Chapter Six: Feast Of The Saintess
Azval
"Let's watch them!"
Without batting me an eye, Miss Estelle grabbed my hand and crammed herself into the crowd. With no other choice left, I got squeezed in, too.
She's so small that she easily went in between people but since I am almost twice her size, I bumped into most of them and kept on apologizing.
I should add more rias to her debt, this is torture!
At the time we reached the front, it was just in time for the bells to start ringing again. That's the indication that it's already the celebration of the 'Feast of the Saintess'.
We're now in the center of Central Place wherein a lot of people are now gathered. In front of us now is a small stage that is decorated with white flowers and a vacant space wherein some dancers would occupy later on. It is also filled with scented petals from different white flowers.
We just arrived in time.
As the bells continued to ring, the musicians started playing their music. With that, the dancers started to perform in their dresses that were associated with the colors of the four greatest kingdoms in the Empire:
Blue for the Naefaran Kingdom in the North.
Red for the Kroubet Kingdom in the South.
Gold for the Astorias Kingdom.
White associated with the Waessatra Kingdom of the West. Land of the Saintess.
Since the celebration is for the Saintess, the main dancer is dressed with a veil on her head inspired by the Saintess.
All of the crowd here cheered as the show was getting on its peak. The sounds of laughter, the loud music, and some people who also started dancing filled the Central place. It's a passionate celebration that you can rarely see at any banquets in the palace.
Those nobles are boring as hell. Not me though.
"Come on, let's also dance!"
This time, I was the one who grabbed Miss Estelle's hand and joined the crowd who one by one started to get to the center to join the dancers and enjoy the festival.
At first, she was still hesitant but later on, I noticed that she willingly went to the flow with me and later on, found myself dancing with her.
As the lights shone on her face, I couldn't help but be fixated on her.
The way her hair would flow from left to right while she was dancing, the glint in her eyes as if she was the happiest person at that moment, and her lips formed a wide smile while she was looking at me.
"Azval, are you alright? You're so red." She stopped dancing and looked at my face instead.
Oh, her lips...
"It's hot in here," I mumbled and immediately turned my gaze away from her.
What am I doing?!
"What do you mean? Can't you feel the breeze?" she said and hugged herself and rubbed them up and down.
"I'll buy you a scarf—"
"No! No need, it's just an expression," she said and raised both of her hands as if she were surrendering. "I'm not really cold. I'm not hot either, too though!"
Sometimes, I don't get her but she's from a foreign land. Of course, things would be different there.
We just enjoyed both the moments dancing there until another thing again caught her attention. Not far away from where we are right now, you can see some men in posture duel with their practice swords with one another. It's just about to start.
"Hah! So sword is a thing here! No guns?" she said while we were walking towards the scene.
"Guns? What's that?"
"Oh, you know a gun. The one you load with a bullet powder and— Oh, never mind. I guess it is still not a thing here. Look, they're starting!"
I can sense the hint of nervousness while she's saying that to me but I didn't put a lot of mind on it. It's just one of the weird things that she keeps saying to me while we're still together but when I ask her to explain its origin, she won't tell me anything.
This girl...
"Don't come near," I said as I stopped her from going in front of the crowd to watch the fight.
Even though it is just a practice sword made from wood, it's still dangerous. Once the grip of one player loosens, the sword may fly in a certain direction and can cause accidents.
"That's just wood," she mumbled.
Her sulking didn't last long when later on, I just found her cheering herself out on one of the fighters. Since she didn't know his name, she just kept on shouting the color of the clothing just like the rest of the crowd was doing.
"Wohoo! Did you see that? Brown won again! They are no match for him," she said in amazement as her looks were fixated on a man almost my stance with a beard and looks like in his mid-40s.
I felt my eyes squinting.
"Who's next?!"
The so-called 'Brown' shouted while raising the practice sword. The crowd cheered as his last enemy dropped his sword on the ground and walked defeatedly out of the scene.
"The only people who dared to fight him are those who are not from this area."
"His father was once a royal knight who trained him after all. Even though he's just a mercenary himself."
"Wasn't he trained to be a knight back then?"
"I heard he didn't continue when his wife got sick. He's all she's got after all."
"Wow, he trained to be a knight?"
I was taken aback when Miss Estelle joined the conversation between the two women who are in front of us right now. Both of the women agreed to her and talked more about him.
"Tch." Pissed, I found myself walking in front of the fighting space while picking up the dropped sword on the ground. "Hey, old man. Want a duel?"
"Looks like this young one here has the guts!" Mr. Brown shouted and the crowd cheered.
I gazed at where Miss Estelle was and she looked so shocked that I was now in front of the person she was babbling about.
Heh, now I got you're attention and you're already looking at me.
Later on, I saw her doing an 'X' symbol using her arms and kept on mouthing that I should stop. She even tried to squeeze in to be in front and was about to say something out loud when this Mr. Brown already pointed the wooden sword at me.
"Let's see what you got, kid."
With that, the duel between us began.
It was not easy to dodge his movements and his footwork is clean. Even the way he is holding the sword and his posture is that of a knight.
If it's true that his father is a royal knight who trained him, then he's a real deal.
The duel between us took longer to finish than I expected since it's rare to even hit each other and if I would compare, his level can be up to par to a knight.
When our swords crossed each other, I saw his deep eyes and I could hear his heavy breathing.
"Mercenary, huh? You may look like that but it's not a doubt you're in the Knighthood. What's your position, huh, kid? Cadet? Squire? Errant? Hah, With that eyes, damn... you're a Captain."
That was his last words and he found himself on the ground with the edge of my wooden sword pointed at him.
As fast as it happened, the crowd was too shocked to even cheer and the only thing that was breaking the silence was the music that the band was playing from the other corner and the chatters of the crowd there.
This Mr. Brown slipped the sword on his hand and as it landed on the ground, that's when the crowd around us started cheering again.
He acknowledged defeat.
"Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind?"
A familiar voice with an unfamiliar tone approached us and when I was helping Mr. Brown to get up from the ground, Miss Estelle slapped my shoulder as hard as she could. With that, I hurriedly took her hand that slapped me and looked at it.
Ah, It's so red!
"I told you to not slap me like that," I said while caressing her hands, hoping for the redness to subside.
"Are you made of rock? Ah, gently! It hurts!"
I started blowing it out of nervousness while Miss Estelle kept nagging me.
We are in that situation and forget about the fact that Mr. Brown is still beside us. He suddenly chuckled and it became the reason that Miss Estelle grabbed her hand back and I, on the other hand, whistled and looked away.
"Go enjoy the festival. I hope to see you around," he said and patted both of our shoulders.
"I'm a fan!" Miss Estelle said to him and both of us looked at her with confused looks. "I mean, I admire your skills!"
"Young miss, I think you're mistaken. This young man here won our duel."
Miss Estelle just ignored it and just kept praising the old man instead. I just stared blankly at the crowd who were one by one leaving when they realized that the duel was already over.
So what's the point of fighting this old man? Tch.
I kept mumbling to myself when suddenly the old man came to me and whispered something to my ear, "I think it's time for you to go somewhere else Your Highness. The Crown Prince is here with Lady Emilia and some Royal Knights."
I looked at him with shock. Y-Your Highness? How did he?!
"I just thought that you were familiar and I realized I once saw you when you were just a kid, Your Highness. Unbelievable yet knowing you, it's not impossible. I don't know what mischievousness you have gotten yourself into once again but I think you won't want to see your brother and Lady Emilia in that state," he added while pointing out my clothes and their direction after.
When I turned my head in the direction that he was pointing out, I saw them immediately.
"T-Then, see you around," I said then grabbed Miss Estelle's hand and walked as fast as I could to somewhere, as long as it's away from where we are right now. My brother might turn a blind eye to this scheme of mine but Lady Emilia is another thing.
She's the devil.
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