Chapter 143: 142: The Festival [Part 2]

Lights filled the roads, music traversed their ears, and sweet alluring scents roamed the air. 

Countless horned ones wearing traditional eastern-style clothes could be seen walking around with their families. 

Most of them had bright smiles in their faces, as they made their way to the various ongoing events in the festival. 

"Gray, Gray!" Lita called out to him. 

She had been playing with Kylo outside of the lodging after he had encountered everyone. 

Surprisingly enough, she too was wearing a small yellow Kimono which matched her mothers while Kylo wore a small Grey one. 

Lita dragged Gray along towards the nearest fish scooping game. 

"We have to try this~!" She said, whilst swinging her arms up and down in excitement. 

The vendor raised a finger indicating the price. 

Gray chuckled slightly before pulling out a copper coin from one of his pockets. 

"How long does she have?" 

The game vendor grinned. 

"60 Seconds." He replied. 

He handed it toward the merchant and Lita was handed a paper scoop. 

"Ei!" She yelled out as she scooped at the water. 

Her arm was swung left and right repeatedly, but all she ended up scooping up was the water. 

The gold fish, moved unnaturally fast within the water, intentionally dodging the scoops. 

"Times up." Said the vendor as he clapped his hands. "Would you like another try?" He asked with a smile. 

Lita's eyes grew watery as she turned to Gray. They gradually grew into resembling puppy eyes as she was on the verge of crying. 

Gray sighed. 

"How many tries do I have?" He asked as he pulled out another coin. 

The two were wearing horns so it wasn't as if they were being particularly targeted for being humans. The game was just simply rigged for everyone. 

'In the first place what kind of goldfish are these? They're zooming across the water like jets.' 

"As many as you can get within 60 seconds... But I'll warn you... It's almost impossible-" 

*Swoosh* 

Gray's arm blurred out from the Vendors perspective as he grabbed the paper scoop from Lita's hand and scooped at the water. 

[Pause- Unpause.] 

In an instant, the fish had appeared on top of his paper scoop and his arm had returned back to normal. It flopped up and down gasping for air. 

"Can you get us something to put this in?" Gray asked with a smile. 

Lita's eyes lit up. "Gray you're so cool!!!" 

Gray glanced at her and recalled her attitude the first time they had met. It was completely different from the way she was acting now, almost like day and night. 

'Kids be kids.' He thought to himself before patting her on the head. 

"H-Here you go..." The shocked vendor added as he handed her a plastic bag filled with water. 

Gray dropped the fish onto the bag and gave it to Lita. 

With an overjoyed expression, she watched as it swam around inside of the small bag. 

"Thanks Gray, I'll treasure it!" 

- 

- 

- 

Lita could be seen skipping around with her new pet goldfish. 

Gray glanced back at the other girls who were exploring the other games and food vendors. They had all been given a set amount to waste by Ruby. 

The amount was rather... Large so they were free to do whatever they wanted with it. 

Everyone seemed to have been enjoying themselves as a result. 

Lara was dragged off by Kylo who wanted to explore everything in site. 

The tribes girl had been buying and eating anything she found remotely delicious. Unlike her figure suggested, she could sure eat. 

Delta was quite at first was slowly engaging in the games with the others. 

Either way, everyone seemed relax and just that fact alone was enough for Gray to enjoy himself. 

"Rock... Paper... Scissors!" Aurora and Violet simultaneously repeated. 

Shortly after, a happy laugh could be heard as Violet grabbed the ring. 

"Looks like I go first." She said. 

"...No fair... You used telekinesis to close my hand into a rock!" Claimed Aurora. 

"Yeah! Violet that was cheating...!" Ria added. 

"So you've decided to cheat, eh..." Delta's competitive side was starting to show. "Throw that one and let's do it again." 

"Fufufu, cheating? There's were no rules against using your abilities." 

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"That should come natural!" Ria responded. 

Violet grabbed the Ring before throwing it towards one of the goblets laid before her. 

To the vendor's surprise, the ring which seemed to have gone off the dot, somehow managed to land it's way perfectly onto the middle of the goblet. 

The vendor's expression showed complete shock as he looked at her. 

"I did it! Gray did you see that?" Violet asked as she turned around. 

Her expression grew confused as she called out his name once more. "Gray?" 

Gray was nowhere to be seen. 

- 

- 

- 

"So? What did you want to talk about?" Gray asked as he looked at the girl ahead of him. 

A golden pattern flowed through her dark Kimono. She wore a mask adorned with a fox design that covered her face and looked at the Kingdom from afar. 

Her long silky black hair swayed freely as a small breeze hit. 

Currently, they were on the outside layer of the kingdom, by a riverbed flanked by trees. 

Ruby chose this spot not only because it was safe, but also because of the breath-taking view. 

The lights from the Kingdom made it so colourful and appealing to the eyes, that she found herself being unable to look away. 

They had arrived here by her request. It barely took any time now that pause step had evolved. 

"I just wanted to thank you... Looks like we really did it..." She muttered. "I didn't think we'd be able to pull it off, Hehe..." She added with a nervous laugh. 

The two were sat down next to one another whilst they stared into the distance. 

[1st Part of the quest completed.] 

[Quest-] 

'Mute notifications.' Gray interrupted. 

[Muted.] 

He already knew what the system meant. 

"So? What's bothering you?" Gray asked. 

She glanced at him with surprise. "You could tell?" 

'It's not that hard to...' 

"Yeah." Gray nodded. "Your expressions show it." 

Ruby placed both hands on her face before blushing. "C-Curse you expressive face...!" 

Gray glanced over at her before looking over at the scenery once more. 

"I'm a bit envious about that actually... I'm not good with expressions and the sort." Gray replied with a dejective look. 

At that moment, Ruby's hands suddenly grabbed his cheeks and tightly pinched them. 

"That's not true... You make really cute expressions, you just don't realise it." She claimed as she stared into his eyes. 

Her scarlet eyes truly resembled jewels. Grey hadn't realized earlier but wore small earrings that matched the colour of her eyes, it was a nice touch. 

The two silently gazed into each other's eyes for the next few moments.

A thought flashed through Ruby's mind causing her to start blushing once more. But it only lasted a short while since a painful memory seemed to have returned. 

She let go of his cheeks before turning back to the Kingdom.

"You see... Truthfully, I'm not sure I'm cut out for this whole empress thing..." 

"I feel like everyone is expecting so much from me... And I won't be able to meet their expectations..." 

"Charlotte is helping but things are starting to get very busy with the matters of the Kingdom falling into my hands... I just don't think I can do this..." 

Her head was hung down, she moved covered her face with her mask to hide her expression. 

"I think the opposite." Said Gray as he continued to stare off into the distance. 

Ruby raised her head. 

"All this time you've given it your best for your Kingdom and people. I doubt they expect you to be perfect from the get-go." 

Gray turned to her before grabbing the mask and taking it off. 

"Just take things at your own pace. You've both saved and shown them that you can do it, so don't worry about pointless things like that." 

He proceeded to pat her head whilst making sure he avoided the horns. 

Ruby's eyes grow teary upon hearing Gray's words. 

"Gray... *Sniff* That's not fair..." She muttered. 

Gray glanced away before scratching his chin. "What's not fa-" 

He was interrupted right after as Ruby suddenly leaned and pulled him in. 

The two's lips intertwined for a moment before they both dropped on their backs. 

At the same time, fireworks resounded in the far distance. 

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