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036. After the festival
Our tough week is finally over.
We kept hunting bloody turkeys and hauling them to Nepia.
We ended up hunting 12 turkeys. After being drained, gutted and plucked they weigh around 600 kg on average. That’s 7.2 tons of turkey meat hauled to Nepia.
A large crowd was gathered in the square outside Iestuldam cathedral to see the results of the hunt.
The bloody turkey race finished 1 hour ago at noon.
The crowd was getting restless waiting for the results.
Eventually, a high ranking member of the church and Marquis Coke appeared on the stage.
“I will announce the winners of this year’s bloody turkey race.”
The people cheer at the words of the high priest while a heated feeling spreads through the crowd.
“Coming in at 5th place is number 17 at 684 kilos. Hunter Graham!”
The audience stamps its feet causing a dull rumble from the ground.
It’s quite powerful.
I got caught up in the atmosphere and stamped my foot as well.
The hunter named Graham climbed the platform and received a medal and some prize money.
Everyone was applauding him. He was getting quite the hero treatment.
“Coming in at 4th place……..”
The awards ceremony carries on like this and every time the next place is announced the fever of the crowd rises.
“And finally, coming in at 1st place is the adventurer party [White Berry] with a turkey weighing 967 kilos!”
The [White Berry] members came onto the stage.
Contrary to their cute name the party consisted of 5 muscular middle-aged guys.
“Our winter is over…”
Jean mutters a line you’d expect to hear from a high-school baseball player out of season.
Unfortunately, we didn’t win anything.
I placed my hand on Jean’s head and roughed up his hair.
“We can participate again next year and you can drive us hard again.”
“Of course. Prepare yourself ossan.”
His back is to me so I can’t see what expression he has on his face.
I wonder if he’s crying from regret.
I’ll leave him alone to his youthful tears.
“The award ceremony is now finished and on a final note I have something I want to announce.”
The crowd went silent at the high priest’s words.
“Though they didn’t catch a prize-winning turkey there was a party of 5 people that caught 12 bloody turkey’s. They seem to be a party of strong warriors.”
Jeans face which was looking down now rises.
“I’d like to announce them. They are the party [Phoenix company]”
“Uoooooooo!”
The monkey let out a roar.
“All right! That’s us!”
“Boy are you in [Phoenix Company]?”
“Yeah!”
Jean was grabbed by the people standing by him and delivered to the stage over people heads.
It was like crowd surfing at a live concert.
It’s fine if he goes.
We’ll let the raid captain have the honour.
That night [Phoenix Company] made a little bit of a name for itself in Nepia.
The prize-winning turkey was blessed by the saint and then distributed to underprivileged people like the homeless and orphans.
It was a nice thing to do.
Our turkeys netted us 600,000 rims. I wanted to do a celebratory feast but Meg and Kuro declined because they wanted to celebrate the festival with their families.
Since it couldn’t be helped I deducted the food costs and carriage rental then distributed the gold and dissolved the group for the day. Kuro was very surprised when he received an equal share.
I explained to both Kuro and the rest of the group why a porter got 80,000 rims.
“During the hunt, I watched Kuro at work and he was splendid. I want him to sign an exclusive contract with [Phoenix Company].”
“I am extremely grateful. Everybody is so kind and you don’t discriminate against me because of my race….”
“Then you should think of the money as a deposit and accept it.  If anyone has an objection please speak now.”
Nobody made an objection.
“Right. You are now part of [Phoenix Company]. I look forward to your hard work!”
“Best regards Kuro”
“Work hard…….”
“Uga.”
By the time it was over Kuro was crying.
With smiling faces, we finished the bloody turkey race.