The Traditional Festival Revival Movement: Bringing Back Forgotten Culture — Walpurgis Night, Day Two (Part 1)
I had always believed that offering my chastity to anyone but a husband would bring lightning crashing down from the heavens.
Nothing of the kind occurred. Even after Simon and Frantz had violated me until I fainted, the next day still dawned.
After doing something so wicked, I ought to have been crushed beneath the weight of my own guilt. I wasn't. If anything, I felt as satisfied and fulfilled as a farmer who had just gathered in a harvest so rich the granaries overflowed. The dull, throbbing ache in my lower belly felt no different from the muscle soreness that follows a hard day's labor.
Was I the strange one?
Part of me wished Priestess Veronica were here, so I could have asked her counsel. Another part of me was quietly relieved that she had shut herself away in penance. The two feelings lived side by side.
"Nnh…"
My nethers ached, but it didn't keep me from moving. No — if I was being honest, that faint sting felt just right. It brought last night flooding back. Would something like yesterday happen again today? And if it did, I would…
Even on a festival day, mornings were for work. It wasn't a busy season, so most of it was just odds and ends — a kind of simmering, really, that only made the anticipation for the festival burn hotter. Once the sun started its descent from the peak, all that morning's pent-up expectation would come bursting out. Hurry up and be afternoon already, I thought, my mind already off in the clouds as I headed for the fields.
A man's voice called from behind me.
"Hey, Laura!"
"Ah…"
At the sound of Frantz's voice I stopped where I stood and turned to look at him. The man who had taken me yesterday. The man who, even after I'd told him I would accept a proposal, had ignored every word, pinned me down, and raped me. I felt not a shred of resentment toward him. Instead, a heat bloomed low in my belly.
"So, you sleep all right? Come on — it was a festival night, of all nights, and you conked out that fast? Just when I was thinking we could really start having some fun, you fainted on me."
"I-I'm sorry. It was my first time, so…"
I bowed my head in apology. I couldn't even say, exactly, what I was so sorry for. I just didn't want Frantz to be disappointed in me.
"Eh, whatever. First time, it happens. If a virgin pussy had been good at it from the jump, that would've been kind of weird in its own way."
And just like that, Frantz forgave me. His crude way of talking barely registered. What filled me instead was a simple, honest joy that he had forgiven me at all.
He ruffled my hair roughly, the way you'd pet a puppy, and that simple gesture carved our places into me with perfect clarity. Man above, woman below. A man was a person. A woman was nothing more than a pet.
Out here in the countryside, a man who could work hard was bound to be treated well — but the Light Church preached that men and women were equals, and so we'd all gone along believing it, one way or another. But… maybe that wasn't true. It was only the feeling of a shallow-minded country girl like me, but perhaps the gulf between men and women was vast beyond measure. A dog is happy following its master. And I was happy following Frantz, who was a man.
"See you in a bit. Today's festival's gonna be even more fun than yesterday. Look forward to it."
"Ah… y-yes."
Frantz left me there without a backward glance and headed off to his own work. Ahh, I wish work would just end already so the festival could start.
The second day of the festival had a slightly different atmosphere. The distance between men and women had closed in a way it never did on ordinary days. Children clinging to each other was one thing — but grown men and women rubbing up against each other, all sticky and close like that? Priestess Veronica would have been reciting scripture at the top of her lungs if she'd seen it. But she was away, so there was nothing to be done.
I thought back to what had happened in the woods last night. After something like that, a little closeness hardly seemed like anything at all. If anything, it was nice that the villagers felt even closer than before.
"Nice vibe, huh? Looks like we'll be able to drink plenty again today."
"Ah♥"
Frantz sat down beside me as if it were the most natural thing in the world and pulled me in with one thick arm — like he was declaring, this one's mine. What was I supposed to do? My heart was pounding.
The older folks, who once would have clicked their tongues at young people who couldn't keep their blood in check, only watched us with warm, pleased eyes. And seeing those same elders with young girls tucked under each arm made me think the generations were getting along just fine. That was a relief, really.
Would today be like yesterday — drinking, shouting, carrying on? …And then, once the mood ripened, slipping away into the woods… It was the latter I was looking forward to more.
Just as I was thinking that, Yujin stepped forward with complete confidence and addressed the crowd.
"Everyone~! Today is the joyous second day of our festival! Our Walpurgis Night celebration has drawn interest not just from our own village, but from people outside as well! To share our joy and make it even greater, we have guests who've come from afar to perform for us! Let's all give them a warm round of applause!"
Outsiders, coming to perform? A spark of curiosity lit in the eyes of villagers who were always starved for anything new. I still remembered the fever that had gripped us ten years ago, when a traveling circus had come through. Were people like that coming again?
…That aside, why was Yujin the one saying all this? Shouldn't the village chief be making this speech? But I didn't have time to dwell on such minor questions. The moment the so-called outside performers appeared, a shock of something entirely new washed over every person in the village.
"No, what in the world are they…"
"Good heavens, aren't those the Guild people? How can they possibly…"
"Oh my, how vulgar…"
The so-called outside performers were none other than people from the Guild. I'd glimpsed a few of their faces coming and going myself. And the woman leading the pack, walking straight up to the phallic statue — I'd seen her face just yesterday. But the problem wasn't who they belonged to. It was what they were wearing.
Whether those dairy-cow imitations could even be called clothes was an open question. Breasts, crotch, hands and feet — that was about all they covered. Everything else was bared as if to say, go on, look. Standing there with the sun at their backs, they were a sight that wiped every other thought clean out of your head.
Without meaning to, I instinctively checked the crotch of Frantz sitting beside me. Just as I'd expected, his cock was swelling quite naturally, and he was smacking his lips.
That's not fair! If I dressed like that, I could set a man's lust on fire too — I just can't, because of the village rules! But they don't follow the village rules, so they get to wear those perverted outfits and seduce the men? That's too much. What are the rest of us supposed to do?
I finally understood what Priestess Veronica had been talking about. Those bitches are loaches muddying the waters! They need to be driven out!
Whether they knew about us village women's hostility or not, the Guild girls swayed their chests and hips just enough to gather every man's gaze. The pink-haired one who seemed to be their leader spoke up.
"Hello, everyone. Congratulations on welcoming Walpurgis Night! Harvest season is behind us now, so it's time to start preparing for next year, isn't it? I do hope you'll all gather a biiig harvest next year and live healthy, happy lives!"
After rattling off those empty well-wishes, the pink-haired bitch seemed to notice all the eyes on her. She grinned, then gave those enormous udders a showy shake from side to side.
"I see some of you are wondering what on earth this look is about. These, you see, are ceremonial garments for praying for abundance~ Take a look at us. We look like cows, don't we? Cows are the backbone of farming, and they produce milk — precious livestock! In other words, the cow is a symbol of plenty! By becoming that symbol ourselves, we're calling abundance down upon this land."
Then the bitch spread her legs wide and pulled the flesh of her crotch apart with her own fingers. The pink petals that had been hanging on behind a single scrap of cloth were laid bare without a fight. It was infuriating — and incredibly, incredibly filthy.
"And we've maximized the exposure like this out of our wish that all of you will be fruitful and multiply! After all, is there any happier occasion than the birth of new life?"
They'll slap a justification on anything, won't they. These perverted bitches! They just like being stared at by men, that's all. I could see exactly what they were thinking — I was a woman too. If that many men's filthy gazes were pinned to my body, I'd be so happy it'd give me goosebumps.
…I'm jealous.
"We'll now perform a dance to pray for this village's prosperity♥ Please enjoy the show♥ It may not look like much, but the effects are no joke, I promise you? There's actually a magical effect and everything!"
With that, the Guild women composed their faces into something serious and prepared to dance. Behind the phallic statue, I could hear instruments being readied. Maybe the dance itself would be a proper one, even if they looked like that? …That hope was dashed without mercy.
"Anh♥ Anh♥ Aaaah♥ Aaahn-aah♥ Anh♥"
The women shook their hips and chests with vulgar abandon, matching the instruments ringing through the square. They kept time with their moans, mimicking the act of getting fucked. One of them made a ring with her fingers and pumped it in front of her mouth, pretending to service a cock. Another spread her ass cheeks to advertise that she had one more usable hole.
"That's it!"
The men watching weren't sitting still either. They tossed out cries of encouragement to get the performers even more worked up, whistling and sending up little cheers. My head ordered me to find those men pathetic. My heart refused. How was I supposed to hate men? Men and women weren't even in the same league to begin with. Contempt and hatred simply couldn't take root against someone of a higher station. So all that hatred turned, instead, on the women performing out there.
Greedy pigs!
They were like those greedy fishermen who drag-net a river and scoop up even the fry. If they were going to put on a show like that, what were the rest of us supposed to do? If the men got so distracted by those bitches that they couldn't be satisfied with my pussy once it got dark — that would be their fault!
"Hey, shake that ass a little harder!"
"These bitches are so fucking hot. Teach my wife how to do that! So I can have some fun at night!"
The men's cheers slid from crude into outright sexual harassment. And the Guild bitches only seemed more excited for it, dancing even harder. Then, as the music hit its climax—!
"Nnnngh!!"
The Guild girls thrust their pussies forward, and their urethras began to twitch and gape. And then, all at once—!
Psssssssssssssshhhhh!!!!
A spray of clear liquid erupted from them. Old picture books talked about whales in a place called the sea — if you imagined a whale blowing water, it would look exactly like this. Was a woman's body supposed to do that? Even I, a woman myself, hadn't known. My eyes went wide.
"Gotta end it with a squirt, huh. Heh heh."
From Frantz's words, I learned that what I'd just seen was called squirting. I'd gained a piece of knowledge, but there was no time to be glad about it.
The gap is just too wide…
I finally understood why the men were so taken with the Guild women. When the level gap was this huge, of course you'd go looking for a veteran over some girl with no sexual experience at all. Maybe Priestess Veronica's Guild boycott hadn't been about morality at all — maybe it had been an effort to stamp out unfair competition.
"Haa… haa, did you all enjoy the show? Our dance isn't just eye candy, you know — it actually has the power to restore the land's fertility. They say if you regularly bless your fields with this squirting spray, you'll never have a bad harvest."
"Ooooh, it does that?"
"That's amazing. The fact that they're good for more than just getting fucked is pretty damn impressive."
"A woman ought to be useful in all kinds of ways, that's for sure."
The men were already eating it up, and the effects hadn't even been proven. How were you supposed to know if that was a lie or the truth? Even the standard for a "bad harvest" was pretty vague. …It's not like I'm being spiteful or anything, but something about this is fishy! I don't believe it!
"But it's a little inconvenient that this dance can only be performed when we're here, isn't it? So from this moment on, we'll teach the dance to any woman who wants to learn! Anyone interested?"
"……!"
In that instant, I was grateful that nearly every woman present raised her hand at the same time. If I'd been the only one, I might have been a little embarrassed.