Published: January 24, 2026
â—‡
As soon as we stepped onto the street, we quickly found the food stall we were looking for.
I asked the stall owner to prepare candied apples in time for the sacrificial dance to begin, and he gladly agreed.
"Alright then, let's enjoy ourselves properly."
The moment I said that, I felt my steps naturally lighten.
The first place we stopped was the lottery booth.
Inside a large wooden box were colorful orbs, and the prizes ranged from stuffed animals and accessories to oddly extravagant magical tools.
Oliver’s eyes fixed on one in particular.
"No way anyone would want that gold-plated ring," Shion chuckled softly as she teased.
"It looks bad, but... I feel like it might be useful," Oliver replied.
"You're always picking up weird magical tools like that," I recalled from when we were in a party together, him buying items that made me wonder, "What on earth is this for?"
"Well then, how about a contest to see who can draw the best prize?"
"Sounds fun," Shion agreed.
"So, how do we decide the order?"
"How about everyone draws at once on the count of three?"
Everyone nodded at Shion’s suggestion, and we lined up in front of the box.
Each of us reached inside with our hands and closed our eyes.
"One, two, three!"
With that shout, the four of us pulled out our orbs.
"...White."
"White..."
"I got white too."
"...Red," Luna announced.
Breaking the brief silence, everyone’s eyes focused on the color of Luna’s orb.
"I can’t believe you actually got it..."
I murmured, and the stall owner nodded with a big smile.
"You're pretty good, miss! First prize is... this!"
He eagerly handed over the gold-plated ring that had caught our eyes earlier.
"I never thought I would actually win this," Luna smiled a little awkwardly as she held the extravagantly flashy ring in her palm.
"What should I do... it's a bit too flashy for me."
She glanced briefly at Oliver as she said this.
Noticing her gaze, Oliver raised his eyebrows slightly.
"...What is it?"
"No, I won’t use it. You were the one attracted by how it looks, Mr. Oliver, right?"
Luna teased him slightly, and Oliver opened his mouth as if to reply but then closed it again.
He averted his eyes just a little.
"...Yeah, I was curious about it. But getting it handed over like this makes me feel like I lost."
"Come on, just accept it honestly."
Luna chuckled softly and gently placed the ring in Oliver’s hand.
Her gesture was casual but somehow looked unusually tender.
"Thanks... I’ll take it."
Oliver whispered.
â—‡
Next, we tried the shooting gallery.
The targets were bottles, bells, and strangely elaborate wooden animal carvings – much harder than they looked.
"...They just won’t fall."
Shion muttered softly, staring at the prizes that hadn’t budged despite three perfect shots.
"If only I could shoot them all down with magic."
"You shouldn’t say stuff like that," I chuckled, and Shion pouted.
â—‡
We then headed to the goldfish scooping stall.
Shion and I broke through our scooping papers (poi) in just a couple of tries and sank.
Luna was being careful but still struggled to get the hang of it.
In the meantime, Oliver quietly stretched out his arm—
"There!"
With calm movements, he scooped one, then another, and ended up catching three goldfish.
"Wow, Oliver, that’s an unexpected talent."
Shion teased, and Oliver looked a bit embarrassed as he looked away.
â—‡
The last stop was the sugar candy carving game.
It requires carefully scraping away the sugar candy to neatly cut out the designated shape—more challenging than it looks.
"Ah! It broke!"
"Again, it broke."
"...This is really hard."
One by one, the three of them gave up, but I quietly worked on carving the mold and quickly cut out the shape.
"...Amazing."
"To succeed on your first try—impressive…"
Shion said, both astonished and somewhat pleased, narrowing her eyes.
Luna shrugged and smiled.
"You get a prize for this, right?"
She held out the cut-out shape, and the shop owner nodded.
"Yeah! Pick whichever prize you want."
Among the prizes, one particularly caught my eye.
It was a small snowflake decoration carved from a translucent pale blue stone.