Chapter 132: Morning Wasn't Forever

LEO

I saw Mario leave the exhibition hall. I thought it was a little strange. We were supposed to hang out together today, but well, he did say he had to go to a student council meeting in the morning first. Maybe talking to Blanche took up too much time and he had to rush.

Still, I watched the doorway for another moment after he disappeared.

Maybe he would suddenly come back because he forgot something. Or maybe he would stick his head back in and tell me when we could meet later.

He didn’t.

Well, he was busy. Important people were always busy.

“So what’s your plan for today, Leo?” Dimitri asked just as I was waving to Mario’s back (he didn’t turn to wave back, which made me feel silly).

“I was going to hang out with Mario later, but he’s busy with his student council thing in the morning, I think. I probably have to help clear this exhibition hall as well later since it’s the last day,” I said.

“I see. A good thing about kick-ball club is that we have nothing to tidy up, haha! I’ve been free since our match on the first day!”

“Heh, that’s cool. How about you, Briant?”

“Alexis and I have no club task today either since we already did our public debate. I could help you with the exhibition stuff,” Briant offered.

“Heh~” I said.

“What do you mean, ‘heh~’?!”

“Why don’t you go over and help Blanche first?” I said.

It was then that Alexis and Dimitri also caught on and said,

“Heh~”

“Aw, cut it out, guys. Leo, stop planting some nonsense into their minds!” Briant protested.

“So Thomas was right, after all. Briant had a secret childhood crush,” Alexis teased.

“It’s certainly not true!” Briant insisted.

“You are getting red again,” Dimitri pointed out.

“I am not!”

“You are.”

“It’s warm in here!”

I looked around the exhibition hall.

It really wasn’t.

“What are you guys talking about?”

Blanche startled everyone by suddenly popping up from behind us.

“No—nothing,” Briant stuttered.

“Pfft—” the rest of us, except Blanche, had to hold back from laughing.

“I’m not sure yet, but I might be busy somewhere this afternoon. If you are free, could you guys later help us a bit tidying up this place in the afternoon? Our paintings and Fabian’s sculpture are a little too big for us to carry back to the art—Oi! Fabian! Stop eating in the exhibition hall!”

Fabian, after getting yelled at, started to hurriedly shove the beef patty buns into his mouth.

“I said stop eating! Not eat it quicker!” Blanche yelled across the room. Fabian just continued eating while Liesel laughed by her painting.

“I’m almost done!” Fabian shouted back with his mouth completely full.

That probably made things worse.

“We can certainly help,” Briant said.

“Yes, Briant, especially, will be very happy to help,” Alexis chimed in.

“Briant is a gentleman like that, mm-hm,” Dimitri added.

“It seems your friends hold a high opinion of you, Briant,” Blanche said, poking Briant’s ribs with her finger.

“S—stop it, B—Blanche,” Briant stuttered again.

“Heh~” Blanche said and poked him a few more times.

We all laughed, except Briant, who blushed for the second time today.

I thought Blanche looked a little happier too.

That was good.

She had been acting strangely serious with me earlier, and I still didn’t completely understand why she had told me to leave the Academy. Maybe she was just worried because of whatever happened to her here.

I wanted to ask her where she was going in the afternoon, but if she wasn’t saying it out loud, she probably had reasons not to tell us.

So I didn’t.

After that, we decided we would come back to the exhibition hall later in the afternoon and went outside to enjoy the final day of the festival.

The festival ground somehow seemed even busier than the previous two days. Maybe everyone suddenly realized it was their last chance to eat, play, and spend money before everything disappeared again.

Dimitri immediately dragged us toward a stall where students were throwing wooden rings at bottles.

“Watch this,” he said confidently.

He missed all three.

“The rings are crooked.”

Alexis examined one of the rings.

“It appears reasonably circular to me.”

“Traitor.”

Briant managed to land one on his second throw and won a tiny stuffed horse.

We all stared at him.

“What?” he asked.

“Give it to Blanche,” Dimitri said.

“I am NOT giving it to Blanche!”

“Heh~”

“Leo!”

We moved on before Briant could hit me with the stuffed horse.

There were still performances happening on the small stages, students calling people over to games, and smells from food stalls mixing together in the air. I bought something covered in sugar that the girl at the stall called a twist bread. Dimitri bought two. Alexis said he wasn’t hungry, then ate half of Briant’s when Briant wasn’t looking.

It was fun.

Really fun, actually.

Still, every now and then, whenever I saw a tall dark-haired person somewhere ahead of us, I caught myself looking twice.

None of them were Mario.

Mario said he was busy in the morning.

But morning wasn’t forever. I could wait, I thought.

Then we kept wandering with no particular destination until Dimitri spotted another stall with a wooden sign that said TEST YOUR KNIGHTLY SKILL.

He immediately wanted to try it, and Alexis was really up for it too. Briant said he’d had enough of games. We teased him that it was only because he had already won something for Blanche and had no other girl to gift his prize to. We all received a hand chop on the head from him.

In any case, the game was simple. There were six little wooden soldiers standing at different distances, and you had to knock them over by throwing small cloth bags filled with beans.

Dimitri knocked down five.

“Ha!” he shouted, raising both arms like he had just won another kick-ball match.

Alexis knocked down four. Briant, who eventually agreed to play anyway, got four as well, although one of his bags bounced off the table first, which Dimitri insisted shouldn’t count.

Then it was my turn.

I threw the first bag.

It landed nowhere near any of the soldiers.

The second one somehow went even further away.

“Leo,” Briant said carefully, “are you aiming at them?”

“Yes!”

“Just checking.”

I narrowed my eyes at the last bag in my hand, then at the nearest wooden soldier.

This one was personal.

I threw it as hard as I could.

It hit the sign.

Dimitri laughed so hard he had to hold on to Alexis’s shoulder.

“I’m better with magic,” I said defensively.

“That is an excellent excuse,” Alexis said.

“It’s not an excuse! It’s true!”

The student running the stall took pity on me and gave me the smallest prize anyway: a little wooden whistle shaped like a bird.

I blew into it.

It made a horrible squeaking noise.

Dimitri immediately wanted one.

We spent another while walking around after that. I tried a sweet drink made from some kind of red berry I had never heard of, watched two third-years perform a sword dance on one of the stages, and almost lost Dimitri when he followed the smell of grilled meat without telling anybody.

At some point, Briant was still carrying the stuffed horse.

I noticed because he had tucked it under one arm as if it naturally belonged there.

“Heh~”

He looked at me.

“Don’t.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Heh~”

“Leo.”

Alexis heard me and started laughing again.

The morning passed surprisingly quickly.

That was the strange thing about having fun. Here, surrounded by noise and food and people I knew, time seemed to flow so quickly, like those summer days I spent with Davi and Abe back home. I could imagine them really enjoying the festival here as well. I wished that I could invite them over someday.

Then the bells from the Clock Tower rang.

I stopped walking and counted them without really meaning to.

It was already noon.

“Hungry?” Dimitri asked.

“You already ate twice.”

“That wasn’t the question.”

I laughed.

Then I looked toward the main building again.

Mario had said he would be busy in the morning.

Well, technically, noon meant the morning was over now.

Maybe he would come find me soon.

“Where should we eat?” Briant asked.

“Somewhere with meat,” Dimitri said immediately.

“That describes half the festival,” Alexis replied.

“Good. Then we have plenty of choices.”

I turned around once more, scanning the people moving between the stalls.

Still no Mario.

I wasn’t worried. Not really.

Student council meetings probably involved lots of serious talking, and Mario was very good at serious talking. Maybe they had kept him longer because of that.

Besides, he knew where the art exhibition was. If he came looking for me, someone there could tell him I was outside with the others.

I put the little bird whistle into my pocket so I wouldn’t lose it before I got the chance to show him how terrible it sounded.