The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 7 - Chapter 351

Chapter 351:

The Festival

“I just can’t find any.”

I’d looked carefully in every shop windowsill, pillar, and nook and cranny, and yet I couldn’t find any color cakes.

“This could make one feel quite stubborn,” Lord Foronda said.

I nodded in agreement. Druid smirked. The festival proper was going to start in ten minutes, so we just had to find some!

“Aha! I found one!”

While I was psyching myself up, I heard Lord Foronda’s cry of joy. When Druid and I went to check on him, he had a tiny box in his hand.

“What color is it, sir?” Druid asked.

Lord Foronda opened the box and looked inside. “Alas, it is not white but green.”

I looked at the color cake in his hand, and it was indeed green.

“I’ve never seen such a pretty color, though,” I said.

“Yes, it is quite pretty, but I wanted white.”

Lord Foronda was so earnestly upset that I couldn’t help but giggle a little, and Druid soon lost control as well. Lord Foronda glared at us both, but we just couldn’t contain our laughter.

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no, it’s quite all right. A friend of mine often scolds me when I get like this, saying, ‘Whenever you get your heart set on something, you betray your wise years and act like a petulant little child.’”

Wow, that’s harsh…

Druid clamped his hands over his mouth.

“Well, shall we give this one final push?”

As I turned to follow Lord Foronda, I noticed a row of little boxes behind the sign of a clothing shop.

“Oh, look over there!” I cried. Lord Foronda and Druid turned to look. “Aren’t these them?” I was so excited, I wasn’t speaking properly… Well, I guess it didn’t matter. I pulled the boxes out from behind the sign. There were five in total. I found it strange that there were so many boxes there, but I assumed there was nothing wrong with them.

“You found five of them?” Lord Foronda asked.

“Yes! They’re still good, right?”

“I guess they are,” Druid said, inspecting the cakes inside the boxes. Two of them were white, two were silver, and one was gold.

“You got white. Good show, Ivy!”

“Here, Lord Foronda, please take one.”

“Oh, but I couldn’t!”

“We found them together, and since Mr. Druid is traveling with me, we only need one between us. But since you’re on your own, Lord Foronda, you get one. They’re supposed to bring you good luck, so consider this my blessing for your safe travels.”

I wasn’t sure how much faith to put in this since it was a brand-new tradition for the festival, but I hoped my feelings got through to him.

“Thank you very much. Well, now if I see someone dressed in black, I shall have to hit them with this white cake.”

Peep! Peep! Peeeeep!

“The treasure hunt is over, and it is time for festival proper! Please be careful, and may this year be a healthy and fortuitous one for you all. And now…begin!”

A cheer roared all throughout the village.

“Well, it has begun. Wait, where did I put my color cakes?” As Lord Foronda searched through the bag on his shoulder, a voice called out from behind us.

“Yes?” we answered.

“Have a blessed year!”

As the voice rang out, the three of us were hit with cakes of colored powder. Since they were thrown from a short distance, it didn’t hurt, but it was sudden enough to scare us.

“Agh!”

A splatter of color appeared on my clothes, sending a flurry of dust flying. As if that were a signal, more and more cakes began flying at us.

“Well, we can’t take this lying down, can we?”

There were no winners or losers, but I did hate the idea of being only the receiver and not the giver of color. I pulled a color cake out of my bag and looked around. I’m supposed to only hit people who don’t already have this color…dang, that’s hard!

“Hack! Hack!”

I looked toward the coughing to see Druid with colored powder on his face.

“Mr. Druid, that’s quite a look.”

There was a big streak of blue going from Druid’s left cheek to his neck.

“I turned to run away, and a different cake hit my face.”

“But you’re not supposed to avoid the cakes.”

“It’s a reflex… Just hazard of working as an adventurer,” he explained as he turned and threw color cakes at the people around him.

“Ivy, look!”

I looked where Lord Foronda was pointing and… Black clothes!

“Found you! Let’s go. Agh, they got away!”

That’s right, they did say the people in black clothes would be running away. Druid, Lord Foronda, and I chased after them, and a crowd of people joined us. When I tried to slip through them, I got hit on the head with a color cake.

“Aghh, I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay! Sorry I got in your way!”

“Chasing black clothes? Good luck! Go for it!”

We shouted at each other as we zipped down the street, and my assailant wished me luck for some reason. Then, before I knew it, people were opening up a path for me. I could hear them cheering, too.

“Wow, now we really can’t let them get away,” Druid remarked, smiling awkwardly at the cheering crowd.

“Agggh!”

I heard a strange howl ahead of us and looked up to see a man hunched over, moaning. I wonder what’s wrong? I checked on him while I ran past.

“The white cakes…they’re not breaking apart right! Be careful!”

They’re not breaking apart? Does he mean they’re not turning into powder?

“Squeeze it into powder and put your hands on their clothes,” Lord Foronda suggested.

I nodded in reply. Okay, I’ve got this!

“Agh!”

A person in black stopped in their tracks. Somebody else was closing in from the other direction, trapping them in a pincer attack. We’ve got ’em! Lord Foronda crushed his white powder cake in his hand and touched the person’s shoulder.

“Good job! Have a blessed year,” they said.

“Mr. Druid, give me your hand.”

“Huh?”

I pressed my hand into Druid’s, giving him some of the white powder. Then we both pressed it onto the black-shirted person’s arm.

“Have a blessed year!” they said.

“My goodness, you’re fast. Have a blessed year.”

“Ha ha ha! They picked fast runners for this job. Have a blessed year.”

They picked fast runners, eh? We thanked them, then looked for someone else to hit with color. We were tired from all that running.

“Ooh, silver!” a lady in front of me cheered when I hit her with a silver cake.

“Thanks. Have a blessed year.”

“Have a blessed year!”

I looked in my bag and realized my cakes were gone. I had somehow used them all up without noticing.

Peep! Peep! Peeeep!

“That ends the Battle of Colors for today! May you all have a blessed year!”

Applause erupted all around us.

“I’m beat,” Druid said.

I nodded.

“I am positively exhausted!” Lord Foronda sighed, slumping onto the ground. “I am far too old to run like that. My legs are shaking.”

Everyone within earshot laughed this time, not just me and Druid. I looked around and saw that many other people were sitting on the ground just like Lord Foronda.

“I’ll have to get into better shape for next year…”

“Hey, Grandpa, are you gonna run around next year, too?”

I heard some voices in the distance, and I looked over to see a slightly portly white-haired man sitting on the ground. Kneeling in front of him was a young woman. Since they had similar ­features, they must have been related.

“Of course I’m gonna run. Next year I’ll catch those slippery bastards in black clothes for sure.”

“Please don’t hurt yourself! Know your age!”

“Aw, I’ll be fine. I’m still plenty young.”

“Don’t be silly! Don’t you always beg me to rub your shoulders since you’re in pain all the time? Well, if you’re so young, I guess I won’t do that anymore!”

“Urgh…!”

A wave of laughter sounded again.

“Ha ha ha ha! He’s chipper indeed. Well, I must be on my way.” After enjoying the little show from the young woman and the old man, Lord Foronda stood up and dusted himself off.

“You have to leave already, sir? That’s too bad.”

“Yes, I have a gathering to attend. I must evangelize my town.”

So he had his nobleman’s duties to attend to… I supposed that was out of his hands.

“Well, good luck, sir. We’ll come and see your speech on the last day.”

“Thank you. I will do my best. And thank you for everything, Druid.”

“No, thank you, sir.”

We watched as Lord Foronda headed for the village watch station.

“Okay, let’s get back to our inn. I want to dye our clothes.”

“All right.”

I looked down…and saw that my clothes had become quite vibrant while I wasn’t paying attention.

“That’s incredible…oh, what a pretty blue!”

There was a bright blue splotch right around my midsection. I couldn’t see my back, but I had felt plenty of cakes hitting me there, so I assumed my backside had quite a splattering of colors as well.