CH 69

At the end of the year, Limuto Break celebrates the God Migration festival. 

It is a Shinto ritual where the god that has been watching over the earth returns to the Divine World and a new god comes to take their place. 

Perhaps due to the god’s not having a specific benefit and there being no reason to, the belief in the gods has waned and they don’t have a lot of prestige. 

Regardless, the God Migration festival was an established festival and was popular among people who didn’t believe in Shinto. It had grown to be a grand event. 

To show appreciation to the god that protected the earth during the year a grand feast was prepared, and lights illuminated the night so everyone could see the god return to the Divine World. 

Then, the New Year bell rings to welcome the new god and the lights were kept alight as the welcoming feast was prepared. 

In other words, New Year was an all-night event full of noisy festivities. 

On this day, all over the road shops pop up. There are food stalls, sake stalls, strange festival goods, and toy stalls, fortune-telling stalls, and much more. 

There are stalls that sell goods that are more like things you want to get rid of around the house but there seems to be a demand for such items. 

Anyone can have a stall and sell food, even people without restaurants, so there are quite a few hits or misses. 

There are people who normally don’t believe in Shinto or go to the temple, just on New Year’s they come to the temple to send and welcome the gods. They bring food and drink to the festival as an offering. 

For that reason, Ilvalino says, God Migration Day is a day even the orphans can eat their fill. 

In the game De Magic, there is an event where you have a festival date with the target person who has the highest love ranking at the time of the event. There are many stalls to enjoy along the common people’s streets with the main character who happens to also be a commoner.

As the characters grow in the game, the still compositions will change from 1st year to 3rd year, to 4th year, then 6th year. The still compositions were essential for making sure the player was moved to tears while saving and loading. 

In Cain’s case, he was already in the upper grades and the teacher was an adult, so their still compositions didn’t change. They were player-friendly characters.

Even in this world the year is broken up into 12 months and the name of the moon in each season is named after the flower of that season. 

However, generally the months were referred to as their numbers from January to December for convenience.  

By Mid-December the tutors became busy and all the classes for the year ended. 

Teacher Ianis was busy preparing the materials he needed to secure funding for the next year’s research. 

Teacher Kreis was busy practicing because his orchestra played during the New Year events. 

Teacher Tirnoa during this time had said he was making shining magical rocks and had no time to rest. 

Teacher Cyrus and Teacher Celsys didn’t have any plans so they said, “If there isn’t anything to do might as well take a rest” and took time off. 

Training with the Knights Guard had also been canceled because their workload increased at the end of the year. They were busy protecting the important members of society. 

In December, Teacher Tirnoa helped Cain, Ilvalino, and Dianna make shining magical stones and said it was a secret as he gave them a little pocket money. 

Dianna received a small shining magical stone and put it in her “Dianna Box” to cherish it. 

“This year I don’t want to go to sleep before hearing the bell, Big Brother.” 

“Oh yeah, you did fall asleep last year didn’t you Dianna.” 

Cain had spent the whole day doing things with Dianna and was in a good mood. 

That day too they were sitting in Cain’s room, side by side on the coach as they did embroidery. 

The bell that Dianna was talking about was the New Year’s bell. 

On the last day of December, a wooden frame is placed in the town square and a bell is hung there. Generally, it is rung when the date changes, but anyone can ring it if they line up for it. 

Usually, it is fun for the children to be awake during the time they are usually asleep but being able to ring the bell is another fun thing to do during God Migration Day. 

For the day the square of the Royal Palace was open, and the commoner’s children were ringing the bell. Some of the aristocratic children were stopped by their parents from ringing, but many of the aristocratic children were dressed like the common children and participated in the fun. 

The children kept ringing the bell, and the ringing lasted into the morning, not the standard 108 times. [Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

Last year Dianna and Cain had lined up to ring the bell, but Dianna had fallen asleep. Cain was not really interested in ringing the bell and just carried Dianna on his back to the courtyard of the royal palace. 

“This year should we take a nap so you can stay up?”

“But there are so many fun things happening in the afternoon, I don’t want to take a nap.” 

“That is true. Then today should we practice by staying up late?” 

“Let’s do it! Let’s play at night too. Di will play Nina!” 

“If we play Nina we will be found out by Mom and Dad and they will be mad. We can play Nina in the afternoon, but we should play secretly at night with no noise.” 

“It’s a secret from mother and father! A secret! Heehee.” 

They completed the embroidery while chatting. 

In the center of Cain’s frame, there was a small blue bird holding a red flower. 

In Dianna’s frame, there was something that resembled a brown stick. 

Ilvalino looked at their frames and stretched his neck as he asked, 

“Missus Dianna, what is that?” 

“Heehee. It is Ariad!”

“It’s the Holy Sword Ariad! It is sewn well. Anything you do is amazing Dianna. Do the ball knots represent the leaves on the edge of Ariad?” 

”That is so! Big brother, you are familiar with Ariad?”

The stick that Dianna had picked up the other today was not in Cain’s room. Dianna was still young and sharing a room with his parents, so if he left it in there it would get thrown away. 

The adults didn’t understand the heroic tale! Cain and Dianna became allies and quarreled with their parents together and won permission to store the Ariad in his room. 

Since the secret base had been dismantled without their permission, the Holy Sword Ariad now had a blue string that had a note attached that said, “Don’t throw this away because it is a treasure.” 

Cain removed Dianna’s embroidery from the frame, made sure the string was cleanly cut, then folded it and handed it to Ilvalino. 

“Add this to the things that the orphans can sell. It would be great if this could contribute to the sales even just a little bit.”  

“Thank you. I am sure everyone will be happy as well.” 

“Di’s Ariad is amazingly popular!” 

“That’s right. It is a holy sword after all.” 

“Yeah!” 

When he received the two pieces of embroidery Ilvalino put them in his bag so they would stay safe. The orphans were able to eat a hearty meal at the festival because they helped with the Shinto ritual.  

This year the story was that a stall in front of the temple would sell the pieces of embroidery. 

Since Cain had given embroidery to the orphans, they began to practice embroidery in the cafeteria on rainy and cold days. On some days Ilvalino would come with nice gifts for Elysse and Dianna. Elysse never used them because she was a noble lady, but she appreciated them nonetheless. 

The stock of handkerchiefs was substantial, as Elysse would donate plain handkerchiefs and embroidery thread from time to time. The project began as a thank you to the people who often gave them things. 

However, when he tried to give the handkerchief to the girl at the general store she said, “I am sure anyone would be happy to receive this but if the orphans come with the money they have earned from selling this I’m sure they would be happier.” 

The owner agreed and didn’t take the handkerchief. The orphans consulted with Ilvalino and Ilvalino consulted with Cain. 

Cain considered selling the handkerchiefs at the general store. However, because they were made by orphans the supply wasn’t consistent and the quality of the embroidery varied. He reconsidered their ability to be able to sell them in stores as a product.

Even if a souvenir stall was set up in the temple, they would need a store number, and the flow of people into the temple was not big enough. 

Cain thought it would be great to have a flea market to put up a stall in but then he remembered the god migration festival. He thought it would be a good idea to open a stall on that day. 

Many people came to the temple during the god migration, and because it was only for one day it would be less of a strain on the orphans and the temple.  

If this was successful, then they could potentially hold a Bazaar with their stock. At any rate, Cain offered products as contribution, because he wanted the stall to succeed.