Chapter 73 : Summer Festival Mayhem (1)

Chapter 73: Summer Festival Mayhem (1)

The first thing I did after returning to Kinalo with my younger siblings was to plan a grand festival.

Ailun, led by Haarun, currently had no strength to strike at us, and the lords of Norberju were busy fawning over me, the one who had defeated Haarun.

Peace.

Even if only temporary, it was still unmistakable peace.

So, I held a festival.

Festival.

It was something that united everyone as one.

Even if our thoughts differed, it was fine for you, fine for me, so in the end, wasn’t it all good? A kind of anesthetic that loosened up all the tension.

That was why we multiplied the scale of the already-famous Kinalo Summer Festival several times over.

To soothe the citizens who had been anxious because of the war.

To reassure them that we were on the same side.

We distributed plenty of free food and free alcohol, and poured in generous financial support.

Even the soldiers in charge of maintaining order kept their armament to a minimum to avoid giving off an oppressive impression.

The result was nothing less than a huge success.

Bustling—

The streets outside were in a complete uproar.

“Mm....”

But here I was, gloomily working away in my office.

What I was currently looking at was the Book of Fate.

After killing the Apostle, two new functions had been added to the Book of Fate.

One was [Exploration].

The other was [Prologue, one-time].

The [Exploration] function allowed me to search for something called the [Twisted Timeline].

‘It must be showing me the location of that monster, the one like a huge Gonggo? This could be quite useful, huh?’

Where a normal book might have a preface, a strange map had appeared instead.

Centered around me, it revealed an area roughly the size of the old Banroa Kingdom’s territory.

Within that map—big enough to fit about three to five cities—a red dot was moving in the region between Kinalo and Ilunael.

I guessed it might be some kind of special monster, but... it still needed to be confirmed.

“Ehh—!”

But for now, I closed the book.

Perhaps because I had suffered so much in this time-travel journey, I didn’t want to get into another fight anytime soon.

The same went for [Prologue, one-time].

The description said it was ‘a miracle that allowed me to meet the Origin, though incompletely’... but I didn’t want to check that right now either.

What if I got thrown back into the past again?

I had only just barely come back alive.

“Forget it! I’m going to have fun too!”

The truth was, there were so many things to do that it was a little suffocating.

I had to sort through the mountain of artifacts brought back from the ancient times, put the kids into Magical Armor, and get them trained.

And since I now had more cards in hand, there was a need to hold new discussions on future tactics and strategies.

But,

I wasn’t doing any of that today.

‘Yeah. This isn’t playing around.’

Inspecting the lives of the people was also a duty of a ruler, wasn’t it?

Yes! Let’s go. Let’s go out and inspect!

Knock knock—

Just as I stood up with great enthusiasm, Seah came in carrying a thick report.

I stopped halfway through putting on my outer garment.

“...And what’s that?”

“The thing I mentioned before. I organized ways to profit from the ancient times. Like planting seeds of Dracium nearby, you know, that kind of thing.”

“Ah.”

Right! There was that. Good. Very good.

But, Seah.

“You... are working again today?”

Seah just stared straight at me.

As if to say, wasn’t it because of you?

My conscience pricked. The truth was, I had been leaving all the administrative work to Seah.

But she didn’t resent me.

Instead, in a slightly weary voice, she just said this:

“If you’re going to play today, at least look after Seon.”

Seon? Our youngest, just six years old?

“Kinalo’s specialty, the ‘Children’s Sword Fights,’ you know. They play war games with willow swords that don’t hurt. He said he’s going there.”

“Then isn’t he fine? You attached guards, right?”

“I did. But, it’s Seon’s first time in this city. I’m just worried he won’t have any friends.”

“Ah....”

True. As expected, our Seah was so thoughtful.

“Got it. I’ll head out and look for Seon.”

“Mm. Thanks.”

And just like that, with Seah’s permission, I was freed from work.

On a midsummer day’s festival, my own adventure wandering through the magic city of Kinalo began.

---

‘Wow.... Kinalo really is on another level.’

Looking around here made even our Kushan City feel like some rural village.

Kushan’s population was 750,000, while Kinalo’s was 1.1 million—only about 50% more—but the difference I felt went far beyond that.

In fact, the average income in Kinalo was over 30% higher than Kushan’s.

‘If Kinalo is this impressive, then what about Ilunael?’

Ilunael, one of the top five largest and wealthiest cities in all of Roberland.

My curiosity about that place, where Haarun was holed up, began to rise for no real reason.

‘Anyway, where on earth is our Seon?’

I searched through the crowd-packed streets for Seon, but instead of him, I spotted another familiar face.

“Wahahaha! Weaklings! Does this mean there are truly no worthy people in all of Kinalo?!”

...A corpse?

Surely this was the height of the lively festival... yet somehow, that area alone was a battlefield.

In a wide open square, people lay strewn about as if dead.

And in the middle of it all, a woman with lion’s mane hair flowing wildly stood tall against the world.

“Come! Fight me! Is there no one else?!”

Katrina Egion.

Beside my eldest younger sister, Katrina, barrels of liquor were stacked up in heaps.

Here’s the English translation of the next section, with all your rules applied and cross-checking the **Names List** :

---

A sturdy fellow, provoked by her taunts, stepped forward.

“Hmph! Enough of your arrogance!”

“Uwahaha! A challenge?!”

Their gazes clashed, a chilling killing intent exchanged between them.

“Here I come!”

“Urgh!”

Both of them simultaneously lifted up entire wooden barrels of liquor and began chugging them down.

Ah, so that’s why all those people were lying collapsed like that.

“Ugh... ngh... damn... it....”

Unable to finish even a single barrel, the man crashed to the side with a heavy thud.

“Hahahahaha! Pathetic! Come now! Challenge me! I’ve already drunk fifty barrels all by myself—yet are you too afraid of me to step forward?!”

At her lion-like roar, even the supposed heavy drinkers of the local taverns trembled in fear.

‘Haah....’

I swallowed the sigh that rose unbidden and patted Katrina on the shoulder.

“What is it? Challenger... ah, Oppa?”

Turning like a lion, then widening her eyes like a cat—Katrina.

“Hey, Kitty. Have you seen Seon by any chance?”

Kitty was Katrina’s childhood nickname.

When she opened her eyes wide like this, she looked so cute that I couldn’t help but want to call her Kitty.

“Seon? Earlier he was heading toward the fountain with the kids playing sword-fights.”

“Really? How did he look?”

“Hmm. Since he didn’t seem to have any friends, he was just tagging along at the back. I was going to call out to him, but....”

Katrina raised up a barrel of liquor as if to show her reason.

Right. Calling out to a child while guzzling liquor like that wouldn’t have been right.

“Got it. If you see Seon, pass this on to him.”

Saying so, I pulled an ancient artifact from my subspace.

A toy artifact for children.

It looked like nothing more than a handle, but pressing the button made a blade of light appear.

Its appearance was majestic, almost like an Aura Blade, but fitting its nature as a toy, even a hard hit didn’t hurt at all. It only gave the feeling of being lightly pushed back.

But the truly amazing part was that when you hit a body part, that area would glow for a while.

As if to say, ‘You got hit here!’

Lorraine had said so.

It was created with the dual purpose of inspiring children’s curiosity and dreams about ancient relics, while at the same time making money.

And I hadn’t hesitated to take things like this.

‘Later on, I really ended up getting all sorts of things.’

I was paid weekly wages in artifacts, performance bonuses in artifacts, even compensation for human experiment participation in artifacts—and Lorraine personally slipped me quite a few more on top of that.

Not to mention, I had swept up everything from the secret vault, whether Magical Armor or artifacts, without leaving a thing behind.

Because of that, nearly every type of artifact imaginable was piled up in my subspace necklace.

So many that I couldn’t even remember what was in there.

“Oh! If Seon gets this, he’s going to be insanely popular!”

Katrina muttered as she drew out the blade of light.

Since she was about 180 cm tall, the toy sword looked ridiculously small in her hands.

“Alright! If I see Seon, I’ll be sure to give it to him.”

“Good. And here, this one’s for you.”

I pulled out another ancient magical item from my subspace—a bottle filled with shimmering gray smoke.

Sip.

I took a quick drink first and then handed it to Katrina.

“Even a little bit is effective. Drink some yourself, then share a sip with everyone.”

“Huh? What is this?”

Gulp.

Still, she drank without complaint—that was Kitty’s charm.

“Ooooh?”

“It’s called a Spirit Chain. You won’t feel it just yet. Make sure everyone drinks.”

I turned and walked away.

And after going a little further, I began to feel it.

‘It’s started.’

I could sense the drinkers sharing the Spirit Chain among themselves.

The heated, drunken haze of their minds pressed into mine.

See, joy has this property: the more it’s shared, the greater it becomes. That was the idea behind the creation of the Spirit Chain.

It bound the minds of the intoxicated together, so they felt the same thing and rejoiced together.

It was similar to hearing a bard’s incredible song and being swept into collective emotion and happiness—but even more powerful, producing an overwhelming crowd effect.

Of course, since I was the first to drink....

‘Stay conscious. But keep the mood just right.’

With my mental strength, I controlled the rampaging energy of all those heavy drinkers.

“Ooooooh!”

“This is amazing!!”

Cheers of joy, voices united as one, rang in my ears.

Even if they got that carried away, as long as my firm will remained at the center, no accidents would happen.

---

Seon had gone to the fountain, but I wandered for quite a while.

I still wasn’t very familiar with Kinalo’s geography, and when I thought about it, there wasn’t just one fountain—there were several.

Still, after asking around, I managed to find the place.

But as expected, the kids were already gone.

Instead, a familiar face was standing among a group of strangely dressed people.

‘What the...? What kind of armor is that supposed to be?’

Their outfits resembled knights’ armor—but there was no trace of practicality.

‘Were those empty sections deliberately made so a sword could slice right through?’

‘And over there, one jab with a spear and—splat!—you’re done.’

Pretty.

Sure, they were pretty. But armor shaped like that sparked a visceral disgust in me.

And right in the middle—wearing armor that shone brighter than anyone else’s, armor that looked like it was begging for death—was our nineteen-year-old Mika Seitous.

...Was that also some kind of “Fifteen-Year-Old Syndrome”?

“Haa....”

I sighed without realizing it.

Mika.

This kid was like a sore finger to me.

The sole remaining bloodline of the Ducal House of Seitous.

But she hadn’t been alone from the beginning.

She once had an older brother.

Roy Seitous, who was the same age as me.

My best friend.

Back when I lived in the royal palace of Banroa, no—ever since I could remember—he had always been my childhood playmate within the palace.

He died.

Struck down in my place by Blood Count Delkash’s blow, in a gruesome death.

And Roy’s only little sister was Mika Seitous. It was only natural that I couldn’t help but feel drawn to her, that my eyes would always follow her.

But sadly, I could never really understand her.

How could she be so different from her brother....

Now she was conversing with that group of oddly dressed people.

No—was that even a conversation?

A boy in red armor spoke first.

“Keh keh, are you really this frightened already? As expected, the pampered princess knows nothing. Shall I show you what ‘true’ hell is?”

Then a girl in pink armor raised a fake sword and answered.

“How could you... being born in the mud is no excuse. Some people still bloom as lotus flowers in the mire!”

At that, a girl in black armor cut in at the perfect timing.

“There’s no time to waste on childish knight play. Red Knight, finish it here.”

And then, finally—my younger sibling, Mika Seitous, clad in that dazzling armor, covered her face with one hand and muttered.

“Huu.... You all.... If you don’t want to ‘regret’ it, then stop provoking the ‘justice’ within me....”

Ah.

I understood.

So this was that, wasn’t it? Something like a “knight roleplay.”

Sure, I could see that.

The minimum requirement to become a knight of Gloryland was Low-grade Sword Expert.

It was natural to admire those who wielded power surpassing ordinary humans.

And when that admiration went too far, I supposed you could end up mimicking them like this.

But Mika...

You were already a Mid-grade Sword Expert....

Tip: Tap/click the left or right side of the screen to go to previous/next chapter.