Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Summer Festival Mayhem (1)
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The first thing I did after returning to Kinalo with my siblings was to plan a grand festival.
Ailun, led by Harun, currently lacked the strength to attack us, and the lords of Norverge were too busy fawning over me for defeating Harun.
Peace.
It was a definitive peace, even if it might be temporary.
So we held a festival.
A festival.
It’s a time for everyone to become one.
Even if everyone has different thoughts, as long as you’re happy and I’m happy, doesn’t that make everything all right? It’s a kind of anesthetic that eases the tension.
So, we expanded the scale of the already famous Kinalo Summer Festival several times over.
To soothe the citizens who must have been anxious because of the war.
To reassure them that we were on the same side.
We provided plenty of free food and free alcohol and offered generous financial support.
The soldiers in charge of maintaining order were also dressed in the simplest armor possible to shed any impression of coercion.
The result was a massive success.
*Chatter, chatter-*
The noise outside my window was deafening.
“Ugh…”
But here I was, pathetically working in my office.
I was currently looking at the Book of Fate.
After killing the Apostle, two new functions had been added to the Book of Fate.
One was ‘Search.’
The other was ‘Prologue 1 Time.’
The ‘Search’ function was a feature that searched for something called a ‘Twisted World Line.’
*‘It probably shows me the location of that deafeningly loud monster from before, right? This is pretty useful.’*
A map had been added to the section where a regular book would have a preface.
A map that revealed an area roughly the size of the old Vanroah Kingdom’s territory, centered on me.
On that map, which contained about three to five cities, a single red dot was moving in the region between Kinalo and Ilunael.
I guessed it was some kind of special monster… but I still needed to confirm.
“Ah, whatever!”
But for now, I closed the book.
I had suffered so much during this trip through time that I didn’t want to fight for a while.
The same went for the [Prologue 1 Time].
The description said it was ‘a miracle that allows one to meet the origin, albeit incompletely’… but I didn’t feel like checking it out right now.
What if I get sent to the past again?
I barely made it out alive.
“I don’t care! I’m going to have fun too!”
To be honest, I was slightly suffocating from the sheer amount of work.
I had to sort through the mountain of artifacts I brought from the ancient era, and I also had to have the kids try on the Magic Armor and train with it.
With more cards in my hand, I needed to discuss new tactics and strategies for the future.
But,
not today.
*‘Right. This isn’t just for fun.’*
Isn’t it a ruler’s duty to observe the lives of their people?
That’s right! Let’s go. Let’s go out and observe!
*Knock, knock-*
Just as I stood up with gusto, Sea entered with a thick report.
I froze in the middle of putting on my overcoat.
“…What’s that now?”
“What I mentioned before. I’ve organized ways to profit from the ancient era. Things like planting Drakium seeds nearby.”
“Ah, right.”
That’s right! There was that. Good. Very good.
But, Sea.
“Are you… working today too?”
Sea stared at me intently.
As if to say, *isn’t this your fault?*
My conscience pricked me. I had, in fact, been leaving all the administrative work to Sea.
But she didn’t resent me.
She just said in a slightly deflated voice,
“If you’re going to play today, at least look after Seon.”
Seon? Our six-year-old youngest?
“You know Kinalo’s famous ‘Children’s Sword Fight,’ right? The one where they play war with willow swords that don’t hurt. He said he was going there.”
“Then isn’t he fine? You assigned him an escort, right?”
“I did. But it’s Seon’s first time in this neighborhood. I’m worried he might not have any friends.”
“Ah…”
She’s right. Our Sea is always so considerate.
“Got it. I’ll go out and find Seon.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
And just like that, with Sea’s permission, I was freed from my duties.
My own adventure began, wandering through the magical city of Kinalo during a midsummer day’s festival.
***
*‘Wow… Kinalo is on another level.’*
Looking around here made our Kushan City seem like a country town.
Kushan’s population was 750,000 and Kinalo’s was 1.1 million, so it was only about 50% larger, but the difference felt much greater than that.
In reality, the average income in Kinalo was over 30% higher than in Kushan.
*‘If Kinalo is like this, what on earth is Ilunael like?’*
Ilunael, one of the top five largest and wealthiest cities in all of Roverland.
My curiosity about the place where Harun was holed up began to bubble.
*‘Anyway, where could our Seon be?’*
I wandered through the streets, which were flooded with a human tide, searching for Seon, but instead of him, I spotted another familiar face.
“Hahaha! You weaklings! Is it true there are no real men in Kinalo?!”
…Corpses?
It was supposed to be the middle of a joyous festival… but for some reason, that spot alone was a battlefield.
In a wide, open space, people were strewn about as if dead.
In the center of it all, a woman with a lion’s mane of hair flowing in the wind surveyed the world as if she owned it.
“Come on! Step up! Is there no one else?!”
Katrina Egion.
Next to my eldest sister, Katrina, were barrels of alcohol piled high.
A sturdy-looking man, taken in by her taunt, stepped forward.
“Hmph! Your arrogance ends here!”
“Hahaha! A challenge?!”
A cold, murderous intent was exchanged in their gazes.
“Here I come!”
“Hrah!”
They simultaneously lifted the wooden barrels and began chugging.
Ah, so that’s why everyone was passed out like that.
“Ugh… ngh… how… humiliating…”
The man, unable to finish a single barrel, collapsed sideways with a thud.
“Hahahahaha! How pathetic! Come on! I’ve already drunk fifty barrels by myself! Are you too scared to face me?!”
The local tavern champions, who had thought themselves quite the drinkers, trembled before her lion-like roar and presence.
*‘Sigh…’*
I swallowed the sigh that escaped me and tapped Katrina on the shoulder.
“What? A challenger… Oh, Brother?”
Katrina, who had turned like a lion, now had eyes as round as a cat’s.
“Hey, Kitty. Have you seen Seon by any chance?”
Kitty was Katrina’s childhood nickname.
When her eyes got wide like that, she looked cute enough that I just wanted to call her Kitty.
“Seon? I saw him heading to the fountain with the kids playing sword fight earlier.”
“Really? How did he seem?”
“Hmm. He didn’t seem to have any friends, so he was just trailing behind them. I was going to call him over, but…”
As she spoke, Katrina gestured with the barrel.
Right. It wouldn’t be right to call a kid over while you’re drinking.
“Alright. If you see Seon, give him this.”
I took an ancient artifact out of my subspace.
A toy artifact for children.
It looked like just a hilt, but when you pressed the button, a blade of light appeared.
It had the magnificent appearance of an Aura Blade, but being a toy, it didn't hurt at all even if you were hit with full force. It just felt like a slight push backward.
But the really cool part was that if you were hit on a part of your body, that area would glow for a while.
As if to say, *‘You got hit here!’*
Lorraine had told me.
It was an item created with the dual purpose of fostering curiosity and dreams about ancient relics in children, while also making money.
I hadn’t hesitated to take things like this.
*‘By the end, I was receiving all sorts of things.’*
I received my weekly pay in artifacts, my performance bonus in artifacts, and even payment for human experiments in artifacts, not to mention the considerable amount Lorraine personally slipped me.
I had even swept up all the Magic Armor and artifacts from the secret storage.
As a result, my subspace necklace was filled with almost every imaginable type of artifact.
So much so that I couldn’t even remember everything I had.
“Oh! Seon’s going to be insanely popular with this, isn’t he?”
Katrina muttered, holding the light blade.
Since she was about 180 cm tall, the toy sword looked tiny in her hand.
“Okay! I’ll be sure to give it to him if I see him.”
“Right. And this is for you.”
I pulled another ancient magical item from my subspace. A bottle filled with shimmering gray smoke.
*Gulp.*
I took a sip first before handing it to Katrina.
“A little goes a long way, so have some, and share a sip with everyone.”
“Huh? What is this?”
*Gulp.*
The cute thing about Kitty is that she drinks it without complaint.
“Ooh?”
“It’s called a Spirit Chain. You won’t feel it yet. Everyone needs to drink it.”
I said, then turned and walked away.
A short while later, I started to feel it.
*‘It’s starting.’*
I could feel the drinkers sharing the Spirit Chain.
The muddled minds of the flushed drinkers pushed their way into my head.
You see, ecstasy is the kind of thing that grows the more it’s shared. The ‘Spirit Chain’ was created based on that principle.
It links the minds of the intoxicated, making them feel the same things and rejoice together.
It’s similar to listening to a master bard’s song and being moved to tears and happiness together, but no, this was a far superior crowd effect.
Of course, in this case, since I drank first…
*‘Don’t lose consciousness. But keep the mood just right.’*
My own mental strength served to control the drinkers’ rampaging energy.
“Ooooooh!”
“This is amazing!”
The cheers of the drinkers, now united in their joyous revelry, reached my ears.
Even if they were having that much fun, as long as my solid mental fortitude was linked to them, there wouldn’t be any trouble.
***
Seon had supposedly gone to the fountain, but I wandered for a long time.
I still didn’t know my way around Kinalo very well, and as it turned out, there was more than one fountain.
Still, by asking around, I managed to find it.
As expected, the kids were gone.
Instead, a familiar face was gathered with a group of people in bizarre outfits.
*‘What? What kind of armor is that?’*
Their attire… yes, it resembled knight’s armor. But it had absolutely no practical use.
*‘Did they design that empty spot there to invite a sword slash?’*
*‘And there, you could just stab it with a spear and it’d go right through.’*
It was pretty.
I could admit it was pretty, but seeing something like that in the shape of armor stirred a physiological revulsion in me.
And in the center of it all… wearing armor flashier and more inviting of death than anyone else… was our nineteen-year-old Mika Seitus.
…Was this also a form of that fifteen-year-old syndrome?
“Hmph…”
A sigh escaped me before I could stop it.
Mika.
She was a sore spot for me.
The last remaining blood of the Ducal House of Seitus.
But she hadn’t always been alone.
She had an older brother.
Roy Seitus, who was my age.
My best friend.
A childhood friend I had always played with at the Vanroah Royal Palace, for as long as I could remember.
He died.
Horribly, taking a blow from the Blood Count Delkashu that was meant for me.
Mika Seitus was Roy’s only younger sister. It was only natural that I had a soft spot for her, that she was always on my mind.
But sadly, I just couldn’t understand her.
How could she be so different from her brother…?
Right now, she was talking with a group in strange outfits.
No. Was this even a conversation?
A boy in red armor spoke first.
“Heh heh, scared by something so trivial? As expected, a princess from a greenhouse knows nothing. Shall I teach you what ‘real’ hell is?”
Then, a girl in pink armor raised a fake sword and replied.
“How could you… Being born in the mud is no excuse. Some people bloom lotuses from the mud!”
At the perfect moment, a girl in black armor interjected.
“I have no time for your childish knight games. Red Knight. You handle it.”
Then, finally, my sister Mika Seitus, clad in resplendent armor, covered her face with her hand and muttered.
“Hmph… You people… If you don’t want to feel ‘regret,’ stop provoking the ‘justice’ within me…”
Oh.
I get it.
So,
this is that, isn’t it? A ‘knight game’ or something.
Sure. They can do that.
The minimum requirement to become a knight in Gloryland was being a low-grade Sword Expert.
It was perfectly understandable to admire those with superhuman strength.
And if that admiration went too far, you might end up imitating them like this.
But Mika,
you’re a mid-grade Sword Expert…