Chapter 31

Chapter 31,

Red Lantern Festival

Third Person's POV

"It's gonna get boring, let's get out of here," Riven insisted, exhaling, making smoke come out of his mouth.

"Koshiro, can you walk?" Gin asked as he held out his hand, giving him his clothes.

Koshiro accepted it and started to put it on, "Let's go,"

As they walk, Goro asked, "Where are you taking us?"

Riven just exhaled thick smoke from his mouth and sighed, "I hate too much questions, just follow me,"

"We'll stop here, you guys go on," Athena spoke, pointing at a shop.

"Oh, I'll go with her, too," Ireena followed.

"W-Well then, me to—" Hela was cut off by a voice.

"Don't say that. Stay her with them, we'll be taking Feiro instead," said Ireena, and chuckled in a playful way.

"Why me?! My friend!" Feiro called out to Riven as he's being dragged away by Athena.

"Shut up, you piece of sh*t!" She exclaimed, kicking at Feiro in the back.

"I don't know why, so I'll ask, but. Why we here?" Hoshi spoke from the back with Kimmi where no one noticed their presence.

"We'll be fighting on the same stage, aren't we? Why not just enjoy it while we're here, not fighting?" Koshiro gave a bright smile along with his kind words.

"So, nice. 'That guy', you shouldn't take advantage of Koshiro's kindness," Goro warned as he annoyed Hoshi.

"I won't! And, my name is Hoshi! Capital H-o-s-h-i, Hoshi!" He exclaimed in anger.

"Do you read it as Ho-shai?" Goro asked, making him more angry.

"Goro, how do you read my name? Ko-shai-roh?" Koshiro looked down for a moment, "That reminds me, when I register or write my name, someone would usually try to call me Koshairo or say it in a very fast manner," Koshiro was affected by Goro's words.

"Minus thirty, no, fifty points!" Gin rated.

"Shut up!" It was Goro's turn to be annoyed.

"E-Everyone, we're here," Hela announced.

"A festival? What's with this bright red lanterns with weird carvings?" Goro asked as he examines it.

"You probably know what that is, right, Koshiro?" Riven was not looking at Koshiro as he speaks.

Koshiro slowly came closer into the carvings to look at it and realized what it was, "It's a vortex, This one's a tornado, and this one is a wind sphere. They're elements of the wind!"

"Is it some kind of wind festival?" Gin asked.

"M-more closely. This Festival is called the Crimson Lantern Festival. I'm from this area, so I know it well. Us here, worship the Crimson Gale, which was believed to be Sylph's brother, although no one knows his name," The four was dumbfounded by Hela's explanation.

"C-Crimson Gale? Isn't that. . ." Hiruki didn't finish his sentence.

"With that, I'll take you, Koshiro, somewhere else later," Riven hied his cunning smile.

"Your Crimson Gale is annoying as hell, if you look closely," Koshiro tilted his head away.

"That's not true! Crimson Gale is said to be out saviour in the past!" Kimmi defended.

"I'm cool, aren't I?" Aeris arrogantly said.

"Why do you have to look so smug?" Koshiro sighed.

"What's wrong?" Hiruki worriedly asked.

"It's nothing. Just some idiotic Aeris being too proud of himself," Hiruki don't know what to say because of his reply.

"Why not just look around to get something to eat. They'll be up until night, you know. And, fireworks and lantern lighting is also waiting, not time to waste," Hoshi persuaded them as he takes the first step.

The stalls created a long, small road because of them being too many, despite selling different foods and having different games to play at a time. Everywhere was crowded even though it's still day, and a lot is also watching in the Stadium for entertainment.

Different delicacies were there from yakisoba, takoyaki, and other delicious ones. There are also cotton candies sold, and catching goldfishes for games. Some sells squids, masks, and shooting games are also present.

"Let's go there," Gin pointed at the shooting game as he pulls Koshiro there.

"A silver coin for one person," The guy who owns the shop said.

From bronze, there are several colors of coins that has different values depending on a certain color. Bronze coin is equal to the value of 10, one silver coin is 100, gold coin is 10,000 and gemstones are starting from 100,000 to 1,000,000 or higher depending on the type of gemstone.

Gin gave eight silver coins to the man and gave way for me to come first, "You go," he said.

"Just to remind you, kids, but you have to use wind magic in this one. Other magic or weapons are strictly against the game's rules," The old man explained.

"With the wind the blows, I call forth for the power of Anemoi, break the targets, Wind Daggers," With his chanting, fairly strong wind gushed, and all of the targets shattered into bits of pieces.

Everyone was shocked, seeing the targets break. Gin was looking smug from the back, seeing what Koshiro did. Hoshi and Kimmi were also dumbfounded by the event.

Gin was able to penetrate half of the twenty targets while Goro was able to hit three. Hiruki broke five, Kimmi broke two, and so does Hoshi. Mana and Maria, on the other hand, broke all of them with their powers combined together.

They went for almost any game and food stalls that cought their attentions. Hiruki even asked Koshiro to catch a goldfish using his wind magic, since making the elevate is at a different level, but easy for Wind Magic Manipulator. Kimmi and Hoshi went for the masks that have special effects on them. Some can deflect minor level earth magic, or even other magic except for wind magic. Goro and Gin went for the challenging games to fight who's much more better than each other. Lastly, Mana and Maria both went to the food stalls to eat to their full whole the others enjoy themselves. Before they could realize it, it was already dark and the stalls already had their lights opened for the peoples to see. Different hues form lights give a sense of calmness and safeness that eases the ones to see it.

"Shit, it's time for the fireworks and Lantern Lighting time! Let's go!" Hoshi called out to the others.

Running as fast as they could, carrying red lanterns with different carvings of the elements of the winds like tornado, vortex, wind spheres, wind swords and a lot more. They were headed to where the fireworks are seen more beautifully, near the Red Lake where the Crimson Gale fought with his enemy, saving the townspeople.

Arriving in time, the fireworks started on time, "We made it in time!" Koshiro pants as he was relieved.

Koshiro sat down the grass, and Hiruki did the same beside him, leaning at the Angel, "Pretty, but won't last long," said Koshiro and he started to hum a sad tune.

"You're right," Hiruki agreed, "Come on its starting," Hiruki held out his lantern and Koshiro did the same, and lit up the two, letting go of them.

"What did you write there?" Hiruki asked Koshiro.

"For us all to be together, always," he answered, "How about you?" he added.

"For us to be together," he smiled it away.

Little did Koshiro knows, Hiruki meant only the two of them. What he perceived was he meant the same thing as he did, but he was wrong on that one.

Seeing the bright red lanterns disappeared in the sky, Riven tapped Koshiro's shoulder, "Come," he ordered.

Koshiro followed him, and the others did the same. Koshiro went in a back of a stage and was told to prepare for what he's going to say, and Riven told the others to blend with the crowd to prevent any unexpected infiltration or assassination. Koshiro didn't know why, but he just went along with the scenario.

"Every one, here, we will show you the Crimson Gale user, a descendant of our savior!" A voice of some man echoed, shocking Koshiro, "Please welcome, Koshiro!" Him being called shocked him.

As he went to the stage, everyone was in deep shock seeing him. Some knows that he's the participant I'm the battle from the Apprentices' Tournament, and some had been in contact with him from the stalls.

"Let's hear a word from him," the guy gave him the mic.

"Well, this one was unexpected since I was brought here not knowing anything, so I'm a bit shocked. Hehe. Anyways, nice to meet you guys," Koshiro awkwardly said as the place fell silent.

Once again, Koshiro brought the mic back bear his mouth, but this time, Aeris was in charge, "Everyone, good evening. My name is Aeris, the original welder of Crimson Gale. I'm the one to fight that monster that invaded your village a couple of years ago, please be good with my master," He bowed giving more shock to everyone.

After a short silence, people came celebrating and shouting the two's name out loud since it's the first time hearing the hero's name. This turn of events exhausted Koshiro that he wants to die from embarrassment. He even have stage fright, but he's just able to calm himself down.

Being a star is hard than it looks.

***