107 - Divine King Festival
The third embroidery was completed earlier than planned. I had been increasing the difficulty each time by making the designs more complex and adding more colors, and it seemed my skill had improved along with it. As a result of trying to embroider carefully while following my heart, the time required for the work decreased.
...If the finish had gotten sloppy, the speed would have been meaningless, but.
I had Hermine check the finish, and she gave me her approval that no particular flaws could be found. It seemed I had truly just gotten faster.
"It is finished quite quickly."
Hermine let out an impressed sigh as she lined up the fabrics that would become Leonardo's shirt sleeves come spring. The sleeves laid out in order of work included ones with a single small embroidered motif, ones with a design embroidered in crimson thread all around the cuffs, and ones with embroidery incorporating a shield and sword design using five colors of thread.
"Embroidery is fun, deshu. I ended up getting absorbed in it, mashita."
I had actually intended to work on it over the course of the winter, but it was finished not just before winter's end, but before the Divine King Festival. It could not be helped since I enjoyed it.
"What should I do with the finished embroidery, deshu ka?"
"If you hand them to Bart, he should deliver them to the tailor."
The tailor might be surprised to receive the embroidery so soon, Hermine said, making a rare joke as she wrapped up the fabric and put it away. The next day, as snow was beginning to pile up, Bart put on a thick coat and headed out to the tailor.
With the shirt embroidery that I had planned to work on over the winter finished, I found myself with free time and increased my Saik sessions. At first I had no idea what to do or how, but now I vaguely understood the theory. Arranging game records, which I had wondered what the point was, had truly been educational.
...I am still not good at the psychological game, though.
Once the rules and theory began to make sense, the key to victory became reading the opponent's thoughts. From those who favored frontal assaults to those who laid elaborate traps to ensnare their opponents, just reading the game records revealed various ways of thinking.
...For the record, Leonyaldo-san is the former, Hermine-sensei and Alf-san are the latter.
Matches between Hermine and Alf are of the strategist type who set traps for each other and patiently wait for the opponent to fall into them. There is no way Leonardo could compete. And as for me, I am a former type studying to become the latter. I can hold out for a while after noticing a trap, but in the end I lose patience and attack, losing. Building up my endurance is my task going forward.
As I devoted myself to Saik and consulted Hermine about embroidery designs to send to Aurelia, the Divine King Festival drew near. The Divine King Festival is, to be precise, called the Divine King Holy Birth Festival. Simply understood, it is the birthday of a king who appears in myth. In terms of content, it is easier to think of it as New Year's Eve and New Year's Day with Christmas elements added. The Divine King is a human king chosen by the gods, and when the Divine King was born, the gods departed from this earth. Thus, the beginning of the age of humanity was celebrated, and the Divine King Holy Birth Festival was born.
Thinking of it as a festival where Christmas, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day all come at once, of course individual households also have their own celebrations. But since the master of the Fortress Lord's Residence, Leonardo, was absent, I thought it would just be a fancier dinner than usual. Or rather, since my baseline was my life in Mey Village, my only impression of the Divine King Festival night was that dinner was slightly more luxurious. I had heard about what kind of things were done at Menhishumi Church in autumn, but I did not really have a sense of it. Alf, who was staying at the residence while Leonardo was away, would be managing the dinner in place of the head of the household, but that was about it. There were no Christmas presents, no spring cleaning.
...Huh? Cleaning now?
I tried to go play with Kokumaro in the living room as usual, but today the fireplace in the living room was not lit, and moreover Bart was halfway inside it, carefully cleaning it. I remembered the fireplace being cleaned once around mid-autumn, but was it the kind of thing that needed cleaning that often? When I asked curiously, he told me that in houses with children, the fireplace is not lit on the day of the Divine King Festival.
"Why is that, deshu ka?"
"It is said that on the night of the Divine King Festival, the world of humans and the world of spirits draw closest to each other, and if a child sees a spirit that has wandered into the human world, that child will be kidnapped to the spirit world and turned into a spirit child there."
There is apparently a story that a child who is fortunate enough to escape from the spirits' grasp returns through the fireplace of their own home. If they can escape from the spirits' hands before morning, the child returns through the fireplace.
"Therefore, at this residence, we are cleaning the fireplace of the living room where the young lady spends the most time, as a place for the young lady to return to."
Into the cleaned fireplace, Bart spread a thin layer of ash. Called over and approaching the fireplace, I was taught to press both hands into the ash. Apparently, by leaving my handprints in the ashes like this, even if I were kidnapped by spirits, I would know which fireplace at home I should return to.
...What an interesting custom.
At the very least, this was a tradition that did not exist in Mey Village.
"Do stories like that about spirits actually happen, ariyu no?"
"In the city... have you ever seen someone wearing an animal costume even when it is not the Divine King Festival?"
"Animal costume...? Cat ears, deshu ka?"
As for humans wearing cat ears, I had seen them before when I went out to the city with Leonardo. A waitress in a miniskirt maid outfit and an old woman had been wearing cat ears, I was sure. At the time I had just thought there were no rules for clothing in this world, but according to Bart, it seemed to be a bit different.
"When Leonyaldo-san first took me to the city, there was an old woman wearing cat ears, mashita."
"Then that old woman was probably lost as a child on the night of the Divine King Festival."
Apparently, a child who goes missing must continue wearing an animal costume until the Spring Flower Festival, so that the spirits do not come to take them back. A child once taken by spirits is marked and can be easily found by them. Therefore, they need to continue wearing an animal costume to hide from the spirits' eyes, signaling that they are not a human child but a beast who is a friend of the spirits, asking not to be taken.
"So, that old woman is still a cat, no a?"
"When a parent's child once goes missing, they tend to become overprotective."
Anxious, overprotective parents may make their child continue wearing an animal costume even after the Spring Flower Festival. A child raised that way eventually grows to feel anxious themselves without the costume, and even when it is not the season for the Divine King Festival, they voluntarily continue wearing it. Naturally, children who wear costumes even when it is not a festival become targets of bullying by other children. To keep such children from standing out, their close friends also wear costumes out of season, it seems. While children taken by spirits only appear about once every few decades, apparently the common sense that costumes were only for the Divine King Festival gradually shifted to the recognition that costumes might be worn even outside the festival day, to the point where no one finds it strange if a waitress wears cat ears on a daily basis.
...The origin was a beautiful story. I am sorry for thinking it was cosplay.
The start time of the Divine King Festival is midnight, when the date changes. For four days starting from today, the eve, the city is wrapped in festival excitement. Unlike the Harvest Festival, many of the events on the eve of the Divine King Festival seem to start at night, making it difficult for children to participate from the very beginning. As for me, surprisingly, Hermine was going to take me to the night festival, so I took a good long nap. If I slept this much, I would be able to move around even at midnight.
Since I napped right after the afternoon lesson, waking up straight to dinner felt like a terribly slothful lifestyle, but since it was rare, I let it pass. Today was special because I would be active at night. If this were every day, I would become a pig.
The strange cake, like a pie or a tart, that Alf cut in place of Leonardo, the head of the household, was called "Itsurateru's Four Blessings." It was a cake born from the myth that at the end of the age of myth, the Divine King was born, and the goddess of justice Itsurateru celebrated his birth by giving four gifts.
I stabbed my fork into the cake, which had a rather simple appearance for bearing the name of a goddess. Beneath the surface lay almond-flavored cream and sponge cake on a tart crust base, with decorations made of pie dough on the top. The pie surface was covered in apricot jam, or maybe marmalade, at any rate a sweet syrup.
"...Ah?"
My teeth hit something hard with a crunch, and I frowned at the strange sensation, exploring my mouth. I felt it was a bit bad manners, but I could not exactly swallow it, so I took the foreign object out of my mouth.
"A flower... doll, deshu ka?"
The hard thing that came out of my mouth turned out to be a flower made of ceramic. I did not know what kind of flower it was, but I understood that this foreign object had been deliberately mixed in.
...What was it? There was something like that in some country too, right. A custom of putting a coin or ring inside sweets.
I could not remember the name or exact rules, but I felt it was a foreign custom. Something about whoever ate the piece containing a coin or ring would be the luckiest that year. At any rate, it was supposed to be a light party game. But I did not know what meaning it had in this world, and as I tilted my head, Hermine, like a proper tutor, explained the meaning.
"It is for your fortune for the coming year, Tina-san. A flower doll means 'blooming.' The blossoming of talent, or for those in the midst of hardship, a path opening up... It suits you perfectly, Tina-san."
"If it means I will get better at embroidery, I would be happy, deshu ne."
Hmm, I really did draw a good one, I thought, placing the ceramic flower on the edge of my plate, when it seemed Alf, sitting in Leonardo's seat, had also found something in his cake. He chewed for a moment, then placed a crown-shaped piece of ceramic on his plate.
"Alf-san, what does your doll mean, deshu ka?"
"It is supposed to be the luckiest of the four, but..."
The crown part is... he said, furrowing his brow with a somewhat troubled look, so maybe he was tired from associating the crown with Alfred. Just remembering that prince drains one's energy.
Apparently if the once-cut "Itsurateru's Four Blessings" is not eaten the same day, the good luck turns to bad luck, so the remainder was taken to the Silver-White Knight guarding the guest room and to Jasper. Siegwald's cake yielded a dragon figurine, and I was told the dragon figurine meant wisdom and longevity. No figurines came from the other knights' cakes, so the last one must be in Jasper's cake. After firmly telling Jasper, who was still continuing his transcription work, to eat the cake by the end of the day, I returned to my room.
When dinner was over and I went back to my room, it was finally the Divine King Festival. I was going out in costume with Hermine.
...My coat already has cat ears, so I do not need to put on separate cat ears, right?
I compared the cat ears Leonardo had prepared at the end of summer with the coat whose hood was designed with cat ears bursting through. If I wore the cat ears under the cat-eared coat, the ears would double up. As for the number of ears alone, there would be six. I had no intention of becoming a nonsense monster like that.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. I thought Hermine must be ready, and innocently opened the door. I looked up to about where I thought Hermine's head would be, but there was no head there, only a large chest wrapped in a red dress.
"...Huh?"
On the other side of the door I had been sure was Hermine, there was no Hermine, nor any human at all. What stood there was a black cat in a red dress, taller than the door itself. With a large head, but a human-like body walking on two legs. The way it stood with good posture was beautiful, but as a cat it was so enormous that for a moment I could not understand what was happening.
...A spirit of the Divine King Festival!?
I do not think I was wrong to think that for a moment. But as I stood frozen, unsure how to react, the cat in the red dress tilted not its head, but its entire body.
"Your surprise is too much on your face."
If you are that surprised, the correct response is to voice it, came a familiar voice from around the chest wrapped in the red dress.
"Huh? What? Hermine-sense...i?"
At Hermine's voice coming from the chest, I looked back and forth between the cat's face and the red dress's chest. Looking closely, the two rows of black buttons on the bodice of the dress were not buttons at all. She must be looking at me from there, like a peephole. The cat in the red dress was apparently Hermine's costume.
...Hermine-sensei, you are way too serious!!
It was an unexpected side of my somewhat strict tutor. I never imagined she would put this much effort into a Divine King Festival costume. The head was a hat, Hermine's own head was at the chest area, and her body was in the lower half. I thought it was a very well-postured cat, but the upper arms were completely fake. Hermine's arms, wrapped in black fur, emerged from around the cat's elbows, allowing movements like bending and straightening.
"Listen well, Tina-san. In this world, it seems that the higher a person's status, the more they tend to favor eccentric clothing and take pleasure in surprising others. Since such people act with the intention of startling others, it is only proper etiquette to react with genuine surprise."
On the other hand, sometimes there are people who have no intention of startling anyone and are simply being genuinely eccentric, so in those cases, one should avoid mentioning it, came the truly difficult-to-judge lecture from the chest area of the red dress. As for me, the student, I was currently in a situation that was very hard to judge.
...Which is this? Should I be surprised, or should I not mention it?
To the cat in the red dress, which I could only dumbly stare up at, I somehow forced out some words. Just one phrase. Being a lady sure is hard, is it not.
Although I was startled by Hermine's overly serious costume, once we went out into the city, I was surprised that Hermine did not stand out. There were surprisingly many adults with costumes on Hermine's level. I did not know whether adults were just more serious about the festival or could afford to spend more on costumes, but children's costumes were cute. They were all still recognizable, with some wearing animal pelts over their heads and others sporting animal ears and tails with whiskers drawn on their faces.
"...It really does look like spirits might be mixed in, deshu ne."
With the festival starting at night, the cityscape sinking into twilight was decorated with lamps and lanterns everywhere. In the fantastical scene so different from usual, there were adults in costumes so precise they looked like nothing but animals, and children in simple costumes.
...It is like a city of animals, with little animals practicing to turn into humans and human children mixed in together.
I had not brought the prepared cat ears because the coat already had cat ears on the hood, but if the people around me were enjoying costumes this seriously, I might as well have worn them. Compared to Hermine, who was in a perfect cat suit, and me with only a hood that barely passed for cat ears, I looked like a kitten whose mother cat was bad at transforming.
...I did not go to the church in winter, so I probably will not be able to see Mirshe-chan and the others.
We had not arranged to meet or made any promises, so it seemed unlikely I would run into Mirshe and the others today. I was a little curious about what kind of costumes Mirshe and the others would be wearing, but the district where Mirshe lived was a so-called slum. I did not think Hermine would let me go near there, and moreover I could imagine how dangerous it would be for a child to go near such a place alone at night. I felt a little disappointed, but I would have to give up on seeing Mirshe's costume.
...Petrona and Elke, though, I feel like I would run into even by chance.
Those two came from wealthy families, so their homes were near the main street, and they would probably spend money on costumes too. If I went to the plaza area, I might be able to meet them.
"What are they burning, deshu ka?"
"Unwanted furniture and clothes."
When we moved to the plaza, there was a grand bonfire at the place where the stage had been during the summer and autumn festivals. It seemed there was a custom in the city of burning furniture and clothes that were no longer needed as they welcomed the new year. Furniture aside, this was a sight unthinkable in Mey Village, where clothes were mended or passed down to younger children and reused.
Surrounding the bonfire as if watching over it were stalls lined up selling warm food. There were also alcohol stalls, but Hermine, completely different from Kaya, paid them no attention. As a tutor, or as a chaperone for a child, I thought that was a very commendable attitude.
...Still, what a strange festival, huh?
The Divine King Festival is a festival without any particular religious ceremonies at individual churches. Perhaps that could not be helped, since its origin was a king's birthday. In a sense, the whole world was celebrating the birthday of a foreign king. I could not help but find that strange. When I mentioned this to Hermine along the way, she told me it was a remnant from when the countries were not yet divided. Long ago, the entire continent was one large country, and the king of that large country was apparently the Divine King. Though it had split into separate countries, the Divine King was still an important king, Hermine told me, her face hidden but her voice carrying a hint of sadness.
...The Divine King, who is supposed to exist in this world, disappeared at some point.
This had been touched upon in the history I learned at Menhishumi Church in autumn. The human king chosen by the gods had continued through generations in the human world, but at some point, he apparently withdrew into the spirit world. Since then, leaving no name in history, the great country split into countless small nations, repeatedly going to war, becoming a large country, and then splitting into small nations again. Now only a country in the northern part of the continent bears the name of the former great nation, and the only trace of the Divine King that remains is in this festival. What a strange story.
...Since it is treated as history, it cannot all be made up, but I wonder how much of it is true.
As I was thinking that at least the part about being chosen by the gods was probably an exaggeration, we arrived in front of the Three Crows Tavern. The Three Crows Tavern had been offering festival-limited menus for the Recollection Festival and the Harvest Festival. They might have a limited menu for the Divine King Festival too.
...Candied sweet potato, ya-hoo!
Keeping the storm of inner praise and thanks to the gods completely hidden from my face, I tightened my cheeks to keep from grinning as I had Hermine read the menu for me. Since unfamiliar letter strings were lined up, the ingredients must be from Napaji again.
"It reads 'Omiamtasu in sweet sauce.' It appears to be a Napaji-grown tuber called Omiamtasu, fried and coated in a sweet sauce."
Before Hermine could ask if I wanted to buy it, I was already pulling out my black cat wallet. The wallet Leonardo had given me extra allowance for, since it was the Divine King Festival. I did not want to put it off and regret it like last time.
"It is fluffy and delicious, deshu!"
"It is sweet, but light... a refined flavor."
On a normal day she would absolutely never allow it, but today was a special festival day. Even unladylike behavior like eating while standing or buying street food, Hermine would turn a blind eye to within reason. Or rather, tonight I was a kitten and Hermine was the mother cat. I hoped she would not nag me about manners tonight of all nights.
As I was eating the delicious candied sweet potato with enthusiasm, my hood slipped back. My head, without any cat ears or anything, was exposed.
"You must be properly in costume for the Divine King Festival."
"...Thank you very much, mashu."
Hermine gently adjusted my hood, and I thanked her. Wanting to eat it while it was still warm, I started bringing the candied sweet potato to my mouth again, when the hood slipped off my head once more.
...Ah, come on! I should have worn the cat ears after all.
I am not a baby, I thought, and this time before Hermine could fix it, I pulled the hood back on myself. With the plate of candied sweet potato in one hand, I tried to fix my hood with the other, when I spotted familiar black hair in my line of sight.
...Huh? Why is Leonyaldo-san here?
Leonardo was supposed to have left the city of Grenore for the Divine King Festival at Mandez Fortress. There was no way he could be in this city of Grenore tonight, when the Divine King Festival was being held.
By the time I wondered, my feet were already moving forward. I heard Hermine's voice stopping me, but it was only a few meters, so I pretended not to hear. I chased after the familiar black hair and grabbed hold of an unfamiliar-colored cape.
The Three Crows Tavern is Tina's comfort...
I will fix typos and misspellings another day.
I corrected the typos and misspellings I found. The time when I was writing was late, so I abbreviated things, but Hermine-sensei's costume is high-performance. There is a mechanism that closes the eyelids when the head is lowered, so the black cat head can blink. The chest area of the dress has a mechanism so her face can come out. She ate the candied sweet potato from there. I abbreviated it. I was sleepy.