Surviving as a Trash Bard in a Game

I opened my eyes.

I didn’t feel the warm morning sunlight that signaled the time of day. I kept my room dark because I hated waking up in the middle of the night.

I slowly rubbed my eyes and removed the sleep crust. Aren’t pretty girls not supposed to have bodily waste buildup…?

Anyway, I lifted my heavy and tired body.

When I opened the curtains, sunlight poured through the window. It stung my eyes.

I immediately closed the curtains again as if I were a vampire. With a deep frown, I tried to regain the vision I had temporarily lost from the bright light.

After blinking a few times, I could finally see clearly.

“…I’m exhausted.”

I wasn’t usually the type to talk to myself. Honestly, I was closer to disliking people who talked to themselves.

Talking to the empty air like a mental patient? Are they crazy?

But now, I couldn’t help it. My body felt like it was falling apart, and I felt like I would go crazy if I didn’t complain to someone.

My whole body ached, including my joints and muscles. Were my bones crushed? Did my muscles melt? No, of course not. It’s not that bad.

But! It hurts that much!

The influence of my stamina and health status on me was truly undeniable.

It’s only been a day. To be this sore from walking in the mountains, if I go on a dungeon or a subjugation quest, I’ll really get a problem in one of my bones or muscles and die.

My body is at the level of a sunfish right now.

If I catch a cold, will I really cough up blood?

…No matter how hard it is, I have to go out. I have to live today. If I don’t do anything, nothing will change. I have to move steadily, even if it’s just one step at a time.

Living expenses are limited. I have to work hard and… survive.

If tomorrow is even a little better than today, that’s enough.

I gathered my equipment, slung my instrument on my back, hung my leather wallet on my belt, and opened the door to head outside.

I tried to go down the stairs, but every time I moved my foot down, my waist, knees, thighs, and calves ached.

In the end, I could only carefully move my feet after supporting my waist with one hand and holding the stair railing with the other.

Adventurers watched me.

…I was embarrassed.

I didn’t want to show weakness to others.

If you show weakness, the other person will look down on you. You have to be strong when you meet someone for the first time. If you act submissive, they will only see you as inferior.

However, I didn’t have the confidence to pick a fight with someone with such a weak body. I might die if I get hit by a proper punch.

In the end, I, with ambiguous self-esteem and pride, chose to ignore them.

I acted as if I didn’t feel people’s gazes and simply ignored them, talking only to the receptionist.

Sharp gazes pierced the back of my head. They stabbed me like sharp blades.

I felt suffocated.

“…Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

The receptionist looked at me with concern.

My emotions must have shown on my face. To have my inner thoughts exposed even to a receptionist at a rural guild, how far am I going to fall?

“…”

“A quest, please.”

“Alright.”

She handed me low-grade quest papers that could be done with a copper tag.

Considering the rule that easier quests are usually placed from the front to the back, I slowly flipped through the papers, thinking the easy quest I was looking for would be at the back.

The last page I finally found… didn’t look very easy.

–

[ Grade: Copper ]

[ Number of people: 2 or more recommended ]

[ Observation of monster trends in the Forest of Songs ]

[ There have been reports of sightings of goblins, lower-level monsters, entering from the Forest of Songs. ]

[ Details: Please report their movements, scale, and location of their settlement in detail. ]

[ *The reward will vary depending on the partial success and complete success of the quest. ]

[ 5 copper ~ 1 denarion ]

–

“…Are there no easier quests?”

“There aren’t many low-grade quests coming in. The labor cost of errand centers is cheaper than that of adventurers in the first place.”

Honestly, I’m not a character suitable for scouting.

I wasn’t suitable for the adventurer profession itself in the first place.

If you ask me if there isn’t a way to eat for free by plagiarizing other people’s inventions with modern knowledge, honestly, I want to do that too.

But there’s a problem.

First of all, I don’t have expertise. My college major was computer science. It means that it’s a useless major if computers disappear.

If I knew this would happen, I would have gone to medical school. Giving up medical school for engineering, I was crazy.

What about writing, music, and painting, which are easy to do even without any foundation?

First of all, I have no talent for painting. I learned properly, but I couldn’t even get the human body proportions right, so I got a lot of criticism. I still feel sick when I think about painting.

Music? Yeah. My job was a bard. If I could just play the songs that exist in modern times, wouldn’t the money be guaranteed? This body has a great voice too.

…The problem is that I can’t even read sheet music.

Writing… writing, I don’t remember. The only books I’ve read are major books and textbooks. Should I compile even the non-literary texts from the college entrance exam into a book? Ugh, it looks like it will definitely fail.

In the first place, I don’t have any text files or sheet music in my head, so how can I recall them exactly?

No matter how smart I was in my previous life, this is impossible.

‘…Also, magic is too advanced.’

Why don’t the products of electronics, internal combustion engines, and various scientific technologies that occupy a place in modern civilization exist in the medieval fantasy world?

The reason is very simple.

Hygiene? Clean magic flick. Transportation? Airships, ships, carriages, teleportation magic flick. Communication? Crystal ball flick. War? Large-scale magic flick by mages.

Yeah. That’s why magic developed more than science. There’s no need to develop science in the first place.

In other words, the path left for me.

The things an ordinary woman with no foundation can do.

…Red-light district?

‘Ugh, I feel nauseous.’

Among other decent jobs, things I can do without using my body. At the same time, a job that can solve the curse on my status.

There’s only being an adventurer.

I could earn more money than other jobs, so I can take the risk.

“Excuse me…”

“I’ll take it.”

“It’s recommended for two or more people. Do you have any plans to form a party?”

“What?”

“There’s another adventurer who has already accepted this quest and is waiting for another person.”

…I looked around.

The gazes that were on the back of my head a little while ago disappear in an instant. They are avoiding eye contact with me.

Why?

Honestly, I didn’t understand a little.

Didn’t they try to hit on me just yesterday? I didn’t expect these people to change their attitude so suddenly.

‘Anyway, let’s think about the party.’

Still, it’s definitely better than being alone.

At least I won’t die alone, and it will be very helpful for me, who has almost no combat ability and can’t use proper bard skills.

My choice is… accept.

“I’ll do it.”

“Okay. The other adventurer who is waiting is currently out on a quest, so please wait a little.”

“Alright.”

And, I sat down.

It seemed like I had to solve all my meals at the guild today. Since the food included in the basic equipment was all gone, I had no choice but to spend money.

I sighed deeply.

I felt a startled presence around me.

…Why are these people acting this way?

***

The air in the Adventurer’s Guild was very heavy.

The reason why they, who would normally be noisy from the morning, were so quiet was probably because they had at least a sense of decency and a line as human beings.

Whispers small enough not to be heard by the person involved spread through the air.

“…Is she the newbie who suffered a bad incident in the herb-gathering quest, whether it was a thief or a goblin?”

“Yeah. I thought it was a safe forest.”

“It’s been a mess since the mad king’s rebellion, with monsters and thieves in such a small mountain.”

The person in question was fine, and she had just gotten lost in the forest.

The rumor grew, and Selina soon had a story similar to that of an unfortunate heroine.

It could be said that it was a positive influence, but if she found out, wouldn’t she get angry and say, ‘What nonsense!’

Naturally, there seemed to be no fool in the guild who would ask the person in question about the truth of the rumor. Thanks to this, Selina was still unaware of the rumors about her.

And, how much time had passed?

A black-haired mage boy opened the door and entered the guild.

The heavy sack was soaked red. There were several round, hard objects inside, making a clattering noise as they bumped against the wooden floor.

“…Should I put this on the table?”

“Just put it aside over there. Other receptionists will check and collect it.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Grade, silver. Subjugation quest completion confirmed. Here is your reward.”

The mage boy roughly put two shiny silver coins in his pocket.

Perhaps because of his neat personality, he used a clean scroll to wipe off the bloodstains on his hands.

“How did the Forest of Songs monster trend observation quest go? Did you recruit another person?”

“Ah… yes!”

“Where are they?”

“They’re over there.”

The receptionist pointed to a girl who was stuffing bread into her mouth until her cheeks were puffed up.

The girl and the young mage’s eyes met.

“…See you again?”

“Ah, please.”

The mage boy pressed his fingers against his throbbing head.

It seemed that this observation quest would be a bit difficult.