Chapter 866: Grow Taller
The festival of the fire G.o.d was less ceremonial than the festival of the earth G.o.ddess. When Julian and Rowena left the inn to have some fun and arrived at the city"s center, they saw numerous kids still running across the streets and chasing after one another.
"Boo!" A kid suddenly stopped in front of Julian and Rowena. Like the others, the young boy wore a dark mask. It depicted a form of a scary creature and almost blended into the darkness except for the boy"s eyes.
"Boo?" Julian chuckled. "I"m a lot more intimidating than some kid with a mask."
"Now, now Julian." Rowena laughed and looked at the much shorter kid. "I think I remembered the legend that Tel told us. The darkness was chased away by the powerful fire G.o.d, and it seems like we"ve been trapped."
"Yes!" The boy agreed with Rowena, caught himself, and then pointed fiercely at Julian. "You have been consumed by the darkness and gone mad! There is no G.o.d around here to save you."
"Oh really? You must be blind." Julian chuckled.
"Huh?" the boy blinked. "There"s no fire G.o.d here."
"Correct, but you haven"t seen my friend beside me," Julian gestured at Rowena. "Isn"t she powerful enough to be a G.o.ddess! Shoo!"
The young boy looked up at Rowena and realized that she was indeed very beautiful. Far more beautiful than any other person he"d met in his young life and he looked back at Julian. He pouted beneath his mask and said. "Okay, old man. I"ll let you go."
"Old man?" Julian"s eyes widened and he seemed offended.
"But she"s coming with me!" the boy naughtily grinned and grabbed Rowena"s hand. "Come with me, Miss Fairy!"
Rowena giggled and went along with the child. "Alright, that makes sense. Let"s go!"
"Oi!" Julian chased after them and chuckled. "That"s not how the story works, kid!"
He looked around through the crowd of children and finally saw a young girl that wore a golden mask with flames. "Aha! Come with me!"
Once Julian tracked Rowena and the dark-masked boy around the city"s food stalls, he made the young brat face the girl with the golden mask and successfully recovered his friend. "Phew, you shouldn"t go with random strangers, even if they"re younger than you."
"He was a cute kid." Rowena chuckled. "No harm done since we"re at the festival with a lot of people. If we"re going with your logic, you shouldn"t have suddenly forced the girl to come with you."
"Oh, she was more than happy to come with me." Julian ran his fingers through his hair and grinned proudly. "She called me a handsome big brother compared to that rascal"s terrible nonsense of calling me old man."
Rowena laughed some more and wiped a couple of tears from her eyes. "Well, I"m just glad that we vanquishe
d the darkness then. Shall we go get some food now? I"m so glad that our stall was far away from here."
"So you wouldn"t get distracted with food?" Julian chuckled.
"No, so you wouldn"t drool like a dog," Rowena answered right back with a cheeky grin as she looked ahead. "I think I smelled some barbecue over there… and let"s get some candied apples too, alright?"
"Of course, I"m starving!"
When the sun finally rose up and announced the arrival of the morning and the end of last night"s revelry and joyful activities, both Rowena and Julian had their big share of fun in the city"s festival and were thoroughly happy.
However, it was finally time for them to leave.
They were going to head on to their next adventure, so they did and traveled to their future destination. As promised, Rowena"s gleaned knowledge from her studies back in Ashland from different tutors and her visits to the library proved incredibly useful.
Julian and Rowena arrived in their destination city with no hiccups at all thanks to Rowena"s well-crafted plans and skills with the coin.
Similar to the city of Kilshade, the two young people invested in their magical shows and immersed themselves in a spectacular show that wowed numerous people.
Of course, it was impossible to not have problems.
There were people who sometimes caught on to the trick fast, the very intelligent and careful spectators, and both Rowena and Julian took flight and left before any other issues could spring up.
However, they learned from their mistakes and as time pa.s.sed, they grew smarter and became more skilled. The two were able to learn from each other through the pa.s.sage of time.
Both Rowena and Julian shared their strengths while they also guarded their backs and made up for one another"s weaknesses.
They grew even craftier and came up with more tricks on their own. It was actually very exciting to use their brains and figure out how well they could get away with things.
Sometimes, it wasn"t even the money anymore and just the fun they were having. It was like they were playing games.
The two soon arrived in a forest and similar to before, Rowena needed to get changed.
"Today, you"ll be wearing that fancy dress we got you, right?" Julian asked as he petted Cinna and turned his back away from Rowena.
"It"s not actually as fancy as you think," Rowena called out to him from behind her tree.
"I know, but it"s what we could afford… luckily, the one wearing the dress certainly makes the simplest of garments into rich-looking fabrics." Julian chuckled. "Isn"t that right, Hades?"
Hades neighed and stomped his hooves in what seemed to be an
agreement.
"Best save your flattery when we get to the city, Julian," Rowena said as she smoothed the dress she wore. "I can"t believe I have to wear something like this again."
"Well, you have to look the part," Julian said.
She stepped out from the tree. "Okay, what do you think?"
Julian"s eyes widened for a moment. "Rowena…"
"What?"
Julian sauntered over and patted her head. "Did you just grow taller?"
Rowena swatted his hand away. "Don"t mess with my hair, barbarian."
"Haha, I think we"re ready."