Chapter 71
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: Anniversary - Complete
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Harman wore a dazed expression.
In his right hand was a basket, surely packed full of materials essential for his work.
Sylvia reacted even more intensely to the news of the festival.
The young girl had never experienced one in her life.
She didn't even fully grasp the meaning of the word "festival," but with each explanation, emotions transparently played across her childlike face.
Ellie was also inflating her expectations to the max.
"You can eat tons of candy and snacks. How about that?"
"No. You said only one a day."
"Your grandpa? He'll allow it just for festival day. Right?"
Sylvia glanced slyly at Harman to gauge his reaction.
She was the kind of kid who quickly snatched snacks from villagers when he wasn't looking.
But breaking the rules right in front of him would surely earn her a scolding, so she was sizing up if he'd permit it.
Even if he took a hard line, she'd probably sneak around eating them anyway.
"You're not going to say no, are you?"
"……."
"It's Sylvia's first festival ever……."
"Well, one day won't hurt."
"Yay─!"
With that alone, Sylvia seemed fully primed to look forward to the festival.
She had zero interest in the other events.
Harman had no intention of enjoying the festival himself; he planned to spend the whole day escorting Sylvia around.
In his current physical state, he couldn't drink anyway, and he waved off the idea of getting drunk.
No one pressed him with further questions.
Whatever they asked, not a single fragment of his festival memories would lack Mariel.
I reported the results of the recent public opinion survey to the village head.
"It's a relief everyone seems excited."
"More shop owners than expected are setting up stalls, and quite a few people have come to help with preparations."
In the direction he gestured, I could see tents stacked for stalls, wooden blocks, and lanterns.
These would decorate the village over the remaining time.
"I think something bright and colorful would suit, so we've arranged for a large shipment of flowers in a few days. We can start placing them along the streets around the park soon."
"Several restaurants have committed to handling food for the banquet, and we've settled on enough alcohol supplies, so that's taken care of."
"Then let's plan out the residents' suggestions one by one."
The first item was prizes.
It was also Raymond's idea.
"Starting off with a tough one."
"Really? I thought it was one of the simpler suggestions."
"I can't think of anything they'd be thrilled to receive as a gift. They already have everything they want."
The village had been cut off from the outside for years, with fixed production.
Any prizes we could offer were things residents could easily buy with a bit of money.
In a self-sufficient village, prize options were limited.
Other villages' festivals might feature local specialties, but we were holding ours just among ourselves in our own village.
There were no specialties, and items unique to here were just everyday necessities for the residents.
Edibles seemed like the best bet.
Fruits or meat might get middling reactions upon winning.
"People don't always love gifts for their material value, do they? Raymond probably suggested it for the fun of it."
"But if it's something they can buy cheap from the shop right in front of them, it feels meaningless whether they win it or not. We need something groundbreaking to make it exciting."
I recalled what typical prizes were at festivals I remembered.
Drink coupons or gift certificates were common.
For bigger ones, household appliances sometimes.
Electronics and such.
All impossible to reference here.
Concert tickets? With the scale of a 1st-floor village lacking diverse culture, nothing fit.
Thinking again, the village still felt lacking.
It had everything a tower 1st floor should, but nothing beyond that.
Perfect as a starting point for adventurers, but for those living here, it was just unchanging daily life.
What remained after stripping work from their routines?
Miners dug ore, which became material for the blacksmith.
The fruits of hammering flowed to the training grounds.
Adventurers trained by the instructor headed to the forest.
Adventurers who defeated slimes completed requests.
The byproducts from those slimes became the village's main driving force once more.
The village's operations were ideally intricate, but the focus wasn't on the residents themselves.
"Let's prepare as much food as possible, but also ask Deina and Harman for special favors."
"Got an idea?"
"Small things like hats or socks would work. Plates, cups, utensils too."
"What about…… jewels?"
"That wouldn't be bad either."
We wrapped up the first agenda there.
There was still much to consider.
Next was Deina's suggestion.
"Performances…… This won't be easy either."
"Ahem, that's fine."
Unlike my blank stare, the village head looked relaxed.
"We've never even seen a musical instrument here, let alone a singer?"
"Our village has one bard."
"Who……?"
"You wouldn't know. He used to be one before settling here."
Candidates flashed through my mind.
One of the restaurant owners?
"Looks like the day has come to show off my lute skills after so long."
"……Pardon?"
"Hope the instrument hasn't gone bad."
"You're not saying you were a bard, village head……?"
His past plunged into deeper mystery.
According to Deina, residents had been kind to passing bards, treating them to meals.
Perhaps the village head, a fellow bard back then, had led that atmosphere.
Would Deina, who wanted performances, be satisfied seeing the village head play the lute?
Better than nothing.
The second agenda wrapped quickly.
Not how I'd hoped, but still.
On to the next.
"How about fireworks? We have no gunpowder in the village. Any substitute materials?"
"There's a suitable person."
"A specialist?"
"I know someone close with fire. Should be doable if I ask."
"I see…… Got it."
Someone who handled summoning magic couldn't manage fireworks?
I figured Sua's precise magic control could handle it easily.
We methodically planned the rest after that.
Tiana's swordsmanship tournament had limited participants.
Of course, Tiana herself would join, and my participation was a given.
The only others who could handle a sword were Koon and Delion.
No one else had properly swung one.
"Just four people okay?"
"Yes. Tiana just wants a spar in front of everyone anyway. With the two guards, it'll be plenty entertaining for spectators."
"Well, if so."
Only after finishing all festival planning did I pose a personal question to the village head.
Broadly, I wanted to know what he'd accomplished in these 6 years.
"I heard no village-wide events since this became a tower. Any special reason?"
"Didn't I say before? Without outsiders……."
"No. Even without weighing profits, small internal events could have happened."
No residents opposed festival prep.
If everyone enjoyed it, they could have pushed one occasionally.
The village head wasn't negligent in village management.
He'd just spent hours deeply pondering Ellie's casual ideas, planning the festival, gathering people, securing supplies.
If indifferent, he could've dumped it on someone.
"I've held festivals before. Before you arrived, Earthbound Spirit, and before it became a tower, as you said."
"Then why now……?"
"My idea of a village head's role differed greatly from the tower's."
The village head meticulously tracked village anniversaries.
New Year, founding festival, autumn harvest—he missed none.
But traditions no longer continued.
"All public events on the tower's 1st floor fall under my purview. That's my role."
"……."
"I was Luden's village head, but now I'm the 1st floor's."
He fully recognized becoming part of the tower.
And that residents were ideally placed for adventurers' growth.
He knew why he bore responsibility to hand them adventurer's proofs.
"So I can't arbitrarily hold events unrelated to adventurers, for ourselves. That's outside the tower's bounds."
"But we're pushing this festival without issue? It wasn't even my request; Ellie came up with it first."
"This festival is possible because it's adventurer-related."
He pointed at me.
"Precisely, it's for you."
I didn't fully grasp his words.
I'd thought the festival's purpose was a day for all 1st-floor residents together.
Time passed steadily.
Festival day arrived, and the village was festooned brightly.
Before events began, Ellie beside me spoke up.
"Still haven't figured it out?"
"Huh?"
"I never told you what day this festival commemorates."
Like the salvation festival on the 11th floor, she said we'd make our own anniversary.
Ellie claimed a great idea dawned on her, but never explained.
At least not to me.
She whispered it to others, keeping it from me till the end.
"Tell me already. What day is today?"
"The day Earthbound Spirit entered the tower. Today."
"What……?"
"How could you not know yourself?"
"Why make that an anniversary……?"
The festival began.
｢Anniversary - Complete｣