Luke kept lounging in the yard.
The temperature had dropped quite a bit over the past few days, so he had added another layer of clothing.
Lux and the others were dressed a little more warmly too.
When the morning breeze blew through, it was not exactly cold yet, but there was a definite chill in the air.
He had been lying there for a while when the other girls arrived one after another. After seeing each other, they all exchanged holiday greetings.
Once everyone had arrived, Luke stopped lazing around, got up from the chair, and started preparing breakfast.
After breakfast, Luke began decorating the yard.
After all, this was the first time he was celebrating the holiday here, so he put a fair amount of thought into it.
He brought back quite a bit of bamboo from outside, then went looking for tools.
After that, he split the bamboo apart and cut it into long, narrow strips, then began weaving them together with practiced ease.
It was rare enough for the girls to see him not stretched out in that chair, so when they saw what he was doing, they could not help growing curious.
Lux came over and crouched beside him, watching as he wove several bamboo strips together, almost like knitting.
Curiosity rose in her eyes, and she could not help asking, "What are you making?"
Without even lifting his head, Luke answered, "A few lanterns."
Lanterns were not especially common in Demacia, so once he said that, Lux and the others became even more curious.
They had not seen the finished product yet, but anything that could make this guy actually put in effort had to be interesting.
Lux blinked eagerly. "I want to help too."
At that, Luke looked up, glanced at her, then at the other girls around them whose eyes were equally full of curiosity.
"Sure. It's not hard. I'll teach you."
Honestly, it would have been pretty troublesome for him to make all the lanterns by himself anyway.
So next, Luke showed them the technique.
The inner frame of a lantern was not particularly difficult to weave. For beginners, it was enough to just copy what they saw.
Luke demonstrated the steps very slowly, enough for the girls to see everything clearly and learn carefully.
Once the frame was woven, it had to be tied together with thin cord so the bamboo strips were secured, and inside there would be a fixed point for placing a candle.
The last step was binding the strips together, and then a round lantern frame would take shape.
After teaching the steps to the girls, Luke went off to work on other things.
Compared to the lantern frame, the outer shell was the part that actually required some skill. Whether the final lantern looked beautiful or not depended entirely on that outer skin.
For that, Luke had specifically sent Yurna out to buy some expensive paper.
Normally, making the outer shell required two different kinds of paper.
One layer went inside to reflect the candlelight. With red translucent paper lining the interior, the light shining through the cutout sections would look beautiful.
The other layer went outside. That was the lantern's true exterior, where you could paint designs, make paper cutouts, or write words on it.
Naturally, none of that was any challenge for Luke.
So for the next stretch of time, the girls worked on weaving the lantern frames while Luke, off to one side, decorated the outer shells.
"Your Highness, is this right?"
Frey was the first one to finish weaving a frame.
She had once been a mother, so she was more naturally deft with this sort of work and more skilled with her hands.
Everything Luke taught seemed to click for her instantly.
Looking at the bamboo lantern frame in Frey's hands, Luke smiled and nodded.
"Perfect. That's exactly right. Once you finish one, just set it here."
"Mm."
Frey answered softly and placed the lantern beside Luke.
By the time she had finished her first one, the others were not even halfway done.
So before long, her side became lively too, with people occasionally coming over to ask her questions.
Meanwhile, Luke began pasting the lantern shells onto the frames.
As time passed, the girls each finished their lantern frames and set them one after another beside Luke.
They made about twenty-five lanterns in total, and Frey alone made six of them.
By now, the girls had all gathered around Luke, watching as he smoothly pasted the decorative paper over the lanterns.
Before long, all twenty-five lanterns were complete, each one a different color, and each one with a different design on the outside.
Some were painted with a full moon, some had simple cute little animals on them, and some had the words Harvest Moon written across them.
The moment they saw the finished products, the girls' eyes lit up.
Even just from the outside, the lanterns were beautiful.
Lux immediately suggested, "Let's light them and see!"
Kahina nodded at once. "Yeah, yeah!"
Then Sona, Vayne, and Quinn also nodded, and even Fiora ended up joining in.
As one lantern after another was lit, Luke—who had finally sat down to rest—watched the girls holding them and could only give them a speechless look.
"It's the middle of the day. Even if you light them now, what exactly do you think you're going to see?"
It was noon, after all. The sun was blazing high overhead, pouring down golden light.
Even if the candles inside the lanterns were lit, the effect was impossible to see from the outside.
But the girls were not listening to a word of that.
After all, these were lanterns they had made with their own hands. Even though Luke had told them they would look best at night, they could not wait to see them.
Still, just as Luke had said, with the sunlight this strong, even when the candles were lit, there was barely any visible effect.
So the girls began looking forward to evening even more.
After that, Luke started arranging the lanterns around the yard.
The twenty-five lanterns were hung throughout the front yard, the back yard, and under the eaves of the house...
Even though it was not night yet, the moment they were hung up, the place already felt much more festive.
Once that was done, it was about time for Luke to start preparing lunch.
After lunch, everyone gathered in the living room, sitting or lying around on the sofas, enjoying the lazy afternoon after a good meal.
Lux patted her slightly rounded stomach, her little face full of satisfaction.
After a while, she sat up energetically, her eyes sparkling as she looked at everyone.
"There's going to be a festival celebration this afternoon. Should we go watch it?"
At that, Luke looked up, thought for a moment, and nodded.
"Sure. What time?"
Lux answered, "Probably around three."
"So in about an hour."
Luke glanced at the clock. The hand was already nearing two.
Which meant that if they set out in a little while, they would get there right as the celebration was starting.
No one rejected the idea of going out to watch the festival.
Kahina, Vayne, Quinn, and Frey all agreed readily.
Even Fiora gave it a brief thought before deciding to give herself a day off.
Only Sona chose to stay home.
Everyone knew she had never liked crowded places. And since today was a holiday celebration, the city would be even more packed than usual.
So no one tried to force her.
Around two-thirty, the group finally set out in high spirits.
What no one noticed, though, was the trace of envy that flickered through Sona's eyes as she stood in the yard and watched the carriage drive away.
In the capital, out on the main streets—
The festive atmosphere practically rushed straight at them.
The streets were packed, loud, and overflowing with people, one wave after another without end.
Every face wore a cheerful smile, and people kept calling out holiday greetings to one another.
The roads were so crowded that the carriage could barely move, so the group simply parked it and continued on foot.
Luke and the others chatted as they walked and looked around, quickly blending into the holiday mood.
Along the way, they drew no shortage of attention.
Before long, they arrived at the street where the celebration was being held.
That street and the square connected to it had been sectioned off in the middle, leaving people only able to move around the outer edges. By now, those outer edges were already jammed with people, heads bobbing everywhere, the air full of conversation.
Everyone was waiting eagerly for something.
Seeing that many people, there was no way Luke was willing to squeeze into the middle.
And if even he was not willing, there was no chance Lux, Fiora, and the others would be either.
But that problem was solved very quickly.
The moment Luke appeared, he instantly became the center of attention, and before long, quite a bit of commotion spread through the crowd.
"Look! It's the prince!"
"His Highness came to watch the celebration too?"
"He's so handsome!"
"This is the first time I've ever been this close to him—he looks amazing!"
The crowd's chatter rose nonstop, with countless eyes turning toward Luke.
What had happened in Edessa had already spread through the city over the last few days, thanks to a certain newspaper giving it plenty of coverage.
At this point, there was probably no one in the capital who did not know his name.
That had earned the prince—who had already burst onto the scene out of nowhere—a fresh wave of popularity.
And the girls standing at his side, each striking and distinctive in her own way, drew just as many looks themselves. Standing together, they were as eye-catching as a beautiful piece of scenery.
The enthusiasm from the crowd made Luke feel like some kind of celebrity. Listening to the young women in the crowd praising how handsome he was, the corners of his mouth lifted all on their own.
No wonder so many people wanted to be idols. Who wouldn't get dizzy from this?
Just then, a soldier in armor who was maintaining order stepped forward and respectfully said, "Your Highness, seats have been prepared over there for you and the ladies accompanying you."
Luke nodded. "No rush. We'll head over in a bit."
And seeing how clearly he had not gotten his fill of the compliments yet, the girls all felt speechless.
Lux rolled her eyes and directly grabbed his arm to drag him away.
"Come on already. Aren't you embarrassed?"
Fiora glanced at him blandly and had already started walking toward the seats.
Vayne followed right behind her. During this period of time, she and Fiora had actually gotten along fairly well, probably because their personalities matched better than expected.
Kahina and Quinn gave Luke helpless looks and followed after Fiora too.
Dragged bodily into the VIP seating area, Luke found himself on a terrace platform that extended outward, protected by a low wall. From there, he could see the square and the street below.
A resting chair had been thoughtfully prepared for him there, along with tea and snacks.
Before the celebration began, everyone sat down to rest for a bit.
As Luke disappeared from the crowd's view, the talk about him gradually died down and people went back to talking about the holiday itself.
Clang!
Right in the middle of all the chatter, a loud gong sounded out and instantly drew everyone's attention.
"It's starting, it's starting! Hurry, look!"
The moment Lux heard that, she ran straight to the wall and leaned over it, her big eyes sparkling as she looked down below.
The others also moved over to the wall one after another.
In the distance, a long procession slowly approached, accompanied by clanging gongs and pounding drums.
Besides the drummers and gong players, there were also people carrying all sorts of instruments.
The many different sounds blended together in a way that was not noisy at all—if anything, it sounded wonderfully festive.
Before long, the crowd joined in, and the whole atmosphere grew more lively.
Among the procession were men in heavy cloth outfits with their arms bare as they beat large complaint drums.
There were masked dancers moving with the procession, swaying and dancing their way forward.
The procession also pulled a number of large carts, each carrying statues connected to the Harvest Moon Festival in one way or another.
And toward the back were groups of women dressed in special costumes, dancing gracefully as they advanced.
They wore long dresses made of nearly transparent layered fabric, leaving their pale midriffs and navels exposed.
Demacians were usually fairly conservative in the way they dressed, so outfits like that were already considered quite bold. You would probably only ever see something like it during a festival.
The parade had all kinds of performances and variations, and as Luke watched it unfold one part after another, even he found it fascinating.
With the arrival of that parade, the atmosphere on site immediately rose to a peak.
Once the parade passed through, more performances began in the cleared square.
As one act followed another, everyone found themselves completely absorbed in the celebration.
After watching several performances, Luke turned his head and glanced at Miss Crownguard.
Lux's little face was full of laughter, and every so often she clapped enthusiastically for the acts.
It was obvious she absolutely loved lively occasions like this.
Just as happy as Lux was her best friend Kahina. The two girls stood shoulder to shoulder, grinning brightly.
This was also Vayne's and Quinn's first time seeing the capital's holiday celebration, and they were completely drawn in as well.
Fiora's gaze was fixed on the square too, and as she watched the entertaining performances, a faint smile rested on her lips.
That was when Luke thought of Sona.
She definitely would have liked being part of this celebration too.
Back in the yard—
Sona's long, slender fingers moved gently across the strings of the etwahl, but compared to her usual practice, she seemed distracted today.
Even her notes were slipping off pitch now and then, though it still sounded lovely.
After a while, she stopped playing and lifted her head to look in the direction of the celebration.
By now, His Highness and the others must already be watching it, right?
It was not that Sona disliked crowded places.
It was just that in crowded places, the chorus of countless minds became far too noisy, unbearably loud.
So except when she was performing at a concert, Sona really did not like dealing with that kind of noise.
When she was thirteen, she had gone to watch her first festival celebration after coming to Demacia. But at the time, the sea of people packed together had sent an enormous flood of thoughts crashing into her mind all at once.
The overwhelming noise had nearly made her faint, and her mother, who had come with her, quickly took her home.
She had not gone to another celebration ever since.
And yet, in truth, she liked lively festivals too.
She wanted to go with everyone.
She wanted to go with His Highness.
Drawing her gaze back, the loneliness in Sona's eyes flashed and vanished, and then she forced a smile to comfort herself.
Even if she could not go with everyone, it was all right.
Was this not how she had always lived?
But back then, she had not had so many friends...
The more she thought about it, the more distracted she became.
"You're really off-key today, Sona."
At that moment, a voice she had just been thinking about suddenly sounded, making Sona freeze.
She turned toward the yard gate and saw Luke walking in slowly, which immediately filled her eyes with a questioning look.
As if asking, why are you back already?
Luke smiled.
"Because today's celebration was really fun, and I wanted to come back and share it with you as soon as possible."
Sona paused, then watched as Luke sat down beside her and placed a hand on the etwahl before he began describing the celebration.
At that moment, it felt as though warmth was radiating from him, driving away the cold quiet inside her heart and replacing it with a kind of sweet joy.
Even though she could not go see the celebration herself, by sensing Luke's thoughts and listening to his descriptions, scenes from the festival slowly appeared before her eyes as well.
It almost felt as though she could sense the lively atmosphere herself.
Then she blinked those watery eyes of hers and let her gaze settle on Luke's profile.
His eyelashes were long. That handsome face of his carried a hint of casual laziness. There was a soft trace of laughter in his clear eyes, and the curve of his rosy lips was quietly captivating as he talked through one amusing scene after another from the celebration.
Little by little, Sona's attention shifted from the festival itself to his face.
She stared at him for several long seconds.
And somehow, a sudden burst of courage rose inside her.
This time, she did not hesitate at all.
She leaned forward.
Smack.
"And then right at that moment—...???"
Luke, who had been in the middle of describing the celebration, suddenly felt a warm, soft dampness on his cheek and immediately froze with several question marks practically written across his face.
Then he turned and looked at Sona.
Her cheeks were touched with a deeply inviting flush, and those watery eyes stared at him without blinking. Looking at his slightly stunned expression, she suddenly burst into laughter.
Her beautiful laugh reached Luke through the etwahl.
Luke finally snapped out of it, helplessness creeping onto his face.
So you sisters both like ambushing people, huh?
It still felt like some of that soft warmth lingered on his cheek. Listening to Sona's cheerful laughter, he decided not to pursue the matter of her sneak attack this time.
After laughing a few more times, Sona looked at Luke, her eyes shining.
"Your Highness, thank you for coming back to keep me company."
Luke smiled.
Then he heard her again.
"I still want to hear more. About the festival."
Luke thought for a second.
"Where was I?"
Sona smiled sweetly. "You were at the part where someone took a sip of water and then whoosh, a huge burst of fire came out."
"Right, that's where I was..."
So Luke began narrating again.
A moment later, he felt something settle lightly against his shoulder.
It was Sona resting her head there, her eyes closed as if she were simply enjoying this moment.
When she noticed that he had gone quiet, her voice gently urged him on in his mind.
"Keep going."
"..."
And so the yard fell quiet except for Luke's voice as he continued describing one amusing scene from the celebration after another.
Though he did not get to tell very much more.
The sound of a carriage rolling closer from far away soon reached them, then slowly came to a stop.
The instant she heard it, Sona's body snapped upright, and then the voices of Lux and the others followed.
Her heart immediately began pounding, and her little face turned deeply red, tinged with a trace of nervousness.
She tried hard to control her expression, but her slightly quickened breathing gave away how tense she felt.
Before long, the girls got down from the carriage and walked into the yard.
"Oh? Sona, were you teaching this guy music again?"
Seeing the two of them sitting side by side with the etwahl laid across both their laps, Lux asked the question innocently, without thinking much of it.
The moment Sona heard that, she nodded rapidly, though there was a trace of guilt in her eyes.
"What's even the point of teaching him? His playing is awful."
Lux shot Luke a look of complete disdain.
Sona immediately picked up the etwahl, got to her feet, and put some distance between herself and Luke.
Kahina walked over, smiling brightly as she said, "Sis, let me tell you, the celebration today was so much fun."
Sona listened and nodded, putting on a look of eager anticipation.
The celebration itself was not even over yet.
But she already knew everyone had come back early just for her.
Warm emotion welled up in her heart immediately.
At that moment, Fiora gave Sona a measured look, then glanced at Luke over there as he lay back down and yawned, and narrowed her eyes slightly.
The moment Sona noticed that change in expression, her heart jumped straight into her throat. She did not even dare meet Fiora's eyes.
For some reason, in front of Miss Fiora, she always felt like she had done something wrong.
But Fiora only gave her one glance, a faint smile on her lips, and then headed toward the backyard.
Probably to practice swordsmanship.
Sona quietly let out a breath of relief.
Meanwhile, in the yard, Lux, Kahina, and Quinn were all still surrounding her, excitedly telling her about the celebration.
"You should have seen that guy. He took a sip of water and then whoosh, this huge fireball came out!"
"And that dance was really pretty too. I even copied a couple of moves—look, Sis—"
"The second-to-last performance was great too. They used dance to reenact the story of King Orlon and Yarna from back then."
Listening to the three girls chatter away around her about the celebration, Sona gradually calmed down again.
A soft smile appeared on her face, and her heart felt warm.
After some time, once the excitement from the celebration faded, the yard gradually returned to normal.
Luke, Lux, and Vayne dragged Fiora out of the backyard where she had been practicing and put together a round of Mahjong.
Meanwhile, Quinn, Frey, and Kahina went off to play cards.
Now and then, Sona's music floated out into the yard, and the bright, lively melody seemed to tell everyone just how happy she was.
That night—
After dinner, everyone soaked in the hot spring pool in the backyard.
As the pale moonlight poured down, they all lifted their heads at the same time and looked up at the sky.
Tonight, the moon stood alone among sparse stars, round and brighter than usual, astonishingly radiant, astonishingly beautiful.
Under that moonlit scene, everyone's heart fell as still as water, all of them quietly immersed in the moonlight.
After the bath, everyone changed clothes and came to the front yard.
That was when the lanterns they had made during the day finally showed their full effect.
Now the candlelight shone through the inner layers of the lantern paper, filling each lantern with color, and under the moonlight they gave off a soft, glowing halo.
The lanterns lit the yard beautifully, looking countless times better than they had during the day.
The holiday atmosphere had arrived all at once.
The girls' eyes shone as they looked at the lanterns they had made with their own hands, and each of them felt delighted.
Once the moment felt right, Luke took out the Harvest Moon pastry box he had received from his morning sign-in.
The girls gathered around the table, looking curiously at the round pastries inside.
Lux picked one up and asked, "What is this?"
Luke replied, "Moon pies. A kind of dessert, basically. Try them."
"Moon pies..." Lux murmured, then lifted one up, closing one eye and squinting with the other as she compared it to the moon overhead.
And she found that the two of them really did share a few things in common.
The moment she held it in her hand, she could already smell the fragrance coming from it.
So she could not wait to take a bite.
The moon pie Lux happened to get was filled with sweet red bean paste. The rich sweetness of the filling, paired with the tender, flaky outer crust, won her instant approval.
"So good!"
The other girls each picked a moon pie too and took delicate bites of their own.
Soon they discovered that the fillings were all different. Some had red bean, some had date paste, and some had custard cream.
But they all had one thing in common.
They were all delicious.
In fact, they somehow tasted even better than the desserts Luke usually made.
Watching the moon while eating moon pies brought back, all at once, the holiday feeling from Luke's hometown.
[Potential +1]
[Congratulations, Host. Potential has risen to 60 (One in a Thousand).]
After finishing one moon pie, Luke even received a system notification telling him his potential had increased again.
Rare fruits and treasures like these all had the effect of improving potential, though after he had eaten enough of them, the effect had weakened quite a bit.
In fact, the meals he cooked every day already included those rare ingredients.
Which meant that Luke was not the only one whose potential was increasing.
Of course, aside from Lux—who only cared about eating—the other girls had all vaguely sensed it already.
Ever since spending more time around Luke, they had all noticed that whether it was their understanding of certain techniques or how quickly their strength improved through training, everything had been progressing faster.
The same thing was even easier to notice after medicinal baths or wine baths.
Luke had never openly pointed that out.
But the girls all quietly carried gratitude in their hearts.
There were far too many moon pies in the gift box to finish in one sitting. Even with Lux, the heavyweight contender, there was no way they could eat them all.
Of course, some had to be set aside anyway.
Luke planned to send some to his father, his older brother, the Third and Fourth Princes, to the old woman and Aunt Augatha, and to the people he was fairly close to.
After all, it was a moon festival. It felt better if everyone had a little moon pie to share.
Back in Luke's old hometown, every year on a night like this, a pie would be cut into as many slices as there were people at the table.
Then everyone would be given a piece, as a symbol of reunion.
Once they had eaten about enough, Luke brought out the main event of the night.
The girls stared curiously at the objects before them. They looked a bit like lanterns, but much thinner, wrapped only in a single layer of white paper.
Lux asked, "And what are these?"
"Sky lanterns."
Luke smiled as he handed slips of paper to the girls one by one.
"In the place where I grew up, there's a story that if you write your wish on one of these slips, put it into a sky lantern, and send it up into the sky, that wish will come true."
The girls all took his homeland to mean the small town where he used to live. None of them imagined he meant another world entirely.
But hearing what he said, and encountering the idea for the first time, all of them became deeply interested.
Lux blinked and looked curiously at the sky lanterns.
"Why are they called sky lanterns?"
"Because that's what everyone calls them."
"..." Lux felt that made perfect sense, so she asked another question. "Can they really fly?"
Luke smiled. "You'll see in a minute. Write your wish first."
At that, the girls all picked up pens and looked at the blank slips, thinking hard.
Only Lux—of course—did not think at all. She started scribbling furiously across the paper, and judging by how much she was writing, she had a whole list.
Things like:
"I hope there's always endless delicious food."
"I hope I grow up fast."
"I hope I get an amazing birthday present."
"I hope the Royal Academy shuts down."
"I hope everyone's wishes come true."
As Lux kept writing, the others also began putting pen to paper and settled on their wishes one after another.
Luke wrote, "I hope I can keep lazing around forever," then pasted it inside his sky lantern.
At that point, he noticed Lux was still writing. Her paper was practically full.
He could not help laughing. "You only get one wish. If you write too many, it won't work."
"Huh?"
Lux froze. "Why didn't you say that sooner?"
Luke chuckled. "How was I supposed to know you'd be this greedy? Did you really think all your wishes were going to come true?"
Lux immediately lifted her chin. "Why not?!"
Though she said that, she did stop writing and instead looked conflicted.
Out of all those wishes, she could only choose one...
But every single one of them felt pretty important to her.
Lux had no idea which one she should pick.
At that point, Fiora was the first to finish. Like Luke, she placed her wish inside the lantern.
She had written: "I will become the strongest swordsman in the future."
Next was Sona. She wrote: "I hope more people will love my music."
Then Kahina wrote: "I hope I can become an amazing knight and protect His Highness."
Quinn wrote: "I hope I can become someone as strong as His Highness."
Vayne wrote: "I hope I can avenge myself and kill that demon with my own hands."
And Frey wrote: "I hope Vayne can find happiness."
Seeing that everyone else had already finished and tucked their wishes into the lanterns, Lux knew she could not keep hesitating any longer.
So she chose the wish she wanted most right now, put it inside the lantern, and sealed it up.
Luke asked curiously, "What did you write?"
Lux gave him a wary look, hugging her lantern protectively, then snorted.
"I'm not telling you."
Luke let out a cold laugh. "Then I'm not telling you what I wrote either."
Lux gave a smug little laugh. "You obviously wrote that you want to keep lazing around forever."
Luke: "..."
Was it really that easy to guess?
Seeing the expression on his face that clearly said she had guessed correctly, the girls all burst out laughing.
Yurna also wrote down a wish, tucked it into a sky lantern, and sealed it.
No one knew what she had written, though.
Then Luke lit the flame inside each sky lantern one by one.
And then, something magical happened.
The lanterns slowly began to rise into the sky, drifting higher and higher, swaying gently as they floated farther and farther toward the moon.
"They're flying!"
Lux's eyes widened as she watched the softly glowing lanterns carry all their wishes away into the sky, and her eyes sparkled with delight.
And just the same, everyone in the yard lifted their heads and watched those lanterns drift farther and farther away, smiling as they did.
Under the bright, pure moonlight, those lanterns carrying everyone's wishes stood out brilliantly.
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