A Toast to Tragedy

Jorgen stood on the tower, surveying Central Square. This morning he had interrogated many outsiders who had come to collect the Auberdine fire seeds, known as the "Flame Festival fanatics", who were obsessed with collecting as many fire seeds from different places as possible during the Flame Festival, and were even willing to sneak into enemy territories for them.

In fact, Jorgen's men had already found an orc carrying a thick bag of fire seeds. After confiscating a dagger soaked in poison from his pocket for safety reasons, they sent him out of the village. The innocent eyes of the orc made Jorgen feel that he and Sandis Windweaver, who had forcibly arranged the search, were no different.

The sun had already set below the sea; during the day, Auberdine was like a cocoon wrapped in gray-white silk threads, but now, the bonfires in Central Square burned this cocoon red hot from within. Sandis's Gray Valley guards searched people at the four entrances to the square. This was a sensible choice, because Night Elves usually resented being touched by other races. There were no major disputes during the whole process. After all, the Flame Festival was dominated by young people, and this unexpected arrangement could not quench their enthusiasm; this enthusiasm would infect everyone who entered the venue.

Not all young people could enjoy the joy tonight - Cannon was arranged to guard the coast to prevent fish men from being attracted by the bonfire and coming ashore to make trouble. Although Elin was not usually considered a young man, he still had an extraordinary expectation for this festival, but was arranged by Jorgen to patrol at the village entrance.

Just as Jorgen was trying to search for Dores' figure in the crowd, someone slapped him hard on the back.

"Hi!"

"What are you doing here?" Jorgen was confused for a moment by the person who appeared in front of him, "Didn't I let you guard the village entrance?"

"How boring. Jorgen, you can't let me, the most suitable person for the Flame Festival, squat alone in the grass at the village entrance and drink cold wine." Elin said, "I found two Gray Valley guards to replace me. I just said it was Sandis's order. Look, the flames are rising!"

"Okay. If you want to play, do as you please. But once there is a problem -"

"I say, why don't you go down too? What can you do here?"

If someone finds out the situation, they can come here directly to report to me. I have to work, Elin."

"Everyone here knows you, you damn celebrity. Do I have to let subordinates squeeze out of the crowd and climb up here so high to report to you? My God, I didn't know you had such a strong desire for control. Isn't it more convenient to go down together? No matter who finds any problem, they will find you directly. As I said, everyone knows you. Working while accepting wine cups from young girls and working in an empty tower with spiders hanging overhead, I think this is really a choice that does not require thinking."

Jorgen was speechless for a while, just because of the first half of Elin's speech.

"Besides, I have to tell you that the special performance of the Sunflowers on the Beach is about to begin. See, that's the shed over there, you can't see anything clear from this position. Once a year, free, open performance, don't you really want to see it?"

"..."

This was the first time Jorgen left his post during working hours. He had another reason to convince himself: "This is a day when something might happen to Dores, we must closely monitor it, but I can't see him at all from here. It's still more convenient to be in the crowd."

At first, Jorgen did not regret coming to the Flame Festival crowd.

He heard the greetings from people passing by: "Lord Jorgen, have fun." "Come and taste my homemade wheat beer, Lord Jorgen." "As expected, even you don't have to be on duty on this day. "He could only smile awkwardly or answer vaguely with monosyllabic words like "yes" and "thanks". As a member of Military Intelligence Section 7, the respect Jorgen received from strangers was usually out of fear and tension; but today was different.

He saw young people dancing around large and small bonfires. As they danced, they threw more fire seeds into the bonfire to make it burn more vigorously. Jorgen smelled the natural aroma of burning wood, and he had a hard time keeping himself from sinking into memories of Menethil.

The special program of the Sunflowers on the Beach had not yet begun. The red cloth on the stage still covered the props. Jorgen was about to scold Elin, but found that Elin had disappeared into the crowd.

"Lord Jorgen, are you here to watch our performance too?"

Jorgen turned around. The one who spoke to him was Katrina, the female leader of the Sunflowers.

"Ah, I just...came to take a look."

"Would you like me to arrange a good seat for you? You have always supported us very much. There are not many audiences who come to our theater for every new play."

"No, no need." Jorgen suddenly felt uncomfortable all over. He didn't expect the team leader to really notice the fact that he never missed it.

Katrina looked nearly fifty years old, but no one knew her true age, nor did anyone know why she led the team members to settle in Auberdine. As a poor, racially mixed port, it took Auberdine a considerable amount of time to accept the energetic Sunflowers on the Beach drama group, but now it has become an indispensable part of Auberdine.

"If you don't mind, I have to go on stage. The show is about to start." Katrina said.

"Oh, okay. The performance will definitely be a success."

"Thank you."

Before the red curtain on the stage was lifted, Jorgen cast his gaze at the upright maze built by Dores. The competition for young men had begun. They climbed up one by one, and the audience next to them—mostly girls—cheered loudly. Because attacking opponents during the climb would be immediately disqualified, speed and endurance were the most critical to get the fire seed at the top.

Jorgen had to admire Dores. He was an excellent carpenter. The maze was intricate and difficult to determine the path to the top directly with the naked eye. It was also quite sturdy. Even with fifteen young men climbing on it, it did not shake at all.

However, Jorgen did not see Dores. In theory, when the fire seed was taken down and the entire maze was burned, the creator would be present and waiting early in the competition process. But Dores was nowhere nearby.

Jorgen patrolled for a while and greeted his subordinates mixed in the crowd. There was nothing noteworthy. Occasional quarrels were only conflicts between drunkards. Everything seemed calm and natural.

If this night could pass like this, he thought.

He returned near the stage, but found that the performance had not started yet. The audience was whispEling. A clown was juggling in front of the curtain, but was booed.

"Lord Jorgen, please come over here!"

Katrina poked half of her body out of the backstage curtain and called Jorgen.

"Is there a problem?" Jorgen said.

"Our heroine disappeared for some reason ten minutes ago and hasn't come back yet."

"The heroine...is Miss Senoni?"

"Yes, it's her. Did you see her?"

"No, I didn't. Let my men look for her..."

"No need to bother. That little girl just likes to take a break. She won't forget the performance. But I still want to ask you for a favor."

"What favor?"

"Would you please come on stage?"

"Me...?"

"We can't keep the audience waiting for too long, and we don't have any other temporary programs... Anyway, please come on stage first."

Jorgen wanted to refuse, but Katrina pulled him over. He had to follow her behind the stage curtain.

"What can I do?"

"Just say a few words casually, and the audience will quiet down. Then we will have a toast ceremony."

"A toast ceremony...?"

"Well, just go out and say a few words first."

Jorgen was so confused that he was pushed to the front of the stage. The audience who had just booed the clown fell silent for a while, and the clown wisely jumped back behind the scenes.

Jorgen glanced at the audience below, and most of the gazes cast on him were curious but not malicious.

Although he was still worried about the "heroine missing" thing, Jorgen had to speak under these gazes.

"Um. Well, I...cough cough...everyone..."

Afterwards, he couldn't remember what he had said. Anyway, he felt that he had done a good job because the audience applauded. Katrina smiled at him gratefully.

Next was the toast ceremony. This was not a traditional content, but a unique ceremony for the Sunflowers on the Beach drama group to pray for a good year on the day of the Flame Festival. When the dwarf winemaker of the drama group handed Jorgen a glass of "special Flame wine", Jorgen recalled: Sandis had drunk this glass of wine two years ago, and he refused to participate in this ceremony last year. Jorgen quickly understood Sandis's reason for refusal.

As soon as he took the glass, there was actually a small column of flame flickEling on the transparent, light blue liquid.

"This wine has to be ignited before drinking," the dwarf winemaker said, "don't worry, once it enters the mouth, the flame will disappear immediately, then you can feel the mellowness that is incomparable, enough to melt the snow mountains of Dun Morogh! Hahaha!"

Everyone below looked at him. "Okay," Jorgen thought, "the mucous membrane of the elven esophagus is much more fragile than that of humans. Since Sandis can drink it, so can I..."

He tilted his head back and saw the blue flame rolling into his mouth with the wine from the corner of his eye. Then he felt a burning wheel generating in his belly, and this wheel made a loud noise, rolling up from the abdomen to the top of the head. He involuntarily held his breath, vainly hoping that this action could stop the indescribable spicy— "Oops," he thought, collapsed on the stage. The last scene his blurred eyes saw was Katrina hurriedly running over.

After waking up, Jorgen found himself lying in the rest room of the Security Bureau. He jumped out of bed, clutched his throat with his palms, as if to return the wine to its original state.

"You're awake?" Elin came in.

"I thought I was dead..."

"Now you should know Sandis's important reason for hating dwarves, right? The winemaker said he only gave you the 'special brew'. I didn't expect you to suffer. Because he actually has the 'top vintage'."

Jorgen looked up at the light and mist coming in through the window. It was daytime now.

"How long did I sleep?"

"Anyway, the Flame Festival was yesterday's thing."

"Is the actress okay?"

"Which actress?"

"Senoni. Last night she should have been the heroine. Just because she didn't show up, Katrina pushed me on stage to stall for time..."

"Oh, actually she returned behind the stage during your speech. But I guess they didn't want to disturb your toast ceremony."

"Forget it, being able to get through this Flame Festival safely is a good thing."

"Get through safely? Who told you that?" Elin said, "This morning, Dores was found hanged in his room. The time of death was last night."