Chapter 83: 48. Imperial Prince is Enjoying the Festival (Part One)

**

I was at the shooting range inside Hilda fiefdom .

There were targets meant for bows and crossbows placed in intervals of 100 to 200 metres, while even bigger targets for siege weapons were placed over 400 metres away .

A bird flew in and settled down on one of the branches of a tree .

The dwarves were sitting near the entrance of the forest with expressions of anticipation on their faces . In their hands was a combination of a pen and paper .

I put on some gloves and raised a musket rifle .

“Oh, dear Gaia . Grant me your blessing . ”

A minute to gather enough divinity, then another thirty seconds to offer up a prayer .

Divinity visibly coalesced and began spinning wildly within the musket’s barrel . I even activated Divine Aura too .

A new skill [Divinity Storage Expansion] was added on top of the already-existing [Burst Fire] . Even the range had expanded too .

I took aim at the target located at about one hundred metres away and pulled the trigger . My hands, currently strengthened through body reinforcement magic, felt the strong recoil .

A loud gunshot rang out and the projectile flew with an explosive burst of speed . The divine bullet not just destroyed the target, it even shattered the rock behind it .

“Oh! Ohhhhh-!”

The dwarves immediately jumped up to their feet . They began clenching their fists tightly and cried out in elation, while some others couldn’t even hide their excitement and began bouncing around .

Heck, some of them dropped their pen and paper, completely forgetting to evaluate what just happened .

The dwarves were clearly having a jolly good time right now . On the other hand, I was being tormented by them .

After exhausting some more of my divinity, I lowered the musket and wiped the sweat off my forehead .

It had already been two weeks since we subjugated the lycans .

As soon as my body recovered to its full health, the dwarves wanted to evaluate the performances of their musket rifles .

“…It’s truly excellent, your highness . ”

I glanced to my side and saw Belrog walking up to me .

He still seemed to be in disbelief while he stroked the musket that had been enhanced by the Divine Aura .

Belrog observed the bluish light in the shape of a magic rune letter enveloping the weapon and spat out a string of appreciation . “No, it’s beyond excellent, your highness . It’s like the weapon itself has come to life and is even breathing right now . It’s evolved to the next level after coming to life, by the looks of it . ”

As expected of a master weaponsmith, his appreciation of the musket came across as rather emotive .

“Okay, so what did you think?” While asking, I handed the musket over to Belrog . However, the moment it left my hand, the rune letter simply disappeared .

Belrog muttered to himself, “Divine Aura only activates when it’s being held?”

He then took aim at another target with the very same musket, and began chanting some incantation . He injected Mana into the weapon, focused for the next five minutes, and pulled the trigger at the distant target .

First shot .

The dwarf sucked in a deep breath then resumed injecting Mana through his hands .

Second shot .

He fired the third and fourth shot in the same manner .

Projectiles of Mana left the barrel and a little while later, the target standing about one hundred metres away from us shook around while making ‘Bang, bang!’ noises .

I was totally dumbfounded by this sight .

“Your highness, this is the actual power of the musket . ” Belrog was panting heavily as if he had exerted himself to an extreme degree just now . “This particular weapon is one of the finest examples we have crafted, and this level of ability to rapidly fire is only possible through a lot of training as well . ”

“…Rapid fire? But it looked to me like you were firing one shot, reload, and then fire another one?”

Belrog replied testily with a dissatisfied expression . “This is the so-called rapid firing as seen from our standards, your highness . This is already five times faster than existing muskets . ”

“…”

“Well, to begin with, you’ve been flooding the weapon with a stupid amount of divinity, so your level of firepower displayed isn’t surprising, and also…” Belrog tutted a little . “…Through the mysteries of [Divine Aura], it seems that the internal structure of the musket itself has been modified as well . Now, originally, a musket shouldn’t even be able to withstand the amount of divinity you normally injected into it and end up breaking apart . So, when I first heard the report, I assumed it’d be only on the level of reinforcing the weapon . But now, this…”

Belrog looked excited as he lifted the musket above his head . He placed it to block the sun’s rays and then narrowed his eyes .

“…This is true advancement . ”

The ability to reinforce regular weapons, and to make those very magic weapons leap past an entire generation of advancement – this was how Belrog evaluated my Divine Aura .

Now that I think about it, notifications kept saying something about ‘advancement’ or some such whenever I used Divine Aura, didn’t it?

Belrog seemed to be in deep contemplation, but he eventually addressed me again . “While you’re gathering divinity and praying, wouldn’t you be exposed to danger many times like that?”

“Oh, yeah . That happens a heck of a lot too, I tell ya . ”

It sure had been dicey during my encounters with the Vampires and the lycans, and the story shouldn’t be too different if I need to confront humans at a later stage .

Especially in the cases of bows or crossbows – they could be reloaded very quickly and that would be quite dangerous for me .

Of course, if things do get really dangerous, then I was planning to summon my undead and use them as shields, regardless of whether there were witnesses or not .

“Wait, now that I recall, your highness, isn’t your body reinforcement magic already on the level of being monstrous? It must be at least half, or more than half, of an Ogre’s physical strength . And an Ogre is often referred to as the king of forests . So, how about…” Belrog raised his head in my direction and asked, “…Putting on some kind of armour?”

“Eh?”

I tilted my head .

Belrog tried explaining . “If you put on some armour and use Divine Aura to reinforce them, then well, the likes of mid-to-lower tier magic spells won’t even…”

It was then, another dwarf approached us in a leisurely gait of a man on a stroll, and waved his hand at us . “Preparations are complete now . Lady Hilda is calling for you, your highness!”

Belrog smacked his lips ruefully before looking at me . “Let us discuss the matter of your armour at a later stage . I might as well gift you with a set later on . ”

He bowed his head as his goodbye and then walked over to the other dwarves . “Fire up the smelting furnace . Prepare forged steel, some gemstones of spirits Eltera, white silver and mistletoe grass . And also, Alchemists…”

While I eavesdropped on him, the dwarf who was strolling up to me tugged at my clothes . I turned my gaze to him .

He grinned brightly and spoke, “Let’s get going, your highness . A festival meant for you is about to get underway!”

**

In the middle of the village’s plaza .

Hilda walked up to an elevated platform with no noticeable expression on her face . On her right hand was a liquor bottle, while her left was holding a cup .

The villagers were staring at her, their hands holding baskets of fruits .

Hilda poured the liquor in the cup, and once the crimson-coloured liquid filled it up, she took a hearty swig of the aromatic drink .

After she cleanly emptied it, she began spraying the villagers below the platform with the alcohol in the bottle .

She shouted out, “I declare the festival of blood now open!”

“Waaaaaah!”

The villagers loudly cheered on .

Flower petals were scattered from the vicinity of the village . At the same time, red-coloured fruits were tossed in the air .

This fruit reminded me of a tomato; they jiggled in the air and burst into bits after hitting their intended targets . The villagers exploded in loud peals of laughter as they began tossing these squishy fruits at each other .

The ‘festival of blood’ – as it turned out, it was an actual festival that Hilda fiefdom was preparing to hold . It was a festival where people popped the crimson fruits to substitute for real blood and get rid of all the misfortunes that might befall on them .

The closest equivalent that I could think of back on Earth was the annual tomato festival in Spain . This also happened to be the festival Luan was telling me about earlier too .

I shifted my gaze .

It seemed that even the Crimson Cross and Verdant Cross folks were enjoying the festival as well . But uh, weren’t they going to take off their bird beak masks and balaclavas? How were they going to even eat and drink like that?

I looked away from them and began admiring the villagers enjoying the festival . “Well, there really are a lot of beauties in this place . ”

I was currently sitting by a table placed on the street . After picking out a tomato-like red fruit nearby, I sliced a piece off before munching on it .

My eyes went round from surprise and I hurriedly looked down at the fruit .

Wow, as expected of the fiefdom’s specialty product, it tastes really great! I should take some with me and give it to Charlotte and Harman later . That’ll probably make them happy .

It was then, a massive cup was placed on my table with a loud thud .

“Your highness! How about accepting a shot from us!”

The dwarves were gathering around me .

They seemed to have knocked back a few already, as evidenced by their complexions being beet-red .

The dozens of dwarves were grinning away as if they were feeling rather pleased about something . One of them then began pouring the red liquor from the bottles held in both of his hands into that large cup .

Although the cup in question was as big as my head, the alcohol was actually spilling from the top now .

“Here you go! Go ahead, your highness! Enjoy!”

The dwarves were pressing their faces real close now .

“…”

I could only smile awkwardly at them .

Maybe this world didn’t have a minimum age for drinking? Well, I did drink back in Ronia, so it’s not going to be an issue, I guess .

I lifted up the hefty cup .

Wha-? This thing tastes like soju mixed with ground tomatoes!

My head spun . Holy cow, this is pretty strong, innit?!

When I managed to gurgle down the whole cup, a loud cheering exploded from all around me .

“Alright! One more, your highness! Just one more!”

More alcohol was poured into the cup .

“Your highness! Us too…!”

The villagers walked up to me and poured even more alcohol in my cup .

My head was really spinning now, But hey, it didn’t feel all that bad .

Actually, a pleased grin was spreading on my lips all by itself .

Genuine laughters were overflowing from seemingly everywhere .

Despite going through a horrifying event just recently, it looked to me they were ridding themselves of the nightmare through their laughters .

Also, it felt like they weren’t conscious of my station of being an Imperial Prince . The reason for that must’ve been… .

“Everyone, raise your cups for a toast!”

…Probably because of Hilda .

Rather than an Imperial Princess, she looked more like a regular citizen enjoying the village’s festival right now .

Her outfit was simple and plain . In fact, she didn’t even try acting elegant and cultured, either .

She was holding a bottle to pour the alcohol into the cups of her villagers while merrily laughing alongside them .

“The monsters have vanished . This is the blessing of the goddess, Gaia! And to my dear younger brother who has accomplished this wonderful feat, a toast to Allen Olfolse! Cheers!”

“Cheers!”

Cups and glasses clinked noisily against each other .