Chapter 15: Uladia [3] - The Light Festival

"Books." Silas replied as quickly as possible.

"Makes sense." Keira nodded.

"Can I buy this book then?" Silas asked with a smile.

"No." Keira replied.

"Why not?" Silas asked.

"Because you don't need it. You don't have a talent for magic, so you'll probably never awaken. And even if you do awaken, the chances of it being the earth element is quite slim." Keira shrugged, not daring to look into Silas' eyes, feeling as if he might make a cute expression again and force her to buy it before she could stop herself.

'Sorcerer. I shall not allow your mystical eyes to control me.' She tried to look away as much as possible without making it seem weird.

Looking a little dejected, Silas simply stood to the side, making Keira sigh and move on to chatting with Erin.

However, just when Silas was beginning to get bored out of his mind, the sound of music suddenly entered his ears, making him look around for the source before eventually raising a brow.

"Uhhh." Silas voiced.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you that the light festival was going to take place today." Keira smiled

'Lies!' Silas inwardly cursed her. She probably took him along with her knowing very well that the festival was going to take place that day.

"How long will it take?" Silas asked.

"Around 3 hours."

"3 hours... Isn't mom going to be angry?" Silas asked, trying his best to not call his mother 'Rhea' in front of Keira.

"I left her a note telling her we're going to be late." Keira smiled.

'I knew it!' Silas pouted slightly before leaning on Erin's stand.

Everyone was beginning to gather, yet most of the stands remained open since it was better for their business if they did. It reminded Silas of the Japan new year's festival without the attire and the enormous celebration that would spread throughout the entire country...

'Wait...'

"Do all town have this?" Silas asked.

"Every town, village, and city in the Xylem kingdom celebrates this festival at the same time every season." Keira explained.

"Why?" Silas tilted his head.

"To be honest, I have no idea." She shrugged.

'So it's a little like Halloween, then? Everyone celebrates it, but the average person has no clue why they do, and where it had originated from.' Silas concluded.

Suddenly, his eyes caught a glimpse of something shining right into his eyes, and when the blurriness cleared up, he saw two knights leaving the church at the center of the town with their swords sheathed at their waists.

They were clad in marble-white armor with golden trimmings, and had a golden symbol on their chests that Silas assumed was the emblem of their religion.

It didn't seem like the people around actually believed in the church from how they reacted to it being around. The Xylem kingdom felt like a kingdom with religious freedom, yet even though he was certain that non-believers weren't persecuted, he had a feeling that people who believed in other religions might have been.

The symbol on the white knight's chests looked like a square divided into with their corners missing. It was essentially a plus sign with more lines making it look a little like 4 two-sided hammers melded in the middle.

'Looks like a crosshair.' Silas thought to himself.

The two knights walked several meters away from the church before turning away from each other and walking several steps in the other direction.

Everyone went out of their way, creating a circle around them that reached about 10 meters in radius.

Suddenly, a transparent bubble of light surrounded them both, and when the bubble of light fully formed, they both unsheathed their blades and began to brandish them.

Suddenly, a man wearing a white and golden robe left the church and stood before the bubble.

"Today, I welcome you to town Uladia's autumn light festival!" The priest-looking man announced, causing several horns to howl at the skies while the sound of drums played in the background.

"Who are those two and that man?" Silas nudged his grandmother

"That old man is a priest. He runs the church in this city. Those two who are about to fight are white knights. They are personally chosen by the church to serve, but what makes them special is their ability to use light magic and toki." She explained without looking away.

'Light magic? Like healing magic?' Silas questioned.

The two young men swiped their sword before them, creating two deep crescents into the ground before getting ready to attack each other.

"I thank you all for coming today. Without further ado..." The priest raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

"Let the festival begin!"

*BOOM*

Both knights moved much faster than Silas could see, yet he was able to get a glance of them once they clashed in the center, creating a shockwave so powerful that everyone could literally see the gusts of wind created from their clash.

The barrier around was the only thing that stopped the gusts from destroying the stand and killing everyone nearby. Since the barrier seemed like it had taken their clash without wavering, they both disappeared again, appearing several meters away from one another.

However, a second later, they had clashed again, and the crowd roared in anticipation of who would come out victorious.

People could be seen betting on who would win, while others watched in anticipation or chatted with one another as the battle continued.

Due to being shorter than all the adults in front of him, Keira allowed Silas to sit on her shoulders and watch the battle like that.

*Clang Clang Clang*

The sounds of metal clashing against metal echoed out in quick succession.

Knight number 1 quickly slashed his sword at knight number 2, yet knight number two quickly parried that attack, nullifying the power behind the attack with his toki before pushing it away from him and stabbing at knight number 1.

Since Silas didn't know their names, he chose to number them instead. Numbering people was almost always easier than actually remembering or asking for their names. For example, to Silas, Erin was background character number 5.

The clash was beyond impressive, and the battle looked magnificent, especially now that Silas had activated mystic eyes and could finally see the two knight's movements.

They both had technique, instinct, and a ton of practice. However, despite them being professionals with the sword, what impressed Silas was how they were using their toki. It was almost like they were manipulating it manually, but he knew that such a thing was not the case.

*Clang Clang*

Suddenly, knight number 1 took an aggressive stance, pushing knight number 2 several steps back before stabbing toward his abdomen.

Knight number 2 widened his eyes in shock and tried to get away; however, with a good strong pull, knight number 1 grabbed the other knight, and forced him into place while ramming the tip of his sword into knight number 2's abdomen protective gear.

Everyone went quiet, yet when knight number 2 fell to his knees, and Number 1 raised his now-glowing sword into the air, cheers boomed throughout the entire town.

The scene seemed to be playing on several large crystals throughout the entire town, allowing those who weren't near the town square to see what was going on and also cheer a second later.

'I take back anything I've ever said about this world... It's amazing!' Silas thought, his eyes glistening as he looked at everything happening with a mesmerized expression.

He could see technology he had never seen before in the form of those crystals and traditions and cultures that he had only seen in this world.

He could feel his mind aching to learn more, but he knew that it wasn't the time. Not yet, at least.

'Those two knights too... They were amazing. They were clearly not using even half their strength, but from their control over their bodies to their fluidity and power with every swing of the sword was just phenomenal.' Silas looked down at his fists with a subtle grin.

What was this feeling... This feeling of pure excitement.

He'd never gotten that kind of feeling from anything but gaining knowledge, yet now he felt it when watching people battle with the sword?

Wait, no... That wasn't right.

Silas truly hated the sword. He didn't enjoy learning about it one bit, mostly because he had absolutely no talent for it. Swordsmanship to Silas was what working out felt like to a fat man. He hated it, and the fruits of his labor hadn't been apparent for the first few months.

The only difference was that a fat man would eventually lose all his fat if he maintained a good diet and training routine. However, for some reason, Silas felt like it would take ten times longer for him to get a certain level of mastery over the sword compared to a normal person.

It felt like his body was rejecting the act of using a sword.

Silas quickly shook his head at such thoughts and sighed, looking back at the protective bubble to see what the town was going to throw at him next.

However, when he saw the two walking up to the fighting bubble, he could not help but narrow his eyes.

He had expected two burly men to walk into the ring and fight to the death, a bit like traditional boxing or like the gladiator-style mecha fights he used to organize.

Yet, on one side, a boy walked through the protective bubble with a wooden spear. He wore tanned leather armor protecting his chest.

Silas was instantly disappointed, yet when he saw the fierce expression on his face, he could not help but narrow his eyes and look at the boy's opponent with a sense of anticipation.

Yet he was bound to be disappointed.

Looking to the left, Silas saw a girl with pink hair and blue eyes enter the bubble. Her pink hair was disheveled and messy, telling Silas that she had probably trained too much before this, not giving her mother enough time to make her hair look pretty.