Evan D. Sherden, Can't Enjoy the Festival (1)
"Aaah! What has happened to my cute Master's face?!"
Maybell screamed when she visited Evan for a business report. Evan was frantically comparing the contents of several books with the notes he had written down.
He replied frankly, "I'm very busy right now, Maybell. Just make it quick and simple."
"No matter how busy you are, you have to take a break at the right time, Master!"
"Of course, I would like to relax. But if I don't work hard enough now, I might as well have eternal rest."
Developing anti-infection drugs for the Mahwa was easier said than done. He had to develop a new drug that had never existed in the entire history of the Yo-Ma Great War series.
However, at least it was concluded mutually that the idea was in the right direction, so Evan and Bernard stopped everything else and had begun focusing on this task. Evan was now only able to do slime training at night.
"Of course, I heard from the Marquis, but… What would you do if you fell down from exhaustion!?"
"What, my father told you?" Evan was surprised.
This was a very important and serious matter, and it was impossible to inform anyone, so they had only told the Marquis.
He hadn't told his brother Eric, and even Shine, Belois, and Raihan, about their task in detail… So why did the Marquis tell Maybell about it?
"Yes, Master. I am also the representative of the Brotherhood Pharmacy. No matter what kind of medicine you're trying to make, wouldn't you need ingredients for that? We have mobilized all of our manpower to rake up all the herbs and poison we possibly can."
"Ah… That's right. I didn't think of that immediately."
"You don't have to worry about such small details, Master Evan. Just tell me what you need. I'll bring you everything!" Maybell exclaimed and tapped her chest enthusiastically. Her appearance was cool and dignified.
Evan thought she had also grown amazingly.
"Thank you, Maybell. The festival will start soon, and I'm sorry for making things so hard for you."
"It's okay, the festival doesn't mean anything to me anyway. You can just make the medicine or something, and afterwards, we can play together!"
'Yes, I hope so too.'
Usually, Maybell's overly energetic and positive remarks were a little irritating to Evan, but now, her remarks cheered him up.
"Breathe, Master, and you shall feel energized in no time. Well, this week's report is here. I'll leave it for you to go over later."
"…Yes, thank you Maybell."
Maybell was satisfied as she hugged Evan once and then withdrew. Her scent tickled his nose.
"Let's focus again, then…"
He tapped himself on the cheeks and focused on the papers once more. While eagerly drawing out his alchemy knowledge and making a recipe for the potion, he remembered the epidemic that had occurred about a year and a half ago.
'At that time, there was nothing I could do. I just hung around with my Grandpa.'
He couldn't apply his knowledge of alchemy and pharmacy in those days. He just wanted to help other people. Everyone said that Evan was the one to have solved the pandemic, but Evan never thought so. He had done nothing.
'But this helpless feeling won't last forever.'
The Mahwa variant was a terrible disaster that couldn't even be compared to a plague. They were dealing with something that didn't even happen in the Yo-Ma Great War series.
This world had a twisted destiny, and the Mahwa variant was likely to transform it in an infinitely dangerous direction. Evan didn't know that the world would perish before the protagonists of Yo-Ma Great War 3 and 4 could grow properly.
'At least until then, we have to endure. No matter how extra I am, I have to do everything that I can…!'
He had all the alchemy knowledge of the Yo-Ma Great War series. And he couldn't lose now to the ghosts of the old times from Yo-Ma Great War 2.
"I can do it. At least this time, there is something I can do as well."
He then clenched his teeth and looked at the document as if he would start chewing them. When everyone in the dungeon city was preparing for the festival excitedly, only a few, including Evan, seemed to be busy doing something else.
He was burning with passion.
***
On the first Monday of October, the eve of the Dungeon Festival arrived. It could be said that it was the most exciting day of the festival.
"What, you said that we were invited to play with each other?"
"Well, Master is very busy, so it's hard for him to make time for the events."
Shine opened his mouth to the shocking news he had heard from Belois, but Belois had responded firmly. Shine somehow noticed the sadness in her tone.
"It must be really difficult for him. The most frustrating thing is that we are not being very helpful."
"…I would also learn alchemy rather than magic."
"Skills that don't require aptitude are even more difficult to master. Just… I just want it to be resolved as soon as possible."
Evan didn't tell them in detail, and he didn't even let them into the room, but knowing that his recent routine was closely related to Bernard, they could guess what he was doing.
"It's the same as before."
"No, it's worse."
They remembered the past pandemic. It seemed that the situation wasn't as serious right now as it had been then, but it also seemed that Evan was struggling harder than ever before.
"It seems as if he is supporting the world alone."
"It would be nice if I could kill all the things that bothered him. Everything!" Belois gritted her teeth.
Sometimes, when the frustration accumulated inside her came out, her eyes became terrifying, which made Shine instinctively stand at a suitable distance from her.
"If I can't go with Evan, I'm done."
Arisha, who was listening to the story, said this without worrying. Her excuse wasn't even convincing. In the first place, she was staying in this city because Evan was interesting to her.
"Did you not say that Count Pellati is coming? Is it okay if you're not together?"
"My father isn't coming here to play with me. He will be coming here to work… Probably to do the same thing as Evan."
"Then it is a common task in the dungeons… If you don't know the real situation, you'll be frustrated."
At Shine's words, Arisha seemed to hesitate a little but soon replied, this time without much confidence, "If the dungeon is tied up, it will eventually come back to us. If it's killing monsters, we can do it too, so we can prepare for it now… Maybe. It's just a hunch."
"I feel a little more at ease when Miss Arisha says so. Then I have to practice even harder. When is the festival?"
If the time came when a battle might be needed in the end, then they could also stand out. Their sole purpose was to assist Evan in the dungeon.
While Evan was devoted to his work, they could train hard to improve their abilities in the meantime. It would be much more helpful to him than to just do nothing and worry about him!
"But Shine, the other Rookies are looking forward to the festival."
"Uh, uh… Yes, they are. I spoke about it for a long time, so now I can't cancel it."
However, Belois' cold words stopped Shine's excitement in an instant. That's right. The Rookies had been trying hard so far without being able to rest properly…
Shine nodded his head with a slight trembling expression, but Belois was still glaring at him. He then proceeded to ask her, struggling to ignore the anxiety creeping up his back.
"What, why are you looking at me like that? What do you want from me?"
"…Please take care in leading the members, Vice Commander."
"What?!"
Shine felt frightened, but Belois spoke with a calm expression without any embarrassment.
"I'm going to practice to help him."
"Hey, then I will too! I also want to practice!"
"But Shine is the Vice Commander, so he has to take responsibility for all the members."
"Vice Commander, please take care of this."
"Uh…"
The two girls spoke with a final tone and left the place. Shine was left alone with his jaw hanging absurdly.
A feeling of regret filled him as he thought about opting for the Vice Commander position, but now he couldn't give it up, so he just wept quietly. Instead, from now on, he decided to reduce his sleep and increase his training time.
"Vice Commander!"
"Shine, brother, is that you? What did you call us for?"
"It's the Vice Commander, I knew it."
That night, Shine gathered the eight children, including Paul, Marie, Dito, Ena, Melson, Ran, Lin, and Jin. He had decided to lead them on the eve of the festival.
He alone couldn't handle all of the children, so he forcibly pulled out Raihan too, who had been drinking alone, to join him, but he felt very tense nonetheless.
"Hey, don't take any personal action, come over here and stick to one another! We are the reserve members of the Dungeon Knights Squad. That's why you have to keep your discipline even when not in training, okay?"
"But ah, where are Miss Arisha, Belois, and Young Master?"
"I would rather have liked them to be present here too. All of them are training very hard. Thus, they can't be here right now." Shine replied sarcastically at Raihan's question, grinding his teeth. Raihan laughed bitterly, guessing that Shine also wanted to practice alongside them. After all, he was having the same thoughts as him.
"Using your mind to think is of course important. However, when you are leading a group, there are times when you have to put your mind aside. You have grown up, Shine."
"I know. I know, you're going on a date, right? Don't even think about leaving."
"It's not a date, but I was asked to escort Ms Serpina because she was afraid to walk around the streets alone during the festival."
"The whole world would call it a date, Raihan. Hey, listen! Don't cross over, come here! Jin, don't look at that strange thing, come over here and listen to me. Ugh, this is so difficult."
While talking with Raihan, Shine constantly yelled at the children, soothed them, bought them food, and tried to control them.
He looked more like a nanny than the Dungeon Knights' Vice Commander, but he was afraid that someone would make fun of him.
"Anyways, I heard something similar from Hanna, and as a result, both cancelled. It seemed like there was an event so important that neither of them could enjoy the festival."
"That's definitely something related to the Master. No, there are things they can do that I can't, and it's frustrating."
"We are also working for the Master in this way. This is because these children will be a great help to Master Evan in the future."
"They're just kids now, at what age will they prove to be useful? They should be helpful right now… Hey, Marie! No, that's not a monster!"
Raihan stopped talking and burst into laughter as he saw Shine trying to hold Marie down, who started running at top speed.
Shine himself seems to be burdened a lot with the Vice Commander's responsibilities. However, as he had a wider perspective and quickly made decisions, he was still the most suitable for the Vice Commander of the Dungeon Knights position. He would certainly be able to take good care of all the members and help them grow to become some of the strongest people in the future.
"After all, Master Evan's judgment is never wrong … By all means, this festival should end without much work."
When Raihan released a deep sigh, recalling Evan's appearance, a large firecracker fired from the square hill and popped! It exploded splendidly, and the sky was filled with bright, colourful fireworks.
The Dungeon Festival had begun.