Chapter 31.3

That night.

After dinner, Kei and the two girls notified the dwarf-faced shopkeeper — who was apparently called Derrick — about their plans, and left the inn together.

At first Derrick was against Jamie going to the lantern send-off, but as soon as he heard that Kei and Aileen would be joining her, he readily agreed. Certainly, it would not be good for a pretty girl like her to prowl the streets alone at night. Derrick's "I leave her to you" rang strangely heavy in Kei's ears.

Jamie went unarmed, but Kei and Aileen decided to take weapons with them, just in case. Aileen carried a short sword at her hip while Kei had borrowed a saber from her. Normally, Aileen would easily win any hand-to-hand combat, but her frail appearance suggested otherwise. As such Kei judged that she would not be much of a deterrent.

Incidentally, many other of the bar's guests wanted to accompany them, but Derrick's glare caused them to shut up. It was pretty obvious that Kei and Aileen were lovers, and thus he did not regard Kei as "bad bug," unlike the other men.

Thus the three of them walked through the nightly city.

Jamie held her lantern with both hands while Kei had one in his right hand, illuminating their path. Aileen walked next to him, occupying his left hand.

It was the eve of the lantern floating festival. A different atmosphere wafted through the city. The bonfires casting their crimson-orange gleam at the streets gave the usual townscape a new, mystical touch.

Shadows danced like ghosts in the flickering flames as their owners, the people, headed eastwards. Footsteps and breathing filled the air, evidence of the place thriving with people, and yet, the atmosphere clearly lacked the usual fervor of festivals.

Normally, with so many people around, everyone would be wary of pickpockets and other crooks, but only on this day, the solemn atmosphere did not allow for any evil machinations.

Despite all the people bustling around, it was quiet.

"It's quieter than I expected." Kei murmured to Aileen next to him as they followed the flow of people.

"Yeah..." Aileen gave a short reply as she nodded, quite confused herself.

They hesitated to speak much or loudly because of the atmosphere. Same applied to the people around them who exchanged no more than whispers. Caught in the atmosphere, they also limited their conversations to a minimum.

They passed the castle gate, leaving the town. A line of humans headed straight for the Aria. Guards with peculiar lighting equipment — long poles with lanterns hanging from the tip — brightened the road and guided the people like guards of honor.

After ten minutes of walking, they reached the riverside. The river's surface was dark and smooth. A humid air gently brushed their cheeks.

Bells could be heard from the city.

Several clock towers, temples, and perhaps even the castle spires, rang their bells one after the other, announcing that the time was nigh.

The line of humans slowly drew closer to the river, each person setting toy boats and lanterns adrift at their own pace. Flickering light gradually began to dot the surface of the river, which was so dark that one ran the risk of being drawn in, drifting, dancing, and glittering as it got reflected by ripplets. It created an illusion as if a starry sky had been poured into the river. The number of lanterns gradually grew, and before long, they turned into one big wave of light as they drifted away.

Ahh... Kei breathed a sigh.

How could flames shine so vividly within the darkness of night?

"Beautiful..."

A word of admiration left Aileen's lips while she was looking as if she was caught in a feverish dream.

Kei was about to chime in and confirm that it was amazing, but realized that it would just spoil the magical moment. Thus he decided to remain silent, simply nodded at Aileen, turned towards Jamie, and asked.

"Is this a tradition stemming from ancient times?"

"...Well," she started while caressing the lantern she was hugging, "the lantern sent-off itself has been around for a long time. But gathering here and doing it before the festival day is something we started ten years ago."

The dim light illuminated her profile.

"This is a memorial service dedicated to those lost during the "military campaign"."

After a while, Jamie's turn came. She used the flame in Kei's lamp to light the candle in her lantern.

The lantern glided across the water surface, and spun in front of her for a short time, as if dancing. However, it could not oppose the current and thus was pulled away from the shore. It joined the floating group of light, and they all traveled downstream.

"..."

Jamie silently saw them off. So did Kei and Aileen.

This world, compared to medieval Europe, was further advanced when it came to technology. But despite that, paper and candles should still be luxury items for the common folk.

Yet, there's still so many of them...

He surveyed the vicinity. The entire shore was packed with people, people, and more people. He could spot old women with hunchbacks, and young children at the hands of their parents. All of them were ordinary people, or rather, they actually seemed to be poor instead. None of them wore fine dresses like nobles would do.

"...Shall we go?"

Once the unshapely animal's figure dancing on her lantern's paper went out of sight, Jamie turned her back on the river, and started to walk back, slowly, towards the city.

"...Because a lot of people died," she eventually started to recount, "we probably needed some kind of excuse for our consciousness so that we'd be able to enjoy the festival without bad feelings."

Then she smiled. A very carefree smile.

†††

One month passed in the blink of an eye.

The martial tournament was officially announced at the summer solstice festival's start, and Kei managed to obtain a letter of recommendation after going through an interview with the company's branch head.

Next, he finished the formal entry procedures for the tournament at a governmental bureau, just to be taken to the guard station afterwards in order to test whether he had the "minimum level of skill required" for the bow. As a result, everyone became astonished at his power and accuracy which allowed him to pulverize the targets...

Following that, he visited the blacksmith Holland had recommended to pick out a sturdy longsword, and also moved around the city to take a look at Urvan's properties in preparation for migration.

Sometimes he heard about villages being harmed by beasts and rushed over to help, other times he visited the outskirts for a picnic, or took naps with Aileen.

They also looked for any Snowlanders around Urvan, searching for Northland's legends, and so on.

At first, they did not know how they would be able to not die of boredom over this one month, but now that it had passed, they felt like it flew past. Kei, and most likely Aileen as well, found these days more enjoyable than he had expected.

And then, the day for the tournament to start arrived.

Wearing his leather armor, Kei waited inside a big tent set up on a plain. This tent served as a waiting room for the participants in the shooters' division. In addition to Kei, Grasslanders, Plainsfolk, and even people appearing to be Snowlanders were present in the tent. All warriors were armed with bows and crossbows as they relaxed there.

The place chosen as the stage was one of the small forts near Urvan that had a big parade ground. The surroundings were open fields and pastures, so a lot of people had gathered.

Aileen was naturally among them, but perhaps even Edda, Jamie and others had come to cheer for him.

Still, although this tournament could be called a once-in-a-lifetime big moment, Kei's expression looked somewhat dark.

I wonder what's up with this tournament.

Kei was planning to participate with nothing but Dragon Stinger and a bundle of arrows on him, but upon request by the tournament management, he had to put on the leather armor he usually wore during battle.

They said "the game would be slightly different from last time" but...

He remembered the tournament staff's statement, and could not help but feel anxious. "If you have armor, equip it" was what the staff member told them. They were just going to hit targets, and as such contestants were not supposed to actually face each other directly. Naturally the other contestants also felt tense about this.

Not that I'd lose if it suddenly turned into a duel.

This was Kei's honest assessment after checking out the other participants. Some of them had vibes of being experienced mercenaries and master archers, but they were quite inferior when compared to Alexei's aura.

That said, he did not wish to injure others, much less get injured himself. But as he could not back out this late in the game, he had no choice but to anxiously wait for his turn.

He had nothing to do, so he put Dragon Stinger on his knees and checked the condition of his arrows, but then...

"Kei? So it's really you, Kei?!"

Hearing his own name, he reflexively looked up. And then, his eyes flew wide open, when he spotted the sturdy hunter with a reddish-brown, rough beard.

"...Mandel? Mandel!"

Standing before his eyes was Mandel, the hunter from Tahfu. He wore a leather protector on top of combat clothes, with a feather-decorated leather cap on his head. He carried a quiver on his back, and had a shortbow, which had seen much use, in his hand.

"It's been a while... about a month I suppose?"

"Y-Yeah."

Mandel spoke with a gentle smile. Kei nodded repeatedly like an idiot while exchanging a firm handshake.

"So you're taking part in this tournament too, Mandel?"

"Yeah. I thought I'd try winning a prize if possible. But with you here, Kei, first place is all but a pipe dream." Mandel laughed bitterly while acting modest.

Kei smiled back vaguely, doing his best to not show his nervousness.

After calming himself down by taking a deep breath, he made up his mind, and asked, "...Is everyone at the village doing okay?"

He felt extremely tense. His heart was pounding in his chest like a hammer, but Mandel's answer was lackluster and sounded indifferent.

"Yeah...nothing happened. Everyone's fine."

Hearing that, strength left Kei's body.

...So in the end, the thieves did not attack the village.

A big weight was taken off his chest, allowing Kei to finally smile for real.

"I see... So did anything strange happen over there lately?"

"Let's see. Well, one of the kids got ill after you left, but Granny Anka cast a charm and the kid recovered immediately. She said, "it is thanks to the fact that Kei and Aileen have taught me the Spirit Language" while crying in joy."

"Oh! That's great news. Looks like it was worth teaching it to her. Her feelings should have reached the Spirits, that's amazing. She has talent."

It seemed the old witch doctor had succeeded in her sorcery. Kei was genuinely surprised, praising her wholeheartedly.

"Other than that...hmm..." Mandel pondered for a bit. "...Maybe that Cynthia got pregnant."

A woman clad in unhappiness popped up in Kei's mind.

"Cynthia... was the wife of the village chief's son, right?"

"Yeah... It's that fair-skinned flaxen-haired beauty."

"......"

Kei was not sure how to react. He certainly remembered Cynthia, but he also remembered her husband. He was grateful towards Cynthia for having taken care of Aileen, but the chief's son — Kein believed his name to be Danny — was suspected of attempted rape, so Kei did not have an overly good impression of him. Moreover, Aileen had told him that Cynthis did not want to marry him either.

"I-I see..."

In the end, he could only nod back vaguely.

"Cynthia hadn't been blessed with a child so far. Whatever the case, she gave birth to the next chief for the village...so I guess it's reason enough to celebrate." Mandel commented, acting calm and collected while.

However, Kei found his behavior to be somewhat strange.

"That aside, Kei," Mandel changed the topic, "I heard a rumor that a certain hunter killed a Grande Urs with one arrow. Was that you?"

"Ah...Yeah. I suppose."

"Oh! So it was you. I heard it was a Grande Urs with the size of a small mountain."

"No, that's too much of an exaggeration. It was actually only about five meters tall..."

As they were discussing the Grande Urs, a guard entered the tent.

"Gentlemen! The preliminary contest is about to start. Please come out once you are done preparing!"

Upon his words, the atmosphere inside the tent turned tense. Apparently the tournament was going to finally start at long last.

"About time."

"Yeah... I'm getting nervous."

Leaving the tent, they walked to the parade ground. The spectators broke out in cheers as the brave warriors made their appearance.

Letting his eyes wander across the crowd, Kei spotted Aileen in the front row. Holland and Edda were next to her, too.

Kei lightly waved at them. Noticing that, Aileen fervently waved back, immediately following up with sending a passionate flying kiss his way. With a wry smile on his lips, he returned it.

"Now then, gentlemen. Let me explain the rules of the preliminary round! First, you will be shooting at targets which are positioned fifty steps away. We will measure the accuracy of your shots like the last time. Then—"

One of the guards started to explain the rules in front of the contestants, drawing their undivided attention.

Urvan Martial Tournament, Shooting Division.

The battle that would bring glory and influence to Kei was just about to start.