The next morning kouko is woken up by octan who had already woken up seemingly a while ago. "wake up already we're going to miss breakfast." said octan. "who cares about breakfast anyway." said a sleepy kouko while yawning. "I do, their food is pretty good I really don't want to miss it." said octan. "come on, Lena could easily give them a run for their money," said kouko as she slowly woke up. Octan didn't reply to her last sentence and instead just stared at her as she just woke up. her bed hair was absolutely terrible, one eye was half closed while the other was fully closed, and her clothes were a mess. "how badly do you throw around in your sleep?" said octan mockingly, and as a reply kouko nervously laughed.
"I'm gonna go check on Lena" said kouko right before they left for the inn's restaurant. "ok" octan replied without a hint of care. kouko went to knock on Lena's door and the answer was seemingly immediate, it didn't even take her 10 seconds to open the door. "oh, you're awake." said kouko with a surprised look. Lena's face looked terrible with her bed hair being absolutely terrible, one of her eyes was half closed while the other was fully closed, and her clothes were a mess, she had either just woke up and immediately gone to answer panicked or just decided she's too lazy. "didn't I do your hair just yesterday come on now!!" said kouko in a slightly angry tone. "s-sorry" replied lena while looking away. "*sigh* don't worry about it, just get prepared we're gonna head to breakfast," said kouko while tilting her head down. with a smile, lena nods and closes the door.
After breakfast kouko and Octan leave for town while Lena stays behind in the resturant. she had arrived a bit late so she hadn't been done yet, kouko did remind her of the festival as she left so Lena was happy she cared. But there was a problem. Kouko had told lena about the festival, but she didn't tell her where it is, so that had lena going all around town asking people where it's at. At some point she asked a woman who was with her 2 children, one was a little girl who looks about 6 while the other was still a toddler she was holding who is most probably under a year, the woman told lena that she too is heading to the festival so she could come with them if she wants. Lena agreed while thanking the woman.
on the way there the 6-year-old girl tries talking to Lena "hello miss." said the girl while she slowly got herself closer to lena. "ah, please call me lena." said lena surprised by her sudden approach. "lena, are you going to the festival too?" said the little girl. "yup, it's gonna be my first time you know." replied lena. "first time?!?! really?!?!" said the surprised little girl. "yeah, where I'm from we didn't have much money to have festivals so they never happened." said lena. "oh....and you lived there without festivals forever?" said the girl. "well not forever, I did leave 4 years ago." replied kouko. "4 years?!?! why?!" said the girl surprised again. "well... "why" surely is a deep question haha... if I'm gonna answer that only thing I can say is. I found my own thing that I want to stay with and protect how about that." said lena as she got completely ignored by the girl who was excited to ask her the next question.
"wait miss are you an adventurer!!!!!!" said the girl impatiently wanting answers. "well not an adventurer by I do adventure I guess, I live mostly in the woods camping while we defeat monsters and stuff I guess." said Lena feeling bad for stealing octan's credit. "ooooooo, that's so cool Lena please tell me have u defeated a big monster before like a giant or leviathan or the demon lord himself??????" said the girl impatiently again. "w-well we did defeat that one dragon once," said lena overwhelmed by the girl's excitement. "a-a-a A DRAGON!!!!" the girl suddenly shouted "hey don't shout krito" quickly said the mother to the little girl. "y-yeah and we also did defeat a lake monster once but not really a leviathan, but if I would talk about that one adventure I would highlight how beautiful the lake was." said lena. "anything else??? any other big achievement you've done in your 4 years?" said the girl excited. "well there is alot but I don't think we have time." said lena. "t-then how about i be your teacher for the day and in return you tell me more about what you did??" requested the girl. "what? what do you mean?" said lena confused. "it's your first time in a festival right?" said the girl "right" Lena replied, "Then how about I be your teacher for the day and show you around and in return, you tell me about your adventures while going around the festival?" suggested the girl. Lena didn't want to disturb their family outing so she looked at the mother who gave her a nod with a smile and giggle(the baby was asleep). Lena excited then replied "sure!!"
Octan and kouko are walking around town with no goal at the moment when they pass by a food stand. "oh I want some." kouko said on impulse. "sure why not." octan said as he moved towards the stand and kouko followed. while waiting for their food to be done to the right of them is a man with his little daughter buying some food for themselves, octan looked at them then asked kouko "how is lena?". kouko who was absolutely surprised by his answer replied after some time " l-lena? THE lena right?" asked kouko to assure herself. "yeah." replied octan as if nothing was wrong. "well she is supposed to be at the festival today so I guess there. "said kouko. "the festival? does she even have any money?" asked octan. "I gave her some yesterday so she could enjoy it, she was overjoyed." said kouko. "huh, so that girl actually cares about stuff, actually this would be her first festival huh." said octan.
kouko was still amazed by the fact that octan actually asked about Lena. the person she saw had changed, but not enough. "wanna go see her how she's doing?" asked kouko which got her reply shortly after "sure.". after taking their food they headed to the festival and walked around to search for lena. A bit of searching later and they finally find lena. She's bending her legs down to reach a little girl's height who is using magic to control a puppet. it's a simple trick that anyone can do yet lena is astonished by how perfectly the puppet is moving on its own. the sight of an 18-year-old girl getting lectured by a 6-year-old then plays out. "o-oooh so that is how." lena said still surprised at the fact that a puppet can move its own. "i can't believe this is the same girl that watched a village slaughter its own." said octan recalling something that happened during their ventures. "t-that happened?" a terrified kouko said as she slowly turned her head towards octan. "don't worry about it." said octan with the hint of a smile on his face as he looked at lena.