Chapter 1: The Ever-Accelerating Revival Festival

1

On the twenty-third of the violet month, we were once again going about our business as usual, without paying yesterday's incident in the Gamley Troupe's tent any mind.

At last, the sun god's revival festival had properly kicked off. Furthermore, it would be our first time doing business during the day for the festival.

The street was positively packed with people. There really had been a remarkable increase in the amount of foot traffic since yesterday. I had heard many times that the numbers of passersby would double for the festival, and I was really seeing it now, with how bustling the post town had become.

There were red flags dedicated to the sun god flying here and there throughout town, while the numerous visitors who were constantly arriving were walking down the road with their totos and wagons. Easterners with their faces completely hidden by their hoods, southerners wearing flat caps and cloaks over their relatively short frames, and westerners from all over the kingdom-a great many people had gathered here to enjoy the festival, with some aiming to make money at the same time, and they were all coming in along the stone highway. As for us, we were able to watch all the hustle and bustle going on from our stalls, where our sales had already nearly doubled since opening the outdoor restaurant.

"Good morning! This crowd is incredible, isn't it?!"

"Ah, hey there, Myme."

Myme had showed up around forty to fifty minutes later than us again today, and her eyes were positively sparkling as she stared down at what I was holding in my hands.

"What a lovely aroma. What sort of dish are you selling today?"

"For today, it's one that uses kimyuus eggs. If I had to give it a name, I guess I'd call it giba meat egg drop soup."

In a large pot, I had a salty-sweet soup base of tau oil, sugar, and fruit wine simmering away, full of rib meat, aria, nenon, pepe leaves, and the pseudo-brown beech mushroom. To serve it, I would crack an egg over the pot and wait until it was half-solidified, then transfer some of the soup with the egg in it to a deep-dish plate.

I could prepare seven servings of the soup at once, with one egg per customer. Though there was a bit of a line in front of the stall, I had chosen the dish after considering what had happened last night, when we had gone over capacity and hadn't had enough tableware due to having such a quick turnover of customers.

The customer traffic we were seeing really had skyrocketed compared to the day before yesterday. Since we had borrowed a whole eight stalls' worth of space last night for the seating, we still had room to spare, but we could easily come up short on the tableware if we weren't careful.

We've got to at least order more tableware and a new canopy today.

If we went and purchased new chairs and tables now, we would have trouble storing them after the revival festival, so we wouldn't add seating to the newly borrowed space. Instead, we would simply prepare a canopy to guard against sudden rain.

In other words, for today it was just an empty space without anything set up, but the customers paid that fact no heed and ate atop the blankets they brought. It seemed they felt they could just retreat into the thicket to the rear if it started raining.

Meanwhile, the Gamley Troupe's tent across from us had opened for business when the sun hit its peak, and sure enough, it had even more customers gathered around than the day before yesterday. I would have felt bad if the commotion last night had caused folks to stay away, but apparently that had just been a needless fear. Maybe for a somewhat shady group running a circus tent like them, even something like a bandit attack just made for free publicity.

At any rate, business was going smoothly. While there were quite a few more folks than usual out and about drinking fruit wine in the middle of the day, peace and order still seemed to be reigning in our restaurant and along the road. There were more guards than usual doing rounds in the area, plus we had a whole twelve hunters keeping watch.

Because of the attack yesterday, we had decided to exercise more caution than usual for the time being. That meant that for the next several days we would be traveling with as many guards as the totos and wagons could carry. With the chefs, guards, and Sufira Zaza coming along as an observer, our group added up to twenty-eight people in total.

Starting today, that number also included a special newcomer: a member of the Beim clan who would be assisting me with the daily specials. The Beim clan stood in opposition to our business in the post town, and they had only now agreed to dispatch someone to act as an observer.

Her name was Fei Beim, and she was the eldest daughter of the main Beim house. She was a bit on the small side, with a short and stout build like her father. Her little eyes always looked displeased, and she wore a frown on her face by default. At nineteen years old, she was older than me but was still unmarried.

She had actually caused a bit of a commotion on her very first day of work. A drunk customer from the west had told her she was being unfriendly, and in response she had snapped at him, saying she couldn't imagine why she would need to be nice to him.

We had somehow managed to settle things with him right away, but I couldn't just overlook her actions. Since the women of the forest's edge had a lot of interactions with ruffians, many of them were quite skilled at serving customers, and since discrimination against the people of the forest's edge had been on a steep decline over the course of the last several months, issues like this had hardly ever cropped up. But that didn't mean anything when it came to today's incident.

"There's no need for you to act friendly, Fei Beim, but could you at least try not to be rude when you're speaking to the customers?" I advised as I dropped fresh eggs into the pot and waited for them to cook, only for her to shoot an annoyed glare back at me.

"He was the one to act rudely first, so why must I be blamed?"

"I'm not blaming you. However, it's important to keep your emotions in check when handling customers."

"So you want me to cast aside my pride and fawn over them for coins?"

"No, I'm certainly not asking that..." I didn't have much experience dealing with folks like her, so I was left at a bit of a loss.

However, Yamiru Lea then called out from the neighboring stall, "Fei Beim, you're here to observe the business the Fa and Ruu are doing in the post town and verify what it means for the forest's edge, correct? I cannot imagine how you could arrive at a proper conclusion if you yourself are interfering with our work."

Fei Beim turned her way, an even more intense look in her eyes.

However, Yamiru Lea continued, "Furthermore, as your Beim clan is opposed to doing business in the post town, if you continue acting in such a way, it will seem like you were intentionally trying to impede the Fa clan. If you don't wish to cause unnecessary misunderstandings, you should be more careful with your actions."

"I can't see any reason why I should have to listen to such impertinent remarks from the likes of you..."

"Oh, but it's perfectly reasonable. This is important work that will influence the future of the forest's edge, so we should all be free to state our opinions."

Fei Beim offered no retort.

"Not accepting the Fa clan's actions is a perfectly legitimate stance to hold. But since the decision was made to wait till the next clan head meeting to determine the validity of their business, interfering would be akin to breaking our laws. That's why I'm saying you should restrain yourself."

Still the young woman remained silent.

"If you hold such distaste for the work being done here, then there's no need for you to be the one to join us. Why not trade places with another Beim woman?" Yamiru Lea mercilessly chided. She was so bold and sharp that she would never back down, even when faced with nobles from the castle town. I couldn't imagine very many people making an argument like this.

The end result was Fei Beim being left speechless. But then, I noticed clear droplets starting to stream down from her little eyes.

"U-Um, Fei Beim was really moved by the delicious recipes the Fa clan taught us. She asked to be given this task," the Dagora woman working the giba manju stall with Yamiru Lea hurriedly interjected. Her clan fell under the Beim. "But Fei Beim has trouble handling townsfolk, so things like this can sometimes throw her out of sorts. She most certainly isn't trying to get in the Fa clan's way, though, so can't you please just let it go for now and keep an eye on her in the future?"

"It's fine. This is all the result of my own inadequacies," Fei Beim stated, wiping the tears from her eyes and bowing her head deeply. "My apologies. I wish to take a moment to calm down, so I'll excuse myself for just a short while."

"Y-Yeah, got it..."

As Fei Beim took off running toward the rear of the wagons, Yamiru Lea gave a heavy sigh.

"This is nothing to go crying over..." she said.

"Sorry. I should have done a better job...