People, and more people in every corner of every street. Everywhere was full! The merchant couple had bid farewell to Cyrus, as they went to get the permits to set up their shop. Meanwhile.. Cyrus was stuck against a wall due to the nervousness of walking in the crowd.

‘How am I supposed to move around like this..’ They started thinking.

Cyrus looks around for an opening in the streets so they could wander around the city. After a while of looking, they spot an open space! Cyrus takes a deep breath and runs into the streets… Only to get immediately trampled on.. They stayed lying on the ground, having no motivation to even get up. After a moment they noticed that there was no-one stepping on them anymore.

“Excuse me, are you alright?” Said a person who came over to check up on Cyrus.

Out of curiosity of who came to reach out to them, Cyrus looked up to see a dark gray skinned fellow with silky blue hair and crystal-like horns, crouching in front of them. That person was wearing an expensive looking robe and was also accompanied by two knights, so naturally Cyrus thought that the person must be some kind of noble.

“Ah… Um, yes. Sorry, was I in your way?” Cyrus asks with a nervous smile on their face, quickly getting up from the ground.

The person smiles back. “No, not at all. I was just concerned after seeing you lying on the ground like that. Are you sure you are okay?”

“Yes!” Cyrus immediately exclaims. “I just got overwhelmed in the crowd and ended up drowning in it.” They end their sentence with a laugh.

As the person was getting up, they lent a hand to Cyrus to help them get up. When the both of them stood up, Cyrus noticed how tall the person was; they were at least half of Cyrus’ height from their point of view. When they got a closer look at the person, Cyrus also noticed his deer-like legs, but looking at him it was obvious that they weren’t a half-deer, but an entirely different species that Cyrus hadn’t ever seen nor heard of. Another thing that piqued Cyrus’ interest was the person’s bright yellow eyes that almost looked like the moon.

The gray skinned fellow noticed Cyrus closely inspecting them and faintly smiled before saying,

“Seeing that you’re here during the festival and you seem overwhelmed in this crowd, would you like me to lead you to the main area of the festival? ”The person asks in a gentle tone.

Surprised by his goodwill, Cyrus immediately accepted the offer without thinking. The person, Cyrus and his guards proceeded to walk around on the person’s lead.

“Ah!” The person exclaimed, “Where are my manners, I had forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Sho, and I am the current Head Strategist of Eristal’s Royal Knights.” Sho introduces himself with a smile then he looks to the guards. “You two should also introduce yourselves..”

“Why should we? Our job here is to guard you, not to make acquaintances with the people you meet.” Said the redhead guard on Sho’s right side, with a stern look on his face.

“...” The three others look at the stern guard in disbelief.

“Come on now, you’re ruining the mood again Ray.” The guard on Sho’s left side replies. “Please excuse him again, Sir Sho.”

Sho smiles but it looks like the smile was full of pain.

“The name’s Sylvar, a knight in training and the current guard of Sir Sho. Nice to meet you… Um..?”

Cyrus realized that they had yet to introduce themselves too, “Oh, I’m Cyrus nice to meet you all too!”

Everyone smiles.. except for the redhead knight on Sho’s right side..

“Tsk, why are you this immature..??” Sylvar complains in annoyment. “This guy’s Ray. Please ignore his extremely dumb and childish behavior, Sir Sho and Cyrus..”

“...” Cyrus thought it would be best to stay quiet in this situation and just smiled awkwardly.

Sho swiftly switched the conversation to talk more about the festival, because the bad atmosphere between the two knights was getting worse by the second. Eventually after walking for a while, the group had arrived at the street where merchants sold different food specialities in food stalls.

One food stall specifically sold something that caught Cyrus’ eyes that they couldn’t hold back and eagerly ran to the stall. Startled by Cyrus’s sudden action, Sho called out to them.. but Cyrus didn’t come back, so Sho had no other choice but to follow them.

“Cyrus.. Why did you run away like that..?” Sho asked short of breath when they caught up to Cyrus. He noticed their eyes fixated on a bowl of strawberry dough ice cream on the counter of the food stall. “Oh.. Are you interested in tasting that?”

“Yes.. But that requires money, right? If so I don’t have any...” Cyrus pouted.

“God, How did you even travel here with no money? Well honestly looking at your shabby equipment, which I don’t know if you could really call it that, I can see that you really have no money on you.” Ray says bluntly with his hands crossed.

“Can you be any ruder than that??” Sylvar replies in annoyance.

Sho goes to stand next to Cyrus and bends a little over and says in a quiet voice.“Cyrus, again.. please pay no attention to their little quarrels..” Sho takes a look at the dough ice cream stall. “Please, let me buy you one of these.”

Taken aback once more at Sho’s kind offer, Cyrus nervously replied. “No! Honestly you have already offered to help me in showing me around. I possibly couldn’t ask you to buy me something too..”

“No.. I insist to let me buy this for you, besides I also want to have a taste of this.. interesting dessert.” Sho replies with a smile.

Cyrus gets a feeling that if they were to decline, they would go back and forth insisting on paying, so they just calmly accepted Sho’s offer. Sho also offered to buy some ice cream but the two of them declined, saying they were still on duty.

*Chomp!*

Cyrus takes a bite of the ice cream. Their eyes lit up and started gobbling down the ice cream.

“Is it good?” Sho asks with a smile.

Cyrus nods. Sho also takes a bite. “Mm! It is pretty good!”

.

.

A while passes after the two finish their dessert.

They continued walking through crowded rows of different stalls and eventually arrived at the main area of the festival, ‘The Saints Street.’ The street was named that, because God Aria alongside the other gods would often gather there for meetings in the past. Again, something that hadn’t occurred in a long, long time.

The area was a large circular opening with glossy buildings around it, filled with flowery decorations all over, flower petals falling from the sky, beautiful singing, people of different backgrounds all hanging with each other. The Saints Street was basically a place where people would be singing, performing, eating or just hanging together.

Upon their arrival, Sho sadly told Cyrus that he had to go back patrolling the streets and would leave them to explore things at their own leisure. However before leaving he told Cyrus about a Showcase Match between warriors, mages and others in the Grand Arena that would start about an hour or two later.

The match wasn’t anything serious and its point wasn’t to kill the opponent, but instead it was more to show off one’s skills and talents. But obviously, some ‘incidents’ may occur. And per tradition of the festival, the winner would receive a prize selected by God Aria themselves. It was also rumored that sometimes, if Lord Aria really saw potential in a contestant they would call upon them to talk or even give their blessing. But that had not happened in years, hence why it was a rumor. 

Apparently the whole Showcase Match was a big part of the festival. Sho advised Cyrus to go watch the match if it piqued an interest or even participate in the match if they would like to have a go at it. Sho and the guards left and Cyrus was left alone at The Saints Street, surrounded by joyful crowds of people. Cyrus decided that while they were there why not enjoy themselves to the fullest, thus they began participating in the many activities there.

Dancing with strangers.

Singing to the fullest with maidens.

Attempting weird magic tricks with magicians.

And trying the warm local foods made with love.

Everything was exciting and amusing for this little deer. Suddenly they noticed a handful of people started leaving The Saints Street.

‘Is something happening..?’ they wonder.

A group of four small children ran past Cyrus and one of them kept hurrying the others. 

“Guys!! Hurry up, we’re gonna miss the opening of the match!”

‘Match?’ Cyrus thought as they unconsciously started to follow the group of people. “Ah! Cyrus exclaimed. “They’re probably talking about ‘that’ match.”

They started dashing and even passing people. Cyrus started rushing over to what looked like the Grand Arena where the showdown match was being held. Cyrus didn’t know what came over them, but they got a feeling that the match was something important they should participate in.

After getting lost once, they finally arrived at the entrance of The Arena. The Arena was made of polished white stones. Like at the front gates of Eristal, there were also guards in front of the entrance. This time, instead of inspecting the visitors going inside, they simply just welcomed everyone.

Upon going inside, Cyrus got startled by the cheers of the crowd. The seating area where the audience sat was completely surrounded by a fence, the lower half was made from polished stones and the upper part was made of see through glass. It was probably to keep the viewers from falling and interrupting the match on the field.

Cyrus kept looking around, wondering where to sign up and whether they still had time to do so. Near the entrance to the field was a group of two people in uniforms chatting between them, thinking that they were probably staff, Cyrus approached them.

Making the first move Cyrus asked. “Hello.. Would you happen to know how to..–” They immediately froze after looking clearly at one of the staff members.

One of the members in the group was a woman whom Cyrus had already met earlier. The woman who was most suspicious of them since the beginning.

“My, oh my. Look at who it is.” Said the woman.

The woman in question was General Evelynn. One of the people Cyrus had met during their time with Azrael at the church.

“You were one of the few people I would have never expected to meet here, especially after you deserted the mission, ‘personal assistant’.” Evelynn continued with a relaxed but intimidating stance.

“..Well– I, ah didn’t really desert the mission..” Cyrus replied, laughing nervously.

Getting the answer and the look she wanted, Evelynn burst into laughter and pats Cyrus in the back. “Ahaha! I’m only joking. Relax!”

“...” Cyrus looks at her with a stunned look on their face.

The one Evelynn had been talking with earlier had stayed quiet the whole time. The tall person with silky white hair broke the silence. “General Evelynn, who might this be?”

“Ahh well, this is Cyan–” Evelynn pauses for a moment before quickly realizing, “Cyrus! Right? That is your name, am I not correct?”

“Yes... That's me!” Cyrus replies with a clearly fake enthusiastic tone.“ A~anyways, would you happen to know where I could participate in this event?” Cyrus asked the two.

Evelynn hummed as she turned to the person with silky white hair. “June darling, since you are one of the event’s organizers could you help them with this?” She asked the one next to her called June.

June nods and looks at Cyrus.“Now, shall we go? Since there is a bit of time left, I’ll lead you to the place where you can participate.” They smile at Cyrus.

Flustered by June's smile, Cyrus just quietly nodded as their face became slightly red.

June, who guided Cyrus smoothly with the registration process, had a slim figure with very long hair and was fairly taller than Cyrus. June had to always bend down a little every time they had to show something or assist somehow. With their calm and mature attitude, Cyrus couldn’t help but think June was very attractive.

“Here you go, the matches will start in a few minutes so you just have to show this emblem before you go in alright?” June leans a bit toward Cyrus as they give them an emblem with a crown and feathers carved in it.

“Yes! Thank you very much!” Cyrus replies happily as they leave to the gate that led to the arena’s waiting room.