“An… An elf?!” Illyna, unsure of what to make of the situation in front of her, stuttered after finally discovering the presence of the elves, Yuria and Myuu.
“Nice to meet you, Princess Illyna de Pallan. My name is Yuria Helishana, I am the leader of the Moon Forest.”
“Ah… Nice… Nice to meet you. I’m Illyna de Pallan.”
Davey smiled at Illyna, who was still busy looking around in confusion. Then, he noticed that Illyna was no longer looking at Yuria and was looking at Myuu, who was nestled in Yuria’s arms. Finally, her wide eyes drifted to Davey. Her current thoughts were already very obvious.
“Davey, don’t tell me…”
Davey felt his stomach churn from the misunderstanding, even though he had guessed that Illyna would come to such a conclusion. He said firmly, “You’d better stop those needless thoughts. I am not hoping for much from you, but I really do need your help.”
“Da, Davey?!” Illyna took two steps back, feeling uneasy from Davey’s words. For some reason, she felt like she was experiencing deja vu. As if realizing something, Illyna immediately jumped away and pulled Caldeiras out. She yelled, “Don’t… Don’t come close!”
“With the way you’re acting, someone might think that I’m threatening to hurt you.”
“Ha! Don’t make me laugh! Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about the night that we previously spent alone in the cave?!” Illyna angrily cried out. Her choice of words were quite misleading.
“Something happened back then?”
“Don’t make a fool out of me, Davey. I have never experienced something so painful in my life before! And you did not even let me go even after I told you that it hurt!”
“But you liked it in the end.”
Yuria’s eyes sparkled when she heard Illyna’s wild cries. She murmured, “The two of you… alone at night… I see. As expected of you, Mr. Benefactor. You’re very young and full of vitality.”
By elven standards, Yuria was not so young anymore. Then, she continued, “But I find it quite strange. From what I heard, Pallan Empire’s princess is already betrothed to Red Tower’s Mage Yulis? But if you engaged in matters of the flesh then… No, don’t tell me… The fire…”
“No!!! What do you mean matters of the flesh?!” Illyna shouted. She was very embarrassed and flustered, since she was screaming at someone who she had just met for the first time.
Yuria found Illyna’s reddened face and screams interesting. She smiled cheekily. “Oh my? That’s not it? But you said that it hurt at first…”
“It’s not like that!!! I find that outrageous misunderstanding to be very offensive!!!”
Yuria smacked her lips as if she found Illyna’s indignant objection and embarrassed screams to be a pity. She said, “I see. So, you haven’t gone that far yet. Kids, so fresh and tender.”
Yuria’s smile became slightly sharper and she narrowed her eyes slightly. She whispered, “I really want to torment you…”
Davey pretended to not hear Yuria’s whisper.
“Ah. I understand now. The two of you love each other but you haven’t gone that far yet? Love is obviously not a requirement in a political marriage, so even if you have an affair with a paramour…”
“No! Why do you keep misunderstanding us like that?! There’s nothing between Davey and I!!!”
Yuria tilted her head in a show of confusion and said, “You say that there’s nothing between you, so why do you climb through someone else’s window with no rhyme or reason?”
“That’s… That’s… That’s because we’re friends!!!”
“Fufu… There’s no such thing as friendship between a man and a woman, princess.” Yuria did not let Illyna go, offering a quick rebuttal of her own.
In the end, Illyna could only shout at Davey. Her face was red and tears were welling up in her eyes. “What the hell?! Do elves normally like to torment people like this?!”
“I guess you’re the perfect candidate to be bullied.”
“Stop laughing!”
Both Yuria and Davey finally felt that the teasing and the bullying was enough after seeing the tears in Illyna’s eyes.
“That’s enough bullying.”
“Oh my. I did not have any intentions of bullying her though?”
Davey could see that a creepy smile had crept up on Yuria’s face as she saw the restless and antsy expression on Illyna’s face.
“Illyna.”
“Wha, what?!”
“I’m running out of time, so I really need your help to prepare for the festival.”
Illyna frowned at Davey and said, “You only look for me when you need something from me.”
Annoyed, Illyna turned Caldeiras back into a brooch and slumped down in one of the office chairs.
This was a festival that would be held by three races: the dwarves, the elves, and the humans. However, it was held in the Rowane Kingdom. No, to be exact, this was the Heins Territory’s festival. This meant that there was no room for the Pallan Empire to intervene. However, Davey truly needed Illyna’s help to finish the festival on a successful and happy note.
“I don’t need much. There’s just something that I need to get and it’s something that you can get with your strong and powerful influence in the Pallan Empire.”
“Davey… What do you think I am?”
“I’ll make sure to pay you properly.”
“That’s not the problem?!”
Davey was openly showing his intention to use her, and that pushed Illyna’s irritation to the point of explosion.
At that moment, Davey realized that it was time for him to throw a carrot. If he used the stick here and stimulated her even more, then she might just explode. He asked calmly, “Do you want to become a Sword Master?”
“Swo… Sword Master?!”
“That’s right. If you cooperate well with me, then I will offer you a stepping stone that allows you to become a Sword Master.”
Actually, Davey could tell that Illyna was already on the verge of crossing that threshold and would be able to reach that level even without his interference. However, since she did not know that, Davey took full advantage of the opportunity.
Besides, even if Illyna thought Davey was lying, she would still ponder over the matter since she had already seen how much Davey had broken common sense with his actions.
Not long after, Illyna cooled down. It seemed like her anger had truly reached its peak as she shouted, “Ha! You’re completely mistaken if you think I’m that kind of person. Do you think I’ll fall for something like that?! Is there something that I can’t even do for a friend?! Go on! Tell me what I need to do to help you? Huh?!”
Davey could really be…two-faced and cunning when necessary.
***
The Pallan Empire was home to many priceless items, items that could not be seen in other empires and kingdoms. The same was true for the item that Davey needed.
The item that Davey brought here from Pallan Empire through Illyna’s help was none other than the Flare Break Stone. It was like a small palm-sized mana stone, but it was not just any ordinary mana stone.
After the Iron Blood War ended and the Cold War started, this item’s usage had been significantly reduced into a mere mine explosive. However, this was the very item that the Pallan Empire had imposed strict restrictions on whenever it was exported from their empire.
The Flare Break Stone’s nickname was [Impartial]. That was because whether it was an old man, a child, or a Dragon Knight stationed at the borders, everyone would be laid to waste in front of this menacing weapon.
—The mana within it is a huge mess. With one pull from the safety pin, the mana inside the mana stone will collide and cause an explosion. You don’t even need to use mana to trigger it, so anyone can easily use this weapon.
The Pallan Empire’s weapons were very famous in the continent. The reason why the Pallan Empire, despite having only a few great mages and sword masters compared to other empires, had been reborn as the strongest empire was because of the weapons research that their current emperor had proposed. This explained why only three out of the seven empires that had attacked them had survived from that war.
Of course, the weapons that they produced had a clear disadvantage in a way that the unit price of each weapon was very expensive and could not be mass-produced so easily.
So, why in the world was Davey going to use a weapon for the festival? Well, one thing was for sure, it was not going to be used for security purposes. After all, they had put as many restrictions and limitations on tourists before they could enter the territory, so there was no need for it. Besides, the weapon was too powerful to be used just for security purposes alone.
“Your Highness. I have brought the people with very dexterous hands, just like you ordered.”
In the castle’s underground, groups of people entered the Miscellaneous Workshop located right next to the Decepticon Fleet Workshop. All of the people present were human. There was not a single dwarf or elf in sight.
“Thank you for your hard work. Your journey here must have been tough.”
“Not at all! It’s only expected that we should come here!”
“Yeah! Besides, whenever the saint is involved, we won’t ever lose money!”
“Well, I’m very grateful for your trust.” Davey smiled as he brought out buckets of every material that they would use.
“What’s all this for?”
“Well, the dwarves and elves have been running around trying to one up each other with their Spirit Festival and Mining Festival. Can we just let them do as they please with our human pride on the line?”
“That… What did you say?!”
“Let us show them that in Heins Territory, the dwarves have their own dwarf things, the elves have their own elf things, and us humans have our own human things to show them too.”
All of the necessary materials had been gathered in advance. Davey knew excessive competition would just cause ruin. However, if they had proper cooperation, then they would be able to achieve their goal more beautifully.
“Your… Your Highness… Excuse me, but what are we supposed to make here?”
“The thing that we’re going to make will mark the festival’s finale. Never forget this. The dwarves and elves are citizens of our territories and are our neighbors. We are competing not to fight and undermine each other but to show our potential,” Davey reminded them to not forget the original intention of this festival. “If there’s someone trying to muddy the waters, I will behead them myself.”
Usually, to take out a rock that was stuck and make it roll, one would need a considerable amount of energy and funds. However, the impact was quite small since everyone tended to believe in Davey. Before the other shoe fell, Davey had to assimilate the three races perfectly. And the only way to do that was to go through the trouble of trying to make everyone get used to one another.
“There’s no way that we’ll do that! Just tell us what to do!”
“Let’s keep our backs straight and start preparing to work,” Davey said as he placed his finger on the Flare Breaking Stone’s safety pin and spun it around.
At the end of the day, Davey’s goal for this festival was to create something that all of his territory’s residents could enjoy. He wanted an event where they could laugh, chat, and be merry. So, why not do that and make money through tourism, too?
Davey recalled a saying from modern earth, ‘The empty cart is the loudest’. Things would not go smoothly if they just promoted themselves extensively without showing good results, right?
***
The festival preparations were so tight and hectic that Davey felt like one month just flashed by and ended in an instant. During that time, Davey had devoted most of his time and almost all of his energy into facility inspection and setting the proper zoning.
The main purpose in holding the Heins Allied Festival was to allow the people who had suffered to have fun, chat, and be merry. However, Davey was sure that there would also be quite a lot of people who would attend after hearing the rumors about their festival. If that was the case, then shouldn’t they at least fill their pockets up with some coins?
The dwarves’ Mining Festival was quite famous for those who lived in luxury. It was an annual festival where the dwarves had to offer sacrifices to the God of Iron. However, only a select few had witnessed this festival personally, which explained the high interest in it. Of course, the festival itself would not become famous just because some rumors about it began to spread. How could it become famous if nothing about the festival was known, right? It became famous thanks to the best-selling book that the dwarven tribe had sold during their Mining Festival which had promptly spread all over the continent.
The book, [Mining Travelog], was famous enough that almost all nobles in the continent had recommended it as a must-read. Compared to other travelogs released in the continent, this book only discussed the dwarven race’s closed off festival, the Mining Festival. Davey was not sure whether it was because the author had amazing writing skills or the way they had successfully inflated one’s imagination about the festival, but this travelog successfully increased everyone’s enthusiasm and interest towards the Mining Festival. That was the case for the dwarves and the dwarves alone.
For the elves, their first reappearance to the world had piqued the interest of many. What more if they announced that they would hold their Spirit Festival, a festival that was on par with the dwarves’ Mining Festival, at the same time? Although they could not get a good response from the ordinary people who were busy making ends meet every day, they were still able to turn the heads of the free mercenaries and the nobles and capture their interest.
“The number of tourists that arrived are higher than what we expected, since the rumors spread faster than we imagined. There are a dozen noble families visiting from our kingdom and around a hundred families from other nations. There are also a lot of free mercenaries that have come to visit the territory.”
“It seems like the value of the dwarves and the elves are quite high. A lot of people came.”
The very fragrant bait was quite alluring to the big fish that had shown great interest in them. In fact, the big fish had no choice but to bite the hook and never let go.
The territory’s facilities and housings had been repaired and cleaned, giving the territory a clean and beautiful outlook. Although it was not that easy, it was for this reason Davey had pushed the making of those buildings and the paving of those roads. The territory’s beauty and allure had increased, which also increased the foot traffic. Things happened quite a bit faster than Davey had expected, but in the end, it was still a good deal for him and the territory.
At the end of the day, this wasn’t too difficult a task for Davey. After all, he had been preparing for this for a long time. The festival that they would hold would last for a total of four days and three nights. However, three days before the festival started, the territory became even busier because of the unusual guests that had arrived.
“My goodness… I have never seen that many visitors coming from the Rowane Kingdom’s capital.”
“That just goes to show how great our festival is. The most important thing here is that we should not let all of the residents work during the festival. Let’s arrange it so half will work and half can go around to enjoy the festivities. Let them take turns to have fun.”
“But if we do that, then our manpower…”
“There’s no other choice. We have to hire people from the outside.”
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