Volume 1 - CH 32

“Festivals are a vital part of human life. Without festivals, life would be as hard to swallow as rye bread.”—— After coming back from the Torch Festival in Nightfall Town, I made such a comment in my diary.

Recently, I had been worrying if I could fulfil the promise I made with Wolfgang. Because although my Xifu was back, with her current appearance, we would probably be at the other end of many gun barrels if I brought her there as she is.

As my observations of Xifu became more and more, the number of notes I jotted down in my diary regarding her daily life increased too. The scene that I was looking forward to where her scales would change was also happening. 

The change started at the middle axis of her body, in other words, it started first at her forehead, tip of the nose, neck, chest and belly button. The scales started fading away and slowly became shiny skin which looked really fascinating. It felt warm to touch too.

Magic was really something eh, it can even change a type of skin to another totally different one.

The process is quite fast too. Just after a good sleep, half her body had become what she originally looked like before. Her new skin somehow felt even more smooth than before. Well, it was just a feeling, but her breasts were definitely larger than before.

It honestly felt sinful to watch my own wife’s body transform, as if I was peeping on her during a shower. But the more sinful it felt, the more I couldn’t stop myself.

Motivated with my own curiosity too, my eyes were glued 24/7 on my wife as if I was a camera lens that had limitless battery.

I swear I had never in my whole life looked at a girl with such dirty eyes! Not even on my ex-girlfriend.

“Mmm……?”

As if to add oil on the fire, my Xifu started stirring up from her sleep in the dead of the night.

“Ah, uh, well, what a fabulous night we are having……”

What the hell was that greeting. Why does it feel like I was caught red handed doing something bad?

“Eh, don’t look.”

“Ah, sorry, sorry.”

Covering her body with the wool mattress, it was as if she was a shy young girl. I too was like an immature young man and turned my head away, blushing.

Hold on, something isn’t right……

What’s there to be shy about, we’ve seen practically everything about each other!

This married life is really regressing in time!

“You, want to see?”

“No, I don’t want to see.”

“You want to see!”

“I don’t wanna see……”

“No, you wanna see!”

“Fine, I wanna see!”

I was too nervous, and somehow got caught up in her flow.

I could feel her small snakes slowly turning my head back to her, as she slowly let go of the wool mattress covering her body. She looked exactly like the white glistening flesh of a mangosteen.

As I took a deep breath in, I could feel the veins in my neck throbbing.

“Hug me.”

“Okay.”

Her body was different than before, with the warmth of a human body. As I silently hugged her, my eyes stared fixated at the numerous sparks flying out from the heater as the sound of the gusting winds outside entered my ears.

The day her body finished transforming was coincidentally the day I had promised Wolfgang. I had no idea why he chose that day specifically for us to go, but maybe there was something he needed to tell us.

Because my wife’s awake time was too short, I could only move the whole wool mattress and the coat to the cart so that she could sleep on the way there.

But it snowed on that day, so Big sheep could only walk very slowly through the snow covered road, not to mention I had to disembark from the cart frequently to feed it. We had departed from home at noon, but the sun had already set by the time we reached Nightfall Town.

Under the somewhat heavy snow, within the dancing snowflakes, a small orange flame from Parker’s lit pipe could be seen. After parking my cart, I could see the craftsman squatting on the ground. Under the heavy winds, his already ugly face made him seem like a demon from some video game.

“Hu~……Oh, Mr Lou Woo, you’re here.”

‘Ah, Mr.Parker. My apologies, the road is hard to walk today.”

’’Where is Mdm.Lou Woo?”

“Erh, still sleeping, I guess?”

“Eh?”

“Erm…how do I put it……you know, Medusa.”

I opened a small sliver beneath the mountain of warmer layers on the cart to let Parker see. what I packed on the cart wasn’t a mountain of fur skins but my wife instead.

To be honest, it was kind of funny that my Xifu could even sleep in this condition……

Medusa was really reluctant to be woken up, so it was mostly me half-carrying her into the Nightfall Town’s bar. It was empty inside, and both Parker and I went to the living room on the second floor.

There was a roaring fire in the fireplace, and the walls of the house must have been covered in some kind of insulating layer as the temperature inside was very cosy. As soon as we reached, Xifu immediately went back to sleeping on the couch.

‘’Mr Parker, Wolfgang and others……”

“Oh, they are busy with something now, you just wait for a moment.”

‘Okay.”

Parker poured a glass of the pepper soup for me. As I took a sip out of it, we both sat down at the table and smoked as we chatted.

“Wife and I come today, what is it for?”

“Ahahahaa Mr Lou Woo, it should actually be said like this: ‘Why have my wife and I come today?’”

“Ah…is it so?”

Don’t correct my word order goddamnit. It’s not like I actually learnt any of it from you guys.

“Hmm, today is Laneige!”

“Lai what again? Laineige?”

(TLN: From the raw it seems its called 莱宁柯(Lái níng kē). Did my best trying to make a name lol.)

“Oh, right, Mr Lou Woo does not know yet.”

Parker retrieved a thick, heavy book that could be mistaken for a brick from a bookshelf nearby. Sitting down beside me, he started explaining to me about this mysterious “Laneige”.

The word Laneige apparently was the name of a festival. If I were to directly translate it, it would literally mean “Torch Festival”.

Torch Festival……

My heart was shocked when I heard it. Was the FFF Inquisition even present here in the other world? Then wouldn’t my Xifu and I be burnt to death?

Taking a look at the picture that Parker passed to me, it was an illustration of a group of people with torches in their hands forming a circle around another two figures in the centre. 

Fucking hell, isn’t this freaking scary?!

(TLN: A reference to the Japanese anime and light novel Baka to Test no Shokanjuu. FFF Inquisition in the novel is a group who punishes those who receive attention and/or affection from girls)

When Xifu finally wakes up later, I better discuss our escape plan with her. Whoever knew that these warm and passionate villagers would want to burn us to death!?

C-calm down, me. This isn’t an anime, the FFF Inquisition doesn’t exist.

Realising how childish my thoughts were, I focused once again on Parker’s explanation. This Torch Festival was a long-standing tradition of Nightfall Town, which symbolises the hope for a better future, as well as marking the anniversary of the friendship between the humans and monsters here.

I couldn’t really understand what Parker was saying, but based on the illustrations, the festival itself was filled with tons of activities, or something like that. 

The first would be a dance, like those high school rom-coms with their bonfire dances.

Next would be something like letting off fireworks, or maybe gathering everyone to stargaze together.

It looks like there would be singing too? As long as we don’t get burnt, I don’t really mind playing along…….I’ll just go with the flow later.

To be honest, I didn’t really care about experiencing the hospitality of other places, considering our house food supply was running dangerously low.

As I chatted sparingly with Parker, I was about to bring up about the manufacturing of the revolver when the heavy steps of Wolfgang could be heard from the stairs.

‘’Aha! Mr Lou Woo!” 

Wolfgang said as he took off his hat to shake the snow off of it and waved at me.

“Hey, Wolfgang.”

“Where’s Ms.Lou Woo?”

“Er, she…is sleeping.”

“I see…the time is soon reaching, let us go see it together. Has Parker told you yet?”

“Yeah.”

Xifu wore a reluctant face as I woke her up, and her expression changed to one of impatience as Wolfgang told her a few words. With my companion, she put on her coat and we soon walked on the streets of Nightfall Town.

If you asked me what the most breathtaking scene I had ever witnessed before I came here, I would have probably told you the night scene of Harbin city’s main street, or the mountain tombs under the drizzling rain in Nanjing. 

However, I would now only tell you the scene of Nightfall Town celebrating the Torch Festival. Those real breathtaking scenes are neither those of majestic pavilions and towers, nor naturally made wonders, but the most simple scene of the Nightfall Town’s villagers in front of me.

The whole street was packed with villagers, each with a torch in their hands as they walked towards one direction. Wolfgang too passed a torch to my Xifu and I as we blended into the crowd. 

Xifu originally looked like she was really reluctant to come out, but now she even looked alert. Under the glow of numerous torches from everyone’s hands, the winter cold just disappeared.

This was Nightfall Town. Even if it suffered the pillaging of the army or the oppression of the Empire, the people here still happily celebrated the harvest of this year, giving their thanks to the heavens as well as hoping for a happy year ahead of them.

No disaster can ever beat down these optimistic and tough people. Even Xifu and I were somehow infected by these cute people.

Although I didn’t really understand the history of Nightfall Town, maybe it was due to the “Spirit of the Black Merchants”?