Carnival (2)

Blinding lights, people walking around, stalls and a few medium-sized tents on each corner of the place, and a light and vibrant atmosphere. This is no doubt a carnival!

Alexandra's eyes sparkled in joy as she stared at it, her expression grew brighter and she looked like a dog who was taken out for her first walk. She has never gone to one but she knows what it was because her co-workers would talk about it sometimes when they went to one, she has no money at that time and she has no time to go to such places and waste her money for it. The place was filled with people walking around the place, there were also some kids at her age just walking around, and she could hear their loud voices although she couldn't understand what they were saying.

Then two girls were walking past them, talking with each other.

"The darts one was really fun although it was hard! Aiming for those balloons that were just small was quite hard," One of the girls said and Alexandra's ears perked up as she listened to their conversation. The other girl giggled hearing her say that.

"Yeah and I only got this one!" The other girl replied and raised the ribbon she was holding. Alexandra stared at the ribbon before she returned her gaze in front, her eyes still sparkling and her smile wide, almost reaching her ears. She looked at Harrison, smiling widely at him indicating that she wants to go inside and play already. Harrison let out a sigh and Alexandra ran towards the entrance but before she entered, she felt a hand grab her arm.

She turned her head and looked at the person who held her hand, it was Harrison. "What is it?" She asked and turned around to face him, a confused expression plastered on her face as she wondered why Harrison suddenly grabbed her out of nowhere. Harrison's green eyes stared at her. I'm not used to him having green eyes although it suited him. Harrison just gently slid off her hand from her arm down to her hand and gave it a light squeeze to let it know that it was there. Alexandra's eyebrows creased when she witnessed her do that. "Don't let go of my hand or else you'll get lost and somebody would take you," Harrison said nonchalantly before he began walking along with Alexandra. Alexandra couldn't help but smile widely, "Okay!"

As they entered, it was noisy and they have to dodge a few people as they walked to not bump into them. Alexandra just let herself be dragged by Harrison as she roamed her eyes around, a stall grabbed her attention where there was a bald tanned-skin man inside, must be the keeper. Behind him was a board filled with balloons and some darts placed on top of the glass display counter and inside it were multiple items in front of the man. That must be what the girls from earlier were talking about, I want to try, it looked interesting, Alexandra thought to herself and stopped from her tracks, staring at the booth.

Harrison noticed that Alexandra suddenly stopped and he stopped walking, he turned his head and looked at Alexandra's direction to see why she stopped but she was just staring at the stall. Harrison looked at the stall she was staring at and analyzed what was inside but to see balloons. "Would you like to try that?" Harrison asked causing Alexandra to whip her head at his direction, her eyes wide a moment before she nodded repeatedly, her expression filled with excitement. They walked towards the stall and the man noticed their presence when they arrived.

Alexandra stood near the counter, thankfully, she was able to reach the top of the display counter or whatever you call that. (Note: Just to remind y'all once again, people living in their world mostly looked or had the appearance 2 years older than their age, since Alexandra is 7 years old, her appearance was just like a 9-year-old kid as well as her height which was above 4 ft.)

"Oh, little girl! Are you here to play?" The tanned-skin man greeted Alexandra with a wide grin on his face, he looked friendly despite his large and intimidating body. He spoke in a loud and manly voice and Alexandra smiled at him before she responded, "Yes,"

"Then one round would cost 100 eni," Eni or Enigma for short was this world's currency, Ferdinand explained it to Alexandra before while they were having their session. 1, 20, 100, 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 enigma would be a copper coin with their value marked on the coin. 1 enigma is just a small copper coin, the size of an average woman's nail in their thumb and as the value increased, the size of the coin would also increase. 2500, 3500, 4000, 4500 enigma would be silver coins, it was just like the copper coin but silver. Lastly, 7500 and 10000 would be gold coins. Anything higher than that would be paper. A 100000 paper bill is the last one.

Harrison approached them and gave the man a copper coin with 100 marked on it. "One round it is! In a round, you can only use 3 darts and if you can hit a balloon, you can pick from one of these prizes," The man pointed at the items on his far left and it was mostly candied. "If you managed to hit 2 balloons, you can pick from these" The man pointed at the items on his far-right, it was just some simple small accessories like ribbons and some bracelets and necklaces. "And if you managed to hit 3 balloons, you can pick from one of these," It was stuffed toys, fountain pens, and some things. Alexandra nodded as a response but before she was able to pick up a dart, the man stopped her.

"But before you could start, please wear this, little girl!" The man cheerfully said as he handed Alexandra a ring with a smile on his face. Alexandra stared at it, doubt written on her face. What is this? Why is he asking me to wear this? She asked herself as she stared at the palm of the man's hand confused and doubtful. The ring looked simply, it was just silver and plain.

The man just watched her stare at the ring for a moment before he spoke, "Don't worry, that's just a ring to seal someone's mana as they play so that they can't cheat like controlling the direction of the dart," The man said in a reassuring voice and Alexandra looked up to him to see if he was lying but based on the expression on his face and he didn't look away nor he looked nervous or something, he wasn't lying. Alexandra took the ring from his hand and wore it on her middle finger of her right hand.

She picked up one dart and aimed it at the balloon on the corner before she threw it and pop! The dart hit it, she grinned as her eyes sparkled in joy when she witnessed the balloon pop. Then she picked up another dart and threw it in the middle but sadly, it didn't hit the balloon. She let out a sigh, it's okay, there is still another one and the prize for hitting two balloons are quite good, she said to herself to brighten her spirits up to not get distracted. She picked up another dart and aimed at the balloon on the far corner of the left and threw it, hoping that it would hit. Her prayers were answered when she heard the sound of the balloon being popped.

"Not bad for a kid!" The man exclaimed, showing a wide grin and Alexandra smiled back at him. "Now, pick from one of these!" The man said as he pointed at the prizes and Alexandra pointed at the red ribbon one and the man took it as he handed it to her which Alexandra gladly received with her palm. Before she turned back and walked towards Harrison, she took off the ring first and gave it to the man. "Thanks, have fun!" The man said before Alexandra turned around.

She walked back to Harrison with a proud smile as if she was asking him if he saw it if he saw her throw the darts and hit two balloons. But Harrison just ignored that look on her face and asked her, "What did you get?" He asked and Alexandra showed him the red ribbon. "By the way, could you tie my hair with the use of this ribbon? It's somehow distracting," Alexandra said and turned her back against him as she gave him the ribbon. She felt warm fingertips graze against her neck as her hair was being lifted into a ponytail, it was gentle and Harrison was being careful as this was the first time he tied someone's hair.

He took the ribbon and gently tied it around her hair, securing it tightly, so that it wouldn't get loose while they were walking. "Thanks!" Alexandra said and grabbed Harrison's hand suddenly before they started walking once again.

As they were walking around, Alexandra pointed at multiple stalls she finds interesting and would play while dragging Harrison behind her. The tables have turned, instead of Harrison pulling Alexandra as they walked around, it was now Alexandra pulling Harrison as she pointed at stalls and run towards them with a joyful expression. And each one of the stalls she played at, she receives a prize. Don't know if she was being lucky or not. It was like Lady Luck was smiling on her today, no she was grinning at her.

"Harrison," Alexandra said as she stopped from her tracks. "What stall is it again?" Harrison responded, his tone of voice sounded like he was bored. Alexandra shook her head, "Why aren't you playing? Are you not having fun?" Alexandra asked as she turned around to face him. She noticed it since earlier while she was dragging him around and he wouldn't play at a single stall and would just stay behind Alexandra. Alexandra had a curious expression plastered on her face but her eyes were still sparkling and gleaming in joy as if she couldn't hide the excitement to play another one. However, she couldn't help but get worried when Harrison didn't even play nor tell her that he wants to play. Aside from that, he was just silent the whole time.

Then Alexandra gasped, "Don't tell me…"

"Don't tell me what?" Harrison asked as he looked at her, eyebrows confused. Then she went near him and whispered to his ear, "Are you constipated or something? Would you like to go to the comfort room? Is there one around here?" Alexandra asked, worry lacing her tone. He stiffened from his position. When Harrison heard Alexandra said, he felt the urge to smack her head for saying that. Alexandra withdrew back and showed him an apologetic look, mocking and teasing him further, "I'm sorry, I just didn't know," She said.

"Don't say that as if you are going to laugh," Harrison said when she noticed her slightly shaking as if she was holding in her laugh. He glared at her but her being used to that just let out a laugh, "Y-Your reaction, it was the first time I saw that! A priceless one to be exact," Alexandra said while laughing. Harrison just glared at her, "Stop laughing or I'll make you," He said and Alexandra stopped, making a gesture as if she was zipping her mouth.

Harrison let out a sigh and showed her a mischievous grin, "The reason why I don't want to play is that I'm afraid that I will be too good at it," Harrison said. How arrogant, Alexandra thought to herself and grinned back, "Really? Show it to me then," Alexandra said, challenging him. "Are you challenging me?" He responded. Now they looked like arguing when they aren't.

Alexandra didn't respond but just widened her grin. Harrison walked towards one of the stalls. It was like the darts one except that you are using a gun, a fake one, and hit some bottles placed on the wooden shelf or something. If you successfully knock one over, you win an item. You only have 5 shots for each round and each round costs 200 eni. Before he could start, he was asked to wear a ring first just like from the darts stall and the other previous stalls.

Harrison picked up the gun and aimed at the bottle in the middle before he pulled the trigger, successfully knocked it over. Then his next 4 shots were successful, he was able to knock over 5 bottles in 5 shots. The owner looked devastated as he gave him the items Harrison wanted. "See, I told you I—" He said as he turned around to look at Alexandra thinking that she might have a surprised look on her face.

But there was no Alexandra.