Today was the Elgia festival, and the streets were filled with people. Numerous stalls were present throughout the area. For the first time in a while, the city people were able to enjoy the peace that came at the price of countless people, but all of the people had a smile on their faces as if to say their sacrifice was not in vain.
All the people immerse themselves in this festival, enjoying themselves. Couples walking hand in hand, children pulling their parents to a stall selling toys, and elderly people walking in the street with a serene look in their eyes.
I observed everything as I walked through the streets doing my patrol duty.
Just as I was walking through, making a way for myself through the sea of people, I came across some familiar faces.
"I am sorry, Astraea. I promise I will give those girls a stern talking to."
"Don't worry about it, Artemis."
I could see Artemis and Astraea talking with each other, while Filvis looked troubled. I turned my direction and walked towards them.
"Is there something wrong?" I called them out, and they turned their head in my direction, slight surprise flickering on their expression.
"Ah, Arin?" Astraea said, recognizing me, "Yes, just a small problem."
"And what is it?" I asked again, this time Filvis replied.
"Actually, Lady Artemis's familia members have all gone to enjoy the festival, and they had promised to meet with Lady Artemis at this place, but…"
"But those stupid girls are too drunk on the festive atmosphere that they most likely didn't even notice the time." Artemis continued in place of Felvis.
"And so Artemis and I just happened to meet, and we decided to find her familia, but it's about time for Filvis' shift, and we don't have any other escort," Astraea concluded.
I also understood the problem, since while the Evilius threat is gone, having the gods travel alone is still somewhat dangerous.
"If that's the case, then I can accompany you both, and Filvis will be able to do her duty as well," I suggested the solution I had come up with.
"Hm? But don't you have your own duty as a patrol guard?" Filivis asked, which is reasonable since all of the patrol guards were given a strict route and timing for the patrol today. But…
"No, it's fine, Shakti has given a special privilege that I can roam around in any area, stating that since this is the first festival I will see after arriving in the city, then I should enjoy it." They seemed to understand as they nodded.
"Then can I ask you to be their escort, Arin-san?" said Filvis.
"Yes, you can leave them to me and do your work, Is that fine with you" I said and looked at the two goddesses, specifically towards Artemis, since she is known to be a man-hater or something.
"Yes, thank you, Arin. Are you okay with this arrangement, too, Artemis?" Astraea asked her on my behalf.
"Yes, I am fine with it as well, thank you, Arin Kael, or should I refer to you as Astralis?" she asked.
"Haha, no, it's fine, just call me by my name, I am still not used to my Alias," I replied,
"Then I will take my leave, Lady Astraea, Lady Artemis, and also sorry and thank you, Arin-san,"
"Don't worry about it," Filvis said her bye and left, disappearing in the sea of the crowd. I turned back to face the two ladies and spoke, "Shall we?"
"Yes, we should." Said Astraea, and we started walking in search of Artemis' familia.
As we walked, I could feel Artemis' gaze on me. "Is there something wrong?" No longer able to just ignore it, I asked her.
"No, I just wanted to ask you about that magic you were using during that night, but I guess that would be rude, wouldn't it?" I think she is talking about my ASTRUM CORDIS magic.
"Hehe, so you are curious about that magic as well, huh? Artemis." Astraea giggled, remembering how she asked the same thing.
"Yes, it just felt somewhat familiar, so I am curious about the nature of it." Artemis explained and looked back at me, "Of course, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"No, it's fine." I continued, "Actually, that magic uses the Star element, maybe that's why you and Astraea, who are goddesses of Moon and Star, felt the familiarity in it."
"Star element?" Artemis questioned, "That's the first time heard someone who uses that element."
"Yes, I think it because my magic system works differently," I explained further, not like knowing this information would do me any harm.
"I see." She replied, but asked no further questions. "Thank you for satisfying my curiosity."
"No, like I said, it's fine. Besides, you helped me out during that incident when I went rogue, so answering your question is the least I can do." I replied and asked a question of my own. "By the way, weren't you supposed to leave just after the town was rebuilt?"
"Yes, that was the plan, but the girls requested that they wanted to see the festival, so we delayed our departure." We were conversing casually when Astraea spoke.
"Ah, it's an archery shooting game," Astraea pointed at the stall at the corner of the street. "Why don't you try it, Artemis? Oh, and since Arin is also learning archery from Lion, why don't you two play against each other?"
"Um, Astraea, I don't mean to brag, nor do I intend to doubt his abilities, but don't you think asking him to compete with a goddess of hunting is too much?"
"Oh, but you know I am somewhat of a hunter myself, so why not try it? It sounds fun," Before Astraea could reply, I barged into the conversation.
"Are you sure?" she asked again.
" Artemis, it's just some fun activity, besides, your skills can not be determined in a game like this, you know," suggested Astraea and pulled Artemis with her. I followed behind them and reached the stall.
"Oh! Lady Astraea, welcome!" An elderly couple operated the stall, and they greeted Astraea, recognizing her in an instant.
"Hello, my companion would like to play the game," she said, motioning towards us. The elderly couple seemed nervous seeing the goddess of hunting wanting to play the games, and Astraea noticed as she spoke to calm them down. "Please don't worry, we just wanted to do some fun activities, even if they gain the highest point, we would only take a few things from the prize pool."
Hearing her words calmed the couple down and handed us the bow and three arrows for each of us. The bow was not a deadly one, which would be strange if it were.
"You ready?" Artemis called out, and I could sense some competitiveness in her voice.
"Yup, ready as ever." I put the arrow on the string of the bow and replied.
"Then on my mark…" Said Astraea, She seems to enjoy herself, I thought, and focused back. "Go!"
Both of us released the arrow, it travelled through the air, and embedded straight in the middle of the red circle.
"OHHH!!"
I turn to see the crowd gathering around the stall. It seems we gathered a lot of the crowd.
"Oh, that's a tie, now let's start the second round!" Astraea called out, and both of us got ready again. "Go!"
Artemis and I again released the arrows towards the target, and an impressive sight unfolded in front of us. Artemis' arrow roared through the first one and hit straight at the place of the previous arrow, while the arrow that I released just hit on the extra space on the red circle.
"OHHHHH!!!" The crowd gets more excited at the impressive skills displayed by her.
"That was impressive," I complimented her.
"If I couldn't even do this much, then I have no right to call myself the goddess of hunting," She replied, and complimented me, "But you are very impressive, yourself."
"Now for the last round." Everyone quieted down as we got ready for the last round. The crowd watched with bated breath, "And… Go!"
Astraea's arrow again tore through the previous one, while on my side, as there was no more space left in the red dot, my arrow pushed the other two arrows out of the way and hit in the center of the circle again.
"OHHHHHHHH!!!" "That was amazing skills." "Of course it was." "It's Lady Artemis after all." "But Astralis is no less than her, huh?" "Yeah, he was really amazing." "Man, I want to try it myself now." "Me too," "Me three."
Seeing that the crowd was getting too much, we decided to move away from the spot, but before that, I picked up some of the prizes and compensated the elderly couple for the broken arrow, which they refused to take, so I just left the money on the counter and made my way over to Astraea and Artemis.
"That took you a while. What did you get?" Astraea asked as she and Artemis observed several small pouches in my hands. After all, I got some for Ryuu and others as well.
"Oh, yeah, this is for both of you," I said and handed them a pouch. They retrieved the items from it and observed them.
""Pendants?"" Yup, inside the pouch were three pendants in the shape of a star and a moon.
" …Thank you, Arin," Astraea spoke quietly, followed by Artemis, "yes, this is a beautiful gift, thank you, Arin."
"No problem, I am glad you like it." I said, seeing the smile bloom on their faces.
"AH! Lady Artemis!" "It's really her!" "Crap! We totally forgot about the timing!" "I told you guys to hurry up, now we are going to get scolded!"
Several voices came from the crowd, and we saw a group of girls approaching us and stopping in front of Artemis. All the girls were practically shivering under her gaze and flinched, expecting a scolding when Artemis opened her mouth to speak.
"Have you girls enjoyed yourself?"
"Eh?" But instead of scolding, what came out of Artemis' mouth were gentle words as she continued speaking, "But if you have not, then all of us can go around the town again, follow me and thank you, Astraea and Arin, for accompanying me till now. Let's meet again."
"Yes, see you later, Artemis," "See you again." We replied as we saw Artemis walking away, while the girls remained rooted on the spot.
"W-What the heck did we witness?" "Lady Artemis was acting weird." "Yes, not to mention talking with a male?" they murmured among themselves before turning towards me and speaking at the same time, "Are you our messiah!?"
"Girls…? Are you not coming with me?!"
"We are coming!!!"
Before I could reply, Artemis called them out from a distance, and the girls scrambled towards her.
I watched them go away and spoke to Astraea, "She was surprisingly…"
"Normal?" she finished my words.
"Yes, she doesn't seem like someone who hates men," I stated my opinion.
"Fufu, well, believe it or not, you were the first man to talk so casually with her."
Why though? I am not her Orion, although I am pretty sure even Bell is not her Orion.
"Maybe because she felt the familiarity that we talked about? I felt the same familiarity as her in your presence as well. Your star magic is really unique."
"Thanks, I guess?" I don't know how to reply to her.
"You don't have to think too much about it, it's just how we are, anything closely related to the stars and moon brings us the same familiarity like we were meeting someone who is a distant family member, or so I guessed, since nothing like this ever happened before."
"That's… umm, I don't know, I think I will just follow your advice and not think about it." I mean, it's not a bad thing, so what does it matter?
"Anyway, do you want to go somewhere else?" I asked, and Astraea thought for a moment before she replied.
"I think I will just meet up with Alise and others now. Can you escort me to them?"
"Sure, let's go then."
And so we started making our way forward in silence, walking through the busy streets of Orario.