Chapter 796: Parade Outside The Village, Shashaato City, Dance To Welcome The Dead

Chapter 796 – Parade Outside the Village, Shashaato City, Dance to Welcome the Dead

My turn in Village Five is over.

The carriage I’m riding in was supposed to merge automatically, transform, and run but after three failures in the preliminary safety check experiments, it was scrapped.

The carriage was to be pulled by unicorns and the merger and transformation were to be done manually by golems.

The mountain elves, who had been so enthusiastic about the merger and transformation, were extremely depressed.

The intelligence boxes, who had been cooperating with them in various ways, were also disappointed.

Well, personally, I thought the manual transformations and mergers by the golems were not bad. It’s like a pit stop at a car race.

The audience were also amazed.

I guess it wasn’t bad.

Yeah.

-0-

I arrived at Shashaato City through the gate that leads from Village Five to Shashaato City.

Well, the gate is located on the outskirts of the city so it’s hard to say that I arrived at Shashaato City.

And just as I was about to move to the waiting area in the carriage, I saw Dors and the others dancing.

……

Looking at it closely, I can see Dors’ group of a dozen…..dancing in front of Governor Ifrus.

There are also audiences.

What’s this?

A dance battle?

No, that gesture is so…..what?

Is that a parade performance?

I looked at the civil servant girl near the carriage and she smiled at me and spoke.

「Sorry to bother you but could you please stop Dors-sama and the others? If you don’t, it will affect the progress of the parade.」

In other words, Dors and the others are doing things on their own.

「I have not received any reports of any action being taken.」

I see.

Sorry.

I’ll stop them.

I got off the carriage and headed to Dors and the others.

I could have taken the carriage but the carriage is going through a maintenance check at the waiting area.

Besides, the unicorns who were pulling the carriage looked a little uncomfortable about going there.

I had no choice.

-0-

I ran up to Dors and the others.

Neither Gulf, Daga, nor Reginleif are with me because they are participating in the parade.

However, that doesn’t mean I don’t have any escort.

There were four high elves who were not participating in the parade but were nearby, acting as my guards.

Earlier, the four were unarmed, ready to move at any moment but now, two of them are holding flags.

They say it’s to make it easier to know who I am.

Right.

If I’m alone, no one can tell who I am.

And then, following the four high elves, Asura, who had left the parade line when it noticed that I had gotten off the carriage, chased after us.

Asura was in the parade as the representative of the hot spring area.

The ghost knights and the lions had declined, saying that the village parade was enough, and as for Asura, it followed…..

I heard that it enjoyed the parade in the village.

It was eager to participate in the parade outside the village.

However, even I could tell that it would scare the parade spectators outside the village in its current state.

Therefore, Asura is currently wearing fine clothes which hide the bones as much as possible.

For its head, it was supposed to wear a full-face helmet but the fine clothes and full-face helmet contrast each other that just by looking you’ll feel a sense of discomfort. Because of that, it was forced to wear a wide brimmed hat and three masks.

I think it’s less scary now.

……..

If only you wouldn’t notice the body size and the number of hands and feet.

-0-

Dors and the others noticed me running up to them.

They had an “Oh, crap” expressions on their faces.

Hakuren and Rasuti turned their heads away from me.

I guess Hiichirou is the only one who’s enjoying it.

Doraim was doing a sharp break dance, probably his solo part, and didn’t notice me.

Ah, he seems to have noticed me.

His movements became stiff.

When I tried to call out to them, someone stopped me.

It’s Governor Ifrus.

「Wait a minute. It’s currently the 6th turn in the 3rd phase, the 2nd end. It would be a shame to stop now!」

……

S-sorry.

You look really good but I don’t understand the rules.

What do you mean?

Is it like baseball, when you’re down by three runs and the bases are loaded with no outs in the ninth inning?

If it’s almost over, I’d say just continue until it’s over……

No one has explained what’s happening to me.

Even the four high elves looked confused.

It was Asura who offered me a helping hand in my time of need.

You want me to leave it to you?

Well, I would like to do that but, do you understand what’s happening?

Really?

You know the rules?

Ah, yeah, I’ll leave it to you then.

Asura nodded strongly after hearing my affirmation. It then sent me and the four high elves a little away.

Then, position itself in an equilateral triangle with Dors’s group and Governor Ifrus.

I wondered what they were going to do from there, but Asura suddenly started dancing.

All hands were raised above its head and the movements utilized its wrists.

Its feet were happily moving.

This dance gave me a sense of nostalgia.

Could it be, no way……

Before I could be surprised, someone spoke up.

「I-i-isn’t that……the dance to welcome the dead(Dead Man Parade)!」

It was Ifrus.

He was on his buttock as if he had just fallen off his back.

And Dors and the others too.

As expected, they did not fall off their butts but they were horrified.

「T-to think I’d see this here……」

Raimeiren and Guraru were standing in front of Hiichirou as if protecting him.

Is it a dangerous dance?

Well, I’m sorry to sound so alarmed but it looks to me like Asura is doing a bon odori……

Yeah, bon odori.

No wonder I felt something nostalgic.

Watching it makes me want to dance with it but, that, what’s, ehto…..

Asura, let me ask you something.

Ah, you don’t mind if I dance with you.

Ah, where did these large number of skeletons dancing behind Asura come from?

Back up dancers?

Do back up dancers just appear on their own?

Well, they’re crawling out from the ground, but……

There are so many of them.

I’m not talking about ten or twenty skeletons.

I’m talking about thousands.

And more are showing up.

If this continues, the outskirts of Shashaato City will be filled with skeletons.

Was this area used to be a battlefield?

Wait wait.

I heard that zombies and skeletons have nothing to do with the actual dead.

It was something about magic power.

They said some skeletons might be causing it.

At least that’s what the ghost knights told me.

H-hey.

So, how are you going to settle this mess?

Are you okay?

Will it stop?

I looked around and saw that everyone was dancing the same way.

Dors’ group, Governor Ifrus, and even the audience are dancing the same way.

Before I knew it, they were dancing in a circle.

Is this a game or something?

Is that the rule?

Ah, really?

Well, I’m glad everyone’s taking part……

So, will the skeletons stay like this?

They’ll return to the ground once it’s over, right?

If so, that’s fine.

That’s fine……

Asura.

One more thing.

Yes, sorry for asking a lot.

It’s just a simple question.

Is that part of this dance?

When it’s over, will it go back to the ground too?

I said so while looking into the distance.

I looked into the distance and saw something big and recognizable even from a distance.

The white bones of a whale sprouted from the ground and began to fly through the air.

Estimating its size from the surrounding trees, it was probably 600 meters long.

Gigantic.

I looked back at Asura. I found that it was surprised through its body movement since I couldn’t see its expression given it’s wearing masks and was a skeleton to begin with.

Dors and the others were surprised too.

「Ah, that’s bad news.」

Dors and the others stopped their dance and attacked it with their breath altogether.