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Chapter 383

Day 90 – Evening, the Town of Omui　

It’s festival time. Well, technically just a street fair, but for a frontier it’s a festival. People are prospering now, the sick recovered, the Evil Forest was pushed back by logging, we even avoided the war… At last the frontier is rich and peaceful.

The situation had been spiraling downhill progressively faster with each passing day, but then it rocketed back up, overshot the recovery, leaped over the best case scenario, and is running wild towards further prosperity, hence the festival.

Only now can they finally pay their respects. A festival to show the heroic spirits, who defended the frontier, protected their families, battled disasters, fought against the encroaching doom, and lost their lives, the happy families and thriving frontier they made possible. Seeing everyone smile is exactly what they wanted, so they celebrate jubilantly, offering their thanks to the heroes who brought that happiness.

Two bows, two claps, one bow. We don’t need any geezers out here. It is the abandoned edge of the world, not only did no one offer their help, worse, it was invaded in that geezer’s name. Such an evil deity is not only not necessary, but actually harmful.

The frontier saved itself. This festival is for those who died defending it, for those who endured hardship dreaming of their children’s happiness, and for those who refused to give up that dream and still live here today, hence 「Great Frontier Festival」Yup, that’s a wonderful name. My sense of style scares even me.. A nice and deep name. Yeah, I just made the sign on my own?

Yet I’m getting that stare. And with so many people, the Flat Gaze Power is off the charts! A Flat Gaze Scouter would probably explode from the unreadably high number!

「It all sounds very wholesome, even Father was moved… but Great Frontier Festival?」
「Your thanks to the heroic spirits reminds me of some supermarket sale slogan…」
「Who let Haruka-kun name things?! We all knew this would happen after the nicknames, no?」
「「「We only heard about『a festival』part, okay? He definitely made that sign on his own！」」」

A festival doesn’t need a name. The souls of the dead surely don’t care. Just laugh and play, live happily, and thank them for that happiness, that’s all they ever wanted. So any name is fine, right? Long ones just get forgotten anyway?

Excited orphans and yukata-clad beauties whirl about, lanterns line the stall-filled street, and everyone’s laughing. That alone means the festival is a success. That sight itself is enough, that simple happiness is what everyone wished for and risked their lives to protect. Yep, seeing all the yukatas makes my side job all worth it!

Pale, slender napes, collarbones slightly flashing in and out of view, the girls’ colorful yukatas make the passers-by gasp, completely enchanted by the sight. Aight, those off-the-rack yukata sets are going to sell like crazy!

Wearing unfamiliar getas Armored Pres-san and Dancing Girl-san stroll along, each step resounding with a clip-clop, clearly enjoying themselves. The Orphans in happi coats and jinbei dash around, getting scolded but having the time of their lives, the little orphan girls in mini-yukata are spinning about in glee. Yep, they’re turning round and round, all smiles.

「L-L-Look, candy apples!」
「「「Kyaaah!」」」
「Over there, there’s a shooting gallery!」
「「「I wanna try!」」」

The girls are bouncing with excitement. Back in our world, candied apples probably wouldn’t have thrilled them this much, but these are memories, things they thought they’d lost forever, something they believed they’d never taste again suddenly appeared right in front of them, and they leap at them… and I rake in the profits. Yep, most of the festival stalls are stocked thanks to my efforts!

But the shooting gallery, huh, aren’t they spending every day in dungeons, unleashing spell shots and volley fire with bows? Ugh, Elven Little-Sister Girl is rapid-fire sniping prizes one after another, raking in a fortune. Massive losses here! Even though I carefully bent each arrow shaft and shifted the center of gravity, she still maintains a perfect 100 hits in 100 shots accuracy, dropping all the prizes. What an unexpected loss. The girls and Orphans don’t even shoot themselves, they just place orders with theElven Little-Sister Girl and watch her farm prizes. Alright, let’s ban her next time!

Still, she is struggling with ring toss and ball throwing. Everything’s weighted off-center, and the targets are designed with optical tricks that mess up depth perception. But, my darts game is getting wrecked! To crank up the difficulty I hung a swaying target, yet the tearful middle-aged man shaking it for dear life can’t stop those high-speed darts zipping in and piercing dead center every time, stripping away prize after prize. Another huge loss!

「Hey, Haruka-kun. I’ve never seen so many of our people smiling and enjoying themselves like this… I’m sure our ancestors are grateful too. Truly, thank you.」

「Haruka-sama, thank you for preparing the yukata not only for Meriel but for myself as well. Since you taught me how to wear it, I can help the orphan girls wear theirs.」

There are the festival patrons. All I did was explain the concept, he issued permission with zero regulations, also completely yielding all of the related rights, much appreciated patron, but needless to say, the real arrangements were hammered out by the Aide who’s probably still working back at the manor.

The Orphans spot Murimur-san, swarm over, and hug her tight. Apparently the Orphan-Launcher doesn’t activate on Murimur-san? Is this a discrimination?

Down the lantern-lit street stands the church that served as the old orphanage. That’s where all those who died on the frontier are enshrined. Everyone presses their hands together and lowering their heads, gazes fondly as if recalling their faces. If you want to give thanks, it’s over there? The ones who protected and blessed the frontier are right here in the frontier itself.

「Uh, Haruka-kun! Could I borrow some money? Aside from your reserves my savings are pretty much gone?」

「Sure thing, no interest. Borrow as much as you like~」

If I get them to splurge here, the money ultimately cycles back into the Magnates coffers, and the capital I lent comes back too. This is pure investment! After all, the girls are the frontier’s top earners, the price-gouging road has no end!

They probably want to make as many memories as they can with the orphans, who are going to move into the orphanage tomorrow, so their purse strings are quite loose. They probably haven’t even thought what it means that the orphanage is now the old orphanage. They think they’ll only see the Orphans they’ve lived with every day once in a while… But the new orphanage is right behind the inn, you know? It’s connected, so you’ll still can see them every day? Yep, right next door? Just finished it?

Gradually, I’m getting surrounded and squished by the Girls in yukatas bringing IOUs. No, yukatas’ fabric is pretty thin, so getting this close isn’t good? Like in Highschool Boy’s sort of way…… Huh! They! Aren’t wearing any?! H-How shameless, absolutely outrageous, keep it up. Not wearing any underwear under yukata, they surely do get it, but this makes such close proximity an even worse idea! This sensation is dangerous, or rather, since I’m also wearing a yukata, the feeling, transmitted directly through the thin fabric, is putting my Highschool Boy in a risky state… Wait, who the hell is directly groping my Highschool Boy?! No, why is my yukata open? And why are there hands inside of it?! It’s supposed to work in reverse, no one wants such scenes with highschool boys, no, even more importantly, just how many female perverts are here?! Hey, could you not touch the sash? We are in the middle of the street in the middle of the town, you know? You damn nymphos!

What I thought was Great Frontier Festival turned out to be Great Nyphos Festival, with Highschool Boy exposure, wait, that sounds like a straight to arrest crime, no investigation required, but why are you going straight for 『Something is pressing against me – Yeah, I know, I’m doing it on purpose』cliche? And why a Highschool Boy getting his butt groped since a while ago? How should I put it, shouldn’t the positions be in reverse? Like, usually? Well, even if the positions were reversed I sort of suspect it still would’ve been a huge issue, but why am I getting bodypiled during a festival? Moreover, with loads of sexual harassment from shameless nymphos in the mix?!

Surrounded by the sweet fragrance, I sunk in the sea of warm and soft flesh. Better not ask if anything happened while I was unconscious though. I’m scared of the answer!

Exhausted, I slump onto a bench at the side of the road and watch the festival unfold.

The bustling streets are alive with people’s laughter, calls from shopkeepers, and the vibrant noise of celebration, and yukatas and jinbeis are selling like hotcakes! The masks are also a huge hit, though I never expected Kobo masks to become this popular, so I’m secretly restocking them now. The adorable little chick masks are popular too, but somehow still losing to Kobo’s sales? Quite puzzling? Maybe I made them too realistic and that hit a sweet spot?

The Orphans and the local kids have become friends without everyone noticing, laughing and racing through the streets, stuffing their faces. The 「One More Set」 crowd is busy tirelessly eating their way through the stalls. At the church, people join their hands in prayer, lost in memories, but the atmosphere of the bustling town inevitably seeps in, and soft smiles bloom on their faces.

「Phew. Dungeons are still spawning like crazy, and the deepening is getting pretty serious, but we finally reached peaceful, prosperous days. So smiling like this is totally allowed, right? The rest can be dumped on Meripapa-san. Then Aide-san will take care of it? I should probably send him some snacks later. He is probably still tied up with behind the scenes stuff… A darker than darkness Overwork..」

My only regret is not getting water balloons into mass production. The Orphans, wearing masks and jinbei or happi coats, dash around with cotton candy and frankfurters, but none of them are equipped with water balloons! That’s right, we don’t have rubber. Because there’s a soft, durable plant used in its place, demand for rubber is low, so there is none in circulation. If we don’t find a rubber-rubber tree, this civilization’s going to turn out strangely warped.

「Mind if I sit next to you?」

「Ah, Pres. If you promise no sexual harassment, you can come as close as one-meter.」

「Whoa! So wary?! Everyone just got a little too excited about the festival, cut them some slack today, won’t you?」

She says that and sits right beside me. So my opinion was totally ignored. And while she sounds like she’s defending everyone, my Presence Detection clearly picked up her full participation during that harassment incident! In fact, not only did she not stop anything, she stayed real close the whole time! Based on her positioning alone, she’s a top suspect, but now she’s sitting there all innocent-like, smiling as if nothing ever happened.

「Everyone looks so happy. I don’t think anyone’s ever going to forget this festival, after all, they look so genuinely blissful.」

From the collar of her white morning glory-patterned yukata, her white nape peeks through all the way to her shoulders. A few stray strands of her tied-up black hair have come loose and cling to her fair skin.

「Well, I guess I’ll have to plan something even more fun so they do forget it! An event people get used to is as good as dead! To attract new guests, we need endless fresh concepts, such is the nature of the paid highway to becoming a top-tier Magnate! There’s no such thing as completion or perfection in this game, it’s a typo, a falsehood! Can’t let that happen!」

「You don’t have to push so hard. Everyone’s okay now. But… thanks.」

With that said, Pres vanishes off toward the night stalls, without saying a single word about the harassment incident! She’s making a clean getaway! …Well, everyone is having fun, so maybe it’s fine? …Is it though?