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A short time after sunrise, we all began preparations to attend the festival.

“There you go, all done.” Having helped me get into a yukata, Ruri pats the obi belt and says that with a cheerful voice. Then I turn around to peer at a nearby mirror, examining it for myself.

“Woah! You look so cute!” Olivia, who changed earlier, runs up to me as her eyes twinkle with adoration. Before, I’d feel awkward or hesitant whenever she complimented me, but I’ve been getting more comfortable now.

“Thank you very much. You also look wonderful, Young Lady.”
“Eheheh, thanks.”

I compliment her as well, and she replies with a happy grin. While she’s quite tall, that innocent smile belies her true age, and it’s rather adorable. Also, she’s my lover now.

“So you both are ready now?”
“Woah…”

Fan Yen enters the room too, accompanied by a different servant who helped her get dressed. The moment I see her, I can’t help but let out a surprised gasp. Her yukata is hardly able to contain her bountiful chest, which seems like it’s about to spill out. It’s not that I dislike that type of look, but it definitely isn’t how I’d like to see a yukata being worn.

“There just wasn’t one of the right size. But if you want to look, go ahead, stare as much as you want.”
“No thank you.”
“Natalia, is that what you’re into?”
“That’s not why I was staring.”

Olivia noticed how I looked at Fan Yen, so she seemed slightly peeved as she reached for her own chest and I had to hurry to stop her from loosening it.

“Annoying.”

We also tried to dress up Clarissa, but she kept complaining that she couldn’t move, so in the end she ended up wearing a short sleeved kimono, tied by an obi belt and some ornaments to make it look more like a yukata. But she’s still not happy even with that. On top of that, we’ll be in a crowded festival, so she’ll have to walk on two feet the whole time to appear like a regular demi-human.

“You look cute too, Clarissa.”
“Woof. I’ll try.”

Olivia takes Clarissa’s face with both hands and rubs it a bit, which makes Clarissa smile happily.

“Now, the only problem is…” I turn to look at the garden, where Erika is sitting slouched down near the balcony. She’s been like this the whole morning, so I’m almost baffled that she hasn’t recovered yet.

“Erika, what’s wrong?”
“Shaa…”
“Did you get in a fight with Akane again?”

I go out to the balcony and speak to her, and she replies with little energy. Usually she’s fighting with Akane, but when I look at her, Akane just looks away and acts unconcerned, like she had nothing to do with it.

I’m sure something must’ve happened while I was away with Olivia, but I have no clue what it could be. Clarissa normally helps translate too, but even she’s looking away and refuses to help.

“We’ll be going to the festival now, are you coming too?”

Ryuka mentioned that the shrine where the festival will be held has plenty of space, so we can bring Erika with us if we want.

“Shaa.” Erika looks a bit hesitant, but she agrees to come with us. I guess I’ll just have to make sure that she stays away from Akane for now.

“Young Lady, I’ll watch over Erika, so please take Akane with you.”
“Sure. I hope going to the festival can cheer her up.”
“Do you know why she’s feeling under the weather?”
“Well, kinda. But it’s not something I should talk about.”

I really don’t get what’s going on, I guess it’s a delicate matter. I’m still worried, but it’s probably better if I don’t let it show so Erika doesn’t get more stressed out. Or at least that’s all I can do to convince myself to go to the Tsuebe Festival without overthinking things.

The Tsuebe Festival is conducted in the Tatsuhiro Shrine, to commemorate Urado Tsuebe, who was Ryuka’s ancestor.

As we follow Ruri to the shrine, I see that there’s food stalls and similar tents set up all the way from the torii to the main shrine, and it’s quite lively around here. It’s already the afternoon, so the paper lanterns are all lit up, and the sakura flowers on the trees nearby look just as bewitching even amongst the tumult.

The road here is also quite wide, just like Ryuka mentioned, so Erika can pass through without issues. Though some of the other visitors look shocked by her.

“Lady Ryuka’s kagura performance will be later, so please stay to watch that too.”
“You can think of it as a dance for God.”

Olivia stared blankly hearing what Ruri said, so I quickly explained what she was talking about.

“You can just follow the road and you’ll reach the shrine. I’d really like to accompany you all the way there, but I must help Lady Ryuka get ready, so I’ll be leaving now.” Ruri politely bows to us, and then leaves.

If I understood her correctly, it’s only a straight path to the shrine so we won’t get lost, though we’ll still have to be careful to not get split up by the crowd.

“Well then, why don’t we take a look around first?” Amy is the first to speak, looking at the many food stalls with curiosity. In her case, she’s probably more curious about the local products and economy rather than the actual festival though.

“It smells nice.”
“Yeah, I bet they have some tasty food.”
“I wonder if I can use any of them to accompany my drinks.”

The three girls in our group all seem interested in the food, so they approach the stalls, and Akane leaves on Olivia’s shoulder too.

“Erika, should we get something to eat too?” I ask Erika, who still looks rather dull, and she doesn’t reply. So without any other option, I just buy some skewers nearby and start eating in front of her.

The seasoning is rather simple, being mostly salt, but the way they’re grilled really makes the ingredients stand out nicely.

“Here, it’s good.” I try holding one right in front of her face, and Erika slowly takes it and chews on it, making crunchy noises. She has a habit of eating these things whole with the actual skewer inside.

I’m not sure if it’s helping much, but at least I managed to get her interested in some food I guess?

“Should we go on ahead then?”
“Sha…”

We continued visiting the other stalls nearby and watching the scenery, but Erika remained depressed the whole time.

By the time we make our way to the shrine grounds, the sun has already set, but there’s plenty of light to move around thanks to the many lanterns.

“I’m back, sorry about that.” While we search for a good spot, Ruri comes back to our group.

“Are you sure you can come here now?”

“Well, my job there is done already.” Then she proceeds to tell us that there’s actually two kagura performances. “The dance here is merely for show, for the people. Afterwards she’ll go to the inner sanctum alone, where no public is allowed, and perform another one as a ritual for God.”

While she explained that, Ryuka entered the stage, wearing scarlet robes like a shrine maiden, and accompanied by three other shrine maidens, who all performed with her.

The three of them surround Ryuka while making bells ring, but she herself isn’t holding any bells or adorned sakaki branches, but a spear instead. So it’s almost like she’s performing a martial arts demonstration instead of a dance.

But her movements are so elegant and imposing that we can’t help but watch silently.

Eventually the performance nears its end, and one of the shrine maidens puts on a mask that looks like a monster and moves closer to Ryuka. The two move around like they’re fighting, and eventually the dance ends with Ryuka biting the neck of the masked shrine maiden.

“That’s a recreation of how the founder of the Urado family, Urado Tsuebe killed the dragon.” As the last chimes of the bells echoed, Ruri explained the final scene.

I see. They’re a family of vampires, so it makes sense that the fight ended that way.

“Lady Ryuka will be heading to the inner sanctum now, feel free to continue enjoying the festival in the meantime. I’ll make sure everything you need is taken care of.”

The inner sanctum is located atop a small hill behind the shrine, amidst a forest closed off from the public.

“Let’s go see everything else while we wait for Ryuka to come back then.” Everyone was on board with Olivia’s suggestion.

We follow the crowd, departing from the shrine grounds to explore the various stalls. After a while, we return to the shrine grounds, finding that the crowd has dispersed. Now, the only people remaining are those directly associated with the shrine or the Urado family.

But Ryuka is still nowhere in sight.

“Did Ryuka not return yet?”
“It seems so.”

It’s been two hours since the public performance ended, and there’s a bright full moon in the night sky.

“Hm?” Then, Fan Yen lets out a strange groan.
“What happened?”
“There’s a disturbance in the forest. Something’s coming.”
“What do you-”
“Kyahhhhhh!!!”

Before I can finish my question, there’s an ear piercing shriek. Something bad is happening.

“Let’s go see!”
“Ah, Young Lady!”

Olivia runs off before I can stop her, so I can only run after her. The other people nearby also start to run to the entrance to the forest, concerned about the shriek.

There we find a shrine maiden, her white robes dyed red, and a figure biting her neck. Or rather, not a figure but a person. A person with pale almost ashen skin, vacant eye sockets, torn off skin that reveals muscles, and limbs with little strength in them.

“An undead…”

The shrine maiden had been attacked by a moving corpse.