Chapter 53
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: It Was a Festival
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The streets were unusually rowdy from the morning today.
Numerous conversations from people. Merchants hawking their wares. Cheers echoing from somewhere.
Rin, woken by the clamor, rubbed her eyes, drew back the curtain, and peered out the window.
"...What's going on?"
Rin widened her eyes at the throng filling the streets from early morning.
Especially the avenue right in front of their guild house, tucked close to the main thoroughfare, was absolutely swarming with people.
"What's up? Whoa..."
Mika, who had poked her head out beside her upon seeing Rin's surprise, belatedly startled at the sight of the crowd outside.
Among them, Lia—the only one who'd experienced a festival before—glanced out the window and spoke up.
"Festival starts today."
"A festival means this many people gather?"
"...Yeah, the ones here draw pretty big crowds."
On days like this, mercenaries wouldn't head out on missions, and folks from nearby cities would all flock in too.
So it wasn't much of an exaggeration to say the crowds felt several times larger than usual.
The country girls—who'd imagined festivals as those laid-back village affairs—found their eyes sparkling.
Tanya cautiously opened the front door.
A visitor who'd knocked bright and early stood waiting, facing the festive bustle of the street.
"Who is it?"
"Festival Merchant Alliance."
A sharply dressed merchant greeted her with a smile and handed over a letter envelope.
"Please pass this to your captain."
"Yes... I'll deliver it."
Tanya took the envelope, watched the merchant bustle off toward another building for a moment, then shut the door.
"Captain. The merchants said to give you this."
Ian took the envelope from Tanya.
No recipient name, no seal either. It was the sort of thing handed out to lots of people, not targeted at him specifically.
Ian opened it up, and out spilled a few ornate maps and a slim booklet.
Pamphlets listing the venues and schedules for all the festival events.
"Isn't this something you have to buy?"
This wasn't an age where you could just check event timings online.
It was like an entry fee of sorts—if you wanted to navigate the festival properly, you shelled out for one.
But apparently, they handed them out free to VIPs.
The Ian Mercenary Corps was still D-rank, but bunking in a ritzy guild house like this? From the merchants' view, rank didn't matter; they were prospective VIPs.
Ian unfolded a pamphlet and skimmed the festival lineup.
Auction house... Money pit, skip.
Monster market... No need.
Arena...
Circus...
Circus instead of a theater troupe this time—probably the 'animal breakout' event. Pass.
Ian quietly set the pamphlet down.
Beyond the big events, there were plenty of mini-games and festival-exclusive quests lined up.
But they were mostly fun for first-timers only—no must-plays among them.
No surprise there were even mods to skip straight through festival periods.
Thing was, those forced skips could glitch date triggers sometimes, and with Ian already running multiple mods, the risk was too high. He skipped installing it.
"Captain! These prizes for real?"
"Prizes?"
The squadmates browsing the pamphlet Ian had set aside spotted some intriguing info tucked in a corner.
Ian glanced where Tanya was pointing.
Festival game stalls. In other words, the prizes for topping the mini-games.
Unlike Ian, the corps had its share of festival newbies buzzing with excitement.
Rin, Mika, Tanya.
For the trio tasting a major city's massive festival for the first time, Ian rounded up the whole squad and headed for the plaza.
At the exchange booth in the plaza, Ian bought up festival coins and divvied out pouches to everyone.
"Here. Stick to this amount each."
"These are swapped from gold coins, right? How're we supposed to blow this much in a day?"
Ian passed out the festival coins used at booths instead of cash, and they all took their shares with eager grins.
Only Lia—who'd done this twice before—looked thoroughly unimpressed.
"No need to stick together. Play wherever, just come back."
"Got it!"
Ian wrapped up, and the group naturally split in two.
Rin, Tanya, and Mika, eyes wide at every festival sight.
Ian and Lia, largely indifferent.
Rin and her bunch surged ahead, gawking at the festival street, while Ian and Lia trailed at a leisurely pace.
The streets brimmed with stalls galore.
Everything from quick-bite food carts to game booths where you played for prizes.
Way too many to check 'em all—they grabbed a few eats in plain sight and munched while walking.
Then a certain booth caught the group's eye.
"Rin, give that a shot!"
"What is it? Ball toss?"
It was like a booth tailor-made for Rin.
Just chuck a small ball and knock down the dolls on a shelf way over yonder. Simple stuff.
First prize: a golden coin redeemable for prizes.
Phew. He'd planned to just kick back and enjoy... but now he had no choice but to flex a little.
Rin stepped up to the booth with supreme confidence.
......
"That totally hit just now!"
"Aw. Not enough oomph, looks like."
"This a scam? It's glued down!"
"Glued? Look, falls right off easy-like."
"Eek, wait..."
The doll brazenly stayed put despite a dead-on strike, but toppled with a nudge from the stallkeep.
Rin, flustered and at a loss for words, could only turn tail from the booth in silence.
Five retries down.
All that left for Rin: a single third-place ticket.
"Haa... Let's hit somewhere else."
"Burned through so many coins."
"Third place ain't bad, Rin!"
Rin sighed her way back and patted her pouch—felt weirdly light.
She realized: no coins left.
"Uh...?"
"What's wrong?"
"Outta coins... Already?"
She'd figured on swapping for more, but reality hit hard.
Then how much had she dropped? A whole gold coin?
"No, hold on! Something's off—I couldn't have spent that much..."
Skewer from the first stall, then an apple...
Rin's face grew stonier as she backtracked mentally from entering the street.
I... spent that much.
Every stall hop, those toy-like wooden tokens slipped her spending sense. Late tally turned her face ashen.
This wasn't a festival—it was the heart of a dungeon ringed by merchant traps.
Mika muttered at the crestfallen Rin, her own pouch still fat with coins.
"Pushing five times on a rigged game'll do that."
"...I snagged third!"
Rin finally settled her nerves and belatedly clocked Ian was gone.
"Where'd the captain go?"
"Headed that way with Lia a bit ago."
Following Tanya's point, they spotted a cluster of game booths.
Hunting for Ian nearby, the three noticed a booth mobbed by a crowd.
Rin spied familiar red hair there and hurried over.
"Lia! Where's the captain?"
"...Oh, Rin. The captain's..."
Whoa!
A ripple of cheers from the onlookers.
"In the Baltan Mountains, there's a landform dubbed the edge of the world..."
"Arcadia."
"A specialty from a tiny fishing hamlet north of Rosaria..."
"Mana conch shell."
The quizzing merchant finally hung his head and declared.
"...Perfect score."
Wooo!
The crowd erupted as the contestant at the table rose quietly.
"...Ain't that the captain?"
Ian pocketed his first-place ticket from the merchant and strolled back to Lia.
Spotting the squad clustered with Lia, Ian waved.
"There you are. Have fun?"
"...Eh, decent."
Rin answered, shoving memories of her empty pouch aside.
"Anyway, got this..."
She'd meant to brag her third-place ticket, but folded at the sight of Ian's first.
"Rin nabbed one too. Let's cash 'em in."
Ian nodded toward the plaza's festival ops cluster.
A bit later, shoving through the masses, they reached the prize exchange booth.
Ian slid over his haul of tickets.
Stalls he'd scoped quick while Rin was ball-tossing.
- OX Quiz 1st Prize
- Monster Name Guess 1st Prize
- Puzzle Solve 1st Prize
- Trivia Quiz 1st Prize
- Riddle 1st Prize
"...Said you weren't playing, but you went hardest?"
"Wanted a shot at a specific prize."
The exchange clerk—looking downright flummoxed—swapped Ian's firsts for golden coins.
At "prize," everyone's gaze snapped to the display case behind the booth.
Straight to the priciest, flashiest bait on show.
[Platinum Magic Ring]
"......"
"......"
"......"
Everyone gulped.
All but Rin traded quick glances.
This... the one, right?
Blushes, nods, looks swapped.
The squad watched Ian's next move, a touch tense.
Ian's finger lit on one prize.
"This'll do."
[Top-Grade Bear Doll]
- Place in bedroom: slight boost to sleep-based stress recovery
- Rest bonus scales with affection
"......"
"......"
"......"
Mika, Tanya, Lia. Even the merchant clerk. All wore "you serious?" faces.
The clerk double-checked the prizes, wrapped the bear doll, and passed it to Ian—who promptly gifted it to Rin.
The three just huddled, watching wordlessly.
"Grab whatever you want with these."
Mission accomplished and gifted, Ian showed zero interest in the rest and divvied the leftover gold coins among the squad.
A peek at Rin...
She clutched her new doll, grinning ear to ear.
...If she likes it, that's what counts.
The three sans Rin met eyes silently and nodded.