Chapter 46
Ar´nas ena
Following the local’s directions, they continued a little further down the road. After walking through a spacious alley, Xie Tao easily spotted the Lailou Pond the other had talked about.
Even though he was still a bit away, Xie Tao could already see the circle of people surrounding the stage.
At first glance, the crowd seemed to mostly consist of adults from the mermaid race, some of which were holding cubs in their arms. But there were also tourists mixed in who had come to the planet specially for Nesela Day, presumably in order to experience the festive atmosphere.
Just as the woman had said, the place was already very lively.
The sun had just set over the city, which meant that the preparation for the various festival activities had begun. Xie Tao had been very lucky to come across this by accident.
Lailou Pond was a man-made, water filled area. The big space was covered with environmental simulators, something which Xie Tao was not unfamiliar with. Just like at their club this place was also set to simulate an ocean environment.
However, this venue was much larger than the one at Yunbao Branch. It could be seen that the construction of this public stage venue must have cost a lot of money.
The sea at night was quiet and dark. Originally, there would only have been serene boundless darkness, but many small balls of warm light were scattered across the vast sea, fluttering over the surface. This instantly added a soft feeling to the environment.
From the shore, people could see a reef in the sea. The magnificent colorful reef stretched almost all the way to the surface. It was also there that the light orbs were gathering more.
As it was not far from the coast, they could easily see the entire reef.
It was not easy to find a suitable viewing place in the venue, Xie Tao barely managed to find one before hearing a burst of applause.
Following the sight of the people applauding, Xie Tao saw a mermaid cub sitting on top of the reef.
This was the first cub to sing tonight. As the beginning of the event, the applause from the audience was especially enthusiastic.
For the mermaid cub in Xie Tao’s embrace, this was his first time seeing and having so many people from his own race around him. It was also the first time he saw another mermaid cub.
There were two parents standing together with the other mermaid cub. When he saw this, the mermaid cub nestled in the arms of the youth moved his fin and snuggled into the youth's shirt.
"En?" Xie Tao lowered his head and made a gentle inquiring sound towards the mermaid cub in his arms.
But the cub seemed to solely focus on snuggling and hugging him close. Nothing else. After hearing the youth's voice, the cub just rubbed his head against his shirt again.
"Be good." Responding to the cub's dependent actions, Xie Tao softened his voice.
When Xie Tao raised his head again after coaxing the cub, he could vaguely hear singing coming from the direction of the reef.
The sound of the waves became a foil. The singing was not very distinct at first, it took a little while before it slowly became clear.
The cub must not have been prepared in the beginning, or maybe they had gotten a little stage fright. The little mermaid sitting on the reef had seemed to not be able to fully let out their voice, but now that they had calmed down, the singing was clear and reached everyone standing on the coast.
The singing of a cub was inevitable a little soft and immature, but the mermaid race had an innate control of their voice. Even if it was still a cub, the singing already had a certain rendering power and could attract the attention of the audience.
The lyrics in the songs sung in the mermaid race did not have any practical significance. This because these "lyrics" did not belong to any interstellar language, but were merely simple syllables.
The emotions in the singing did
The song was sung by the cub to their parents and throughout the performance, the little mermaid kept looking at a certain part of the shore.
Xie Tao figured that the cub must be looking at their parents.
With no understanding of music, Xie Tao could only judge the singing based on his own subjective feelings. But to him, the little mermaid's singing was still quite good.
Considering that it was a cub, it was even more commendable.
The little mermaid sitting on the reef sang for a while and soon another voice could be heard.
The voice clearly belonged to an adult mermaid which was meeting and responding to the cub's singing. The new voice inserted midway smoothly intertwined with the cub's singing and it did not feel sudden or abrupt at all.
As they sang, the audience along the coastline could also see an adult mermaid swimming towards the reef in the sea.
The adult mermaid was undoubtedly the parent of the cub sitting on the reef.
Their cub was singing on a public stage, this was a very proud and happy thing for the parents, let alone the fact that the cub was singing to them sing.
Moreover, on Nesela Day, it was very common for parents who loved their cubs dearly to respond to the cub´s singing just like everyone had witnessed.
Next, the other parent of the cub swam over to them, responding in the same way with their singing.
When the little mermaid's singing stopped, one of the parents picked up the cub and swam back to the shore.
At that time, the faces of both the parents showed just how proud they were of their cub and the face of the little mermaid held by their parent was also filled with joy.
People who saw this scene were inevitably a little affected. Even if someone didn't smile, their expression could not help but soften a bit.
Before it was too late like the last time, Xie Tao applauded the cub with the others. His eyes bent slightly in a smile when he saw the other cub gently shake its tail fin just as the mermaid cub in his arms always did.
As the two cubs quietly nestled in his arms and did not move around, Xie Tao did not discover that when he had applauded with the others, the little mermaid in his arms had raised his head and looked up at him, then turned his eyes to glance at the cub who had just finished singing. His blue eyes finally fixating on its face.
Afterward, several mermaid cubs continued to swim up to the reef to sing, and Xie Tao also lightly clapped his hands together many times. By the time the third cub came down from the reef, Xie Tao felt the mermaid cub in his arms twisting his body.
His attention was immediately turned back to the cub in his embrace. Xie Tao once again lowered his head and saw the mermaid cub doing something unexpected.
"Papa…" With his hand raised, the cub pointed at the reef and said this.
Seeing the cub pointing at the reef, Xie Tao hesitated slightly and asked, "Gale wants to go up?" Their club's little mermaid had never sung before. Xie Tao thought that the cub probably hadn't learned it yet, after all, it was not long ago that the cub recovered his voice.
Moreover, the cub was still not very talkative and could only call out "papa" fluently. He was still in the process of learning other words.
Although he had hesitated just now, Xie Tao quickly made a decision when he heard the cub softly respond with a single tone.
After putting the mermaid cub into the sea, Xie Tao watched as the little mermaid swam all the way to the reef where many warm orbs were dancing above and then sat on it, just like the previous cubs.
The light gold mark on his forehead was hidden by the night, but being surrounded by the warm floating lights, the audience on the shore could vaguely see that the mermaid cub had an ice blue tail.
"I still think the second cub was better. In the future, that cub should not lack what the military academy wants."
A young man spoke to his companion about his assessment, his remarks prompted the other to quickly nod in agreement.
No matter if it was the timbre or her ability to control her voice, the second cub who went up to sing had been quite good, but the most important thing was her strength.
The mermaid race's singing was powerful. Regardless of whether one had developed an ability or not, the singing itself could reveal the level of a mermaid's potential.
As members of the same race, most of the people in the audience could easily hear the differences between the cubs’ singing.
Even though they were discussing, they were still paying attention to the stage and when another cub sat down on the reef, the audience quickly quieted down and directed all of their attention towards the cub.
The cubs who had the courage to sing to their parents in front of so many people were worthy of praise. The parents of the cubs must be very touched.
Sitting on the reef battered by the tide, the mermaid cub's blue eyes fixated on the youth standing in the shore— then the little mermaid sang for the first time.
"Ar'nas ena…" The first syllable was clear, it was not timid or weak. The song appeared on the dark quiet sea, dotted with warm lights of different sizes dancing in the wind. The first sentence of the song left the audience in awe.
Although the voice was also very young and immature, this mermaid cub's song was without a doubt extremely pleasant. The clear tone could even be described as lucid and elegant.
This cub must like its parents very much.
Everyone in the audience who heard his singing thought this, because the emotions expressed by the song could not deceive, especially the ear of the mermaid race.
To already have this kind of voice, perhaps when the cub grew up its singing would easily be intoxicating. But what had left the audience in awe just now was not the timbre but the strength they sensed in the song…. The mermaid cub's singing ability was much higher than the other cubs', at least twice as strong.
What kind of concept was this?
So far, at least, the audience had never before seen such a case.
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Translator's note:
Gale sang!!!! ☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:*☆
And there is still more cuteness, check out this fanart made by NatashaZero16: