Chapter 190
"Delicious!"
"Pay for it before you eat it!"
When you think of a festival, you think of street stalls.
At her urging, Orihime dragged me out to the festival.
Naturally, we were going incognito.
"Indeed, my retainer! You may pay!"
"Honestly..."
I scolded Orihime for eating something from the stall without permission, then bowed to the shopkeeper and paid.
It's not unusual for important people to tour a festival incognito like this.
Quite a few dignitaries had requested it in the past. That's how large the festival in the Imperial capital was.
The Empire had preparations in place for such occasions.
They gave us hooded coats for disguises, and our festival tour proceeded under a perfect guard detail. The coats were magical items owned by the castle. Their effectiveness was beyond question.
When you put on the hood, almost no one recognizes you. That said, the effect wears off if the hood comes off, and it doesn't work on anyone who recognized you before you put it on.
That was why Imperial Guard Knights followed us at regular intervals. Elna watched us from a little distance away, while the other knights had disguised themselves as festivalgoers.
Our cover was that Orihime was a young lady out incognito and I was her retainer. Since calling me by name might give us away, Orihime called me "Retainer." It was a role any prince but me might have refused, but I was practically her retainer all the time anyway, so I had no objections.
This elaborate guard detail was what made the outing possible, but Orihime had no idea.
She went wherever she pleased, and even I could barely keep up. The Imperial Guard Knights around us must have been having a hard time.
"We're going over there next, Retainer!"
"Hey! Wait up!"
"I will not!"
Orihime, in an extremely high-spirited mood, nimbly ran through the crowd.
Since she was running around making strange laughing noises like "Wahahaha!" I could somehow keep track of her, but I was afraid I'd lose sight of her before long.
That was why Elna was waiting farther away.
If we got separated, Elna would surely catch Orihime. At that point, our incognito outing would be over.
Honestly, that would be easier, but this was also meant to relieve the stress of Orihime, who had been complaining about being bored inside the castle all the time. It was obvious that she would be in a foul mood if she got separated and Elna caught her.
"This is hopeless..."
It was only a question of whether I dealt with the trouble now or later.
In that case, keeping Orihime in a good mood would be easier, so I desperately chased after her. I had to go meet the masked righteous thief that night, too, and this troublesome girl was making me waste all my energy.
And just when I finally caught up, Orihime was completely absorbed in one of the stalls.
"Haaah, haaah... I finally caught up..."
"My retainer! I want to play this!!"
Orihime announced it with her eyes sparkling.
I took my hands off my knees and straightened up to see what kind of stall it was.
There stood a shooting gallery.
It was a stall where you shot the prizes lined up on shelves with a toy bow. If you knocked one down, you got to take it. It was a classic festival stall that had been around for ages.
"Now, listen..."
"I wanna do it, I wanna do it!! I want to!!"
When I made my displeasure obvious, Orihime tugged on my clothes and begged like a child.
Her pleading, upturned eyes made her look like a small animal, and I felt like letting her try. But it was obvious that the moment I did, things would become troublesome.
At stalls like this, business would be ruined if every prize were taken. So they had ways of ensuring the prizes wouldn't fall.
Orihime hated losing. She was sure to get obsessed with knocking one down and eventually throw a tantrum.
So I sighed and handed Orihime some money.
"Give up once you've spent this. That's the condition."
"Oh! This is plenty! Heh heh! I'll take every prize in the stall!"
With that, Orihime headed toward the stall full of enthusiasm.
Her bearing was valiant, as proudly as a general heading into battle.
"I just hope she doesn't end up retreating..."
Wondering if this was what a retainer felt like when sending a lord off to a reckless battle, I decided to watch Orihime.
■■■
"Waaaaahhhh!! Why?!"
Orihime clutched her head and shrieked.
The shopkeeper looked quite pleased.
I'd given Orihime a fair amount of money, but she'd used almost all of it without winning a single prize.
"Ugh... According to plan, every prize should have been mine by now..."
Orihime stared at the little money she had left with tears in her eyes, then glanced over at me.
She clearly wanted to request more funds, but I had no intention of giving her any more.
"Make do with what you have."
"Why... You're awfully cold for a retainer... Uuugh... I can only try one more time..."
Orihime let her shoulders droop, but quickly pulled herself together, paid the fee, and tried again.
This was her final assault.
"I'm going for the general's head!"
With that, Orihime aimed at the case containing the jewels.
The case held two jewels and was probably one of the stall's main attractions.
Prizes like that were designed so they wouldn't fall. So if she aimed for something else, she probably wouldn't end up empty-handed. But Orihime never thought to try another spot, and kept aiming at that one while making a miserable spectacle of herself.
"Waaaaah!! Why won't it fall again?!"
The arrow Orihime shot grazed the case.
But the case didn't budge. There was probably some mechanism behind it. Even a direct hit from the front probably wouldn't knock it down.
Even though I knew that, I kept my mouth shut. That was part of the charm of a festival, and ever since a certain childhood friend had once loudly claimed a stall game was rigged and dragged me into a dispute, I had decided never to criticize festival stalls.
"If you're done, let's go."
"Waaah! I want that one!"
Orihime waved both arms around and threw a tantrum.
It was just a stall prize, so it couldn't be anything special.
But Orihime seemed to have taken a liking to it. She wanted it badly and kept whining.
It wasn't that I lacked money, but if I indulged her once, she'd throw another tantrum. Besides, there was almost no chance she'd be able to get it.
Giving her more money would just waste time and money.
As I was thinking that, a woman suddenly appeared beside Orihime.
She was probably about as old as I was.
Her flaxen hair was braided, and she had amber-colored eyes.
The most distinctive feature was her thick glasses. They made her look terribly dowdy.
"Which one would you like?"
"Uhh... that one."
Orihime pointed at the case containing the jewels in response to the woman's question.
The woman smiled brightly, paid the shopkeeper, and raised the toy bow.
"It isn't the bow that's the problem."
She muttered that softly. After making the motion of drawing the bow several times, she narrowed her eyes and took aim at the prize.
Then she released the toy arrow.
Its trajectory was completely different from Orihime's shot. Orihime's arrow had quickly lost its speed, while the woman's arrow flew toward the prize in a straight, taut line.
But it struck the prize next to the case Orihime wanted. Since it hadn't hit the center, the prize began spinning violently.
For an instant, the shopkeeper let out a relieved breath. But the spinning prize struck the case next to it, and the case fell forward instead of backward.
There must have been a support behind it, but they probably hadn't anticipated it falling forward.
"Yes. I'll take that, then."
"Wait! That doesn't count! This game is for knocking them backward!"
The shopkeeper shouted that while clutching the case the woman had knocked down with her incredible skill.
Perhaps she hadn't expected such a ridiculous argument, because the woman furrowed her brows, looking troubled.
I couldn't keep making things difficult for her.
I slowly stepped forward, entered the stall, and brought my face close to the shopkeeper's.
"Hey, does my face look familiar?"
"Huh? Familiar? ... Huh?"
I shifted my hood slightly and showed my face where only the shopkeeper could see it.
I'd only recently shown my face alongside Leo, after all.
The shopkeeper seemed to recognize me immediately, too.
"Ah, ah, you're...! Y-your..."
"Stop. My companion wants it. It's all right if we take it, isn't it? In return, I'll overlook the cheating."
After I threatened him, the shopkeeper silently nodded repeatedly and awkwardly handed the case to the woman.
The woman tilted her head at the shopkeeper's sudden change in attitude, but even so, she handed the case to Orihime.
"Here you are."
"Wowwwww!! Thank you! You're such a kind person! I love you!"
With that, Orihime hugged the woman and openly expressed her delight.
After clinging to the woman for a while, Orihime seemed satisfied. She waved to the woman and bid her farewell.
"Farewell, kind person! I shall never forget this favor!"
"Calling it a favor would be an exaggeration."
With that, the woman disappeared into the crowd.
That was some skill. I wonder whether even an Imperial Guard Knight could pull off that feat. It was only a toy bow, after all.
As I was thinking that, Orihime took hold of my arm and began fiddling with it.
"What are you doing?"
"Don't move! Hmm! This is surprisingly difficult!"
After struggling with it for a while, Orihime announced that she was finished with a beaming expression.
"There! I've done it!"
"What's this...?"
The jewel from inside the case was now on my right wrist. Apparently, it was a bracelet. Honestly, it wasn't much to look at.
But Orihime seemed to like it very much, and she was wearing one on her own wrist, too.
"Well? We're matching!"
"Honestly..."
With an innocent, carefree smile, Orihime repeatedly checked that we matched. Apparently satisfied, she ran off into the crowd again.
And once again, I chased after her.