My Glasses

Chapter 190 – Glasses boy and the hunting festival – part twelve

(Hydra’s PoV)

“Participants of the hunting festival, please gather! Please gather!” One person shouted.

Just like how it happened yesterday, several people started shouting for their companions so that they may gather in the plaza that was filled with the festival’s hustle and bustle, singing and music.

Seems like noon has arrived, so the hunts are now over.

“Take care.” I told Eil.

“Got it. Thanks for the coat.” He replied.

He took off the coat that he borrowed from me yesterday, then left the orphanage while wearing yesterday’s maid outfit, but without his glasses.

This should mark the arrival of the participant who not only was the fastest to kill their prey, but also hunted a Dragon Fish of all things.

People immediately noticed Eil as he moved. Some people were pointing fingers at him while whispering things, others were surrounding him and asking to shake his hand… And some even tried to touch his butt.

The other participants of the festival who were escorting the children also returned to the orphanage, then, with the children delivered, they headed to the plaza as well.

“I would like to take a look at things for a bit. Will you be okay by yourself?” I asked Cherry.

“Yes, of course.” She replied.

So, I moved on ahead quickly while Cherry calmed down the children who seemed to also want to see what was happening in the plaza from up close.

But now was my time to go see the Dragon Fish.

It was the perfect opportunity, as the audience was paying attention to the assembled hunters, so I should be able to see the Dragon Fish from up close.

I’m certain I would be able to see it from a distance if I waited, but I wanted to get a better look at it, and touch it, if possible.

I wasn’t lying when I told Eil that I would like to hunt one someday.

And today I had the chance to see an extremely rare Demon Beast from up close… I really didn’t want to pass on this opportunity.

******

(Hydra’s PoV)

Apparently, the Dragon Fish was meant to be shown off during the award ceremony, so when I arrived at the warehouse, its body was already being carted away.

Right now, I could only see its white, snake-like, shining head peeking out of the warehouse though.

It was quite beautiful, even if only its head was visible.

“You’ve been crying for too long and watched it for long enough! You have been doing this since yesterday! Enough is enough!” One person exclaimed.

“Shut up! What do you know of me!? This Dragon Fish… This Dragon Fish! That was all that I ever wanted! My whole life was for this!” A drunk man replied.

It seemed like a drunk man and one of the men in charge of transporting the Dragon Fish were in an argument.

Or rather… The drunk man just seemed to be one-sidedly causing trouble.

“You made fun of me back then too, didn’t you!? You called me a stupid old man! You said that there was no Dragon Fish!” The drunk man exclaimed.

“I already apologized for that! Enough is enough!” The transporting person replied.

“Shut up! I wasted twenty years of my life for this Dragon Fish! Let me see it until I have enough! I haven’t gotten rid of all my grudges yet!” The drunk man shouted.

I didn’t quite get what was happening, but thanks to this dispute, the transportation seemed to have stopped, so I made use of the opportunity to take a good look at the Dragon Fish.

Fortunately, with the hunters all being assembled, most of the audience was paying attention to the plaza, so I could inspect the Dragon Fish without being bothered.

“Excuse me, can I take a closer look at it?” I asked a person nearby.

I did not ask the one who was arguing with the drunk man, but instead asked a man who seemed to be quite bored as he watched this whole ordeal.

This man was wearing the same kind of clothes as the other person who was in charge of transporting the Dragon Fish, so he must be part of the transportation team too.

He seemed to be surprised to see a nun here, but replied with a, “Just don’t take too long.”

So, I approached the Dragon Fish.

I see… Its face may look like that of a fish, but its scales are those of a dragon. The shape is different from fish scales.

I also lifted its eyelids and saw that it had beast-like eyeballs… Truly dragon-like characteristics.

And then there were those long whiskers… A pair of whiskers and jagged scales… Those must be Thunder Whiskers. Whiskers that grow long enough to catch lightning.

When thunderclouds gather, this kind of Demon Beast would raise its Thunder Whiskers towards the sky and wait until lightning stroke their position.

It’s possible that Dragon Fishes simply like electricity, but it’s also possible that they might have an organ in their bodies that can turn electricity into energy.

Dragons don’t maintain their bodies by eating and drinking, after all, so they must use some other source of energy to stay alive… Lightning might be one of those potential energy sources.

Of course, nobody really knows the truth about that. It’s something that is mostly up to speculation.

But Thunder Whiskers being the main energy source of Dragon Fishes is a very reasonable theory to me.

In any case, I could also see a piece of cloth, that was dyed red, stuffed onto the Dragon Fish’s forehead… Was it there that the fatal blow was landed?

Well, regardless of that… “It’s pretty big.” I commented out loud.

The head was already immense, so how big was the whole body?

The nearby man seemed to be paying quite a bit of attention to me, so he replied to my comment, “Oh, it’s huge! About as big as ten adult men lined up vertically!”

His voice sounded a bit strange, but I got the information I wanted, so I decided to not mind it.

About as big as ten adult men… It’s very, very long.

Now, let’s check out how it feels to the touch-

At that moment, my time ran out.

“Please give me a break! If we take any longer than this, lord Beckenberg will get mad at us!” The person in charge of transporting exclaimed with a heartbroken voice.

The drunk man seemed to have a hard time continuing to argue after that, so he just exclaimed, “Curse this thing! Curse it!” as he walked away.

I don’t know if he simply has a grudge with the Dragon Fish or is actually obsessed with it, but this drunk man surely has very strong feelings about it.

Either way, the Dragon Fish was straightened out, and slowly brought out of the warehouse by three lined up carts.

It truly is way too long.

Its shape makes it look like a huge white snake, but… It also shone dazzlingly, reflecting the sunlight, and made you wonder about the mysterious ways that nature created it.

At this moment, even to the non-religious me, this thing looked divine.

******

(Hydra’s PoV)

Having fulfilled my desire of seeing the Dragon Fish, I returned to where the children were.

Then, we all moved together to the plaza, so that we could see the award ceremony.

It would be dangerous to get close to the crowd while we were together with the children though, so we positioned ourselves near the edge of the plaza.

“Big bro Haria will win!” One child exclaimed.

“Big sis Lisse and big bro Chace will be the ones to win!” Another child exclaimed.

“Trau! Trau!” A third child exclaimed.

“I wanna eat horse skewers! Can you give me some money!?” A fourth child asked me.

This one child aside, the children all seemed to be hoping that their favorite big brothers and big sisters would win.

But well, after seeing the Dragon Fish, I can be certain of the winner already.

Or rather, all the hunters should be aware of it. Nobody wanted to talk much about the hunting festival after they came back yesterday, and that was probably why.

******

(Third person narration)

“With this, the hunting festival is ending!” One of Beckenberg’s men exclaimed.

The ending was announced with the sound of drums, and people naturally started applauding and whistling in response.

Beckenberg could see that the audience was quite satisfied with the festival. Their loud voices clearly showed that.

Though it should be noted that even if the hunting competition was now ending, the festival itself will last all the way until today’s night.

The members of the recovery team were looking quite forward to enjoying the festival now that they were done with their job.

Regardless of that, once the applauses subsided a little, Beckenberg entered the podium and said, “Everyone! You drank plenty and ate plenty! It was because of you that this festival could be this lively!

“This event was only a success because you all had plenty of fun!

“As the organizer, I truly thank you all!”

People got excited at those words too, but shortly after that, he started announcing the results.

Everyone held their breaths and listened intently for Beckenberg to announce the name of the winner.

And everyone was expecting to hear the name of the maid who hunted the Dragon Fish.

The result was…

******

(Hydra’s PoV)

“No winner!” Beckenberg exclaimed.

Everyone was stunned and went silent at these words. Even I was surprised by it.

What does he mean with ‘No winner’? Is he saying that Eil’s achievement of hunting the Dragon Fish amounts to nothing?

It must have been a really tough battle.

He must have spent a lot of time preparing for it… And even then, it was clear to me when I saw the Dragon Fish itself… The battle was extremely dangerous. Eil’s life was surely at risk there.

And yet, the result is ‘no winner’?

It took only a few moments for the crowd to start angrily shouting at Beckenberg.

“Quiet! Quiet!” He shouted in response.

But the audience continued shouting curses and insults at him.

However, he remained unfazed.

That in itself was pretty impressive, but his guards were clearly struggling with protecting him from all the objects that were being thrown his way.

The anger of the audience was clear, and it was perfectly reasonable, because we just couldn’t understand what was happening there.

“I’m back.” Eil suddenly said.

“Eh?” I replied.

Eil was now using proper boy clothes and was wearing his glasses. He swiftly moved to my side while I stared at him.

I was currently a bit farther away from Cherry and Florentine, who were taking care of the children, so those two shouldn’t have noticed Eil’s return just yet.

“… No winner?” I asked him.

“I asked Beckenberg to disqualify me for cheating.” Eil replied.

I was wondering if I should ask why, but there was no need to do that.

Eil himself started explaining it without any further prompting, perhaps because he was already expecting to be asked about it, “If an outsider wins the competition against all the locals, it will just ruin their reputation and crush their self-esteem.

“I have no intention of settling here, so I don’t need the rewards or the renown that I’d earn from this.

“However, things are different for the people who live here. Losing this competition would affect their work in the future.

“Moreover, I was in disguise in the first place, so I don’t mind getting labeled as a cheater.”

I understood his reasoning.

It was logical.

However… “Is that really all there is it?” I couldn’t help asking.

It did sound plausible, but wasn’t there another reason behind it? Some serious reason that forced him to give up on the rewards?

My instincts just told me that there was more to it than he was saying.

And apparently, I was right.

“Ah, yeah, you got me.” With his amber eyes, he stared directly at me, “I just don’t like to stand out. I don’t want to be seen by a lot of people.

“Also, this felt like it would be way too troublesome, so I gave up on the rewards.”

There was more to it, like I expected, but the reason was far less meaningful than I expected.

It just felt so… Pointless.

However, this felt like it was much likely to be truth than the plausible explanation that he gave a short while back.

“Even if you were in disguise?” I asked.

“Yeah, I still don’t like it.” He replied.

… I could only nod to that statement.

He must really hate standing out.

… And like this, the hunting festival ended.