The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 7 - Chapter 345

Chapter 345:

Festival Eve

“What a crowd.”

Hatahi Village was packed with tourists for the festival. The population had risen steadily over the past week, and ­today there really was quite a throng. As I stood there, dumbstruck by the sheer number of people, Druid gently told me there would soon be even more. Since there were already so many people as it was, hearing that scared me a little.

“I’ve never seen so many people together in one place… Oh! Pardon me, sir.”

We were walking down Main Street, and there were crowds of people every way we turned. If you didn’t pay constant attention, you’d bump into somebody. Then again, not bumping into people would be stranger. I looked around to see long lines snaking from 

every booth and every shop. It would take a very long time just to be served.

“When we get into the festival proper, it’ll be like this plus you’ll have people throwing colored powder cakes at each other… It’s quite the event.”

That’s right, the main event of the festival is the Battle of Colors. I looked around and saw people already smooshed up next to each other. Would we even be able to have a proper color battle in these conditions?

“Is it okay if I hold your hand? I don’t want us to lose each other,” Druid said.

“Sure.”

He squeezed my hand tight, which was a little embarrassing.

“Mr. Druid, can people even have a real color fight when it’s like this?”

Everywhere I looked, people were just too close to each other. It made me feel like it would be impossible to throw color cakes at each other.

“It’s not so much a cake-throwing fight as a cake-tapping fight. As long as there’s a little space between you and the other person, it’s fine.”

So it really works. I can’t picture it right now, though.

The festival proper lasted three days. On the first and second days, people threw powdered color cakes at each other. It was an important religious practice to ward off evil. On the third day, you colored your white clothes with dye, and you wore those clothes to pray for good health. Then the festival was over. I was worried about our clothes being dyed so easily, but Druid told me Hatahi Village had its own special dyeing agent. After melting it in water and dipping your clothes in the solution for one hour, all you had to do was wash and dry them like you normally would. The process was so simple that I was surprised when I first heard about it. What was even more mysterious about the whole thing was that nobody really knew how it worked. All they did know was that if they mixed the fruit of a tree that had grown in Hatahi since ancient times with the dyeing agent, the colors would easily set on the clothing permanently.

Once Festival Eve began, there was a list of things we had to do, and one of them was buying our white clothes for the festival. That was why I had braved the crushing crowds to go and get them. Every shop in Hatahi sold white clothes this time of year. I was fine with shopping at whatever store was closest to our inn, but Druid insisted we go to a special store off Main Street.

“My mentor told me about this place. They design their clothes to last longer than the other shops do. Don’t you want to wear your clothes after the festival is over?”

“Yeah, you’ve got a good point.”

We looked at the clothes being sold near our inn, but the stitching was shoddy. The fabric was thin too, and they didn’t look like you could wear them more than a few times. When Druid saw the state of them, he suggested going to the shop his mentor had recommended.

“There it is.” Druid was looking at a shop ahead of us. The sign in front of it made me squint my eyes.

“A laundry?”

“Yeah, they apparently sell sturdy clothes here. And look at the line!”

We got in the back of the long line winding out of the entrance. Their service was quick, though, and Druid and I got into the shop without waiting for too long.

“It’s packed inside, too,” Druid remarked.

The shop was indeed stuffed solid with people.

“Sure is.”

We moved with the herd over to the shelves with the clothes for sale. I picked up the garment right in front of me and examined the fabric. It was indeed sturdy, and the stitching was neat. It was completely different from the clothes at that other shop.

“Found something in your size?” Druid asked.

I looked over to see that he was already holding up a pair of pants and a shirt.

“Oh! Sorry, I got distracted. Um, I’ll take this and this.” I pulled a pair of pants and a shirt that were my size off the shelf.

“You can have a dress, you know.”

I followed Druid’s gaze over to a pure-white dress. Since it had no extra trappings, it looked quite plain. I pictured myself wearing it and blushed a little.

“I’m fine with pants,” I said.

“Really? You’d look nice wearing another skirt now and then, though.”

Oh? I didn’t know Druid liked skirts. Skirts, huh… Yeah, the skirt Druid bought me that one time really is pretty, but I don’t have many chances to wear it with all the traveling I do. Besides, I’m going through a growth spurt right now, so I’ll grow out of it too quickly. That would mean I could only wear it a few times, which would be wasteful. Yeah, I don’t need another skirt.

“I’d rather have these pants; they’re easier to move in.”

“Sure, pants are more practical for when we’re on the road, but it’s okay to dress up a little when we’re in town if you want. I know, why don’t we go shopping for summer clothes when the festival is over? We’ll look and see if they have a skirt you like.”

“Huh?” Summer clothes? And again with the skirts?

“I’ll go pay for the clothes; wait for me outside the shop.”

“Oh… Uh, okay.”

Druid took my clothes and went off to pay for them. I did as he said and weaved through the sea of people until I was outside and could wait for him without getting in the way.

Was he really going to buy me skirts for the summer? I felt a little silly about the idea, but I did love dressing up. Then again, I spent much less time in civilization than I did on the road. It wasn’t often that we stayed for a whole month in a village like this. Getting skirts to wear for such short periods of time…was just so wasteful. But still…I thought I did kinda want some skirts.

“Mom, Dad, look! I’m a bigger size than I was for last year’s festival!”

Hm? I looked beside me and saw a girl happily holding up her white shirt. A man and woman were smiling proudly back at her. They must be her parents.

“Wow, so you are. Two sizes bigger, in fact. My little girl’s growing up fast.” Her father chuckled proudly and smoothed her hair with his hand while her mother looked on with a soft smile on her face. The sight of it made me feel so warm and cozy.

“That must be nice…”

It was such a happy sight, but for some reason…it also made me feel bitter.

“What’s wrong?”

“Er, nothing! Did you pay for our clothes?”

“Yeah, and boy, were they fast. I guess they’d have to be, doing this every year for so many people.”

I looked back at the shop we’d just been in. The line of shoppers going out the building was even longer than before, and it was growing longer still. The interior was also overflowing with customers, and the clerks ringing up the bills looked quite ­frantic. But if you paid attention, you’d see that each customer was promptly served and sent out of the shop. The employees were quite skilled at their jobs.

“Let’s go,” Druid said, extending a hand to me. I grabbed it, and we set off for our inn.

“If we’d bought our clothes earlier, it wouldn’t have been so crowded.”

“Yeah, I do wish they’d start selling the clothes sooner, but they’re only sold during Festival Eve. It’s tradition. Maybe they all enjoy the frantic atmosphere.”

“Hee hee! Oh, we’re going to get dye for our clothes, right?”

“Yeah, there’s a shrine on the way back to the inn that distributes the dye. Let’s stop there on the way back for a little prayer.”

There was one other thing we had to do during Festival Eve: get the dye for our clothes. You could get it for free at any of the shrines in Hatahi by going there and praying. When you went there, you didn’t choose your own color; it was determined by fate. The idea sounded interesting when I first heard about it, but now I was starting to worry that I might wind up with an extremely flashy color. I was supposed to pray for good health while wearing it, so I had to put it on at least once, no matter what color it was. And we’d bought sturdy clothes, so I would have to wear them again and again in the future. Wait a minute…maybe I should’ve bought flimsy clothes after all?

“That looks like the place. There’s already quite a line.”

I followed Druid’s gaze to see a line so long that it must have had over a hundred people in it. They had all come to pray and get their dye.

“We might as well join them; the line’s not getting any shorter.”

“Yeah.”

We stood at the end of the line, and I immediately sensed more people getting in line behind us. I braced myself for a long wait, but since the prayers only took a minute, the line moved rather quickly. I knelt where I was told and offered a prayer.

“Thank you very much. Now, please choose a bundle from this basket.” A person dressed in white held out a basket containing a bunch of bundles of dye wrapped in leaves. I was supposed to choose one at random, apparently.

“I can’t tell what color any of them are…” I said.

“Yeah, we’ll just have to go with our gut.”

Druid and I each selected one package from the basket, praying for good colors all the while.

“Okay, we’re done with our Festival Eve tasks for the day. Let’s head back.”

“Good. I’m exhausted.”

“Hang in there until we get back to the inn!”