Star award festival
Julian POV:
A few days later the result of the investigation came, as expected the crimes of James and other magic knights involved came to light. Well, I had to visit Rill a few times and aid him in his paintings or some other things to fasten up the process. I feel like he is the second person after Yami among the captains that put his part of the work on others to relax.
A lot of wealth was recovered from the tunnels which would be given to the original owners and the rest would be kept. The magic types of the thieves were interesting so they might be brainwashed and used by magic knights after completing their sentence or punishment.
Due to using Sharingan and mana pressure continuously during missions, I was getting better at using it.
My 16th birthday was approaching but there is something grand about to happen in the coming week.
It's the star award festival!!
This is where all the achievements of magic knights are announced along with the ranking of the squad based on the service they did. For this event, a large part of the common realm was busy with preparation. People from all over the country visit the capital to see this festival.
For the festival, we changed our uniforms to festival dresses like - Yami was dressed in a big overcoat and piece of cloth to hide his main part. This man is devoid of any shame.
Gauche, Luck, and Magna wore matching dresses while I wore a blue Yukata whereas Vanessa and Charmy wore a pink Kimono. Seeing the carefree look on Charmy reminded me of my sister in my previous life. What gone is gone, I will cherish this life and family with everything.
Yami – "EVERYONE READY! Today forget about everything and enjoy yourselves "
Everyone – "yaaaaay!!!!"
The streets were full of hustle and bustle with people all around. Houses and stalls were decorated with lights and an occasional display of fireworks. It was good that people were not pushing each other or causing ruckus too much as Magic knights were also enjoying themselves and didn't want to ruin their fun to deal with the crowd.
Most of the nobles and royals that wanted to enjoy the festival were in another corner of the festival where the commoners were not allowed to enter.
Finral went to his failed attempt of flirting, Gauche went to look for his sister, Yami and Vanessa went to try different drinks. I was busy trying to visit different food stalls. What I liked the most about this festival was the variety of cheap food available.
One kid asked where did Gordon buy his mask and it was hilarious. Luck and Magna had a competition who could eat more. I decided to participate in various small events like shooting balloons, catching fish, creating fireworks, etc.
At one point I saw couples belonging to different magic knights squads getting too intimate but it didn't draw much attention because there were a lot of couples present at this festival. Beside them was a woman who was scribbling something at a fast pace. I stood beside her and began reading what she noted down.
At the top of the page was written
"The forbidden relation "
After reading half of the page, I recognized the writing style and use of words. This woman was a famous romance writer who had written various well-received novels on daily life.
I decided to let her collect material look around more if I could find more interesting people.
After messing around for a while we all gathered at one place before the announcement by the wizard king. He doesn't appear in public often so there were a lot of people gathered to see him.
Wizard King came forward on the stage, fortunately, we managed to send Yami on time. People began cheering loudly for the wizard king. In eyes of some people, there is no one greater than the wizard king ..some people would happily give away their life for him, that's the level of worship people do to him. In my opinion, Julius Novacrono is one best wizard kings in history who cared for his people.
Wizard king took the mic and said "THANK YOU, EVERYONE, FOR GATHERING HERE TODAY. TODAY IS THE DAY WE APPRECIATE THE PEOPLE WHO WORK HARD FOR OUR WELL BEINGS AND SAFETY. THESE PEOPLE DISREGARD THEIR SAFETY TO FIGHT FOR THE SAFETY OF OUR NATION AND A BETTER FUTURE. SO, GIVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE TO THE MAGIC KNIGHT CAPTAINS ".
Everyone started shouting and cheering as the captains entered the stage. Well everyone was in their squad uniform except Yami. The other captains saw Yami and widened their eyes except for Rill and Jack who burst out laughing.
Charlotte – How dare you to wear that here Yami!, don't you have any shame.
Jack – Keke did you forget your pants in the toilet Yami.
Yami- you people are just jealous that I get to wear formally. Don't blame me for that.
Wizard king interrupted them with the announcement," NOW FOR THE ANNOUNCEMENT WE ALL HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR, THE RANKING OF THIS YEAR ARE
1. GOLDEN DAWN – 80 STARS
2. CRIMSON LIONS- 74 STARS
3. SILVER EAGLES – 70 STARS
......
.....
….
8. BLACK BULLS – 31 STARS
9. PURPLE ORCA – 30 STARS
People cheered for the squads, especially Golden dawn. Fuegoleon was happy while Nozel had a disappointed expression for losing to his rival. Captain of Purple Orca was boiling with anger to lose against Yami. But the happiest was our squad. Firstly, we didn't come last and all our negative stars were gone.
The public was surprised to see Black bulls didn't come last. Some questions were raised but they were suppressed by the appreciation. Not to brag but it was due to me as I tried hard to improve the image of Black Bulls during missions. If not for the damage my squad member did while messing around in the mission, the number of stars would be higher.
After this Yami went to drink with other captains while we enjoyed our night in the festival with beautiful fireworks.
: Meanwhile on top of a building:
Third-person POV :
A man in a black cloak can be seen watching the Black bulls while a small black creature with horns handed him a cup of sake.
"It's been a long-time brother, but I still can't forget how much you loved these fireworks…. your smile that brightened my day … Sometimes I think if you made the right choice giving me a chance. Maybe someday …I can brighten the world like you wanted …someday…"