The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 7 - Chapter 353

Chapter 353:

A Magical World

We put on our dyed clothes and stood before the mirror. To be frank, they were gaudy. Was I pulling it off? I felt like the girl in the mirror wasn’t me. I guess I’ll be okay, though?

“What’s wrong?” Druid asked.

“Um…do I look all right?”

“Yeah, perfect.”

Really, though? I’m not a good judge of this myself. I looked at Druid in the mirror. Pink… I don’t know how to say this, but he looks worse than I ever could’ve imagined.

“Ivy…I know exactly what you want to say. You didn’t think it was possible for me to look so bad.”

“Pfft!” He looked so incredibly terrible that I couldn’t hold in my laughter.

With a sigh, Druid said, “Guess I’m stuck in this for the day. Oh well, let’s go.”

“Hee hee! Okay. Sorry to leave you guys again today,” I called out to the slimes as we left the room. I longed to have a good hard play session in the forest with everyone once things settled down. 

It was the last day of the festival. We would pray in our dyed clothes, and then the festival would be over. I’d learned yesterday that alcohol was prohibited starting on Festival Eve, and the ban would be lifted when the end of the festival was officially signaled. In other words, people could start drinking this afternoon.

“Do you think the town will be full of noisy drunks this afternoon?”

“Part of it, yeah.”

“Really?”

I’d just assumed everybody would be drunk.

“People think that if you let loose and act foolish during the festival, you’ll be plagued with injuries for the rest of the year.”

“Oh, really?”

“Well, some people say it’s just a superstition, but most adventurers believe it. If you’re an adventurer, an injury would cause big problems for you.”

“Yeah, I guess they can’t make money if they’re too hurt to fight.”

When we stepped out of our inn, a magical world expanded before our eyes. Everywhere we looked, color upon color dyed the scene.

“Y’know, it looks like we got zapped into a magical world,” I said.

Some people were clothed in a single color, but others wore mismatched tops and bottoms like Druid and me.

“What a sight,” Druid said.

“Yeah. Ooh, the booths are back today!”

The booths that had been missing during the festival proper were back on the street. A closer look revealed that each and every one of them had liquor to sell.

“Will you be drinking today?” I asked.

“Well, they are selling liquor that you can only get at the festival today, so I would like to taste it. Is that okay?”

“Of course. Just don’t drink too much.”

“I know.”

He always says he won’t drink too much, then he does it anyway. I’d better make sure he keeps his promise.

“Oh, look! It’s her.”

I looked where Druid was pointing and saw the little girl from the laundry room. She was wearing clothes a slightly lighter shade of pink than ours, and she looked very pleased with herself.

“The dye worked nicely,” Druid remarked.

“Yeah. I’m glad it did.”

We checked out all the booths as we walked down Main Street toward the village watch station, where Lord Foronda would be giving his speech.

“The station is already packed,” Druid said.

“Yeah. Think we’re at an okay spot?” I couldn’t see Lord Foronda, but I assumed I’d at least be able to hear him.

“Sure. We only came to hear him talk anyway.”

“Yeah.”

“Want to get lunch from one of the booths?”

“Anything you have in mind?”

“Yeah, I want to eat those obitsune skewers—they’re mixed with a lot of scorchions.”

Scorchions were long green onions with a spicy heat to them. I suddenly remembered that one of the booths we passed had obitsune skewers topped with minced scorchions. Maybe that’s what Druid meant. They did look tasty.

“Sign me up.”

“I know they’ll go great with booze.”

Peep! Peep! Peeeep!

“Dear friends, this year’s festival was mostly without incident, and we thank you very much for helping make this possible. And now, for the festival’s closing remarks, please give a warm welcome to Lord Foronda of the town of Otolwa!”

“Whoa! It’s a lord!”

“Oh my gosh, is it really him?!”

“Lord Forondaaa!”

Huh?

“Why are they so excited?” I asked.

“Lord Foronda is a popular guy,” Druid explained.

The moment his name was called, a cheer welled up from the adventurers and rippled out through the crowd.

“I knew he was popular…but I guess even more so than I thought.”

“He’s one of the few noblemen who’ve actually fought side by side with adventurers,” Druid explained.

Now that made sense. Most noblemen were tyrants who looked down on adventurers, but Lord Foronda had worked together with them to take down the crime organization. Yeah, he basically had to be popular.

“Thank you for your rousing welcome,” Lord Foronda said. “I participated in the festivities with you all and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.”

When the adventurers heard he had taken part in the festivities, they cheered even louder. My ears were actually starting to hurt.

“I pray that each and every one of you who helped make this festival a success will have a blessed year of good fortune. May everyone who enjoyed this festival have a healthy year free of injury. And may everyone here today meet again next year. And now…I declare this festival over!”

A storm of applause and cheers filled the village. After a while, the noise died down and the people began to scatter.

“So…there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to talk to him, but do you want to go to the station?”

“If we talked to him out here, we’d definitely stand out,” I said. Besides, Lord Foronda was surrounded by adventurers, and I didn’t have the courage to try to join them.

“I see where you’re coming from.”

“I don’t think he’ll leave Hatahi right away, so why don’t we go see him after things have settled down a little?”

“Good idea, let’s do that. Okay, now let’s go get some lunch.” Druid looked at the booths around us, all of which had long lines snaking around them.

“Hmm…they’re all packed.”

“Are you gonna buy some liquor to take back to the inn with you?” I asked.

“No, I already asked Chikar to get some for me.”

Okay, so all we need to do is buy the obitsune skewers. “There are some booths near the inn. We should buy it there so it won’t get cold on our way back.”

“Good idea. That’s where we’ll look for the skewers.”

As we walked down Main Street, there were already people drinking. Every one of them was smiling with glee.

“Oh, do you think that braised obitsune we ate during Festival Eve is still available today?”

“I’m not sure… We just went by their booth, but I think they might be closed today.”

Really? I do remember passing the booth…but were they closed? Well, we can always check one more time on our way back. If they’re still open, I’d love to eat that braised obitsune again.

“Oh, how about that booth over there?” Druid suggested. “See how nicely the obitsune is cut?”

I followed Druid’s gaze to see a booth with two men working quickly behind it. I took a look at their merchandise, and the obitsune meat was indeed cut and skewered very neatly.

“Sounds good to me.”

“You can tell by the line just how good it is.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, that’s a trick for finding a good booth: You check the people in line.”

I looked at the people waiting. From their build, I could tell most of them were adventurers. But there were plenty of adventurers in the other lines, too, so it couldn’t be that. What else was there…?

“Oh! There’s lots of women who don’t look like adventurers, huh?”

There were more middle-aged women and women with children in this line.

“Exactly. From the way they act, I can tell they’re locals, and the locals know the food here better than anyone else, so what does it say when they all line up at one booth?”

“That booth has the best food.”

“Right. That’s how you tell which booths are the best: Look for the locals.”

Now I get it. Yeah, if the locals like it, then I know I should have what they’re having. I got in line beside Druid.

“Hi! What’ll ya have?”

“Fifteen skewers, please.”

I looked at the rows of obitsune skewers on the grill. Plenty of fat was dripping from the large slices of meat and sizzling on the grill. It looked so good.

“Would you like scorchions on yours?”

“Yes, please.”

They piled our meat skewers on a wooden plate, heaped them with scorchions, and topped it off with a squeeze of sauce.

“Here ya go.”

Druid took our food and paid the man. Our wooden plate of obitsune was covered by a wooden lid fastened with string.

“Thanks for coming. See ya next time!”

We thanked the men and headed back to our inn.

“It smells so good,” I sighed.

“It sure does. Let’s hurry.”

We quickened our pace back to the inn.

“I guess they’re closed,” Druid observed when we reached the braised obitsune booth.

“Yeah, too bad. I wanted to eat it again.”

The booth’s lights were out. It was a shame, but we would certainly enjoy our obitsune skewers.