“Master, let us get you ready for your performance.”
“You’re going to be all clean, Lady Witch!” Teto chirped.
“Just do the bare minimum, all right?” I said awkwardly.
The stone arena hosting the martial arts tournament had been transformed into something resembling a kagura-den—the stage on which sacred dances were performed in Shinto shrines—and bonfires had been lit all around the forest with the coming of sunset.
Right before evening fell, Beretta and the others whisked me away to the bath, where they scrubbed my body from head to toe. Then they applied some light makeup on my face and helped me change into my offering dance outfit.
“Performing in front of everyone really is embarrassing...” I muttered.
I drew the hood of my costume over my eyes and softly pulled on the fluttering sleeves. The hem of the robe reached all the way down to my ankles; if I bent even slightly, it’d touch the ground.
I need to be careful not to step on it while walking...or worse, during my performance.
“Lady Witch, you’re so cute and pretty!” Teto exclaimed. “Teto wants to give you a big hug, but Teto doesn’t want your clothes to get all wrinkled, so she’ll wait until your dance is over!”
“Thanks, Teto.”
“Master, it is almost time.”
Teto and Beretta led me through the transfer gate that took me to the main festival venue.
“It’s Lady Witch! How beautiful...”
“She looks just like a saintess.”
“Oh, I’m so thankful, so thankful!”
Murmurs of awe echoed through the crowd as I made my way to the stage. Waiting for me in the middle of the path was Shael, my Kakkhara of Reincarnation in hand.
“Thanks, Shael,” I said as she handed it off.
“I’m looking forward to your offering dance. You better knock their socks off, Witch,” she replied with an impish smile, and I smirked in return.
I resumed my walk towards the stage, moving slowly so that the rings on my staff wouldn’t jangle. This only served to heighten the anticipation and excitement of the crowd as they waited with bated breath for my performance to begin.
Torches blazed at all four corners of the stage; I took up my starting position in the very center. I started dancing. With a little shake of my wrist, I made the rings of my kakkhara sound, all while pouring mana into the staff and releasing waves of Purification Magic, my robes fluttering in the wind with each step. The purification spell spread through the entire forest; one after another, lost souls started appearing in the night sky, dotting the dark expanse like shimmering stars.
How much mana am I going to need to purify all of them?
My Kakkhara of Reincarnation amplified Light Magic fifteenfold, so I could release wave after wave of Purification Magic for very little mana. However, all it did was dissipate the mana surrounding the souls into the air, while the souls themselves stayed in place. They swayed with each shake of my staff as the mana particles fell like powder snow, melting away into the air and the earth.
“It’s a miracle,” someone in the crowd muttered.
The sight of mana scattering into the air must’ve reminded them of the time when I defeated the giant bone monster during the stampede ten years ago. I, on the other hand, had no time to think about any of that, my attention fully absorbed in my performance. Now that the sun had completely set, the lost souls were at their most active. Their swaying to and fro in the night sky must’ve been their way of participating in the festival. Soon some of them started ascending to the sky, most likely having had their fill of the festivities.
May you find your way to Loriel, reenter the wheel of reincarnation, and be happy in your next life, I prayed silently as I watched the souls disappear into the night.
I danced for hours, swinging my kakkhara around and continuously letting out waves of Purification Magic until my mana ran out completely. However, by the time I was done, there were still countless souls swaying in the night sky.
“Did these not get purified?” I panted. I had been dancing for so long that my breathing was erratic and my entire body was dripping with sweat.
I came down from the stage, and Teto and Beretta came to find me.
“Lady Witch, congrats on your dance!” Teto exclaimed. “Teto thinks you shouldn’t worry about these people,” she said, gesturing towards the remaining souls in the sky. “They’ll probably go home on their own at some point.”
“It was common knowledge to the precursors that the mana envelope surrounding a soul contains said soul’s memories, knowledge, and personality. It is said that every soul casts off that envelope before moving on to their next life,” Beretta explained to me.
People’s memories, knowledge, and personality were all managed by the brain. However, in my previous life, there were reported cases of people inheriting some of the donor’s memories after receiving a heart transplant. And in this world, where magic was part of everyday life, one could experience interactions with lingering spirits. Therefore, it wasn’t that surprising that one’s memories would be stored in their mana as well as in their brain.
After that, the three of us enjoyed the rest of the festival, keeping an eye on the remaining lost souls and watching them rise to the sky one after the other.
This winter solstice festival would later be passed down to the residents of the forest. In later years, people got hung up on the way the lost souls resembled stars, and the festival became known as the Stargazing Festival. Centuries later, it was still celebrated every year by the forest folks.