67 - Recollection Festival 2
When I woke up, it was a little past noon. I'd only meant to take a short nap while keeping Leonardo company, but I'd miscalculated by quite a bit. I thought I'd notice right away if he woke up since we were sleeping next to each other, but Leonardo was already gone. I washed off the sleep sweat in the bath, freshened up, and the sound of the door opening and closing when I returned to the bedroom woke me properly.
"You awake, Tina?"
"Good mornin'..."
I'd slept too much and was actually even sleepier. As I forced my drooping eyelids open with sheer willpower, Leonardo sat down on the bed and ruffled my hair.
"...Want to sleep a bit more?"
"No, 's okay. Leonyaldo-san said he'd take me to the festib-..."
I heard him murmur "It's back to Leonyaldo-san, huh," and then he lifted me from the bed. I wanted to get moving quickly, but my head wasn't cooperating, so I was grateful he was forcibly taking me along. Just moving from the warm bed was bound to speed up the waking process.
Carried to my third-floor room and handed over to Tabitha, by then my drowsiness had faded. Since I was going to the festival, she insisted on dressing me in the jinbei that had just been made from secondhand clothes.
...Why am I also equipped with a heko obi?
I didn't think jinbei came with a sash, but for some reason a black heko obi was tied around me. The knot was at my back so I could only see it in the mirror, but the flowing heko obi was cute like a goldfish's tail. I wasn't a dog or cat, but I could kind of understand the feeling of chasing your own tail and going around in circles.
...Leonardo-san said we'd match, but mine is red.
I guess they didn't choose a subdued color since it was for a child. Leonardo's jinbei was black-based with accents of crimson, while mine was red-based with black accents. Matching in different colors.
Going downstairs and meeting up with Leonardo, he was in his usual casual clothes of a shirt and pants. I'd been made to change into jinbei since it was a festival, but was it okay for Leonardo not to?
"Leonyaldo-san, you're not in jinbei, is that okay?"
"For a festival about repentance, jinbei is a bit... apparently jinbei is more like sleepwear than loungewear."
"...I'll go change."
If that was common knowledge, I wish they'd told me before making me change. Even I had no interest in walking around outside in sleepwear.
"Yours was just custom-made, and kids walk around in jinbei and yukata plenty."
"It's sleepwear, isn't it?"
"Adults wear it plenty too. In my case, it's different. I'm a knight in charge of the fortress, after all. Even at a festival, I can't dress that casually."
I guess if something happened during the festival, it wouldn't look good for a Black Knight to be in sleepwear. It might be similar to how in Japan, fashion-conscious girls wear yukata to festivals but boys are often in Western clothes. I figured the former chose the hardship of prioritizing fashion despite restricted movement, while the latter just didn't want to endure that hardship for fashion's sake.
"...Are you really sure it won't be weird for me to go to the festival in jinbei?"
"It won't be weird. You'll see when we get there, plenty of people are in jinbei."
"Then okay. I'll go in jinbei."
I pulled myself together, took Leonardo's hand, and showed off my black heko obi. Apparently Bart, who had lost the jinbei vs. yukata battle, had insisted "at least the heko obi," and that's how we ended up with the jinbei plus heko obi style. Since both the jinbei and heko obi came out of Leonardo's wallet, I made sure to show off and thank him for the parts I liked.
...The best part of jinbei is that it has PANTS, though!
Fortunately there didn't seem to be any geta sandals, and my shoes were normal, just matching the color of today's outfit.
Leonardo said we'd eat lunch out, so I was looking forward to it a bit. If I had to choose a restaurant, I'd want the Three Crows Inn with its Japanese-style seasonings, but today was a festival. There might be stalls out that weren't usually there.
...Ah, jinbei.
Leonardo had avoided it, but sure enough, when we got to town, there were people wearing jinbei. Adults and children, regardless of gender, here and there people were in jinbei. It really seemed to have taken root as summer wear.
...Somehow, it felt strange.
Here was a Western fantasy-style streetscape of stone buildings and cobblestone roads, yet people in yukata and jinbei were walking around with perfectly normal expressions. Looking more closely, there were also people with tails poking out from their sashes or wearing cat ears, still looking like nothing but cosplay.
"Three Crows Inn is selling sweet-and-salty dumplings. Want to split one?"
"I want one stick each. So that means two."
There were lots of stalls I wanted to try, but unfortunately a child's stomach was small. If I wanted to sample many types, it would be better to buy one and share it half-and-half with Leonardo. That's why we'd been buying one thing from stalls that caught our interest on the way and splitting it, but for Three Crows Inn's sweet-and-salty dumplings, I wanted a whole one to myself.
...If it's from Three Crows Inn, I don't think it'll be a miss.
There were stalls that didn't usually come out because of the festival, but of course some were hits and some were misses. The fresh-squeezed fruit juice was good, but the overly sweet milk tea was hard to finish. Leonardo drank his with a straight face, so I felt like I could have pushed the rest onto him, but since I was the one choosing what to eat, I felt bad foisting something I didn't like on him, so I did my best. As a result, my stomach was sloshing.
Walking along the main street while eating, Leonardo told me about the flow of the town's Recollection Festival. Unfortunately, the morning that I'd slept through involved the priests of the Itsurateru Church offering up the year's repentance to the goddess of justice, Itsurateru. Apparently it wasn't just the priests who offered repentance; the believers among the people could also participate freely.
At noon, a play sponsored by the Menhishumi Church was held in the square. The performance was the same every year, about the origins of the Recollection Festival that Leonardo had briefly explained this morning. Apparently it had started to pass down the reason for the Recollection Festival to children. I thought adults wouldn't be interested in a children's skit, but apparently the woman who played Itsurateru, the goddess of justice, every year was chosen as the most beautiful woman in town at the autumn harvest festival, so it was popular with adults too.
At night, they pledged reformation to Itsurateru, the goddess of justice, and the Divine King. They offered renewed regret and gratitude to the goddess who had imposed divine punishment and the Divine King who had forgiven humanity, vowing not to repeat the same mistakes. And at the end of the festival, in the square where the daytime play was held, they burned the costumes and props used in the play and watched silently until the fire died out. That was the original form, but apparently now it had turned into a party venue. The knights and soldiers on fire watch even had to keep an eye on drunkards.
...The Black Knights sure have it rough.
When I offered that sympathy, Leonardo told me with a wry smile that every year on this day, there was fierce competition for time off at the fortress.
"Leonyaldo-san, did you force yourself to take time off?"
To be more specific, did he use his authority to snatch the time off? As the lord of the fortress, Leonardo could probably adjust his own time off freely. When I asked because I was a bit worried, Leonardo told me there was actually a different reason he could take the afternoon of the Recollection Festival off.
"I'm required to attend the evening rites, so it's decided I get the afternoon off every year."
Apparently as the lord of the fortress, Leonardo participated in the evening rites. He played the role of the man who committed the crime, pledging reformation, and had the duty of lighting the costumes and props on fire.
...A festival that makes a military knight pledge reformation. What exactly did he do, I wonder?
Since the strongest knight in town played the role of the criminal, it was probably related to some military offense. I should be able to get the gist from the play held in the square, but since I'd gone to the square while eating and the play had already started, I'd have to ask at the Menhishumi Church that I'd been attending since autumn. So for today, it remained a mystery.
Since he had work at night, the festival outing with Leonardo essentially ended after lunch. Besides the play in the square, traveling performers and bards were showing their acts on the streets, so I'd enjoyed the festival atmosphere plenty. At the end, we went back to Three Crows Inn, bought sweet-and-salty dumplings as souvenirs for Tabitha and the others, and headed home.
"If you want to see the night festival, I could have Alf take you..."
"Since Leonyaldo-san is working, it wouldn't be fair for me to be playing at the festival."
I did kind of want to see Leonardo participating in the rites a little. But festivals and alcohol go hand in hand. I could easily imagine drunkards wandering around at night, so it was probably better for children not to be out.
Walking along the main street having that conversation, when we returned to the front gate of the lord's residence, a flashily dressed woman came from the direction of the fortress.
...Ugh, Kaya. Haven't seen her in about a week.
Spotting someone I disliked, I stiffened up and stopped walking without thinking. Leonardo noticed and looked around, spotting Kaya. As he stopped, Kaya ran up to him, calling his name familiarly. She stopped just before Leonardo. She must have finally noticed me. The tone of her voice as she called Leonardo's name dropped noticeably.
"Good day, Leonardo-sama. It's the Recollection Festival today, isn't it? I went to invite you at the fortress, but they said you were resting at the residence in preparation for tonight's rites..."
She was just about to visit the residence, Kaya said, plastering on a smile and putting on airs. I had no intention of greeting her, but as a teacher, to ignore her student and hit on her guardian. What was that about?
...He's resting in preparation for his night work, so don't come to invite him out.
In that sense too, Kaya's actions were wrong. Under normal circumstances, you'd refrain from inviting someone when you know they have work at night. In my case, I only found out Leonardo had work at night after we went out, so I couldn't exactly refrain. I suspected Leonardo was being considerate since it was my first festival.
"I'm sorry, but I've just finished showing Tina around the festival..."
"We were just coming back after going around," Leonardo replied, and I hid behind his legs. Kaya's gaze, stabbing at me as if aiming for the moment Leonardo's eyes wandered, was scary. It was too strange that Leonardo didn't notice, but Kaya's eyes were clearly saying "You're in the way" and "Read the room and get lost."
...I am reading the room and not butting in, you know.
Actually, I didn't even want to talk to her. The contract was supposed to be for tutoring every two days, but she only came every two days for the first week. Lately she showed her face about once a week. I couldn't imagine having a pleasant conversation with someone who acted like this as a working adult. No, as a human being. To be honest, I was also aware I was using Leonardo as a shield. And since Kaya was after Leonardo, she'd probably be satisfied just talking to the shield.
As I hid behind Leonardo's legs, waiting for Kaya to be properly shooed away, Leonardo said something unbelievable.
"Oh, right, Tina. How about having Miss Kaya take you to the night festival?"
...I only have a bad feeling about this!
Tina's normal shoes = reinforced toe.
Typos will be fixed later...
Fixed typos where I found them.