Chapter 41
Festival Preparation
While walking at a leisurely pace as per usual, we headed for the village
On the way there, however, we decided to do a bit of work.
And by work, I mean wantonly exterminating slimes.
Slimes appear, we kill them; simple as that.
“Everyone, defeat all the slimes you find so we can get their magic stones.”
To even out the cost of five people dining out, we’d have to kill approximately twenty-five slimes. One is worth around two hundred gold. The magic stones we get from them are about two hundred j.a.panese yen each.
The restaurants and stores in the village are not at all high end, so one person can probably dine out for one thousand gold or so, if you include the costs of drinks, etc. I would like to earn a bit more. It’s not Like I’m particularly worried about money, but I might as well spend the money I earn on the same day.
“If it’s a slime we’re talking about, even I can defeat it~”
Harukara, like she was doing some exercise routine, went to strike the slime.
But Farufa stopped her from doing so.
“Big sis Harukara, this is a good slime; defeating it would be a bad thing.”
“Eh, is that so.. ?”
“That’s right. Those other two slimes are bad, so it’s good if you kill them instead.”
“Umm… This one?”
“Not that one! That’s a good slime!”
“It’s hard to tell them apart..”
I am also not too confident about differentiating between good and bad slimes.
“Harukara-san, slimes with pale colors are bad. Darker colors are good. You should remember it like that.”
“I understand where Sharusha-chan is coming from. It’s hard to distinguish their hue…”
Nevertheless, a decent amount of slimes were exterminated. We were able to beat a total of thirty-eight slimes.
With this, it should be enough to cover the costs of eating at a restaurant.
Also, as we arrived at Futara village, we saw that various places were adorned with decorations.
A colorful cloth was pasted onto the walls. Even the village streets looked decorated.
“Ah, that’s right. It’s almost time for the Dancing Festival.”[1]
I recalled that event.
The Dancing Festival is a traditional festival held in Furata village. Although I say traditional, there wasn’t any sort of custom back when I first started living near here.
Approximately 250 years ago, they established it. I guess, from the sense of a normal person, an event existing over the course of 250 years is considered traditional.
“Azusa-sama, what kind of festival is this?”
Leica has never seen it before, so she wouldn’t know..
“You can freely partic.i.p.ate in the village square. The dance isn’t too hard to do, so just try your best to match with the music and have fun. Of course, if you don’t want to dance, there’s always the food stands; it’s fun for anyone.”
“I see. It has such folk customs. Quite interesting.”
Originally, it was intended as a harvest offering event to the G.o.d of Earth. But the people who organized it for that purpose are long gone.”
Exercising is a good stress-reliever. From dancing all day long, I felt a renewed sense of energy. ‘I’ll do my best again,’ it made me think.
“Ah, isn’t this Majo-sama’s party?”[2]
The old man who was always selling b.u.t.ter called out to us. He was also working on putting up a colorful cloth on his wall.
“It’s almost time for the festival.”
“Right, it is. Wait, won’t
Majo-sama be doing something for the festival as well? Majo-sama’s event would be warmly received. But of course, simply having you visit makes us happy.”
“Ah~ I see. But~, I’ll have to refrain from directly taking part in the festival. If I did, the festival would just end up taking my lead..”
In other words, the independence of this village would be lost.
I am a witch who has lived before this festival’s inception. Such an existence appearing during the festival would likely apprehend people with fear of speaking out of turn. If that were to happen, the festival would be one where the villagers all conform to the witch’s whims.
Since I don’t want to control the village myself, I stuck to a more neutral, observer stance. All I can do is dance with the residents and eat from the stalls.
However, the situation is different this time around.
“The festival looks fun! Will another candy stall appear, I wonder!?”
“You can feel the village’s nature from the festival. The research went into the festival is also pretty important, historically.”[3]
Both Farufa and Sharusha have shown interest. There’s a big gap in where their interests lie, however.
“A festival? I usually sold special drinks at elven festivals for some income. When I put a vegetable drink that curbed hangovers, it sold like hotcakes.Maybe I should see to it doing it again. Because it’s a festival, even if the price mark up is high, it’ll still sell. Huh, this is quite the profitable business opportunity.”
Harukara’s memories of it were impure, but at least it was festive.
Also, Leica was gazing at the scenery of the festival preparations.
The size of my family had suddenly increased.
Since I had the occasion, let’s revise my relation with this festival.
Serving food as a family would be a high hurdle, nonetheless. And it would certainly eat up a bunch of our time; my family would hardly be able to enjoy the festival like normal. It would be putting the cart before the horse.
I wonder if there’s a middle ground.
“Majo-sama, might I remind you there is also a pre-festival. It would be good if you did something then,” The old man who sold b.u.t.ter said.
“I guess so. In that case, it wouldn’t overlap with my time at the main festival.”
Not responding with my direct answer, I instead told them of my favorite restaurant, “Elegant Eagle”, and everyone ate an extravagant dinner.
Roasted duck meat is in season, and the way they cooked it is perfect. Even me, who isn’t one to drink much alcohol, drank. Harukara also drank, albeit excessively.
“Harukara, drinking is well and fine, but don’t black out before the wedding ceremony.”
“I unconsciously likened this drink to fruit wine. Even I can make a lot of vegetable drinks by myself.”[4]
Harukara, being an elf apothecary, has considerable knowledge concerning that. Even if not for medical use, she could make something suitable.
Then, at that moment, it occurred to me.
“Hey, Harukara, can you really make non-alcoholic drinks? And various types of it as well?”
“Yes, even with just the fruits in the nearby forest. I made several prototypes, and managed to produce a more health-conscious mushroom extract.”
Then, it seems like my plan will work.
“Let’s do a cafe, “Witch’s House”, during the pre-festival!”
Footnotes:
1. 踊り祭り [odori masturi] literally translated as “dancing festival.” Look at this: get the general idea of what it is.
2. From now on, I’ll be using Majo-sama instead of Witch-sama, only because I thought Witch-sama sounded weird. Just remember Majo-sama is always referring to Azusa in this novel.
3. Just going to put it out there that Sharusha uses a different type of word for festival. While everyone else uses 祭り [matsuri], Sharusha uses 祭礼 [sairei] which also means festival, but usually has a religious side to it, like Easter and Lent.
4. If you actually don’t know what this is, …… it’s a veggie drink. Sorry, we use ADVANCED vocabulary, but using veggie really irks me.