Hector stepped back into the cramped stall. The light from the lantern illuminated each of the three aisles, painting the room in a subtle yellow hue. In the middle aisle, Jodie stood with Mirae clinging to her arm.

What’s going on here?

“And how is your cultivation going?” Hector heard Jodie ask Mirae as he got in earshot. “I hope you’ve been keeping up with your practice. I’m already crushing you; we don’t need it getting any worse.”

Mirae pouted, slapping Jodie’s hand away as the girl went to ruffle her hair. “It’s... going okay, I think. I practice every day, but progress is slow.”

“That’s no problem, trust me.” Jodie nodded at Hector as he approached. “You were probably just unlucky enough to have the same problem as your brother. But that shouldn’t discourage you.”

“I know it shouldn’t, but still.” Mirae turned her head, giving Hector a weak smile.

Hector stopped just behind Mirae, being careful not to make any sudden movement—the last thing he needed was to knock something over that he couldn’t afford. “You will be fine, Mirae. It took me a long time to get to gravity forging one, but I know you will get there much quicker than me.”

Especially when I find a cultivation Talent. Hopefully, at that time, we can look back at this time and laugh.

“Hey, Mr. Pennybrook,” Jodie said, waving at the man as he came up from the back room. Hector looked at Mirae and stroked her head before squeezing by her and Jodie. The sounds of the festival outside carried through, seemingly growing. Jodie pulled on Hector’s arm. “Can I talk to you for a bit... outside?”

Hector—understanding the implication—nodded. He jerked his head toward the door and shuffled his way through the stall, mindful of his movements. Jodie and Mirae trailed behind. The festival would start in earnest soon, and inside the stall would not be a good place to talk about what he guessed was the operation.

Stepping out of the stall, the sound of music slammed into Hector. The stall—no doubt set up with some noise-cancelling talismans—had kept most of the noise out. He noticed a few young kids run by with candy apples, their faces dripping with excitement as their parents gave chase. It was heartwarming.

Hector nodded at Marcus and Delworth, still standing over the three shelves. What were they still doing out here? Hector turned to Jodie, stepping out of the stall and squinting against the sunlight as red and yellow confetti bounced off her head. “What’s up?” Hector asked her as he waved for Mirae—who skipped out behind her—to stand beside him.

“Not much; I’m just a little worried is all,” Jodie said, picking confetti from her lip. “The guards look to be on higher alert than I would have expected. Also, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the Phoenix company seems to be out in force this year.”

Hector frowned. It wasn’t odd for the Phoenix company—one of the Flamelight House’s top mercenary companies—to be at the Hilda festival; after all, they financed it. But they would often send a small group of people just to show support, and that support had been waning in recent years. So what was going on this year?

“That could be a problem. But it doesn’t change much for us,” Hector said. He looked down at Mirae and gave her a reassuring smile. “We have to do this and don’t have the time to think of something else. I have no idea when the Collar gang is going to show up at my house again.”

“Hey, you don’t need to pull on my heartstrings; I already know why we are doing this,” she nodded at Marcus. “You aren’t the only one that needs this to happen. I’m just saying we should be extra careful, is all.”

“I hear you,” Hector said. He turned his head to Marcus. “What are you still doing? I thought it was a quick check.”

The boy dusted confetti off the list and looked at Hector with a frown. “It was meant to be a quick look over—and this talisman is meant to be inside.” He held up a talisman Hector didn’t recognise. “But I don’t know what we should replace it with. I don’t want it to be empty; that would look terrible.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Hector raised his arms and slapped his forehead, listening to the distant music of the festival to calm his growing annoyance—not that it helped much. Drums weren’t exactly known for being calming, and sadly, they were the loudest. “All right, how long do you think you are going to take? I want to head out as soon as everyone arrives.”

“We could check inside,” Delworth said. The boy had got on his knees—apparently he didn’t care about dirtying his black trousers—and was looking over the bottom shelf. “If there is one that should be inside, there should be one that goes outside.”

“Yeah, check inside,” Hector said, waving his hand as Marcus and Delworth headed inside the stall. The boys needed to hurry up. His father couldn’t have picked a worse day to be assessing his son.

“And make it fast, you numbskull,” Jodie chided with a laugh. Confetti covered her hair, and she continued to pick at them. At least someone was having fun. “I hope we don’t go home with more of this than we do coin,” she said, flicking a piece of confetti from her shoulder.

Hector shrugged. With the increased security compared to previous years, that could be a possibility. The cheers from a stall grabbed his attention as several people threw bags at wooden pots. He hoped he wouldn’t have to consider Lincoln’s farm option. It was one thing to pick a pocket or two, but breaking into a farm, potentially having to deal with Farmhands—it would be a lot.

“Where is everyone? We are burning daylight,” Hector asked, looking around. They had all agreed to meet at Marcus’s dad’s stall in the morning, but they still weren’t here.

“It will be fine, Hector,” Mirae said, squeezing his hand. “I’m sure they are just distracted by all the fun.”

“Yeah,” Hector said. He looked at Mirae, confused. “Shouldn’t you be making the food, Miss Chef?”

Mirae—frowning as she watched some kids walk by with sweets—turned to him. “I was thinking of starting when you guys head out. I’ve got a while till noon anyway, so I decided to take my time.”

“Smart,” Jodie said.

Hector shrugged, resting his hand on his hip, continuing to look around. Eventually, his face lit up as he saw Emela. Her twin ponytails swayed behind her as she made her way through the crowd of people, Nyx following behind her.

Dressed in a long-sleeve white shirt and a blue long skirt, she looked quite the lady.

She smiled, waving at him as she and Nyx picked up the pace. Hector was a little surprised; he had expected that Lincoln would have arrived first. He didn’t know where Emela lived—he’d only known her for a few months after all, not enough time to be invited over—but she was definitely outside Sirius quarter.

Lincoln, on the other hand, was pretty much his neighbour. The beating of the drums picked up, as several cheers could be heard in the distance. Wherever the boy was, Hector hoped that he would hurry up.

“Good morning, Hector,” Emela said, stopping short of him. Nyx nodded at him—as usual. She wasn’t much for words. “Are we the last to arrive? Jodie, Mirae, I trust you two are well.”

“No, that idiot Lincoln still isn’t here,” Jodie huffed. “And I’m good. This confetti is a little annoying, though; how is there so much of it?”

“I’m fine,” Mirae said from Hector’s side.

“Oh, that’s troublesome. Is he okay?” Emela asked. “And it’s probably a low-level formation. It will no doubt disappear over time, similar to how snow melts when it lands on you. Especially since it’s not in a caster’s orbit.”

“Yeah, he should be all right,” Hector said. “He told me he was going to be late, but I didn’t think that it would be this bad.”

“You’re telling me someone in the Core Formation realm made this?” Jodie said, plucking a piece of red confetti from the air. “It seems like such a waste of mana.”

“It’s probably a derivative of another spell,” Emela said, smiling as a family walked by with their children. “The formation itself is probably not made by a Core Formation Mana Cultivator, but is powered by a beast core at that level.”

“That sounds expensive,” Hector said. Beast cores—even the lowest-level ones—from what he’d heard went for at least one gold coin. That was crazy. And if it was supplying all this confetti... He looked up, watching the rain of yellow and red; this was beyond lavish.

How can they spend so much on a simple festival that they do every year?

“Well, it is the Phoenix company we are talking about,” Jodie said. “They probably have tonnes of cores just lying around.”

Hector nodded, crossing his arms as he looked around, waiting for Lincoln to arrive. Jodie was right. A high-class mercenary company like that probably hunted beasts daily. They were sure to have a bunch lying around. But still.

“They most likely have a lot; that is true,” Emela said, moving over to the shelves in front of the stall. She began browsing the talismans, looking quite impressed with what she was seeing. “But the Hilda festival means a lot to them; after all, Hilda Vailmont was the leader of the third company.”

“Huh?” Jodie’s jaw dropped as she looked from Emela to the crowd. “She was a real person? I thought it was just a story our parents told us to make sure that we were good.”

Nyx whispered something in Emela’s ear, and—as expected—Emela coughed and modified her answer. “Oh, at least that’s what I’ve heard.”

Hector didn’t know what Nyx told her when she did that. Perhaps she was telling her it was just hearsay; after all, Emela had said it with a lot of confidence. But Hector had gotten used to the pair’s antics by now.

The four of them continued to chat—Nyx offered a grunt or two now and then. Finally, Lincoln appeared. His clothes were a mess, and he kept looking over his shoulder. There was a subtle panic in his eyes.