The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 7 - Chapter 348

Chapter 348:

A Day of Dancing

It was the third day of Festival Eve. Today and tomorrow, we would dance on Main Street to welcome the spring, and the stories I’d heard about this part of the ceremony didn’t do it justice. Main Street was filled with musicians playing instruments, and around them was a big double circle of dancers. The musicians played a cheerful little tune, and everyone danced with big smiles on their faces.

“What great music. It’s making my heart pump,” I said.

“Yeah, it sure is.”

As I watched the dancers, I noticed they were all performing the same choreography. I was a bit nervous about the kind of dancing we were supposed to do, but I was relieved to see it wasn’t that complicated.

“Everybody’s doing the same steps,” I observed.

“Yeah, that’s the way this festival is. See that couple dancing in the center of the circle?”

I looked where Druid was pointing and saw two people ­dancing next to the musicians.

“Yes.”

“They’re the dance leaders. Everybody copies what they do.”

I saw what he meant. “It’s just like the bon-odori!”

“Bone-oh-dory? Never heard of that. Is it a type of dance?”

“Huh? But it’s the dance you do at that big festival, the…huh?”

Wait, I just said a bunch of things without thinking, didn’t I?

“Did I say something weird just now?” I asked.

“You said it was like the bone-oh-dory.”

“The bone-oh-dory? Huh? What’s that?”

“That’s what I asked you… Could that be your old memories talking?”

“I guess so. I just blurted out the words without even knowing it.”

Bone-oh-dory… The words slipped out while I was watching the people dancing, so did this mean I knew a similar dance in my past life? That’s strange, I should have a basic idea of what it is since I knew the word for it, but nothing’s coming to mind. Now I’ll be racking my brain to figure out if there was a festival like this one in my past life!

“Ivy…want to dance?”

“Sure. But how do we even get in the circle?” I watched the dancers, and there were so many of them that there wasn’t much room to join in. “We’ll have a heck of a time pushing our way in.”

“No, we can’t push into the circle; that’ll start a fight. What you do is step out of the crowd of spectators and raise your hand. Then one of the dancers will let you switch places with them.”

Now I understood. Druid and I both stepped forward and raised our hands. After we’d been standing like that for a little while, a mother and her eight-year-old daughter switched places with us.

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“My pleasure. Have a blessed day.”

Druid said the same thing back.

“Mr. Druid, what does that mean?”

“Oops, sorry, I forgot to tell you. When you trade places with a dancer, you’re supposed to say, ‘Have a blessed day.’”

Oh, interesting. I’ll have to say that next time.

I watched the dancers in the middle and copied their movements. Oops, wrong arm. Ack, I messed up!

“This is hard…and it looked so easy, too.”

“It’s your first time, you can’t help it. Just relax. Once you’ve got the steps down, you just keep doing them over and over.”

It sounds easy when you put it that way, but…ack! I did the wrong arm again. Maybe I’m just not cut out for dancing?

“You’re okay. Just relax and take it slow. Right, then left. Yes, just like that.”

Druid danced behind me, calling out the steps as he went, which meant I could finally do it right. Now that I was starting to get the form down, I tried doing the steps to the music. Since the same step was repeated over and over, I had more and more fun as I danced.

“This is fun!”

“Glad to hear it. You were a frantic mess earlier.”

Druid probably thought my dancing looked ridiculous.

“Yeah, that was a little embarrassing. But boy, am I exhausted!”

“Of course you are. You were dancing over half an hour!”

“Was I really?!”

I’d been so focused on keeping up with the other dancers that I hadn’t noticed. Thirty minutes would exhaust anyone. But wait, that person dancing in front of me never left the circle the whole time. Aren’t they tired?

“Let’s switch out. I see some people over there who want to cut in anyway.”

I looked where he was pointing to see a couple who looked like they were on a date. The man looked nervous, and the woman was giggling at him.

“Yes, let’s switch with those two,” I agreed.

The woman noticed us and told her male companion, who sighed heavily in response.

“Have a blessed day.”

“Have a blessed day.”

When we switched places, I took a look at the couple. The woman was comfortable with dancing and immediately got in tune with the music, but the man’s movements were clunky. Maybe he was a novice just like I was. Watching him reminded me of how I’d felt dancing a half hour ago. His silly dancing just might’ve given mine a run for its money.

“Agh! I messed up again! Mommy, this is too hard.”

My eyes shot over to the sound of the whining voice, and I saw a little child trying their best to dance.

“It’s okay, sweetie, just calm down and take it slow. Right, right, left, left, right. There, see? You’re doing it!”

“Ooh, I really am! I’m dancing, Mommy!”

As I watched the mother and child happily dance together, I was reminded a little of my past. Whenever I mastered a new skill, I would always excitedly brag to my mother.

I looked around and saw that there were many parents teaching their children how to dance. Everyone was laughing and having so much fun. It hit me that this village had a lot of parents with small children in tow, probably because of the festival.

“You did very well for your first time.”

The gentle hand on my head was warm and a little heavy. I looked up to see Druid smiling down at me, and a smile ­naturally formed on my face.

“I can dance now!” I said.

That’s right… I have somebody I can brag to again.

“Yeah, you did a great job.”

“Thanks.”

The way Druid smiled at me made my stomach feel odd.

“Wanna go grab some lunch?” he suggested.

“Hee hee! Sure. Should we go back to the inn?”

I had cooked some soup last night in advance.

“Good idea. Let’s go back. There’s no way we can have a proper lunch out here.”

As Druid started walking, I spotted a food cart that looked like it was selling sandwiches.

“Ooh, sandwiches…” My heart fluttered as we approached the cart, and sure enough, that’s what it was selling.

“Hello there, would ya like to try some sand-thingies? They’re an Otolwa specialty.”

“Er, sand… What did you call them again?”

The salesperson laughed and told me again that they were sand-thingies.

“And they’re an Otolwa specialty, you say?” I asked.

“Yes, some heroes made them famous.”

Heroes?

“Could they mean Mr. Bolorda and his party?” I whispered to Druid. If I was right, then maybe they really were sandwiches. Well, they looked like sandwiches, so I couldn’t be wrong. But why had they gotten such a strange name as sand-thingies?

“Want to buy some for lunch?” Druid suggested.

Since I was curious about them anyway, I eagerly agreed. “Yes, please. They look delicious.”

I looked at the rows of sand-thingies before me. Each of them was heavily stuffed with goodies. Too heavily, in fact. Just one of them would fill me up.

“How many do you think you can eat?” Druid asked.

“One should be plenty.”

“Really? I think I’d be up for two…no, three.”

So we ordered four sand-thingies.

“What kind do you want?”

“Meat, please.”

The sand-thingies were filled with meat or vegetables. From the ones on display, the meat-filled ones were clearly more popular.

“You’ve got it. Here ya go.”

We took the sand-thingies from the cart owner, and Druid paid for them.

“Thank you,” we told the cart owner.

“Do come again!”

We looked out for the crowd as we walked back to our inn, and the sight of it was a big relief. The festival atmosphere was fun, but it was hard to feel comfortable among so many people.

“Welcome back,” Chikar greeted us as we walked in.

“Thank you. We’re exhausted.”

“It’s hard to walk out there with all those people.” Druid looked a little tired, too.

“Well, we get more festival tourists every year. We didn’t used to have so many, you know. So in the old days, the dancers couldn’t get a break—now that was quite the ordeal, I’ll tell you.”

If the dancers couldn’t get a break…does that mean they just danced all day back then? What incredible stamina they must’ve had. I could never do that.