Children are Good Guides

All the children were gathered next to the artificial lake and peering in to observe the aquatic life. Poltas spotted Tyom, who was being unusually loud around his friends.

"That's the Manafay, I heard they only eat food once every 10 years and survive mostly on magical energy."

"Woah!"

"Where do they get it from?"

"The book said that they harvest it from water. Nowadays due to the overuse of water magic energy by land creatures, they are going extinct and can only be seen in artificial habitats."

"That's so sad, who would have the heart to hurt this cute thing."

"I'm going to ask my mother if we can build an artificial home for it at our house!"

The creatures were unfamiliar to Poltas, but hearing about the damaging impact of people's actions reminded him of Earth and all its issues.

As a kid his favourite fish was the Beluga whale, which was in the endangered category till the last time he had checked.

Listening to these children and their enthusiasm made him feel like a cynical old man.

The area around this lake was crowded, which meant that as long as they stayed here, the threat of being kidnapped was minimal. Just watching over the kids was enough, but Poltas decided to interact with them instead.

"Miss Poltas!"

Tyom recognised the suspicious stranger standing next to them. He had grown very fond of the prickly lady who saved him from time to time. Seeing her approach his friend group made him feel very proud of himself.

"Hello Tyom."

"Are you also here to see the creatures?"

"Hmm yes, but I'm not very familiar with them."

"You could join us then! I am the guide of our group today."

Poltas spotted that some of the kids seemed reluctant at Tyom's offer, too bad he was going to stay regardless of their discomfort.

"That's a great idea, I would love to. But I don't know any of your friends here, how about you introduce us."

"Yes yes. These are our class representatives Lipdon and Deo. That is Massie and her brother Xynal…."

Poltas tried to pay attention to all the names but it was impossible to keep up with Tyom's speed. On the other hand, the children seemed to perk up at being introduced and looked at Poltas with stars in their eyes.

Some of them even shyly came and stood around him, with a girl going as far as to hold his hand without asking.

'With kids like this I can understand why Myx was worried about the imps.'

The only good thing about this was that they had all attached themselves to Poltas like iron to a magnet, which reduced their chances of disappearing unnoticed.

The next attraction was the colour dust chamber. It's appearance was the same as a cotton candy making device, but placed upside down. And instead of producing a dessert from sugar, it was a machine for temporarily dying hair.

The cost was quite high so most kids were satisfied by watching instead of experiencing. Lindon was the one to try it out.

The top of the machine was adjusted based on her height, and her head was covered by it. Within a few minutes of the machine whirring, the process was complete. After clearing up her forehead, Lindon turned around to surprise everyone with her new look.

The auburn hair was now a shade of pastel pink, glimmering in the festival lights.

"I want to try that too!"

"Me too!"

"Can you afford it?"

"Uhhh…"

"I can go look for my father to ask for more money."

"But we have to go to the next place, otherwise we won't be able to see them all."

"I will go by myself then, you guys can continue the trip."

Naive as they may be, the children were not completely clueless. Still, Poltas couldn't let a single one of them wander off.

"How about we see the rest of the places first?"

"But I also want pretty pink hair!"

"Yes, but if you spend all your money now, what will you do if you like something later?"

"Ummm…"

"Miss Poltas is right, Betney. You should come with us, and after the trip ends, you can think about it again."

"Oh okay."

A slight hiccup but the trip continued peacefully.

Poltas was experiencing a whole new world with the kids. They saw an exhibition on elven crafts and architecture. This sort of content had been boring to Poltas on Earth, but with the added charm of magical effects it appealed to him a lot more.

Tyom and his friends had grown up seeing such exhibitions and lacked interest, but Poltas' exaggerated reactions were enjoyable for them.

The unique thing about the crafts was their ability to automatically perform functions. Much like the electronic devices on Earth, except these were run by self-sustaining energy stones.

Next they explored the food stalls. They would buy one plate of food, or two at maximum and have one to two bites each.

"This doesn't seem like a very filling meal for any one of us."

"It might not be enough yet, but we will be bloated after trying all of these stalls."

"Really..?"

"Oh course, last year I ate so much, I ended up throwing up on the main stage."

"..."

They began the session from a simple dish of rice with chicken. Followed by fried, baked, grilled, steamed, charred and smoked versions of various bird meats. Other than these methods, there were some methods of magically cooking food such as thying and flanking.

Thying couldn't be explained by any scientific logic and therefore Poltas didn't ask much about it. Flanking on the other hand was an interesting process. The chef would induce artificial cellular activity, causing the meat to cook cell by cell until it was well done.

The dish produced was tender unlike anything else, melting in your mouth with the slightest of pressure. And even freshly cooked, it didn't burn the consumer's mouth.

The final dish they tried was a texture changing fish cooked by thying. According to Tyom, Pamsteria only had this one version of the delicacy, but in the books there were several others.

"Have you tried any of the other texture changing dishes, Miss Poltas?"

"Me..oh…nah. I was not very fond of unusual food in the past."

The discussion moved to picking desserts. Unlike Poltas, the kids had limited capacity to hold food and were already on the verge of being bloated.

"I think we should split into three groups and try two desserts per group."

"Hmmm."

"Does anyone have the list of items, we can divide according to which dessert each group wants to try."

Poltas disagreed with the splitting decision entirely. The children may go their separate ways, but he was only one person.

"Poltaaaaas"

His attention was caught by the distressful call of his name. He spotted Winzton running towards him. The man had lost all his composure, fear evident in his eyes. If not for being in the fight or flight response, he might have even been crying.

"Winzton, what's wrong?"

He shook his head and took Poltas' hand to drag him away. Seeing the man so worked up, Poltas could only let himself be pulled.

"Tyom remember not to split up, try all the desserts and keep the extras for me!"

"Uh.. Okay Miss Poltas."