(Be warned that there will be some violent scenes in this and probably the next few chapters that might not be to everyone's liking.)
There was an awkward silence in the carriage for only a moment before Miel spoke and entertained Eliz by talking about everything and nothing. The mood quickly improved again as if the previous conversation had never happened.
So the journey passed quickly, and they found themselves in the capital. Few carriages were heading out of the capital; most were heading into the city, which congested traffic. The capital even had to impose a no-stopping zone for more than ten minutes these days to avoid stopping traffic for longer.
So when they arrived on the main street, everyone jumped out of the carriages, immediately leaving to be replaced by others. Eliz watched this amusedly for a moment because it reminded her of the madness at the station when you're afraid the train will leave with you before you can get off.
Miel turned to Eliz and looked behind her, beyond her team of four, for a moment before turning his eyes back to her. "Shall we go? We've got a bit further to go before we reach Sun Alley, where all the glory happens," he said, offering his arm to Eliz.
Eliz nodded and accepted his arm, and they stepped out. Sun Alley was the longest street in the entire city and stretched from the beginning of the main street almost to the royal palace. Eliz didn't know how long it was, but she guessed it was a few miles long.
A team of Boulders spread around them to protect them from the sides and back but left the way forward clear. Miel looked around. "Are they going to follow us like this the whole time?" he asked.
Eliz looked around as well. She didn't mind; she felt protected and liked not having to tell them what to do. "We'll just keep one with us when we get there," Eliz promised him.
"Oh! Do we get the day off?" Haidi asked excitedly, squeaking closer to them. Eliz looked at her and nodded. "Yes. I think it's okay for you guys to take turns and have some fun too."
"No need for that, my lady," Alarr said coldly.
Haidi was saddened a little when she heard that. Eliz, however, shook her head. "It's alright. I don't expect any trouble. A little rest is fine."
"That's not what I meant. We don't have any money," Alarr explained calmly.
Eliz blinked, and Miel beside her chuckled. She nudged him with her elbow. "I see. Wait a minute." Eliz paused, then pulled money from her ring to give each of them a few gold coins. "Now that's settled. Think of it as a little bonus," Eliz told them as the four of them looked at the gold coins they had been given.
"My lady, you are too generous to us," Holm said, and Raiana nodded.
Alarr again looked like he wanted to object but was interrupted by Haidi, who raised her hands above her head. "Hoooo! Fun! Fun!" So Alarr just closed his eyes for a moment and nodded his head.
Eliz smiled, and they set off again. Just like the traffic, people were heading in one direction. It was slowly turning into one big crowd. Besides the nobles, there were also commoners, but this was one of those occasions where people seemed to ignore the difference in social status and gather in one place.
It was evident they had reached the beginning of Sunny Lane at first glance. Decorations like lanterns and golden tassels were hanging in front of the entrance to the wide street. Moreover, just a few steps away from the alley entrance, they were already squeezing one stall after another.
"That looks nice," Eliz said as she looked around. All the booths were decorated, and no area didn't show a festive mood. Lights were hanging everywhere, but they hadn't been lit yet and would only begin to glow as darkness fell. In the meantime, colorful ribbons were fluttering, and colored bubbles flew from somewhere in the air with colored sparkles flashing in their center. In the distance, they could hear music playing loud enough to be heard over the sea of voices, and the smell of different foods wafted through the air.
"And you haven't seen anything yet. Wait till you see the square with the fountain. That's where all the stages are," Miel said as they entered Sunny Alley. Eliz sighed inwardly. She'd instead not linger there too much. That's where the Salvation group would appear, and then the first bomb would go off in the center.
It won't really happen now, but the Salvation group will probably show up anyway. She wasn't too worried about them. Now that they didn't have the bombs, they weren't too dangerous. Eliz wasn't too impressed with them. They were a group for equality between social classes, and while she didn't think that was entirely bad, like any extremist group, they overreacted and were more likely to stir up hatred than support.
"You're silent. Is something wrong?" asked Miel because they had been walking silently for a while now, and Eliz hadn't looked around much.
Eliz blinked to snap herself out of her thoughts. "No. Everything's fine. I was thinking." She looked back at her group of Boulders. "Then agree amongst yourselves who stays, and the rest can go. But stick around just in case." She gave them a dismissal and wasn't surprised that Alarr stayed with them.
Eliz then turned her attention to the stalls. "Shall we try something?" she asked Miel, but he shook his head. "Let's go a little further. There are worse things here at the beginning. The closer we get to the middle, the tastier things will appear. And then you'd regret it because you wouldn't have room for another meal." He smiled.
"Hm. Okay. You're the know-it-all, so I'll listen to you on this one," Eliz agreed, and Miel made a shocked face. "I never thought the day would come when Elizabeth Von Roseblood would hand over the reins to me!"
Eliz nudged him. "Comedian." She smiled.
*****
It didn't seem like it, but time was running out, and they still weren't getting to the middle. The alleyway took turns in what it offered. Food stalls, then games, then shops, then snacks again.
Eliz was naturally interested in the street games this world had to offer. They had many games she knew from Earth, like pulling strings or duck hunting, though they had frogs instead of ducks for some reason. There was also Wheel of Fortune or dart throwing, where you had to pop a balloon that had red in it, which was challenging when they all looked the same and were moving around too.
Eliz, however, was most interested in the game where she pulled out a card with a word on it and showed it to the Magician, who then used colored mist to make the shape of the thing, and Eliz had to guess what it was.
She had three tries and lost if she didn't guess. Eliz first had doubts that the Mage could be cheating, but when she didn't guess the first time and found out that she had been given the word "caterpillar," she had to admit that the Mage was trying. Except that Eliz could only think of a cucumber, a sausage, and a snake. At least with the snake, she got pretty close.
Eliz and Miel had gone to hide in the shade of the building for a while, as it had been already past noon, and the sun was scorching hot that day. They needed to cool down in the shade.
Eliz was wrapping one arm around herself while she held a stuffed frog she had won during duck hunting... well, frog hunting.
Miel shielded his eyes and looked up at the sky. "I'll go get us something to drink. Otherwise, we'll be frying before we see the evening," he said, glancing at Holm, who had relieved Alarr an hour ago and then went to find a drink stand.
Eliz let out a sigh and didn't stop fanning herself. She half regretted taking her pants under her skirt because she felt hot, but otherwise, her thighs would be sore by now. "Having fun yet?" she asked Holm, who turned to her in surprise that she had struck up a conversation with him.
"Yes, my lady. They have plenty of good food here," he smiled.
"Any games you haven't tried?" Eliz asked.
Holm shook his head. "I'm not much for games. I had my hands full of food," he patted his big belly and laughed. "I see. And do you have any hobbies?" Eliz questioned. That question caught Holm off guard. He had to think.
"I guess... I like to read. And travel," he said, then slowly.
Eliz's eyes glittered with interest. Finally, Holm had the potential of a teacher. So that probably tied in with his penchant for reading. She wondered how to get him on this journey somehow. For some reason, it was a unique potential. Maybe she could give him the job of teaching the kids when they were at Blue Rose estate?
Eliz opened her mouth to ask him about what he liked to read when she was interrupted by a hasty thud.
She jerked, and her heart stopped momentarily, but it immediately started up again. It didn't sound like an explosion. More like something heavy hitting the ground and breaking something.
Eliz and Holm looked at each other and then took a few steps to look into the alley that led past the house they were standing by. They peeked around the corner curiously.
Two long legs stuck out horizontally from the pile of rubbish. Eliz bugged her eyes because she had never seen anything like it in her life, except in cartoons.
"What..." Eliz began but then fell silent as the legs fell to the ground, revealing a tall, black-haired man with cat ears and a cat tail rising into the air.
He was wearing tight black, hip-length pants that showed a little too much of his hips and a short jacket with an almost non-existent shirt that clung to his muscular physique, so there really was no need for him to wear one.
"Wwrrraau! You dick! Stop throwing me down all the fucking time!" He growled, glaring up as his cat tail flicked and bristled angrily.
Eliz and Holm also looked up but saw nothing. Eliz wondered if he had fallen off the roof, but he didn't appear hurt. Probably some sort of perk from the cat race.
The cat man turned and adjusted his short jacket when he noticed the two staring at him. He frowned at the sight of Holm but smiled when he looked at Eliz.
"Well, hello there, kitty." He crouched down and took one big leap, landing right in front of them, leaning his arm stylishly against the house wall and leaning towards Eliz, who backed away from him. He was a good two heads taller than her, perhaps even taller than Alarr, the tallest person she had seen.
The man smiled, revealing impossibly long canines. "Are you looking at me, kitty? See something you like, huh?" He eyed Eliz, completely ignoring Holm, who scowled at him evilly.
Eliz glared at the big man before lowering her eyes to his muscular physique. The man clearly had an ego bigger than his muscles. His clothes, demeanor, and aggressive flirting reminded her of a biker.
The man saw Eliz checking him out and clenched his muscles even tighter. Eliz had to slap a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing.
"Dude, you're a little too hot for me. I can tell I'd get burned," Eliz shook her head. Holm, next to her, bulged his eyes and stared at her in shock. For a lady like her, speaking street slang sounded strange to his ears.
The man chuckled happily. "Aren't you a sweet thing, kitty? I'm tempted to taste you."
Eliz frowned a little. She had found it quite funny before, but sexual innuendo was something she didn't like, especially with a stranger. "Let's leave it at the tempting. I'm cold as ice. I'd just freeze your tongue. We'd better get going." She needed to end this weird conversation before the guy got any strange ideas.
"Oh, come on, kitty. What's the rush? Trust me; you'll have the best ride with me." He held his hand to Eliz, but Holm immediately grabbed his wrist.
"That's enough, sir," he said warningly, nodding to Eliz, who was backing away, beginning to regret letting her curiosity get the better of her and going to see what the commotion was. But really, who would have thought she'd meet someone like that in the middle of the day? Aren't such troublemakers supposed to come out after dark?
The man stopped smiling and stared at Holm's hand holding his wrist. "Let go, bear," he growled.
Holm checked that Eliz had backed away far enough, so he let go and stood between Eliz and him to prevent him from approaching her. The cat-man straightened and snorted. "Suit yourself, kitty. You don't know what you're missing."
Holm backed up to Eliz, and they both quickly moved away from the cat man who was watching them. He licked his lips and snorted in disappointment before extending his claws and leaping into the air. He dug his claws into the building wall and began to climb up.
Eliz sighed and looked at Holm. "Sorry. I almost caused a problem for nothing." This wasn't her scene. She much preferred to be picky about whom she met; chance encounters like this could be dangerous.
"It wasn't you who started talking to him," Holm replied, looking back to ensure the cat man wasn't following them. "There was something about him..." Holm said, and Eliz looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?" she wondered.
Holm shrugged and rubbed his nose. "I don't know. He smelled weird. Hopefully, we won't see him again." Then he put a hand on Eliz's back and pulled her aside, keeping an eye out for Miel. Luckily, his blond head was easy to find.
"Where did you go? I was beginning to worry," Miel complained as he approached them and handed Eliz a wooden drink container. "There was this strange man, so we better move on," Eliz replied, taking a deep drink of the chilled fruit juice.
Miel nodded. "I see. Unfortunately, this place also attracts a lot of strange people. While waiting for my drink, a man kept staring at me. I swear, if staring could kill, I'd drop dead."
Eliz shook her head. "Maybe we stopped in the wrong area. Once we finish our drinks, we better move on." Staring people isn't exactly comforting, either.
*****
Gray watched Elizabeth walk away, accompanied by young Hadfield. He suspected that Elizabeth would disobey him and come anyway, but the fact that she brought Hadfield along surprised him.
Nervously scratching the skin on the back of his hand, Gray gritted his teeth as he watched Elizabeth touch the blond bastard. He clenched his hand into a fist, but after a moment, he shifted his gaze to the alley where Elizabeth had been talking to a man of the cat race a moment ago. He slowly moved there and looked around before looking up and taking a deep breath. He wrinkled his nose in disgust and sneezed.
"Youth, did you find anything?" Gillen of the raccoon race approached him. He had been assigned to supervise Gray since the incident with Selene. Gray's state of mind still wasn't entirely stable, so he needed supervision, but they couldn't afford to leave a Force of Light user inactive for long.
"I think so," Gray said, looking up. He was almost sure it was the smell of Dark Magic. One of the reasons he didn't want Elizabeth to come here; her destiny was drawing trouble to her.
Gillen stood next to him and took a breath. "Hm, good work. Let's go check it out," he said, and a blue aura of mana flashed around him before he leaped into the air. His feet bounced off the wall as he hit the side of the building, and he continued to bounce from one building to another, getting higher and higher. Gray groaned and looked back. He would have preferred to follow Elizabeth but decided to follow Gillen instead.
*****
Time passed, and Eliz was having quite a good time. It wasn't bad to relax a little and leave her worries behind. She hadn't stopped for long since she came into this world. She had become so used to always being occupied that now she even felt a little guilty for allowing everything to stand still.
But this was also important for her and her family's reputation. As her mother had said, she couldn't just leave after the incident and not let everyone know that she had no problem breaking off the engagement. And apparently, it worked, as they had been stopped about twice by another couple who very subtly asked about their relationship. Eliz didn't know them, but she assumed that Elizabeth somehow did since they were determined to talk to them. Fortunately, they didn't stick around long enough to arouse any suspicions.
Eliz also felt really nervous at one point because she thought she had caught a glimpse of her father. But when she turned around, he had disappeared. She hoped her mother was trying to keep him away, as this bordered on obsession!
As the day progressed, the sky gradually darkened, and the lights began to come on. Eliz had to admit; it looked magical. The lights weren't just hanging on the stands and houses; they were also floating through the air with different colors, and even the music had softened a bit, probably trying to create a romantic atmosphere for the evening.
Eliz glanced hesitantly at Miel, who had been great company all day. Despite his over-the-top romantic flattery, he had stuck to what they had originally agreed upon, which relieved Eliz. She didn't want to put him in another awkward situation.
"We should head to the fountain. The dancing should start there soon, and the best performances will begin," Miel said, turning away from watching the lights and looking at Eliz.
Eliz looked in the direction where the music was coming from. They weren't far away now, and it was easy to tell. "I'd rather be more on the edge," she said hesitantly, still careful not to get caught up in anything.
Miel raised an eyebrow, then took Eliz by the elbow. "Good. Then we'll stay on edge, but we still have to go there if we don't want to miss the Crown Prince's speech," he said, and Eliz immediately stopped in her tracks, glaring at Miel.
"Crown Prince? Speech?" she repeated, thinking quickly. Why didn't she know about this? It wasn't in the story. Eliz thought hard but couldn't think of why this would change. Aside from the fall of House Derevell, nothing she had done should affect the political state of the kingdom.
"Yes. Don't you know about this? There was a last-minute change," said a surprised Miel, who also paused. Eliz closed her eyes for a moment. She was so wrapped up in her plans that she wasn't paying attention to what was going on in politics at all. What could have happened?
"For what reason will he give a speech?" wondered Eliz.
Miel shook his head. "No one knows. We'll find out during the speech. Come on," he urged her on, and Eliz followed him. She had a bad feeling about this. A very bad feeling. Such a significant change from the story was definitely not a good thing.
Eliz, Miel, and the Boulder team arrived at the large square, which was packed to bursting with people. People danced around a simple but elegant fountain, and stages were set up around the edges for various performances. A few refreshment stands had been squeezed in as well.
A raised platform stood at the back, higher than any other, on which an armed guard stood alone. It was probably where the Crown Prince would deliver his speech. The platform didn't quite match the layout of the square, likely due to it being a last-minute decision.
"Eliz, would you like to dance?" Miel offered, wanting to ask Eliz to dance after seeing the others dancing, but he was disappointed to see her dismissive expression.
"Sorry, Miel. But I'm not really in a dancing mood," Eliz replied, not feeling like going near the fountain.
Miel sighed. "Well, how about watching a performance?" He suggested, gesturing to a nearby stage where a woman performed a jousting dance with five sabers.
Eliz nodded. "Yes," she agreed so they could stay away from the center of the action.
The sky was growing darker, and Eliz and Miel had watched two performances when the fanfare sounded. Everything went quiet, the actors and performers stopped moving, and the band stopped playing. Everyone turned towards the raised stage, where the guards increased, and a single man in a richly decorated suit climbed the steps. He was a handsome young man in his early twenties with brown hair and vermilion-colored eyes.
The Crown Prince stood there momentarily until the square was completely silent. Then, he raised his hand.
"Have a wonderful evening at the Festival of Light!" He exclaimed, his voice echoing throughout the square. "My dear citizens, I hope you enjoyed this great day and festival to the fullest," he continued, and a few people answered him with enthusiastic shouts that they did.
Eliz shook her head; it almost felt like she was at a concert. As she looked around, people seemed excited, and a few even appeared almost pious. Mostly young ladies, she thought, and how could they not be when the crown prince was rather handsome.
"We celebrate this day to honor the memory of all those who fell while fighting the Demons and to celebrate our freedom. I'm sure all the brave soldiers and heroes in the Celestial Kingdom celebrate this day as we do," the Crown Prince continued smiling.
The prince spread his arms. "But they'll probably have to stop the fun now!"
Eliz became alert when she heard that. She wasn't the only one who found that statement odd. There was a confused murmur as people started muttering amongst themselves.
Before the prince could continue, a person covered in a white cloak suddenly appeared on the fountain. Everyone turned their heads in his direction, confused.
"Wait... isn't that..." Eliz muttered.
"We're Salvation. Equality Fighters..." The cloaked figure began to speak, but he could not continue.
A person flew past him in a flash, and the speaker of the Salvation group was suddenly decapitated, his body crashing into the fountain as the water around him began to turn red.
There were several startled cries, and everyone looked at the person floating in the air. The crown prince was no longer smiling, clutching his severed head in his hand.
"You interrupted my ascent, you fucker," the Prince growled, looking around.
"Shit! So much preparation and one asshole screws it up. What are you looking at?" He scowled at the crowd, who stared at him with their mouths open.
The prince smiled ruefully. "Ah. This, right? Well, I don't need it anymore," he said, grabbing his face and pulling. His skin began to stretch as if made of rubber, and his whole appearance distorted. With a disgusting, wet thud, the skin pulled away, revealing the true insight of the man, who still had red eyes but dark blue hair. He dropped the mask, which fell damply to the ground, and Eliz feared it was nothing artificial, given the bloodstains on the man's face.
"Hey, guys. So let's keep going. From now on, this is no longer the Festival of Light but the Festival of Darkness. How do you like that?" He smiled before wiping the blood from his cheek with his thumb and licking it off.
At that moment, an explosion sounded behind his back, and a pillar of flame rose into the air. Mori looked back. "The fun begins, folks! It's time to run for our lives!" He laughed, and dark monsters began to appear.
For a moment, there was a stunned silence before the people began screaming.