“Keisuke! Do you want to do the Lantern Flower Festival?!”
My eyes flew open. Nito was right in front of my face, taking up all of my vision. Now, I’d just woken up, so I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on. I could see that her eyes were alight, though; she was obviously excited. With that in mind, I didn’t really have a reason to refuse her.
“Why not?”
“I thought you’d say that! I’ll go let her know.”
She whirled around. Her silver hair moved with her and left a shimmering trail in her wake as she flew from the room, leaving the door wide open behind her.
I didn’t feel like I’d had enough rest, thanks to my jaunt the night before. Honestly, I was sorely tempted to go back to sleep, but I knew that if Nito was awake, I must have already overslept by a fair margin. I managed to heave myself upright, but sleepiness still clung to me, tugging at my back as if trying to pull me back down onto the mattress. I flopped my legs over the edge of the bed and slipped into my shoes before standing up. After a good stretch, and a yawn, I managed to feel mostly awake.
Flicking the curtain aside let the sunlight in, and it seared into my eyes. Squinting, I looked out through the window. Dozens of clouds dotted the sky, but there was still plenty of vivid blue up there. The lake was visible just at the edge of my vision, with no boat floating upon it. I thought back to the previous night, my memories of that conversation with Monty hovering on the border between dreams and reality. I knew that it’d actually happened, but the image of it was as tenuous as mist, always evading my grasp.
As I got closer and closer to wakefulness, Nito’s words finally started to stoke my curiosity, and so I called out toward the door.
“What’s the Lantern Flower Festival?”
The door answered with nothing but silence.
“Never mind, guess you don’t know either.”
“Do doors talk in your world?”
“Gah!”
Charolles was peeking in from the corridor. I’d thought for a second that the door really had answered me, but now I wondered if I might have actually preferred that to reality. This was super embarrassing.
“Morning,” I greeted, eventually.
“Good morning indeed,” she answered.
After another pause, I asked her, “Do you know what the Lantern Flower Festival is, by the way?”
“Weren’t you asking this outstanding fellow first?”
“Forget about that already!”
Charolles had a slight smile on her face as she finally explained.
“The old woman mentioned it this morning. Apparently, it’s a traditional festival.”
She never could resist things like that. She’d probably have been on par with any author in terms of her curiosity about things that seemed enjoyable, or interesting, or that were simply new to her.
“Will we be able to hold it with so few people?” I asked.
Including Fago herself, we only had four people that would be taking part. That wasn’t exactly enough to call a festival. Charolles seemed to share my impression of festivals as something attended by lots of people, and she simply shrugged.
“Why don’t you go ask her for the details?” she suggested, gesturing toward the main hall.
“Why are you talking like you’re not going to be involved?”
I walked past her into the corridor, and she followed.
“I’m not fond of all the bustle of festivals.”
“We’ll keep it low-key, then.”
“In that case, I wouldn’t mind joining in.”
“Not that I’m entirely sure what a ‘low-key’ festival looks like.”
“Should you really be admitting that?” she asked.
We kept up our utterly pointless conversation as we left the corridor and entered the main hall. Nito and Fago were standing in front of the saint’s statue.
“Good morning,” I greeted them.
“You’re really doing it?” Fago asked with no preamble, rubbing her pointed nose and looking rather confused at the prospect.
“The Lantern Flower Festival? Why? Is it hard?”
“The preparations aren’t all that extreme, but I’ve definitely never heard of a festival done with only four people.”
“Nor have I,” I admitted.
I glanced at Nito and saw her ears wiggling as she looked at me in abject excitement.
“Well, she certainly seems invested in it, so...” I said, trailing off.
“You’d be the same way if Fago told you about it!” Nito retorted.
“I’d be acting like you?”
I tried to imagine it: my eyes wide, sparkling with innocence and hope; my fists clenched eagerly in front of my chest; leaning forward on the balls of my feet, my entire body displaying my joy at the potential fun to be had.
“Honestly...that image kinda creeps me out,” I muttered.
“It has the same effect on me,” Charolles agreed from beside me, nodding.
“Hey!”
“I was just agreeing with what you said.”
“Someone else agreeing with that kind of thing is different than saying it yourself. It hurts.”
“Boys are so sensitive,” she lamented.
“Could you not look so depressed about that?”
“No,” Nito declared, smacking me on the chest. “We’re talking about the festival right now.”
“Sorry, Charolles distracted me.”
“Of course, how could it be anything else? It’s entirely my fault, yes.”
“That’s not fair...” I mumbled.
I gave her a sidelong glare for trying to play the bigger person here, but Nito had her cheeks puffed up and her fist raised, so I left it at that and quickly turned to Fago.
“So, what happens during the Lantern Flower Festival?”
Fago shook her head in light exasperation as she crouched and pulled her washcloth from the bucket. She began wringing it out as she spoke.