I thought Emilia would ask for more money for her to keep this ability of mine secret but she just grumbled and said that she would just be laughed at if she tried to spread that around anyway.
For some reason, being able to break the one summon limit for the Shadow Summon spell was much more believable than being able to be unaffected by Siren magic?
It seems like I still have much to learn about how this World works despite living here for more than a decade already… Then again, it’s not like I knew everything about my old World either and I’ve lived there for much longer than I did here.
Putting that aside though… The main problem was that Delmare was curled up in a corner of the cavern right now and hugging herself melancholically.
“Umm… Are you sure she’s alright?” I asked the other Sirens, seeing they just left the pink haired girl there on her own.
Diona sighed, “Yeah… This is what she usually does when she gets upset. She’ll get over it after a while. The worst was when we told her the cookies she made were way too sweet the first time she made them. She stayed like that for half a day.”
“Ok… That doesn’t seem really healthy, does it? Shouldn’t you girls like… Comfort her or something?”
Cherith sighed, “We tried doing that before but we learned that it only makes her feel worse…”
Ummm… Alright then…
Emilia cleared her throat to get our attention, “I apologise for the abruptness, but I think it’s high time we leave. I believe my ship might be here to pick us up soon.”
Oh, that’s right, I got so caught up in their situation that I actually forgot about our own.
Ephyra shot us a panicked look, “So… So soon?! We… We thought you would be staying with us for the night at least… I… I was even prepared to record down all the stories you might have to tell us about the outside world before we finally set out…”
Emilia scratched her cheek, “Well… Umm… Even though I’m the captain of my ship, it’s not like I can just keep my ship waiting for me like that…”
The Sirens gave a collective groan of disappointment.
A figure suddenly leapt towards me and I almost hit them away until I saw who it was.
I looked down at the pink haired Siren who was hugging my waist while looking up at me with tears in the corner of her eyes.
“Is Aster really leaving?”
I gulped, “I… I guess? I have to follow her ship after all…”
“Waaahhh! Don’t leave me, Aster!! You’re the only one who can listen to my songs and also like my cookies!! Please don’t abandon meeee!”
I saw Diona facepalm, “Ughh… Well this is the first time I saw her crying without someone going to her…”
Ah… That’s what they meant by her feeling even worse…
I turned to look at Emilia, “Is there any way we can let them come with us?”
The Nekomata smirked at me, “If they have the money to purchase a room aboard the ship then of course~”
Cherith’s ears perked up at that, “Oh, are you talking about things like the shiny stone I gave you earlier?”
Emilia nodded, her face already giving away her desires.
The Siren then pulled out a literal handful of those gems from god knows where and showed them to her.
I’m betting some merchant ship that was transporting precious cargo got sunk around here and it washed up on this island for these Sirens to claim.
In that split second, Emilia’s eyes instantly turned into money symbols as she went straight up to Cherith while rubbing her hands together, “Yes! I’ll even give all of you the VIP treatment aboard my ship! We have facilities catering to Mer people like yourselves too! There is no other ship like mine in this World and you definitely won’t regret it!”
She then carefully picked up all the precious stones from Cherith’s hands and immediately started inspecting them with a line of drool escaping the side of her lips.
I’m not even surprised at this point.
The Sirens started chattering amongst themselves excitedly, discussing what they should bring with them and how quickly things were progressing.
The only problem was that Delmare was still clinging to me with a sad look on her face which confused me quite a bit.
“What’s wrong? You can come with us now right?” I pointed out.
“But… But I still can’t sing to others without them going crazy…”
Odeta tilted her head at her, “Can’t you just sing without using your magic or something?”
The Siren frowned at the Amrap, “What’s the point of performing when you’re not going to give your best?”
That is true… Why write a book if you aren’t going to give your all in writing it, right?
“Umm… I can still listen to you sing though?” I reminded her.
Her eyes snapped back to me, “Does that mean… Aster will listen to me sing everytime I sang?”
“I mean… If I could I suppose? I do enjoy hearing you sing after all.”
Her face brightened up, “Really?! You won’t get tired of me?”
Diona quickly cut in, “Aster… You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into… This girl here will literally sing to you every waking minute if she is allowed to… As good of a singer as she is… Listening to her sing for eight hours straight every single day is just plain ridiculous… We had to restrict her to a timetable, you know?”
Oh wow, she really likes singing that much?
Delmare scowled at her but turned back to me when I coughed.
“Ahem… Well eight hours is indeed too much, but I certainly wouldn’t mind hearing you sing whenever I can. We can even share creative ideas too~”
“Waaah!! I love you Aster!! I’ll follow you to the ends of the World!!” She cried out, hugging me even tighter than before.
Hold up… Did I just… Did I just increase my harem?
No, no, no… She did say she wishes to explore the rest of the World to find even more inspiration for her songs so she should only be accompanying me on this trip. I’m sure she’ll find more people who could also listen to her songs on the way…
Yeah… Let’s just go with that.
Ugh… I can already imagine the smug look on Mother’s face when I inevitably introduce her to everyone else…
Delmare finally let go of me to start discussing with her sisters their plans to leave after a while, leaving me free to head towards the beach with the other two.
Before we could step out of the cavern however, Cherith quickly stopped us, “Umm… Where are you going?”
Emilia looked at her weirdly, “To the beach of course? Where else could a ship dock here?”
“But what about the monster in the caves? Or was that thing also a lie?” Diona pointed out.
Odeta let out a bark of laughter, “Oh the monster was real alright! But it’s safe now since sister Aster killed it!”
“Eh?! Really?! Is Aster really strong?! Those men that ran here said they could not even hope to fight it!”
“Wahaha! Of course! Sister Aster is the strongest!”
I wouldn’t go that far, Odeta… There’s plenty of people out there who are stronger than me… Heck, even you’re physically stronger than I am after all…
After assuring them that the cave was safe for us to walk through and that we would come back here to pick them up, we made our way out of the tunnels and out of the cave, breathing in the fresh forest air.
We’ve only been in there for less than half a day yet it somehow felt like a really long time considering all the things that happened in this short amount of time.
“Wahaha~ That was some adventure, wasn’t it, sister Aster?!” Odeta laughed, giving me her usual bright and cheery smile. “We should do this more often, don’t you think?!”
I giggled, “Ehehe~ I suppose such things may happen quite often in the future when I set out on my journey for real~”
Emilia wasn’t paying attention to us since she was still busy drooling over the gems that she got from the Sirens.
Thankfully, she was still able to follow along behind us without much problems with Odeta leading the way.𝔬𝔳𝔩xt.𝚌𝑂𝑚
We returned to the tree where the path had split from before, which meant that we should be close to the beach soon.
That was when Odeta stopped in her tracks suddenly to look at the other path.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
She stayed silent for a bit before turning back to me, “I was just wondering… That path was more travelled along… And those Sirens only mentioned seeing one group of people recently… If the trail leading to the cave was made by that group of people… Then what made this other trail?”
“Umm… Animals or monsters that live here maybe?” I suggested.
Odeta huffed at my suggestion but she didn’t seem to have another explanation for it anyway.
She then squatted down to inspect the ground closer, her eyes scanning the area to look for something.
I was wondering what prompted her to do this when she suddenly pointed with a finger off to the side.
My eyes shifted to where she was pointing and there, clearly imprinted on the ground, was a single shoe print, something that wasn’t there before when we passed by here the first time.
Oh.