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Yes, yes. Good morning. Today was the day of the harvest festival. The long-awaited date with Triela and Rico.

Soon, we would meet up in the alley next to the workshop.

At first, I was planning to pick them up, but they stopped me because there would be too many people. I told them that I would be fine with Norn and Bell following me, but they said that Norn and Bell would be the reason for their troubles… Thanks to that, they called Norn as my caretaker… And she was sulking a lot… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…

So, Bell would follow me today. Even so, she was completely exhausted thanks to Norn’s strict training until the day before yesterday. I’m sorry…

During the harvest festival, the workshop was closed and the craftsmen would go and have fun. In other words, everyone had gone to the festival. The only ones left were the master, the landlady, and me. I would leave when Triela and Rico picked me up, so only the two of them would stay here. Seems like married couple needs to have their private time or something like that… I see.

After a while, they came to pick me up, so we decided to leave. Yay!

“Both of you, good morning.”
“Good morning, Ren.”
“Ren, morning~”

Hmm, Triela and Rico were wearing the clothes I gave to them the other day. How cute.

“You two look cute.”
“Thank you! Ren, you’re still going to wear that outfit today? You didn’t dress up?”

I wanted to, but… I feel like it would bring trouble, and it’ll be bothersome. However, Rico wasn’t convinced. It couldn’t be helped… I decided to take off my cloak and wore a muffler to hide my mouth.

However, it would get exposed when I ate something! Well, I had no choice but to keep using [Concealment] and [Disguise]… Let’s attach it to the muffler too.

Now that my preparations were done, we set out on the main street.

Naturally, we had to hold hands! I got caught between them in the middle, but… Triela, why were you embarrassed!? You made me shy too, okay! Or should we hold hands like a couple!?

…Anyway, there were many food stalls on the main street from today onwards. Let’s have a food tour first.

However, the foods in the stalls were mostly skewers that could easily be eaten when walking around. I bought some without much thought and shared it with both of the girls. Naturally, I also gave some to Bell. They should eat a lot.

Hmm, I couldn’t find any fried foods. I thought someone would sell croquettes, but maybe no one knew the recipes? Ah, I found french fries. But the color of the oil was still amazing, so I ignored it. But Triela and Rico ate it.

“…Are you alright?”
“Eh? Yeah, I’m fine… Do you want to have a bite?”
“No, I’ll pass.”

My stomach hurt when I ate deep-fried foods when I was in Harula before… Since the harvest festival had just begun, I should avoid dangerous foods.

For potato-related foods, some stalls were selling french fries and stir-fried foods. They let the customers lend their plates. It’s different from the modern times where stalls could use disposable containers… For fried potatoes, they could try making hashed brown potatoes or fried rolled mashed potatoes… It had nothing to do with me, though.

By the way, the harvest festival in the royal capital would be held for five days.

On the first day, which was today, there would be a swordsmanship competition. Only commoners could participate. However, the majority of them were legit adventurers. They would use a dull sword as their weapon.

On the second day, there would be beauty contests and exhibitions of traditional performing arts.

The third day was a break. There were no big events. But royalty held a festival and rituals on the shores of the lake on the north, so most people would go there and do various things. Therefore, the commoners would use that day to recharge and prepare for the remaining two days.

The fourth day was filled with events for nobles, such as the aristocrat’s martial arts competitions. There were swordsmanship, horsemanship, jousting, archery, and even horseback archery.

On the fifth day, which was the final day, there were all kinds of martial arts competitions. A chaotic festival where anyone could participate, including nobles, knights, commoners, and adventurers. Naturally, this tournament was the most exciting one. The winner would be knighted as the prize, so adventurers aimed for that to gain success in life. I didn’t know the details about the peerage, but knight peerage was something amazing, I guess? I didn’t think so, though.

That means, there would be a swordsmanship competition today. It should be about time for the matches to begin.

“I’m pretty full, so how about taking a look at the swordsmanship competition?”
“I don’t mind, but is it fun to watch?”
“Hmm, to be honest, it’s a bit complicated for me. But Cain and Maricle are participating.”

Eh, seriously?

“They lend weapons to the participants on the first-day competition.”
“Ah, I see…”

Triela’s party didn’t have any decent weapons, so they were thankful that the staff lent them the weapon for the first day’s tournament. But…

“I’m okay with watching Maricle. But I don’t really care about Cain…”
“I know, right?”
“Well, let’s just go and watch Maricle. We have nothing else to do anyway.”
“Yeah, we’re watching them because we have free time.”

We might sound harsh. But this is Cain, so you should’ve expected that.

With that kind of feeling, we arrived at the venue while badmouthing Cain. All of the martial arts tournaments took place in the arena in the second block. We checked the results of the boys in the tournament table near the entrance of the venue… Ah, both of them had won the first match. Maricle was pretty good! But he was still a kid, so he would probably lose at the next match. But well, I’ll cheer him on.

We managed to push our way through the crowd and reach the audience seats. Yeah… I couldn’t see the front at all. Bell, who was at my feet, also looked like she was having a hard time.

After I managed to reach the front row using my fighting spirit and will-power, it was right after the match ended.

Taking a closer look, I found Maricle. Seems like he had won? But he was breathing heavily, so the next match might be impossible for him.

Once I picked up the conversation of my surroundings, it seems like Maricle borrowed not only a sword but also a shield. Considering his age, he handled the shield pretty well. It should be the result of him hunting the rabbit day after day. Let’s reward him with a pork bowl later.

When I was thinking about such a thing, the next match started. Coincidentally, it was Cain’s match. But his opponent was strangely familiar… Neil? Why’s Neil here!?

A stalker!? No, no, he didn’t come this far to chase me, right…? I want to believe that.

The match started. not waiting for me to get over my confusion. Neil clearly was strong even in the eyes of an amateur. And Cain’s movement exposed that he was a novice. However, he had a surprisingly fast reaction here and there. He fought hard against Neil, but he was reasonably defeated.

Triela and Rico felt bitter with how Cain lost after putting up a good fight, but I was more surprised that Neil was stronger than I had imagined. The Neil I knew up until now was, a little… you know… untrained.

He was supposed to be a farmer, but his swordsmanship was solid. It’s like he was using the systematic orthodox technique. Where did he learn that? Hmm?

It’s a hassle to deal with him. I had to be careful not to get involved with him. Yeah.

…Huh? Why were Cain and Neil giving praise to each other? They looked like they found a kindred spirit in each other? Hey hey, can you two not hang out, please? Especially since I couldn’t handle any of them. I really didn’t want to encounter him when I went to play at Triela’s house, okay!?

Then after we watched Maricle get defeated in the next match, we left the venue.

Triela and Rico noticed my complicated expression, so I ended up explaining about Neil. They promised that they would sternly tell Cain not to invite anyone to their house. That sounds nice… No, I should also make various arrangements before I went out to play with them.

After having fun at the swordsmanship tournament, we resumed our culinary tour. But we became full midway, so we had to stop. I couldn’t handle eating any more meat.

We sat on a bench in the square and rested while we digested the foods. My mouth felt lonely, so I pretended to take out pretzels and juice I made earlier from my bag and munched it. Triela and Rico looked like they wanted it too, so I let them eat some.

Our surroundings were looking at us and I heard them saying, “Where do they sell that?” “Go ask them,” but that’s definitely my imagination.

No one asked because Bell was intimidating, but I felt uncomfortable. It was still early, but we had to change the schedule. Let’s breakup here today.

That being said, they sent me to the workshop. They were too worried, weren’t they?

It was still the first day of the harvest festival, so we didn’t have to rush things, right? Come now, I’m going to have fun on the second day!