Chapter 296 Volume V – Chapter 14: Start of the Festival

When the buses stopped, Alice got off without looking back once more. She disappeared into the crowd and I couldn’t see where she was going, but I didn’t think anything about her, as I had decided on the bus.

Everyone on the buses got off and got into a random line. Meanwhile, I looked around.

We were in a big area, a really big area. Apart from us, I could see many other buses belonging to other academies and universities. People I didn’t know were getting off and lining up like us.

Students, workers… in other words, almost everyone who wanted to participate in this festival gathered here. The actual site of the festival… was another huge area not far from us. No… it was like a small town by itself.

It didn’t have the tall skyscrapers and buildings that I had seen since I joined the CDA. It was surrounded by simpler, shorter buildings. None of them resembled any kind of apartment or house. Instead, they all looked like they were built for something in particular. Playgrounds, cinemas, theaters, and more.

It was a place that had been created just for the festival or had been used for that purpose for a long time and… it was exciting.

Even though I was really curious about this thing called ‘the festival’… it wasn’t really a big thing in my eyes. But now, what I was seeing in front of my eyes was showing me how ‘big’ what I was about to be a part of was. On top of that, there was the noise of maybe thousands of people gathered in the area.

A small town set up just for the festival… and all these people in this town just having fun…

I couldn’t keep the smile off my face, I was studying the buildings on the festival grounds, trying to figure out what they were, when suddenly a hand landed on my shoulder. Julian looked at the smile on my face and then a grin appeared on his face as well.

“Heh, it’s the first time you’ve seen it so it’s normal. Just wait and see what we’ll do there.”

Just seconds after Julian said those words, the noise of the crowd suddenly stopped. But… no one had stopped talking. Strangely, everyone was silent, even if their mouths were moving. Which was quickly noticed.

Like me, I saw people who were surprised, trying to understand what had happened. But there were others who were calm, and on the contrary, their smiles widened.

It was at this point that a loud voice… or rather three voices as if someone was tapping on the microphone, drew everyone’s attention to where this voice was coming from.

Because I was in the crowd I couldn’t see exactly where it was coming from, but being a little taller, I could see a man in a black suit right where everyone was looking.

He looked like an ordinary man with brown hair, the same color eyes, and a middle-aged appearance. He had a slight smile on his face.

“Don’t worry about your voice, it’s just a spell to help you hear what I’m saying. You will be back to normal when I am done speaking.”

Ah… so that was it.

“The festival will officially start in five minutes and the mini-town will open for everyone. You can have fun and spend money as you wish. That’s what the festival is all about! However! I must point out that there are some rules when entering and inside.”

The smile on the man’s face faded slightly as his expression turned serious.

“First of all, fighting is forbidden inside the town. Willing or unwilling, it doesn’t matter. Any duels or disputes are unwelcome at the festival. And when they are detected, you will of course be appropriately disciplined.”

As he continued to explain the rules, everyone listened, whether they wanted to or not. The level of communication had been greatly reduced by the spell that had silenced us.

But it didn’t take long for the man to finish speaking. After he had explained the obvious, and logical, rules, the smile that preceded his speech returned to his face.

“I hope you will take what I say seriously because there will be no overlooking just because there is a festival. Anyway! The gates of the town will open in two minutes, enter in a line, without making a fuss, and then… have fun as you wish!”

Immediately after these words, the spell was lifted from the crowd and everyone’s voices could be heard again. There was a slight applause, and then almost everyone waited patiently for the doors to open.

After only half a minute, the expected happened. The gates of the festival grounds opened and everyone, as they were told, rushed inside in a line.

*******

Everything was fine until we managed to step inside… But once we were inside the gates of the town, the noise and chaos… drew me in like never before.

I didn’t expect it to be so chaotic here… especially after the speech of the man in the suit… But I was relieved when Julian dragged me further away, away from the chaos.

Apparently, the chaos was caused by the fact that everyone who stepped into the festival grounds was looking for their friends and waiting there for a while… Because at the point where we were standing everything was much more understandable, even if it was still noisy and crowded.

“Let’s meet Lucia and Sue, then we’ll start wandering.”

All I could do was shake my head as I looked at the countless people lining the roads, the buildings they entered, and what was written on them. The excitement I was already feeling enveloped my whole body.

*******

Julian reached Sue on his watch. He then told her where we were and asked for their location. We were not far from each other, so we headed toward a five-story building that could be seen from almost everywhere in the area.

As we approached the building, I saw that this was the building where they served food, snacks, and more. There were small sweet shops all over the area, but this building was the central point for all of this.

After a short while, we managed to meet Lucia and Sue, and thanks to Lucia, it wasn’t hard to find them…

We tried to ignore the fact that we had become the focus of a very large part of the crowd… at least me and Julian did. Sue didn’t react much, as if she was already too used to it. In fact, as if she wasn’t even aware of all the stares, she asked a simple question.

“What do we do first?”

Julian, the one who usually dragged our group around, stepped forward again and spoke with a smile on his face.

“We can go to the entertainment center as long as Sue doesn’t play too many games on one machine. The building with the theaters and cinemas is not far away. Also, I saw something like an amusement park on the way here, but it must be at the other end of the field. We can go to one of the streets where they sell things like sweets and ice cream, we can participate in any of the activities. There is so much to do…”

“What do we choose first then?”

He paused for a moment at Lucia’s words, realizing that the choice was entirely up to him, and then, widening his smile, he turned around and pointed to a building not far from us.

“The theater, with snacks, of course. That’s the closest place to us. Then we can join the activities, they do really cool stuff. Everything from eating to reflex competitions. And then… we’ll see about that then.”

Nobody objected. Julian had more experience than any of us in having fun, after all.

So the theater district became our first destination. The number of people in front of the three-story building made me wonder when it would be our turn, but it didn’t take long. Since the building also extended underground, it had many more halls than I thought.

So we spent almost twenty minutes buying tickets, identifying our hall, and waiting for it to empty…

While the tickets were being bought, someone who clearly didn’t know what he was doing tried to approach Lucia, but the smile he received raised his hopes and the rejection he received immediately afterward left him frozen as if his whole life had been turned upside down. It was a funny sight… but I couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.

Julian bought a soda and popcorn for everyone. And then we finally managed to get settled in the theater.

So… the first play started, with the eyes of everyone in the theater on us as usual.

In connection with the reason for the festival, it was a play about a hundred and fifty years ago. The awakening had not taken place, the guide called the system had not appeared. Mana was still present and its existence was known, but it was not a threat to anyone, and so it was used only as a source of energy. There were no elves, dwarves, faes, hannyas.

The play was about a fiasco that took place close to the founding of Cevilian. As the royal family was preparing to lay the foundations of the kingdom that had not yet been established, one of them betrayed them in a funny but strangely… impressive way.

It was fun to watch a story I had no idea about, mixed with comedy. However… one thing that surprised me was that a creature I had never heard of before in my life was also mentioned and this creature was projected with the help of a hologram.

It looked like one of the creatures from The Neutral. I was intrigued by its black coloring with white speckles and the fact that it looked like a strangely powerful creature despite its fat appearance. And… it also had a pink appendage hanging from between its hind legs, fat like itself but short.

‘It’s called a cow.’

I didn’t find it strange that Lithoa had suddenly appeared in my mind, on the contrary, it raised even more questions.

‘Cow?’

‘It is one of the species that fell into the category of what you would call ‘animals’ before the creatures appeared. After the Awakening, it became the prey of most creatures and became extinct. The milk you drink used to be produced from that animal. Nowadays, a subspecies of this cow-like creature you encountered in the Neutral is used for production.’

With another piece of information I had never learned, my interest in the play grew even more. I was completely focused on watching the play, which lasted more than half an hour.

And… it was really fun. It was a good time that fulfilled the purpose I had come here for, to distract myself, but it made me forget even that. Besides… this was just the beginning.

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