Chapter 201

And so, we enjoyed the autumn festival for several days.

Festival booths filled the academy streets.

Besides the booths put on by the academy, I spotted booths run by outside vendors here and there.

Was this what it meant to be the best on the continent?

Even the scale of its festival put Grandia Academy above every other academy on the continent.

Thanks to that, the students could enjoy the autumn festival the entire time without getting bored.

"Ahem, shall we head over there next?"

"Wow...! There are so many amazing things!"

"Let's try everything we see."

"This is so exciting! Dad, Lua wants to try that one first!"

I threw myself into it.

After all, I had a goal to achieve during this festival.

Ding-!

[Bonus Quest]

-Title: Welcome to the Autumn Festival!

-Details: Clear 100 or more booths featured in the autumn festival. An additional reward is available for a perfect clear.

-Penalty upon Failure: None

-Reward: ???

[Time Limit: 5 days 9 hours 14 minutes]

[Progress: 31/100]

It was an incredibly generous quest.

Just enjoying the festival meant rewards were waiting for me.

It felt like a reward for all my hard work after spending so much time busy stopping the Cult and the New Kingdom.

'Yeah, I'll rest until this festival is over.'

You had to enjoy the good times while you could.

I pushed aside my stray thoughts and gave myself over to a short vacation.

"What? You seem weirdly more excited than usual."

"Do I? Maybe I am."

"Yeah, it's annoying."

"Why are you annoyed?"

"Just because. It pisses me off thinking about how you'll be grinning like an idiot behind that mask."

"Every time you say something like that, I'm reminded what a wonderful personality you have."

Of course, I wasn't happy just because the quest was easy.

I'd always longed for events with this sort of youthful feeling.

Maybe it was a lingering regret from my previous life.

Slowly, I cleared the booths one by one with the others.

"Dad! I want that rabbit up there!"

"It's the prize for a card game. Shall we try it?"

No matter the kind of game, I'd always been quick to adapt, even in my previous life.

That meant I could clear festival booths like these without any trouble.

Shuffle-

The cards flew between my hands.

As though I were facing off against the booth attendant, I shuffled the cards with flashy movements.

After only a few tries, I won the prize Lua wanted.

"Congratulations! You may take the third-place prize!"

"Here, this is a present for Lua."

"You're the best, Dad!"

Lua jumped around in delight as I handed her the large rabbit doll.

She looked adorable holding a doll half her size.

"Mhehehe!"

Overcome with affection, I stroked her black hair.

Lua laughed brightly and rubbed her cheek against my hand.

This was healing. I practically melted as we continued down the street.

"I'll treasure it forever! Because it's a present Dad gave me!"

"Our Lua really knows how to say pretty things."

"I learned it from Dad!"

"That's strange. If she learned it from this bastard, she shouldn't be like that."

"Miss Caitlin, quiet."

"L-Lua... Still, you shouldn't learn from S-Sir Viktor. Okay...?"

"Even Miss Alice?"

The season came alive amid all the bustle.

The autumn breeze was cool.

"Shall we try this booth too? It says it's a lottery."

"Welcome! This is the Shameless Lottery!"

There were booths run by crooks from time to time.

One booth called itself a lottery, but had set things up so the expensive first-place prize could never be drawn.

'There was a booth like this in the original festival too...'

For people like that, I personally taught them a lesson by using a bug.

I forcibly drew the first-place tickets that had been set not to come out.

The attendant's shaken expression was a masterpiece.

"Oh, first place."

"How did you...! C-congratulations! You won first place!"

"Another first place."

"What...?!"

"Oh, first place again."

"Th-this can't be...!"

"First place this time too."

"I-it's rigged! There are only eight first-place tickets among eight thousand, there's no way you could draw seven in a row...!"

"Yes, the last first-place prize."

"St-student council! This needs to be inspected by the student council...!"

Naturally, there was no way for the bug exploit to be caught.

It was a cheat that left no trace.

Instead, the attendant who had called the student council received a penalty.

The manipulated odds hidden in the lottery box had been exposed.

"Th-this makes no sense! You drew first place eight times in a row from a box with rigged odds! If that isn't fraud, what is...?!"

"I won't see you out. Good work."

Thanks to that, I picked up eight first-place prizes at once.

They were small cases, so I just tossed them into my inventory.

Thus, we kept clearing booths without a hitch.

The others and I took down everything we saw, one at a time.

"Hm! This time, I'll give it a try!"

"A strong-liquor drinking contest... It certainly is the perfect booth for Miss Ranne."

I avoided using bugs whenever possible.

Using one would end things quickly, but I wanted to simply enjoy this moment more than anything.

Every one of them had a booth that suited them.

Working together, we gradually conquered the autumn festival.

"Whew, that was tough, tough..."

"Good work, Miss Caitlin. You really did defeat the faculty booth."

Caitlin's event was a sprint.

Her legs had always been fast, but now she was considered the fastest in the academy.

'When it comes to instantaneous speed, she might even be faster than Javert...'

She had grown frighteningly strong over the past few months.

She had become a sprinter I could confidently trust to watch my back.

Proud of her, I stroked her head.

She took it so well, she looked ready to die.

"Student Viktor, I think I'll try this one."

"...Are you sure?"

"I'm fine. I won't get hurt over something like a punch machine."

"Hm."

No, I was worried about the punch machine, not you, Investigator.

Naturally, the crude machine couldn't withstand Javert's strength.

She received the first-place prize alongside the half-destroyed machine.

"S-Sir Viktor... I want to t-try this..."

"It's a summoned-beast wrestling match? This booth was made for Miss Alice."

Alice proceeded to steamroll the booth.

Even the faculty's summoned beasts couldn't stop the dream soldiers.

"Viktor. I want to do that one."

"A staring-into-space contest...?"

"Yeah."

"Lady Glacia, I'm sure you'd take first place with room to spare."

"Come with me. I don't want to go alone."

"Of course."

Her blue eyes blinked blankly.

Rin set a tremendous record of two hours and forty-six minutes of staring into space.

She hadn't even stopped on her own. The booth attendant surrendered and called it off.

[I shall only watch.]

'You have to stay in bat form, after all. I wanted you to enjoy it with us too, Princess. That's a shame.'

[Being with you like this is enough, Viktor. Every day has felt like a festival to me lately.]

'I'm glad to hear you say that. Shall we buy some red fruit drink over there?'

[Hehe, a good idea.]

The princess poked her head out from my uniform's front pocket.

She seemed to be enjoying this time. Every so often, she tapped my chest with her tiny wings.

'Peaceful.'

The days of the festival passed one after another.

Ordinary, happy scenes.

Along with them, the quest progress steadily rose.

[Time Limit: 3 days 15 hours 48 minutes]

[Progress: 53/100]

[Time Limit: 2 days 3 hours 19 minutes]

[Progress: 66/100]

[Time Limit: 1 day 9 hours 31 minutes]

[Progress: 84/100]

[Time Limit: 10 hours 14 minutes]

[Progress: 99/100]

'Everything's going smoothly.'

At one of the last booths, I ran into an unexpected face.

It was a shaved-ice booth.

A blue-haired young man stood inside.

His gaze was icy, and the temperature around him was so cold it felt lifeless.

"Professor Valteric?"

"Top student of Class E."

Valteric Glacia.

Rin's older brother, and one of Grandia's faculty members.

Since it was festival season, he seemed to have been forced into it.

'An ice mage serving shaved ice...?'

A booth that had only existed in my imagination had become reality.

Of course, Rin would surely be self-conscious around him, so I went over alone and got the shaved ice.

"Eight shaved ices."

"Pay."

"I don't want to."

"Then I cannot give them to you."

"I'm shaking you down, so just hand them over quietly."

"Shaking me down? You dare do that to a faculty member?"

"Want me to play baseball with you again?"

"..."

The young man promptly shut his mouth.

I gave him a brief warning.

"Watch yourself. Eight shaved ices."

"...There are three flavors."

"Two strawberry, three apple, and three grape."

"I'll prepare them shortly."

"You haven't been approaching Lady Glacia lately, right? If I catch you sneaking up on her, I'll make you dance naked. Seriously."

"I haven't gone anywhere near her. Please take them and leave already."

"What about the money?"

"You don't need any. I'll pay for it."

Thus, I successfully shook him down.

As soon as I received the shaved ice, a familiar mechanical sound rang in my ears.

Ding-!

[You have completed the bonus quest!]

-Title: Welcome to the Autumn Festival!

-Details: Clear 100 or more booths featured in the autumn festival. An additional reward is available for a perfect clear.

[You have successfully cleared the festival!]

-A reward will be provided. Please check your status window.

Ding-!

[You have completed the linked quest!]

-Title: Perfect Clear!

-Details: Achieve a perfect clear of the bonus quest, 'Welcome to the Autumn Festival!'

[You have cleared the quest perfectly!]

-An additional reward will be provided. Please check your status window.

Blue screens floated before my eyes.

I grinned.

'Good.'

Now then.

Shall I open the rewards while I eat?

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