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On a Corner During the Spring Announcement Festival
The last day of the 3rd month, 1547th year, Continental Calendar
“Granny, I’m here to bring spring!” a child cried.
“Oh, how good of you to come. Here, have a candy.”
This bright, sunny day was the day of the Spring Announcement Festival.
The children dressed up as fairies and handed out flowers to adults, and the adults gave them candy in return. The happy voices of children could be heard everywhere. In the city of Parnam which was celebrating the festival, the Lunarian Orthodox bishop Souji Lester was sitting at a balcony seat and tipping back a glass of wine.
“Sure is peaceful,” he remarked cheerfully. “Wine tastes best when you can drink it in the middle of the day, surrounded by the voices of children at play.”
“You enjoy drinking at any time of day, and you know it,” said the woman sitting across from him who was wearing a hood low over her eyes. This was the high elf, Merula Merlin, who had accompanied Souji to this country. “You’re a bishop, aren’t you, Souji? Is it okay for you to be getting hammered on a festival day?”
“When the bishop’s away, the people will play. It’s best for the believers in this country if I’m not motivated to act on orders from the homeland. I’ve gotta be properly lazy.”
“You can make anything sound innocuous if you word it right...”
While Merula took a sip of her wine with an exasperated look on her face, Souji laughed heartily.
“Why don’t you go join in the festival, then? With your mostly curveless body, I’ll bet you could get them to give you candy.”
“Who’re you saying has the body of a child?! I’m too tall, so it obviously wouldn’t work!”
“Well, if you had the height of a child, too, this place wouldn’t let you drink.”
While mollifying the angry Merula, Souji looked out towards the street.
Maybe because of the festive atmosphere, the people coming and going all seemed excited somehow. It was a peaceful scene, but just how many of them were followers of Lunarian Orthodoxy? In the Orthodox Papal State where they were constrained by the teachings of the church and placed great weight on maintaining appearances, the Spring Announcement Festival had never been this big of an event.
Honestly... It makes you question which of our countries is really the one blessed by God. Souji smiled wryly as he tipped back his drink.
Then he noticed a pair who stood out a little bit from the crowd approaching from across the street.
“It sure is lively,” the girl said. “Oh, Hal, what do you think that stall is for?”
“Whoa, Kaede, don’t pull so hard!”
The young officer with distinctive red hair was being pulled along by the hand by a bespectacled beastman girl with fox ears. It was Halbert and Kaede. These two had been training aboard the Hiryuu until the other day, but they had returned to the royal capital for their first extended vacation in a while.
Halbert scratched his head and sighed. “Honestly, it’s a rare day off, so I wish you’d let me take a break. I’m exhausted from days and days of hard training, okay?”
“It’s because this is a rare day off that we have to use it to its fullest, you know?” Kaede asked.
“Look, that might be fine for you, since you do mental labor...”
“Oh? You aren’t having fun with me, Hal?”
When Kaede asked that with upturned eyes, Halbert looked away shyly.
“I-I never said that...”
“Well, that’s good, you know. I’m always making you follow harsh orders, so I wanted to make sure you have all the fun you can today, you know.”
Kaede wrapped herself around Hal’s arm. When his adorable childhood friend pressed up so close to him that he could feel her body warmth, Halbert wasn’t entirely displeased with the situation.
“...Sigh. If only you could be this cute during training.”
“Hee hee! Then do you want me to cling to you like this in training, too?”
“Stop it. The jealous glares I get from the other guys are bad enough as it is.”
Halbert was with Kaede, who had become like the idol of the National Defense Force, a lot, so he was confronted with jealous glares from the other men on an everyday basis. They knew each other because their families were close, and Halbert and Kaede were both thinking it was about time they got engaged, but Halbert felt a pain in his stomach whenever he thought about having to announce it.
“The dratroopers who serve under me are always teasing me about it, too. It’s a real problem.”
“Hee hee, it just goes to show what a lucky guy you are, you know,” Kaede said playfully.
Halbert couldn’t say anything in response.
Souji, who had been listening in one their conversation, smiled wryly. Hey, Bro, the way things are going, she’s going to have you so whipped in the future.
Souji downed the rest of his glass.
But, well, even the king is so beholden to his fiancĂ©es that he has to spend his day off currying their favor. Maybe the women having the upper hand in marriages here is typical of this country. Man, I wouldn’t want that to happen to me.
While Souji was pitying Halbert, Merula looked at him with disdain. “What are you grinning about?”
“Hm? Oh, nothing much. Just thinking that the bachelor’s life is nice and easy, that’s all.”
Then Souji poured himself another glass.