Gacha Kingdom Building-Chapter 274 - 274: I Want To See You Smile (05)

--This chapter is written in Licia's POV--
After leaving Ellie's stall, we noticed an unusual one farther down, so we took our time walking there to enjoy the sights of the festival.
Just a few steps along the way, we caught a glimpse of Olivia and Agatha walking down the avenue.
They had two bags full of items, both carried by Olivia, as Agatha's hands were busy with the cotton candy she seemed to be enjoying.
Well, 'enjoying.'
She had a blank expression, seemingly not entirely sure of what to make of the taste and texture.
The bags under her eyes, which made her look exhausted rather than thrilled, didn't help either.
However, she was having fun. That much was clear.
She broke her usual deadpan look and forced Olivia to keep her company after pointing at their next stop and pulling her by the hand.
Miwen: "Oh... It's dark."
The entrance to this stall was a narrow slit in the thick tent's cloth.
The tent was windowless, there were no lights inside, and a thick fog covered the ground.
It was even hard to see the ground we were stepping on, and I could only hope I had not stepped on anything weird as we made our way inside.
On the tent's center rested a single table, on it a crystal ball, and behind it, a hooded woman whose cloak color matched the tent's deep purple.
Ignoring the telltale signs of danger, Miwen took his seat, facing the woman with an amused, if otherwise unfazed look.
Cloaked Woman (?): "Welcome, dear guest... Would you like to know what the future holds?"
Despite the low voice, we could hear her clearly, and with each word, the music outside seemed to fade.
Miwen: "Gotta say, Bea, you nailed the aesthetic. But I don't really buy into divination too much. The Endless told me they only allow us to see possible futures, and they can never be guaranteed since limiting the future to one possibility goes against their philosophy."
Beatrice: "I... Ungh..."
Much to Bea's dismay, the silence had crept in so much that even such a small groan could be heard loud and clear.
If anything, this was proof of how well she had set the mood.
Although, as someone who also fought hard to keep a secret from Miwen, I could only empathize with the pain she must've felt at being unmasked so quickly.
That comment of his, while a compliment... It stung.
Cloaked Woman (Totally Not Beatrice!): "Ahem! Shall I prove your skepticism unfounded? This method, you see... It has been passed to me from the most dangerous witch of all. A woman who lost herself in the stream of time, never to be found again..."
All things considered, she handled the situation surprisingly well, mood and all.
Cloaked Woman: "You also need to participate to get my stamp..."
Miwen: "...Alright, Miss Clairvoyant, I'll play along."
While I was still struggling against my desire to call out how cheap both of them were, Miwen, not yet fully believing Bea, did as she requested and placed his hand on the crystal ball.
Immediately, it started to emanate a faint blue light, no brighter than that of a dying candle's flame.
Miwen struggled, but he couldn't break his hands free from the crystal ball.
He gave Bea a slightly pained frown, but she did not respond.
Instead, without a word from her, a different figure appeared behind her, even though there should be no entrances there.
Clairvoyant's Assistant: "As requested, Lady Beatri-"
Due to the tent's darkness, it was almost impossible to see Bea's face, much less read her expression.
However, even without seeing, the speed of her head's movement made it clear that she had given her "Assistant" the meanest of looks.
So much so that her assistant corrected herself instantly, without a word exchanged between them.
Witch's Assistant: "Lady Aeb, as requested..."
Aeb...
I couldn't help but wonder whether she wanted to make this a mystery.
Because if so, she definitely underestimated Miwen's ability if she thought he wouldn't immediately recognize that this was just "Bea" backwards.
Hell, even her mysterious assistant was also pretty identifiable, cloak or not.
Miwen: "Hello, Mei. Are you having fun tonight?"
Mei: "Greetings, master..."
Overly formal, almost robotic in a sense.
Even to me, it was pretty obvious who that was, and after greeting Miwen, Mei handed Bea a deck of cards she had asked for.
Then, Bea shuffled the cards and drew two.
One from the top and one from the bottom.
Miss Clairvoyant: "Hm..."
To us, they appeared blank, and Bea didn't reveal what they meant, if anything.
Instead, she herself placed her hands on the crystal ball, above Miwen's.
Both of their eyes then started to glow, Miwen's in a faint golden light and hers in a similarly dark purple.
The light inside the crystal ball changed colors.
The fog at our feet began to crawl toward it.
When the crystal's glow matched Miwen's eyes, the fog twisted into a strange, shifting pattern.
Miwen was finally able to remove his hand from the crystal ball, and while catching his breath, Bea asked for another deck from Mei.
Again, she shuffled it before drawing a single card from the top.
Then, she hovered the card over the crystal ball, letting it absorb its light until the crystal ball had no more to give and returned to being see-through and glowless.
The blank card shimmered, its face tinged gold, its back pitch black.
It stayed image-less... until Bea shuffled it with the other two.
The three once blank cards now all had something drawn on them: the golden-black card had a knife, the card to its left from the first deck had a veil, and the card to its right had...
It was hard to make it out, but it looked like a stick.
Although that was just from my perspective.
From Bea's, and even from Miwen, who was sitting at the table, the images could easily look like something else entirely.
Miwen: "...And what does that mean?"
Ms Clairvoyant: "..."
Bea lowered her head and hid her mouth behind her hand.
She seemed pensive, lost in deep thought.
And... Shocked.
After a few seconds of silence, she finally gave Miwen an answer.
Ms Clairvoyant: "...In the future, you will have trouble with women."
Miwen: "...Uh-huh. Is that what the veil means? Like a bride or something?"
Ms Clairvoyant: "Who knows? Here's the stamp. Shoo-shoo."
She basically pushed us out of the tent.
And then, before we could even turn our backs to see her face, she closed the entrance, pulling the cloth.
I thought I heard her having trouble breathing, but because of the festival's loud music, I couldn't be sure.
Claire: "So... Was that part of the show, or...?"
Licia: "Uh... Maybe?"
If this had all been planned, it would have been perfect.
We were left confused, astonished, just completely intrigued.
An awesome experience, if a little concerning.
However, if it wasn't...
Then that concern would have a way different, less fun meaning.
And at the very least, I could tell she wasn't telling us the whole truth.
Miwen: "2 of them. How many are left?"
Claire: "A bunch."
Miwen: "Great, let's go then!"
At least that didn't seem to worry Miwen at all.
He gave the witch hat stamp a look and, surprisingly, started walking away, as if nothing had happened.
If I had to say, this was just how much he didn't believe in divination.
He'd probably have reacted the same no matter what came of it.
Just no worries at all.
Which was incredibly funny, as his expression only changed to what Claire's and mine were when someone called him from a nearby stall.
Gabriella: "Heey! Over here!"
He pretended not to have heard her and tried to walk away.
Gabriella: "Don't ignore me!"
Unfortunately, a barrier appeared in front of us, and left with no choice, he turned his back and recognized Gabriella's existence.
Her stall was one of the simpler ones.
Just a bunch of different shirts scattered around for whoever wanted to pick them up.
Or at least, that's what I thought.
Gabriella: "Let's see... Maybe a monkey?"
Miwen: "Huh?"
Gabriella: "No, no... More like a lion?"
She started going through the shirts until finally, she picked one that satisfied her.
Gabriella: "A bear, definitely a bear!"
Miwen: "What are you...?"
Several different hands sprawled from her back, all of them made of [Light Magic] and as white as the snow.
They began sewing on the shirt, creating a caricature of Miwen as...
Well, as a bear.
Although it had a mean look in its face, it was surprisingly fluffy, which made it a little cute.
Gabriella: "Here you go!"
Miwen: "...Sis taught you well, huh?"
Gabriella: "Hm? Yes, my sister was a great seamstress. She taught me a thing or two... Ah, but... How do you know-"
Miwen: "Uh... The Gods told me? Anyway, thanks! We'll be going now."
It was a slip of the tongue.
Gabriella wasn't among the ones who knew about the memories Miwen received.
Still, knowing her, she would probably buy any excuse involving the Gods.
Personally, I was already glad that she did something normal.
Admittedly, pretty cute too.
I wanted a matching one for myself, but...
Back when we were building things underground, I noticed her struggling.
No one was offering her any help, either.
And I was no different.
I didn't want to stress myself with her antics, so I prioritized the other and left her to her own devices.
Thankfully, Mei didn't seem to care about anything but the project itself, and Raella, having finished her own stall, also lent Gabriella a hand.
The three finished on time, while I just watched from afar...
Because of this, I felt it would be too selfish and shameless of me to ask Gabriella for anything.
Miwen: "I feel like trying Isa or Mia's. Any idea about theirs?"
Claire: "Isa's close by, but I won't spoil it."
I didn't dwell much on my negative feelings.
Today was all about not doing any of that, after all.
So, after Miwen got his white balance stamp from Gabriella, I did my best to move on alongside them.
Isabella: "Finally! I thought you were going to make me wait the entire night."
Miwen: "Can you blame me? There's a lot to see."
Isabella: "Haha... I guess? Well, come on then! I think you'll like this."
Isa's stall was one of the smallest in the festival, as it only blocked the entrance to a stone tower she had created.
Even though it was a new creation, the place seemed decrepit and abandoned, almost as if a strong wind was all it'd take to bring it down.
It wasn't much different inside.
Like Bea's tent, there were no windows, nor any light source other than the candle Isa lit and carried with her as she guided us.
The wooden floor creaked with every step.
As we made our way up, these creaks and the soft whispers coming from the walls were the only things that broke the eerie silence.
Even Isabella became quiet, although she did stick to Miwen as much as she could.
Then, from one of the walls, a creature appeared, shouting as loud as their lungs allowed.
The creature was tall and strong, with long arms and a wide chest.
Its entire body was covered in thick brown fur from head to toe.
Miwen: "Holy!"
Yep, it was a werewolf.
A big, scary werewolf.
Miwen: "Shit. I knew it was coming, and I still got scared."
Isabella: "Don't worry... I'll protect you."
I always thought Miwen wasn't easily scared.
He enjoyed scary movies, and whenever we watched them together, he rarely showed any reaction.
Most of the time, he enjoyed scaring us more than anything.
However, seeing him jump back and almost fall made me believe that maybe he had just watched those movies so many times that they didn't scare him anymore.
And that maybe... He was actually easy to scare.
Well, it's all his fault for liking scary things so much that they appeared on his wish list.
Miwen: "So... That wasn't Mia?"
Isabella: "Nah. It was Lenard. I also thought Mia would be perfect for the role, but she refused..."
It was obvious that Miwen was trying to calm himself and gain some time with small talk, but Isabella gave him no choice, as she continued walking, hurrying us forward.
Once we had reached the first floor of the tower, she told us she had lost the key to the next floor and that we had to help her find it.
Of course, on this library-like floor, books kept falling from their bookshelves with no apparent reason.
Shadows run across the ground, disappearing in plain sight.
Claire: "I swear... Why is everyone doing scary stuff?"
Isabella: "Hm? I'm having fun~"
It took us about five minutes to find the key in a random bookshelf.
The longest five minutes of our lives.
Even though I was more patient than Claire and way harder to scare, even I was beginning to feel chills down my spine.
And when Miwen opened the door for the next floor, for the first time, all three of us screamed together.
Claire: "Ahh! You... I almost burned this place down!"
Licia: "C'mon... That was unfair."
Miwen: "...Tell me the next floor is the last."
We all thought this would've been a small breathing room, with only the books to set the mood, but of course, it was not.
Behind the door, waiting for us, was a man dressed as a noble, with tears in his clothes.
A vampire, with pale skin, bat wings, and everything you'd expect.
Goddamnit.
Albert must've been waiting a long time for this.
He hadn't made a single sound while we searched the floor, not even a whimper.
And contrary to Miwen's wish, before the last floor, we also had to pass by one haunted by an undead Jackie.
I wasn't sure how Isa managed to convince her to do this, but it was pretty funny that she barely needed any makeup to look like a zombie.
Even the way she moved, all slugish, was already pretty zombie-like.
Of course, Miwen teased her about it, but she responded by saying it was good that she didn't have to do much to play a part.
Isabella: "And here we are! The last floor... Now, do you still have the keys, Miwen?"
Miwen: "Yeah? But I'm not opening anything again."
Isabella: "Don't worry, just give it to me. Now... Which one was it?"
The rest of us, expecting another jumpscare, stood a few steps away from Isa as she tried a bunch of different keys to open a small chest.
Once we had finally calmed down and Isa opened the chest without anything jumping out of it...
Ghost: "Boo!"
A ghost suddenly appeared between us.
One very, very realistic ghost.
Claire and I, unable to hold ourselves back, instinctively punched it, but our fists passed through its body.
Miwen: "Raella... Why?"
Raella: "Eh? Sorry? Isa told me you'd like this."
Isabella: "I think he did, though."
I couldn't speak for Miwen, but I thought it was really fun.
And I never wanted to do it again.
Raella: "Oh, before I forget... I also made a stall of my own, so please, if you find the time, I'd like you to see it."
Miwen was completely suspicious that hers was also scary, so he said he'd only go after calming down.
It was quite refreshing to see this side of him...
Isabella: "I also have a request. Can I hang around with you guys?"
Miwen: "What about your stall?"
Isabella: "My brothers can handle it. I just felt like having more fun with you. Can I?"
Miwen: "...Sure."
Just like that, we got another party member.
And it was a good thing, too, as the next place we stopped by was Marin's.
She had built a food stall, the main menu only had plenty of different fish dishes and, of course, a variety of drinks to go along.
Miwen: "I didn't know we had fish in the Kingdom..."
Marin: "You didn't. But I thought if I was gonna live here, might as well bring some of my favorites. Don't worry, though. These ones can somewhat coexist."
Miwen: "Somewhat, huh? Well, I guess there was no ecosystem to disturb in the first place..."
Marin's food was surprisingly delicious.
Her homebrew drinks, although a little too strong for my taste, were pretty good, too.
I kinda wanted to taste more of them, but I didn't want to get drunk, so I just had her promise she'd have some ready for me at her house.
She seemingly misunderstood what I meant by this, but that could also be fun in its own way.
Once we were finished at her stall, we searched for Mia's, since Miwen wanted to check in on her.
Hers was by far the biggest stall.
In fact, it was an entire arena.
There were plenty of obstacles inside, and the floor had lots of ramps.
Apparently, this was a professional tag arena, or something of the sort.
All I knew was that this was the hardest place we had built, even the building functions of [Gacha Kingdom Building] weren't cutting it, and we had to ask the Endless for help.
The game itself was also pretty hard.
While Isa's tower objective was just to get to the end without going into cardiac arrest and get her stamp from the chest, Mia's was a timed challenge, where we'd only get the stamp if we could avoid her for 5 whole minutes.
Now, with four of us, that seemed easy enough.
We just had to be away from each other as much as possible and use the obstacles to keep her away-
We got crushed.
Like, seven times.
With her insane speed, the obstacles only worked in her favor.
Where we were didn't matter.
In the blink of an eye, she could reach any point of the arena.
Our best shot only lasted two minutes.
Licia: "Haah... Hah... I told you... To take it easy... With the challenges... Ahh..."
I thought Ellie's was already absurd.
However, Mia's was just impossible.
Miwen: "...Alright, Mia, I'm bringing Cassandra."
That was dangerous on so many levels.
The rest of us would lose in like, thirty seconds if Mia was serious about it, so I had doubts about whether bringing Cassandra, even with the speed boost she gives Miwen, would be enough.
However, it seemed to have sparked an idea in Claire's mind.
Claire: "Wait. Can we use magic?"
Mia: "As long as you don't destroy anything."
Claire: "Alright. Let's go again."
With Cassandra equipped, Miwen could almost keep up with Mia.
She was still faster by a decent margin, but he was smart with the way he used the obstacles and his [Wind Magic] to keep her away.
Claire, using her [Fire Magi] to propel herself, could stay in the air and perform some quick 3D flying movements that made it incredibly hard for Mia to tag her, almost like Nissa had done in Ellie's shooting range.
Using [Ice Magic], I created some obstacles of my own and bound Mia's feet to the ground to prevent her from getting too close.
The three of us, playing together, with all our new strategies, almost won.
It took Mia three and a half minutes to start jumping from the walls and the ceiling to tag Claire. and once she had tagged someone...
She activated her Gift, and it was basically game over.
Less than a minute later, she got Miwen and Cassandra, and I couldn't avoid her for long either.
The last one standing was Isabella, by far the easiest prey for her.
Or so it would seem.
Using her curses and her Gift, Isabella managed to somehow, by sheer dumb luck, avoid Mia.
She made her fall more times with her bad luck than I did with my [Ice Magic], and whenever Mia was almost getting to her, she'd fall herself, or somehow get out of the way.
Mia noticed she could avoid the bad luck by being more careful and not running at full speed, but she was too late.
Isa had managed to endure one full minute, all by herself.
Mia: "Here you go..."
Somewhere along the way, she got too competitive about the game, and by the end, it seemed like she didn't want to give Miwen her stamp.
Still, we won it fair and square.
Mostly.
Her stamp was just a caricature of her smiling face, pretty much like Isa's, just less haunted.
Miwen: "Should we check Raella's now?"
Cassandra: "Eh? What about mine?"
Miwen: "Oh... You did something too?"
Cassandra: "Of course~"
The smile on Cassandra's face was somehow more terrifying than Bea's tent and Isa's tower.
I prayed for it not to be scary stuff, completely forgetting it was Cassandra we were talking about.
Cassandra: "Hyaa~"
...
Cassandra: "Ahn... There~"
....
Her stall consisted of a barrel she entered.
Then, Miwen was to stab said barrel with already placed swords.
We couldn't tell what was happening inside the barrel.
We never discovered it, either.
Once I told him he didn't need her stamp, we just left.
The next stall we stopped at was way better.
It was Lana's, and she prepared a game of whack-a-mole.
Licia: "Why... Why did you make it so hard..."
The only difference from a normal game was what she used as the moles: Plushies. All of them Lily-shaped.
In other words, none of us could hit them.
Ever.
They were just too cute.
Lana's plan was flawless.
The game itself wasn't hard.
It's just that we could never win at it, and she enjoyed watching Miwen despair in utter defeat.
Until Lily showed up, that is.
She was really mad that Lana used her without permission and had no problem hitting the plushies.
With that, we acquired another stamp, also shaped like Lily, but surrounded by darkness.
In a similar fashion, the next stall we stopped at also involved hitting things with a hammer.
Only this time, it was a much bigger hammer.
Anna had prepared one of those strength test games, and while I was worried it would be super hard, she had apparently used Angelica as a basis instead of herself, so while difficult, it was the first fair challenge we had.
I felt so relieved that I couldn't help but give her a super tight hug.
Poor girl didn't really understand why, and struggled to push me away.
For whatever reason, she's always a little strange around me, and this time was no different.
She kept her guard up the entire night after this.
As for her stamp, as expected, it was a hammer.
Finally, after several stops along the way, we reached Raella's stall.
Hers didn't involve a challenge, or as she promised, scary stuff.
It was just a cute little sock theater, retelling the story of a romance she liked.
We sat on the ground and watched it for a few minutes, all of us impressed by her ability to control the socks.
The story itself was interesting, but a little too dark.
It was a tragedy, and even had a sudden monster attack to shake things up.
Again, it wasn't scary, just impressive that she could control so many socks at once.
Too impressive, even.
Almost as if they were alive.
The realization that Raella was possessing the socks all this time made Miwen let out an exasperated sigh.
Jokingly, he asked if she would rather live inside a sock rather than the doll he created, to which Raella became agitated, desperately telling him no.
It was a pretty funny and calming moment, considering we had been through so many heart-racing games and trials, but only after a few more stalls and stamps came the highlight of the night.
Licia: "Close your eyes..."
It was time to show him what Claire and I had prepared.
Licia: "You can open them now."
Suddenly, dozens of colorful fireworks lit the night sky.
Quite a few of them resembled the stamps Miwen collected.
And before him, I had brought the most essential thing that no birthday party can go without.
Licia: "Happy birthday, Miwen!"
Miwen: "So you did prepare a cake..."
We all sang him happy birthday, and then we enjoyed eating together.
The girls who prepared gifts unrelated to their stalls gave them to him.
Ellie noticed she had gifted him at the wrong time, which made her all flustered about it.
Isa: "...I guess I got a lot of work to do if I wanna be number one..."
Miwen: "Right? Licia goes beyond any expectation."
Licia: "Eh? That's not true... I just wanted to see you smile..."
And I got to see it a whole bunch.
After all the hard work, not only Miwen, but everyone...
We all shared the same emotion.
An immense tranquility, a happy gathering.
A peaceful joy.
Claire: "Well, if you'll excuse us, now that it's over, we need to sleep. We'll be even busier tonight."
Miwen: "Hm? Why?"
Licia: "Well... We want to open the festival for the Snow White Wolves. We thought it would be nice..."
Miwen: "Oh... Yeah, that would be great."
Miwen had been searching for ways to bring them close to us, and I thought I could use the festival to help him.
In a way, this was a test run for that.
Although, of course, it was actually the main event.
And it went so well that, in the years to come, this festival became a tradition inside the Kingdom.
Although no one ever learned why it was celebrated the day after the king's birthday, rather than on the day itself.
That remained a secret just for us.