CH.343 Mer-folk concert

CH.343 Mer-folk concert

“Hello again, Ula. Sorry that you had to wait outside while I had lunch.” I apologized to the cat-girl that had just stood outside the restaurant Sepher took me to for lunch. And because it was just the two of us in a private room Sepher secured, Ula was forced to stay outside.

“Don’t worry. It is a part of my job.” Ula responded.

“Did you at least eat while you waited?”

“Yes. I had a small lunch.” Ula said. “Is there somewhere you would like to go, or are you going to head back now?” She then asked.

“Yes. I’d like to go check up on Cailie, if that is possible. Just see how she is doing here.”

“The mer-folk Cailie? Yes. I suppose I should have assumed as much.”

“Is it going to be a problem?” I asked.

“More of an inconvenience, than a problem. We just have to get some rebreathers and swimming gear. Unless you know how to breathe underwater.”

“... admittedly, I do know how to do that.” I answered honestly. “And I do have a swimsuit in my Storage, so I’m good on that front as well.”

“... I’m not even sure if I’m surprised by that.”

“But I still want to see the local stuff, so maybe a store we can buy all of that stuff.”

Now I know what you are thinking. How can I breathe underwater? I mean, it is quite simple really. It is called Summon Water Spirit. I mean honestly, what did you expect? Amphibious Bugroth? You really think I’d use it in populated waters?

Spoiler

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... okay, I probably would do it, if there was no other choice, but I don’t generally want to summon things like that without permission. No reason to cause chaos, if I don’t need to.

... Well, sometimes chaos can be fun, as long as it doesn’t go too far.

We took a short trip in my carriage, well, it might have been a little longer than ‘short’.

We ended up near a park that was built inside the city and the park happened to have quite the big lake inside of it. It wasn’t massive by any means, but just the fact that there is a nice lush park and a lake inside a city is quite impressive. ... but the big question is, why are we here?

Ula guided me to a shop on the outskirts of the park that sold all sorts of swimming supplies, and you could also rent out rebreathers. Apparently the rebreathers weren’t on sale, because they were still quite rare and the only place you could get them from is the Castle Dungeon. Now I really wish I could have checked out the Castle Dungeon’s information, but I didn’t get a good opportunity for that.

And honestly speaking, I could easily design a device for breathing under water using the Chaos God Dungeon item developer. And I can also analyze the rebreather while I keep it in my mouth.

Other than the breathing devices, Ula also got us some ... unconventional swimwear. It was a body tight suit with some small fins to guide the waterflow, flippers on the feet to help you swim faster, as well as webbed hands. I suppose something like this is what you might need if a humanoid wants to really swim fast underwater so I definitely liked getting it. And while I could have rented the suit, I just ended up buying it. Sure the nine gold I paid for it might sound expensive for some, but that is still just pocket change for me. Even if I’ll most likely make an improved version of this suit with HomeBase later.

The last piece of the puzzle was some swimming goggles. They might not be necessary, but they were recommended, so of course I bought some. And they were quite cheap, so why not.

Oh, and one more thing worth mentioning. Ula’s swimsuit was a bit different from mine and she already had it with her in her magic bag. I mean, it has to be, because she has a tail. But the tail part in her suit also had a flipper at the end of it, so she now looked a bit like a cat-shark, and I think it is funny.

After both of us were all dressed up, we jumped into the lake. Apparently Ula isn’t afraid of water, despite being a cat. Then again, I don’t think Einar or Eline are either, so maybe cat-folk just aren’t afraid of water.

After the synchro was complete, I mentally asked the water spirit to provide me with breathable air. Sure it isn’t exactly the thing water spirits are known for, but they can control water, so making a small air pocket around my mouth isn’t really a challenge for a greater water spirit. And with my breathable air now available, I took the rebreather out of my mouth, and placed it into Storage for now.

“Haah. Much better.” I said, making sure the water spirit would actually transmit the sounds I make into the water, so that Ula could hear me. I mean, sound transferring from my air pocket to the water would work, but it would eat some of the volume, so it might be too quiet for Ula to hear. “Okay. So where are we going? I’ll have the spirit boost us there.”

Ula and I were both encased in a bubble of water, yes, we were essentially in denser water under water. Does it make sense? Not really, but I don’t really know how else to describe it. The greater water spirit then gave us a speedy ride throughout the city. It was almost like we were racing down the city streets in a car, so it was quite exciting. At least the water spirit was doing a good job at avoiding any aquatic people swimming about, so we shouldn’t have caused any accidents. But I’ll bet if this place has a tabloid like the Ruiso Royal Capital, we will make tomorrow’s paper. Probably.

Where we arrived was a large building. A bit over half of it was built over land, with the other about a third being built over water. From the outside, it didn’t really look like a concert hall, more like ... well, a basic basketball stadium or something like that.

The place was also flooded with people. There were tons of mer-folk, and when I say tons, I mean there really might be over a thousand of them in the waters around the building. Because of that, and because Ula said that the ground entrance has less visitors, we got out of the water. With the help of the water spirit, I made us some privacy curtains so we could change into more regular clothing. After the change, I handed the rebreather I had back to Ula, so she could return it later. In case I was too lazy to go back to that store where we picked it up from.

Now back on solid ground, I undid my synchro with the water spirit, and unsummoned her. I have to say, her dive back into the water was quite beautiful, and this was the first time she didn’t just splash on the ground, so maybe the spirit was trying to show off.

As we approached the ... fine, I’ll call it a concert hall, I was a bit afraid of how many people would be there. I mean, the shop lady said this place might be sold out, but apparently I was worried for nothing. Because while the underwater part was filled with mer-folk and other people who live in the water, the topside was quite a bit more calm with at most a hundred humanoids queued up to get into the hall. So after just a short wait, we were able to pick up some tickets to this evening's concerts and we got inside.

As we got inside and took our seats, I got an idea of just how popular this place was with aquatic folk. While the on ground section was quite empty, 20% filled, the aquatic section of the audience seating was filled to the brim. Like literally every spot was taken. Some aquatic folks had even come to the ‘on ground’ section, even though it was difficult for them to move on the ground.

As people were still coming in, the songs began to play. The stage on which they were playing was actually quite interesting. It had a lot of water, but it also had solid ground for things like instruments. And in fact, most of the people playing the instruments were ground living races, not mer-folk, but the few singers that were singing ‘before the show’, were all mer-folk. No Cailie yet though, so she must be coming later.

While waiting, I read the ticket better and realized that today was a mer-folk only day. As in, all the performers today were mer-folk. And that is probably why the ‘on ground’ section was so empty. I mean, most people wouldn’t understand what the mer-folk sing, because the mer-folk do indeed have a different language than what is common on the land. I learned that when I was with Cailie. Back then, I never really thought about it, because I always use Language Comprehension (humanoid), unless I specifically trade over to draconic. But now, while listening to the pre-show songs, I tried listening to the mer-folk while making sure my Language Comprehension was off, and I was able to confirm that mer-folk do use a different language. It was similar to the common humanoid language, but still different enough that I had no idea what they were really saying. But I think I could make uneducated guesses on some phrases. Not that I need to, because I can just turn my Language Comprehension back on, like I did.

As the show itself started, I just sat back and enjoyed it. The first few singers were good, but just good. Their songs were nice to listen to, but they weren’t anything super special.

It also got me thinking. How did they pull off these kinds of acoustics? This place carries the voice of the singer and the instruments very well, while at the same time almost muting the audience to the point where you really couldn’t hear them. Is it some sort of magic tool, maybe?

But eventually, it was Cailie’s turn to take the stage, and by the cheers in the audience, you could definitely tell she was the crowd's favorite. They got a lot louder as she took the stage, only to quickly shut up as soon as the music began to play.

And it was easy to hear why. Cailie’s voice was... I was going to call it amazing, but it really wasn’t. It was good, but if I go by voice alone, some of the others might have been better. Cailie was more ... enchanting. Almost like her voice demanded that you listen to her, and it wouldn’t let go. I guess another word you could use was magical. To the point that I went ahead and swapped my race to Spiritual Human, just so I could see if she was actually using magic.

With my eyes turned into ones that can see magic, I did see something interesting. Magic was most certainly being used, but not by Cailie. It seems like some of the musicians and stage hands are using Wind Magic to push Cailie’s voice towards the audience. So that is how they dealt with the acoustics.

But yeah. I could definitely hear why people might find Cailie’s voice extremely attractive. She definitely would get repeat customers, just with that enchanting quality. And the song she sang wasn’t bad either, so that did help.

After Cailie, there were a few more performances by other mer-folk, but they didn’t get the crowd reaction that Cailie did. On the other hand, when Cailie came out for a second song, she was met with even more applause by the crowd.

Her second song was arguably even better than her first. It was an emotional song about being lost somewhere far from home and finding someone you love. It was also a bit slower than her first song, and that really added to her enchanting voice. This song was really made for her, and maybe even written by her.

And at the end of her performance, as Cailie was showing her gratitude to the audience, she turned towards the ‘on ground’ section, and our eyes locked. Only for Cailie's eyes to go wide, before she dove into one of the water spots on the stage, as if she was escaping my sight.

That’s kind of cute. Is she really that shy that I heard her singing? I mean, I’ve seen her naked, pushed her in a wheelchair and even carried her in my arms, so what is hearing her sing compared to that? Well, maybe she is just a bit shy. I just hope her fans won’t be mad at me, because she escaped mid her gratitude.

After Cailie, two more mer-folk came to sing a second song, but they really couldn’t reach the same height as Cailie’s second song. They just lack the emotions Cailie put into her song.

And with the concert now ending, I asked Ula for a favor, which is either very simple or maybe not so simple for her to fulfill.

“Ula, can you take me backstage so I can speak with Cailie?”