CH 13.1

„O du mein Gott, sagte es, wie kann ich in meinen schmutzigen Kleidern hingehen?“

„Bäumlein rüttel und schüttel dich,

wirf schöne Kleider herab für mich!“

— Grimms Märchen „Aschenputtel“ (1812) —

“Oh my goodness,” she said, “how could I go in these dirty clothes?”

Shake yourself, shake yourself, little tree.

Throw some nice clothing down to me!

— Grimm’s Fairy Tales “Cinderella” 1st edition (1812) —1　

♢♦♢♦♢

As we approached the pioneering village, the atmosphere became more bustling with vigor, with signs of murmurs becoming much more prominent. …Or rather, even without the use of mana detection, it was obvious that excitement was in the air.

“…it’s the staple of the story that a horde of goblins or demon beasts or something come attacking during festive and off-guard moments like this, generally speaking.”

I knew it was out of line for someone like me to be concerned, but anxiety still got the better of me and I made a quick round around the village, expanding my Mana Zone to see if there was anything suspicious— so far, the barriers seemed to be working fine. While at it, I looked around the embedded barrier stakes, correcting any that was loose, and carved a simple barrier of my own in the gaps of the barriers.

From what I could tell, there seemed to be no imminent threat for the time being.

“I’m sorry for the wait, Vier. Now, we don’t want to make Eren wait, so let us hurry.”

“Myuu, myuu!”

The Sirius cub that was lying down nearby—my familiar Vier, happily wagged her tail and small wings as she snuggled up to my feet.

I immediately picked her up with both hands, and my mouth naturally curled up into a smile. “Have you grown bigger in the past week? I suppose it is time to switch from baby food to solid food.” Although she didn’t look much different, she was twice as heavy as she was a week ago.

I had been feeding her hexacow and aries milk mixed with egg yolks or vegetable oil, sometimes I gave her softened cookies (homemade flour mixed with nutrients like chico nuts and more), but perhaps it was time to start feeding her some protein such as chicken meat.

I made that judgment, as I watched Vier happily eating the cookie I produced from my pocket. …Well, I had a feeling that Regina was feeding raw meat to her behind me. Sometimes I found my room smelled raw and fishy when I left her there for a while, so perhaps I had been too late…

Lately, Vier had found her favorite spot in my embrace, that being her head poking out of my shoulder as she was whining “myu, myu” in a good mood. Being careful not to let Vier fall, I put on my hood and started walking again toward the main gate.

Incidentally, Maya, Regina’s familiar, only saw me off to the forest exit and went straight back to the forest. Perhaps she was concerned that her presence might cause an unnecessary commotion on the day of the festival, what with people all over the village gathering, so she refrained from going.

What a refined familiar. Regina told me that familiars resembled their master, so I suppose Maya’s consideration over such a trivial thing had been a reflection of Regina’s bad habit… I sighed at that and looked at my own familiar, who was snuggly on my shoulder and dutifully eating the cookie she had been given.

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“…” A thought passed my mind, and I, wordlessly, gently lowered her to the ground.

“Myu?”

“…It’s important to be on your own feet. Let’s walk, Vier. Sloth is a sin!”

“Myuu, myuu!”

Was she thinking this was a new game? I resumed my walk, and Vier followed me, her steps bouncing like a ball of fur.

♢♦♢♦♢

Now then, today was the long-awaited day of the festival.

Technically speaking, it was the day of coming-of-age ceremony for boys and girls of the village who had turned 13 years old. However, according to Mister Dan the rancher (I visited him two or three times to get milk for Vier), what actually would happen was that the new adults would gather at the village hall, listen to the village chief and other important people’s speeches, enter their names in the adult register (like a family register, apparently), perform customary rituals, and then the whole village would gather together for a feast.

In the olden days where people were more religious, you had to go to a temple where a priest or a priestess would baptize you, but seeing that all three major religions of this continent—the Deva Kureha Faith, the Saintess’ Church, and the Divine Beast Religion—weren’t enforcing their doctrines as hard, people in remote villages like this one celebrate according to indigenous customs.

In the case of this village, according to the village custom, each person would eat a mochi made from grains harvested in the village (not really Japanese-style rice mochi, but more like a steamed bun made of rice flour kneaded with hot water) and finish it with a sip of homemade alcohol—a truly pastoral event, from what I heard.

Afterward, the ladies of the village would prepare a buffet-style feast, and adults and children alike were invited to join in the festivities.

By the way, 13 being the age allowed to drink alcohol might sound a bit too early, but when I thought about it, the minimum drinking age was around 14 to 15 in some European countries, so there should be no problem as long as they didn’t push themselves too hard. But then, Mister Dan said that “most of the time, the brats would get carried away and drink until they’re blue and collapse,” so perhaps demanding moderation or limits to kids who only learned the taste of alcohol was simply impossible, regardless of which world you were in.

When the sun had set and the excitement was at its peak, a traditional event was held, where a woman of age gave rubrum flos, a crown of red flowers, to the man she loved, and the man would place the crown on the head of the woman if he accepted her. It was a local custom.

Generally speaking, anyone could give the crown to anyone else as long as they were both single, but, well, for any unlucky man, the woman would give him a white flower crown (in which case, the man wouldn’t put the crown on her) as a token to say “let’s remain friends,” aka a remedy of sorts.

Therefore, the entire village was already in a festive mood, even though it was still mid-morning.

“Good morning, Mister Andy, Mister Chad. It must be hard to be a guard even on a day like this.”

Should I have expected it… Standing in front of the gate were two familiar faces. They were dressed more neatly for the occasion, but for some reason, their faces weren’t as jovial.

“—Heya there, Jill. Are you here for the festival? Have fun, then… As for us who lost the lottery, we have to stand on duty.”

“Hello, you two look healthy, Jill, pup. Well, we’re on duty only until evening, so we’ll be joining later. Hahaha…”

…Aah, well, I kind of understood the situation. They had drawn the short end of sticks. By the way, I had introduced Vier to the two of them way back when I first went to Mister Dan’s ranch to get milk.