Volume 5 - CH 5.5

On a Corner During the Spring Announcement Festival

“Granny, I’m here to bring spring!” a child cried. 

“Oh, how good of you to come. Here, have a candy.” 

This bright, sunny day was the day of the Spring Announcement Festival. 

The children dressed up as fairies and handed out flowers to adults, and the adults gave them candy in return. The happy voices of children could be heard everywhere. In the city of Parnam which was celebrating the festival, the Lunarian Orthodox bishop Souji Lester was sitting at a balcony seat and tipping back a glass of wine. 

“Sure is peaceful,” he remarked cheerfully. “Wine tastes best when you can drink it in the middle of the day, surrounded by the voices of children at play.” 

The young officer with distinctive red hair was being pulled along by the hand by a bespectacled beastman girl with fox ears. It was Halbert and Kaede. These two had been training aboard the Hiryuu until the other day, but they had returned to the royal capital for their first extended vacation in a while. 

Halbert scratched his head and sighed. “Honestly, it’s a rare day off, so I wish you’d let me take a break. I’m exhausted from days and days of hard training, okay?” 

“It’s because this is a rare day off that we have to use it to its fullest, you know?” Kaede asked. 

“Look, that might be fine for you, since you do mental labor...” 

“Oh? You aren’t having fun with me, Hal?”