145 - Spring Flower Festival 2
After finishing the delivery to the Silver-White Knight currently staying at the residence and returning to the entrance hall, Bart said this was the last one and gave me a small pot with a red flower resembling an anemone planted in it. When I asked who I was to deliver it to this time, apparently this flower named Enomena was a gift from Leonardo to me. Since embroidery is given by female family members, male family members seem to give flowers.
"Kalisa, please put this in my room."
I entrusted the pot I had just received to Kalisa, who had finished preparing to go out and come downstairs. "I'll go thank Leonardo," I said, and ran up the stairs to the second floor.
"Leo, thank you for the flowers!"
Since my business was only to thank him, I didn't go inside the room, just poked my head in from the entrance. Leonardo, who had been reading documents at his desk, showed a slight expression of thinking what this was about at being suddenly addressed, but he seemed to quickly understand what I was saying. He lowered the corners of his eyes slightly and smiled.
"It's a return for the embroidery you did for me, Tina. Don't worry about it."
"So even Leo can think of giving things besides sweets."
Since most of Leonardo's souvenirs and gifts to me are sweets, I teased him by saying I'd re-evaluated him a little, but he teased me back by saying that he himself thinks of me as preferring sweets over flowers. He said he only gave flowers today because it's the Spring Flower Festival, and I'm still a child who gets happy over candy.
"I'm not a child who'll get happy over candy forever, you know?"
Since I admit myself that I'm a glutton, I couldn't strongly deny it. So when I offered a half-hearted protest, Leonardo laughed out loud this time. He said perhaps giving flowers was too early after all.
I had thought the Spring Flower Festival was simply a spring festival. A festival to celebrate the end of winter and the arrival of spring, in the season when flowers begin to bloom. But it seems this assumption was a little wrong. Hermine, who surprisingly agreed to accompany me to see the Spring Flower Festival, taught me that the Spring Flower Festival was a festival managed by commercial churches to pray for prosperous business.
...Now that she mentions it, maybe so?
If there are customs of wearing new clothes and giving flowers to family, then fabric shops, tailors, and flower shops must see big profits. Leonardo gave me flowers, but gifts aren't limited to flowers, so other shops should be making money too. When pointed out, it certainly is a festival with a strong commercial atmosphere.
...But Hermine-sensei's expression is giving me the same vibe as people who say things like "Valentine's Day is just a candy company's scheme!!"
I was vaguely bothered by Hermine's expression, but the reason became clear as soon as we stepped onto the main street. As the name Spring Flower Festival suggests, the main street was overflowing with flowers. The street trees, clearly trimmed for today, and blooming potted flowers decorating their bases. Beautifully arranged potted flowers were also displayed at the entrances of shops facing the street, and the clothes of people walking along were bright colors.
...How should I put it?
It was a festival with a unique atmosphere. Open terraces had been set up for the festival, and every seat was full, but I felt a slight strangeness. At the Recollection Festival and Harvest Festival, the shops on the main street had an atmosphere where relatively wealthy wives took breaks, but today the customer base was different. The main customers were young men and women. And not one man and one woman sitting at tables, but groups of several people filling the seats.
"The customers are different from usual, aren't they?"
When I voiced my question as it was, Kalisa and Hermine told me the reason.
"...Today is the Spring Flower Festival. The season when love blooms...?"
"Those men and women are holding group blind dates like that, you see."
Kalisa, who tilted her head uncertainly, and Hermine, who muttered with a sullen face, were quite contrasting. As for me, from their explanations I learned that those gatherings were so-called group dates. It seems young people do the same things no matter what world they're in.
...And I understood why Hermine-sensei was in a bad mood.
My earlier thought that she resembled someone who'd pour cold water on Valentine's Day was exactly right. Hermine, who dislikes men, might possibly hate the Spring Flower Festival itself.
...And yet she agreed to accompany me on my outing. Hermine-sensei is really good company.
Ignoring the young people occupying a corner of a shop and engrossed in their group blind dates, we passed through the main street. When we arrived at the square intersecting with Central Avenue, the crowd composition changed again.
"There are a lot of women in the square."
I wonder why? When I looked closely, I occasionally saw women in old-fashioned costumes among the crowd. They had flowers in their neatly pinned-up hair and carried baskets full of flowers.
"The women are handing out flowers."
"They are the six daughters of the flower goddess Menhiriya."
As they were called the six daughters, when I looked for them, there were indeed six women in differently colored costumes. The smiling daughters handed flowers from their baskets to women passing by, though I couldn't tell what criteria they used. The women who received the flowers blushed, or smiled blissfully and dreamily. It seems the reason there are many women in the square is for these flowers.
"There is a superstition that if a married woman receives a flower from a daughter of Menhiriya, it is a harbinger of pregnancy, and if a woman without a lover receives one, a good partner will appear within the year."
While Hermine was giving that explanation, a daughter of Menhiriya in a yellow-green costume appeared before us. Startled, I instinctively hid behind Kalisa, and the smiling daughter of Menhiriya handed a white flower to Hermine.
...I saw the moment Hermine-sensei's cheek twitched.
Since it was a festival event, Hermine didn't refuse the flower, but to Hermine who openly dislikes men, a flower from a daughter of Menhiriya might be unnecessary.
Peeking out from behind Kalisa, in the square besides the daughters of Menhiriya there were also several children wearing flower crowns on their heads and butterfly wings on their backs. Those were probably the costumes for the Spring Flower Festival. Considering they wore butterfly wings, they might be spring spirits or something similar.
"...Sending flowers from women to men, from men to women... a love confession. I have fallen in love with you."
Kalisa told me the children dressed as spring spirits help with those confessions. Bart said male family members give flowers, but apparently giving flowers to someone outside the family counts as a love confession. It's quite a festival that women would enjoy.
...Well, it seems like a festival that doesn't quite resonate with the man-hating Hermine-sensei and the shy Kalisa.
And for me, who's still a child, it's a festival I won't have anything to do with for a while.
We passed through the square and entered Central Avenue, walking along the route I'd fully memorized and turned a corner. Then, immediately, the familiar storefront of the Three Crows Tavern came into view. I'd come again today to see if there was a Spring Flower Festival limited item, but for some reason Hermine stopped in front of it.
"...Hermine-sensei?"
"Let us hold hands. I would not want you to get lost again."
Hermine's voice was a little stiff, and I remembered that this was the place where I'd been separated from them during the Divine King Festival. I'd come all the way to the Three Crows Tavern driven by appetite alone, but perhaps bringing Hermine had been a mistake. This was the spot where the child who should have been right beside them suddenly disappeared. It wouldn't be strange if it were traumatic.
"It's fine today. It's not the Divine King Festival, it's the Spring Flower Festival."
Saying I wouldn't suddenly disappear anymore, I took Hermine's hand. When I looked up at Hermine's face as if to comfort her, Kalisa took my other free hand. With both of them holding my hands like this, I probably wouldn't get lost so easily.
"Hermine-sensei, please read it."
"It seems today's limited item is Arkas mochi. It says it's a sweet bean paste made by boiling beans sweet, wrapped in a thinly spread and grilled pale pink mochi, then wrapped in salted Arkas leaves."
...That's basically sakura mochi, isn't it?!
I've never seen the plant called Arkas, but from what I've heard, it sounds exactly like sakura mochi. Though even sakura mochi has several types, different between Kanto and Kansai, the one displayed before me as Napaji cuisine is what's called 'sakura mochi'. Not the doumyouji type.
I tried to buy some immediately including souvenirs for Leonardo and the others, but Hermine stopped me. She said I should taste it first, to check if it suited my palate.
...The sweet sauce on the Omiamtasu at the Divine King Festival seemed to agree with me, though.
Hermine is cautious. Just because I'd enjoyed one thing, she probably couldn't approve of me jumping at all of the Napaji sweets, which are foreign cuisine. So I decided to buy three Arkas mochi for the three of us first. When I paid and received the Arkas mochi, from every angle it really did look exactly like sakura mochi.
"That means we've conquered the limited items for all four seasons."
I counted on my fingers, the sweet and spicy dango from the Recollection Festival, the grilled plate cakes from the Harvest Festival, the sweet sauce Omiamtasu from the Divine King Festival, and the Arkas mochi from the Spring Flower Festival. There are other detailed events, but these four are the major festivals. Since I've eaten the Three Crows Tavern's limited items at each festival, it seems I might have eaten all the seasonal limited items.
"Huh? Has it really been that long since the little miss started coming to my shop?"
"It has been. The first time I came was on the way back from touring the Menhishumi Church with Leo in the summer."
The owner of the Three Crows Tavern had finally started remembering my face. The deciding factor was the Divine King Festival getting lost incident. I'd heard he searched for me desperately together with Hermine when I got lost, so I went to thank him after returning to the city, and he wept profusely, happy I was safe. It's half my fault that the neighborhood now knows the owner of the Three Crows Tavern has an intimidating face but is a crying drunk. After that, when the conversation turned to how I'd bought lots of sweet and spicy dango at the Recollection Festival, the owner too seemed to realize that a year had passed since I started coming to the Three Crows Tavern. Saying I was indeed a fine regular customer, he pointed to the back of the shop.
"What is it? Is something there?"
"For regular customers only, I show them the garden in spring. Come on by. The Arkas flowers are just starting to bloom too."
"There's an Arkas tree? What kind of flowers are they?"
"You'll know in one look if you see 'em."
Invited, I visited the back garden and looked at the Arkas tree planted there. Its trunk was still thinner than my leg, but since it was a tree, it was probably older than me. Small, lovely pink flowers were blooming.
...Arkas really is cherry blossoms, isn't it.
When I observed the small flowers closely, the petals were layered in multiple folds. I think ordinary cherry blossoms have five petals, so these might be double-flowered cherry blossoms.
"The Arkas are beautiful..."
It was still a little early for full bloom, but there were enough flowers blooming to enjoy viewing them. Feeling delighted, I was spinning around under the tree while looking up, when I noticed figures of what seemed to be other regulars at the edge of my vision. I had a feeling I was being laughed at, so I stopped. Anyone would be startled if a little girl suddenly appeared and started spinning under a tree. I turned toward the figures to first apologize for startling them, and as I lowered my gaze to show some friendliness, I froze. In my line of sight stood a person who had no reason to be here today.
"Why is Ethel-sama here!?"
I want to praise myself for cleanly swallowing the "Guh" that almost slipped out midway. I had let my guard down that much.
If the Spring Flower Festival was too gentle and warm, this would get pointlessly long... orz
Will fix typos and errors another day. Fixed the typos and errors I found.