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Afterwards, I got scolded by everyone. According to them, who else could conclude the event if not me? No way. I deserve praise if anything. I didn’t break it, you know? I even fixed it in place with magic, okay? Shouldn’t that be enough?! Just why do I have to—

“Are you even listening to me?!”

Vice-branch master’s yell got me back to my senses.

“Yes. Regarding the aim of this event—”

I stole a glance at the crowd formed in the hall. I could hear occasional exclamations of surprise. I could also hear grumbling and vexed cursing. Being so focused, they couldn’t even hear the sound of the rain outside.

Going a few days back.

The snow festival that we held before turned out to be a big success as an event. The snow was put into order, the citizens cleared their frustrations, and moreover, many people started coming to see the monuments lined up before the houses.

We completely made up for the expenses. However, there lay an unforeseen ambush for us.

“It’s still raining, huh…”

All the staff and the guests were thinking what Ria muttered.

Yes. We were having a strong wind and a long spell of rain that disturbed our customer traffic, robbed people of their will to work, and locked them up in their houses. The rain that we expected to stop in a few hours had its clouds grow denser and continued falling all the way to the next day.

Will it be tomorrow, a few days later, next week…? Most of Luneville was filled with a gloomy mood not knowing when the rain would end. The small mercy was that it was a slack season for farmers.

The sculptures standing in the midst of the rain were quite a surreal sight. They weren’t affected thanks to my fixation magic but we couldn’t hope for them to attract more customers as people probably assumed the sculptures melted in the rain.

Cathy who was staring at those sculptures suddenly opened her eyes wide as if an idea flashed in her mind and ran toward me.

“Illya, do you have any ideas?”

Oh, so she just left it to me. But still, this situation is similar to how it was when it kept snowing.

“…Well, I’m thinking of visiting the lord once my shift ends.”

If he’s even there, that is. I couldn’t tell that to Cathy who started wagging her tail.

“You’ve come up with something amusing again.”

Ector smiled as he said that to me. He put the proposal papers on the table, wet his throat with the black tea, and continued.

“Can I take part in this?”

What a thing to ask.

“Yes. As long as it doesn’t interfere with official business.”
“Of course. Oh, and I will make an investment this time as well.”
“…Alright. Thank you very much.”

I gave up on persuading him. We ended the project topic and moved on to a different matter.

“The predicted calamity, huh… Perhaps I should leave watchmen at the locations marked here.”
“What about reinforcing them first?”
“Reinforcing, huh? Then the ranks next to them are not the risk levels but priority levels?”
“Indeed. The biggest risk is—”

A few hours later.

Once we finished the conversation, I walked through the rainy main street with Haku while gazing up at the clouds covering the sky.

The thick clouds swimming through the sky seemed like normal drifting clouds at a glance. But using Clairvoyance, they appeared to draw an arc from one point and flowed in from every direction… I could tell that it was acting like a typhoon.

The weather in this world could be roughly guessed based on the Factors in the atmosphere, but when it came to typhoons, the wind Crystal Pillars were the cause of them.

That was the reason this time around too. In the center of ascending currents of the clouds gathering together, there was a wind Crystal Pillar floating about. And I also saw a merry-looking figure nearby it.

The great wind spirit, Sylph.

She was a moody being that hated being caught up in anything, so she has never contracted with anyone since her birth, and yet she was also prone to feeling lonely so she had a troublesome habit of doing whatever she pleased while rolling up people she liked in it.

She was too persistent so I smacked some sense into her… but it seems that she was really favoring this Birdman, her current victim. I could understand that birdman’s feelings really well.

I think she discovered the wind Crystal Pillar while playing around with him and it caused a resonance when she approached it. And that resulted in a large typhoon, which only made her merrier… That should be more or less it.

Be that as it may, I felt like I recognized the Birdman in question too. I was wondering if it was anyone who had used our Luneville’s branch before, but then a splash of raindrops interrupted my thoughts.

“Pii!”

The raindrops were the product of Haku trying to manipulate water. This child might eventually obtain the power to summon storms and lightning, so the typhoon damages weren’t exactly unrelated to it.

In fact, some people were even thinking this long rain was the fault of the dragon god… But that dragon god was the type of person who’d make a move if he saw and like a girl praying for rain, so I guess he reaps what he sows.

“Haku, don’t become like Jean, okay?”
“Pii!”

It gave a better reply than expected.

The rain remained the next day as well.

For the event this time, I first decided to explain the important rules so I had people gather in the hall.

“Illya, what’s this?”

A man asked with some white, round, and flat stones in his hand.

On one table there was a board with a grid of nineteen horizontal and vertical lines.

Next to it were two containers with the aforementioned white stones along with similar black stones in each. It was a board game where you exchanged blows with black and white pieces and competed for positions…

“It’s called a Go stone that is used in a game called Go.”

After I explained the fundamental rules like hama (prisoner stones) and kou (repetitive capture), I demonstrated it with Gabril whom I taught it previously. I explained other outcome rules like counting and then freed the seat.

“They say it is easier to get familiar with it rather than learn by teaching, so anyone interested should give it a try.”

I omitted talking about opening moves and such since everyone was just starting out from zero. Plus I didn’t want to turn this into a Go classroom.

“Illya, what’s this one?”

Fadelle called me and called my attention to the table with shogi.

“That is called shogi, and is a game of capturing the king by moving the pieces in turns.”
“It’s different from the chess that you mentioned at the start, right?”
“Yes.”

As I arranged the pieces on both sides, several people were already showing interest in it. I continued explaining the movements of the pieces and promoted pieces, and also rules like Two Pawns, and I saw people were already itching to give it a shot. Once I explained up to the captured pieces, I had two beginners give it a shot.

It started out smoothly, but their hands slowed down gradually. Seeing that, I realized I forgot something important.

“In official places, the players have a specific amount of time that limits them, so please keep that in mind.”
““Huh?!””

I mean, I wouldn’t want you guys to start doing starvation tactics in real life.

I added a watch or something that could replace it to the lists we needed to provide. This alone made this explanatory meeting worth the trouble. I moved away from the table that had a silent, excited mood going, and looked toward the table where I started explanations from.

“Check.”
“Huh, no way?! Agh!”