Chapter 53
“Thanks to you, I can worry a little less.”
Estelle was the type of person who would never tell me if something happened.
She liked to handle things on her own—it was part of her independent nature.
But it was also because she didn’t want me to worry about her.
I had worried that, if something serious happened, she wouldn’t tell me and would suffer alone.
I had been afraid I wouldn’t be able to help.
It was truly a relief.
‘As expected—cold on the outside but warm on the inside. A good person.’
I turned my head and looked at him.
“Thank you.”
Then I looked straight into his eyes and smiled brightly.
“…….”
At that moment, a cool autumn breeze blew.
It brushed past my hand holding the bouquet and ruffled his hair.
In an instant, the wind had passed.
And at the same time, it felt as if time had stopped, and the surroundings fell into a quiet stillness.
Thanks to the street stall we used being not far from the square’s entrance, we arrived quickly.
“All right. The start is always important. Let’s experience this step by step from here. I’ll tell you everything except what I don’t know myself.”
I was about to reveal the fun elements of the festival that I hadn’t told Estelle yet!
Raising both my arms, I said to him.
Yet, despite my words, I felt a little impatient.
The time I had was very limited.
Today was the second day of the festival.
Which meant that Estelle’s Beautiful Produce Competition would be held in the afternoon.
‘Originally, the plan was to leisurely spend time with the children and watch the competition…’
But now, a schedule of giving Claude an impressive festival tour had been added.
I had volunteered, so I had no complaints, but if we wanted to get to the competition on time, it would be a little tight.
But who am I?
A proud former citizen of South Korea!
As everyone knows, the purpose of Korean travel or tourism is to get the most out of it.
The more remote the country and the larger its territory, the more impressive the travel itinerary we create in just a few days.
Compared to that, a town festival tour like this was a piece of cake.
‘All right. It’s about time to grab a light snack, so let’s head to the bakery at the entrance of the square. I’ll get the festival-limited leaf bread. Oh, I should get enough for Estelle too. Then we’ll go to the fruit shop next door for the special festival persimmon juice, freshly made by the owner only at this time. After that, we’ll go to the toy archery game across the street. I’ll show him how it’s different this year…’
I mentally mapped out where to go and what to do at each stop.
Once I had completed the perfect plan that Claude didn’t know yet,
I looked at him with a face full of determination.
“All right, let’s go. We don’t have much time.”
Then I clenched my fists and said to him:
“You know, right? The Beautiful Produce Competition that Estelle is participating in is this afternoon. We have to see it!”
“Wow! That was really fun, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, indeed.”
Claude smiled lightly.
He usually smiled so faintly that it was hard to tell if he was actually smiling.
But this time, his smile was bright enough for anyone to see that he was happy.
‘What? He can actually smile like this?’
Seeing his radiant smile for the first time, I grinned widely as well.
As he said he had never enjoyed a festival before, Claude truly didn’t know anything.
He didn’t know that the bakery we visited first was famous for its bread. Or that the fruit shop usually didn’t make juice.
And he certainly didn’t know that he had a talent not just for real archery but even for toy arrows.
“Ugh, I can’t hit it again!”
I shouted, tossing the arrow I was holding.
This place was a toy shop.
During the festival, a game was held where people could throw toy arrows for points, with several prizes up for grabs.
While most of the prizes changed every year, the teddy bear remained a permanent prize.
The reason was simple.
“Please, let me win that bear next time too!”
When I first enjoyed the festival with Mr. and Mrs. Morris, I had begged the shop owner to make sure I could win that bear next time.
‘And even now, I still haven’t won…’
The only consolation was that the bear was no longer trendy, so no one else seemed interested.
Yet, every festival, I felt restless.
The relief that no one had taken it yet, but the despair that despite trying so many times, the bear still wasn’t mine.
“How can I fail ten shots in a row?”
Even though my body had changed, my spirit was from a nation descended from Jumong, genuinely devoted to archery.
I clutched my head in despair.
“Oh no. Another miss.”
“……uhhh.”
“Don’t cry, Reina. When this festival ends, I’ll just give it to you.”
How sympathetic must the owner have been to offer that, despite being so frugal?
Yet somehow, those words hurt even more.
“……It’s okay. I’ll win next time. And someone else might want the bear more than me…”
I said, my voice deflated. The owner looked at me with pity.
“That teddy bear. Is that right?”
At that moment, a whistling sound cut through the air beside me.
Thunk!
All ten arrows hit the center of the target with a tremendous noise.
“Can I get that bear with that score?”
“W-what…!”
The shop owner and I were dumbfounded.
We had visited here every festival since the Morris couple was alive.
We had never seen anything like this.
“All ten right in the center… the target’s even punctured! And it’s rubber, too!”
The owner ran to inspect the target, shouting.
‘Is he crazy?’
How did he pierce rubber? With toy arrows?
No, maybe it’s a good thing they were toy arrows; otherwise, he might have pierced the wall.
“Do you need more points?”
But Claude didn’t even seem to care about piercing the rubber.
He calmly asked the shop owner a question as if nothing had happened.
Then it happened.
“You!”
The owner threw the target aside and ran to Claude.
Grabbing his hand, he shouted:
“I just got a new sales idea! Can you work here until the festival ends? Competing with you will excite people’s pride even more than hitting the target! We’ll make a fortune!”
The shop owner’s eyes shone brightly.
“No, you can’t!”
I knew who this person was!
Though I couldn’t say it aloud, I desperately tried to stop him.
Even if he was obsessed with toys and ignorant of the world, I couldn’t let the Duke of Xenofescia and Captain of the Imperial Knights play toy arrow competitions.
I finally freed the owner’s hand and grabbed Claude’s hand.
Then we ran with all our strength to get out of there.
“No! Don’t go!”
I ignored the desperate shouts of the man behind us.
‘He was really amazing.’
I looked at the teddy bear in Claude’s hand.
It had looked quite large when it was a prize, but in his hand, it looked so small.
Maybe it was because he held it by the back of its neck.
Even though it wasn’t alive, the bear’s face seemed strangely terrified, like a prey animal being watched by a predator.
‘…It’s just my imagination.’
It must be.
A lot had happened after that.
We went to a game to pop water balloons with darts, and Claude popped all the balloons with a single kick.
We encountered a troupe that used illusions, but they turned out to be pickpockets, and they were arrested on the spot.
Even more unbelievable, every store owner tried to recruit Claude wherever he went.
Even the pickpocket group that the military police were dragging away.
‘I’m usually enjoying the festival, so why am I so exhausted?’
I felt completely drained.
So much had happened that I felt as if I had burned myself out completely.
