Chapter 350:
Just Before the Festival
Early that morning, Main Street was already full of cheer. There was still another two hours before the festival would officially begin, but a huge crowd of excited festival-goers was waiting. It was incredible seeing how white Main Street was, with all the Day One participants clothed in that color. Tomorrow’s participants would be wearing something else, but the coloring today was overwhelmingly white. I thought it was impressive yet surreal; I had never seen anything like it before.
“Where do we pick up our color cakes?” I asked.
“We go to the shrine where we got our dye and trade the lottery tickets I drew yesterday for them. We should go now before it gets too crowded.”
“Okay.”
Just as Druid had said, there was already a long line of people waiting to get their color cakes.
“It’s a quick trade, so we should be done soon.”
“Looks like it,” I agreed.
The line was moving quite fast. The transactions were brief since they only involved exchanging lottery tickets for color cakes. We weaved our way through the crowd and got in line. Other people followed us right away, just like they had when we came here to get our dye.
“Even though it’s divided into two days, there’s still a lot of people,” I remarked.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they do it over three days next year.”
“Neither would I.”
As we chatted, our turn came up. Druid gave our lottery tickets to the person behind the counter, who then handed us two bags of color cakes and said, “There’s been a change to the festival rules, so please read that sign over there.”
A change to the festival rules? We looked at the sign and saw a crowd of people in front of it.
“Let’s go have a look,” Druid said.
“Yeah. I wonder what they changed?”
“It probably has something to do with how many more participants there are.”
That made sense: There were definitely a lot of us. After a little while, the crowd of people parted, and we could read the sign.
“Okay, it says: An hour before the festivities begin, there will be a treasure hunt where you can find color cakes in white and other special colors. A treasure hunt, huh? What will they think of next?”
A treasure hunt? What does that have to do with the festival?
“It also says, When the festivities begin, people dressed in black will arrive. Hit them with white color cakes before they escape, and good things will happen to you all year.”
So now there were going to be people dressed in black who would try to escape. This was starting to sound a lot more complicated than the festival I’d originally heard about.
“I wonder why they went and added a treasure hunt?” I asked.
“I dunno…but anyway, we’re in the way, so let’s move.”
“Ah. Right.”
Some staffers guided us away from the sign and to an area with fewer people. We turned onto Main Street and slipped onto a side street. After a few minutes, we could finally walk at a leisurely pace again.
“White color cakes, eh? I wonder if we have any in our bags?” I asked, lifting mine up.
“Let’s check.”
We slipped into a corner to look in our bags. Inside were thirty cakes, each small enough to be hidden in the palm of a hand. They all looked alike on closer examination, except none of them were the same color.
“Wow, they’re all different colors. A lot of them seem to be shades of red, though. And I don’t see any white ones.”
I picked up one of the cakes. It was slightly soft and wouldn’t hurt if it hit you.
“I seem to have mostly green cakes. I’ve got a few red ones but no whites.”
“Do you think we can only find white cakes in the treasure hunt?”
“Probably, yeah.”
After Druid and I looked over our color cakes, we turned onto an empty street to make our way to the village watch station—Lord Foronda’s speech would be given in front of it. Once the station was in sight, we saw that an appropriately large crowd had formed there.
“We still have some time. Would you rather wait out here instead of in that crowd?” Druid suggested.
“Yeah, can we slip into a corner and take a little break?”
“Sure. There are definitely a lot more people here today, since the festival has officially started now.”
“Yeah, I thought the Festival Eve crowds were big enough already, but today’s are much bigger, aren’t they?”
I looked at Main Street and all the side streets connecting to it. They were filled with even more people now, and it seemed like walking on any of them would be a struggle.
“Yeah, it’s way too crowded. I only hope nobody gets hurt.”
He was right: I thought help might not be able to get there on time if anything happened. I hoped everyone would be okay.
“I’m so glad we didn’t bring the slimes with us.”
Worried about the growing crowds during Festival Eve, we had kept the creatures inside the inn all day that week. Just walking down the street caused us to bump into people left and right. It would be horrible if we hit someone too hard and one of the creatures got injured. Druid assured me they probably wouldn’t get hurt, but I was still worried. Besides, I’d asked them if they wanted to go to the festival, and they’d all said no. Maybe they didn’t like crowds, either.
Just as we leaned against the wall of a shop for a little rest, we saw several people run frantically out of the village watch station.
“Do you think something’s happened?”
“What’s this? Why, Ivy and Druid! Good morning to you both,” a relaxed voice said from behind us.
We turned around to see Lord Foronda waving and approaching us.
“Good morning, sir.”
“Is something wrong over there?” Lord Foronda asked, following Druid’s gaze.
“With such a big crowd, I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody got hurt,” Druid said.
If that was what had happened, I hoped it wasn’t serious. Someone getting hurt at a festival would be so tragic.
“By the way, about my speech…” Lord Foronda said.
“Yes?”
“It’s been moved to the last day of the festival. I’m so sorry you’ve come all this way for nothing.”
So it got postponed… Well, this festival’s had a lot of last-minute changes. I guess it couldn’t be helped.
“It’s all right, sir. The last day of the festival is for praying, right?”
“Yes. And I’m giving the closing speech.”
Impressive. That’s a big role.
“I am quite surprised by the people in this village, though,” Lord Foronda said. “When they realized they would have more attendees than anticipated, they immediately divided everyone into smaller groups to avoid anyone getting hurt.”
They divided us? I gave Lord Foronda a confused look. “Is that why we’re having a treasure hunt?”
“Yes, that way Main Street won’t get overcrowded. People will naturally spread out to the side streets to hunt for treasure, you see.”
That made sense. And if people were hunting for treasure, not only would they move away from Main Street, but they would move more slowly as well. Wait, that would be enough to fix the problem, right? Then what about the people dressed in black?
“Excuse me, sir, do you know why they added the people dressed in black?”
“I’m guessing the people in black will ‘run away’ to the less populated areas to keep the crowds from becoming too concentrated,” Druid answered.
Lord Foronda smiled and nodded in reply. I had to agree; crowds getting packed too tightly was not a good thing.
Peep! Peep! Peep!
“Is everybody ready?” A man’s voice suddenly boomed out through the village together with the sound of a whistle. It was so shrill I jumped a little.
“Let the treasure hunt begin!” the man shouted.
A loud roar from the crowd followed.
“All right, Ivy, Druid, let’s hunt for treasure.”
“Are you joining the hunt, too, sir?” Druid asked in surprise.
I shot him a smile and saw that Lord Foronda was already looking around with eager eyes. He looked wired.
“Of course I’m joining the hunt—it looks like so much fun! Come, come, now, let’s go.”
Lord Foronda marched off, and Druid and I rushed after him. We were planning on hunting for treasure anyway, but we hadn’t expected Lord Foronda to take the lead. We slowly walked down the street, looking for white color cakes as we went. After a while, I heard voices behind me. I turned around and saw a large herd of people dressed in white moving our way. Their heads were darting left and right like birds as they searched for color cakes.
“They look so strange,” I remarked.
“Sorry to break it to you, Ivy, but we’re just like them.”
Druid’s words hit me like a ton of bricks, and I looked down at my white clothes.
“Ah. You’re right.”
Druid and Lord Foronda laughed. Then I heard somebody cheer for joy in the distance. I looked and saw that they had found a color cake where we had just been looking.
“Look how tiny that box is.”
It was far away, but I could still see the item that person had found. It was a tiny box smaller than a person’s hand. It must have contained just one color cake.
“Ah, how vexing indeed. I was just searching there,” Lord Foronda cursed earnestly.
Druid and I looked at each other and laughed.
“Well, now that we know what we’re looking for, let’s get on with the hunt!”
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