want to try prettying you up as you are right now.』
「I see, I see…」

I can take this as a compliment, right? In that case, then perhaps I should try my best to get Ain to compliment me more.

I got somewhat distracted by Ain suddenly praising me, so I shifted the topic to change the mood. As we had discussed earlier, it was somewhat questionable whether I actually needed to take a bath, but since we had already filled up the tub, I had no other option but to go through with it. So after Ain helped me wash my body, we both got into the bathtub.

This is the first time I’ve ever soaked my body in warm water but the heat warming up my whole body doesn’t feel bad at all. It also feels like the weight suddenly disappeared from my body. Ain seems to like taking a bath and now I understand why.

But with that said, since I have the chance now, it’s time to carry out my plan. Well I call it a plan but it’s just me massaging my own breasts when Ain, probably, least expects it. I already told Ain that I’m going to try if it really does make them bigger, so it shouldn’t seem that unnatural for me to do.

I do somewhat understand what doing this actually means. That’s why Ain might be thinking that it’s still too early for me to learn this.

As for me, I just wanted to tease Ain a bit, so I’m not doing this for weird reasons but, rubbing them doesn’t really seem really that much interesting. It’s just somewhat soft, and maybe a bit ticklish too. At the very least, it doesn’t feel like it’s getting bigger. Perhaps I’m doing it wrong? So I changed the way I’m going it and then 『Hyuu!』Ain’s high pitched voice suddenly resounded in my head.

「Ain, what’s wrong?」 I reflexively asked her. 『It’s nothing.』 she replied. However, the voice she just made earlier, how should I say this, really tickled something inside me. Right. It was that feeling I had when I saw Ain being awfully adorable, that exact feeling.

And now that I’ve realized that, I noticed a lot more things as well. Including how Ain’s voice as she said “It’s nothing” felt as if she was trying to cover up her tone. Hearing her voice right now, she really is awfully adorable. She’s cute, just so cute, I almost want to continue teasing her more. Still, I understand that Ain’s trying to hide it. And that part of her is really, really adorable.

However, I’ll be satisfied with this discovery for today. I don’t want Ain to hate me after all.

I wanted to end it here, so I told her 「If that’s the case, forget about it!」 with cheerful tone, probably because I couldn’t contain my excitement, which I also noticed myself.

Hiya~! Happy April 1st! No one really asked for it (or did they?), but here’s more AinCiel for everybody~! Also, this is supposed to be a bit farther in the future. I did it in advance so the story advances every week. And maybe I’ll keep doing so in the future. I think.

And this chapter, Ain was really, truly adorable (Ciel’s POV). It gives us another glimpse of Ain from an outsider point of view, well, Ciel point of view, actually. And as a consequence, we also get another precious glimpse in Ciel’s thoughts!

As seen above, while Ain always thinks of trying to hide her past, and her emotions if the situation calls for it, she tends to miss the little things that some other people notice. Like how it’s absolutely not normal to ask another not normal child about how a normal child would react to a certain situation normally. Oh Ain, you cute airhead, you.

Also, Ciel absolutely has forbidden knowledge. And you’ve absolutely set up the field to activate her trap cards, Ain. Run.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please feel free to comment. Stay clean, stay safe, and have a nice April 1st~!