The story begins in a town that sat on a riverbank where three rivers met, Shinalin. It's seen by most as a piece of paradise, with its fertile farmland and its ideal fishing spots that yield an endless supply of fish: however, to the residents of Shinalin, it is viewed as their quaint home. The people of Shinalin were known for sharing their bounty of crops and fish and once every year they held a grand festival on a night when the moon's at its brightest, which they called the Silver Moon Festival. Shinalin invited its neighboring villages to indulge in the festival, which the neighbors gladly accepted; however, behind the kind words and smiles grew a patch of envy and scorn. The nobles and magistrates of the neighboring villages constantly belittled the villages for not being as fruitful as Shinalin demonstrates year after year. This, in turn, caused the nobles and magistrates to build alliances with Shinalin to secure trade with the prosperous village and a steady supply of the best quality fish and grains.The high society always grew more generous around the time of the festival, sending donations and suggesting decorations made by their villages.
In the week before the festival, the villagers were hard at work gathering ingredients and setting up stalls for the various vendors that are going to attend. As the festival drew closer, the streets of Shinalin became filled with the scents of the countless foods and goods that now populated the once empty stalls. The once plain storefronts are now decorated with freshly woven banners and newly constructed paper lanterns. The transformation of the town in preparation for the festival served as a reminder to the villagers that Shinalin is truly blessed. While Shinalin was handling its business, the atmosphere of its neighboring villages was more grim as they were dealing with some very concerning matters. News of child abductions in the dead of night buzzed throughout the villages and outrage grew among the citizens as the nobility were more concerned with relations between them and Shinalin as well as Shinalin's festival than taking action towards the mysterious disappearances of the children. The citizens understood that the Silver Moon Festival was an important occasion for business, but they couldn't focus on work while their children were missing and more disappeared at a steady pace.
As the nobles did nothing to find the children or even address the matter, the citizens grew more and more paranoid, causing rumors to spread among them. Throughout the streets of these villages, whispers of "the nobility cares more about what's in their pockets than the people in their villages", "the reason why they haven't done anything is that they are the ones responsible for the missing children", and "I've heard that that the nobles send their guards to take the children out of the village". These rumors were the last straw, the citizens all came to the same conclusion— the nobility is selling off the children in order to fill their pockets even more. This sent an aura of outrage and disgust among the villagers, causing them to all agree that they must do something about the nobles. Under the cover of nightfall, a handful of men gathered in a small building and began discussing how to handle the nobles. The plan they decided on was that they would ambush the nobles on their way to the Silver Moon Festival and they would dispose of the bodies under the pile of wood that would become the Harvest Festival Bonfire.
With the plan in action, the group of men split into two teams: one team to set up the ambush on the way to Shinalin and a second to convince the nobles to let them go to Shinalin to prepare to dispose of the bodies under the guise of volunteering to win over Shinalin's favor. Upon hearing the benefit of sending the team of volunteers, the nobles spent no time thinking about it and told the men to hurry over as quickly as possible. The night before the festival began, the nobles began their trip to Shinalin, drunk with glee and proud of their goodwill gesture to further their relationship with Shinalin. They were so lost in their talk about how Shinalin will be more friendly with them that they did not notice a rock in the road. The coach's wheel ran over the rock, knocking it loose and brought the caravan of nobles to a stop. As the last guard turned his attention to the wheel, the sound of leaves rustling and the yells of men signaled the start of the ambush. It was over in a few minutes since the guards were taken by surprise, then the nobles were bound and lined up. Each man of the ambush team took out a dagger and stabbed the nobles in a nonfatal spot on their bodies. The villagers let the nobles suffer for a while before they beheaded them, their last memories of being alive full of pain would follow them into the afterlife. The bodies were then loaded in the nobles' fixed coach and headed to Shinalin. When they reached the outskirts of Shinalin, they met up with the second team and handed off the bodies wrapped in a layer of cloth. The second team carried the bodies to the unlit Bonfire and buried under the wood and doused in oil. All that remained was to wait til the Bonfire was lit.