DanMachi Vol.16

CHAPTER 3: HARVEST FESTIVAL

And today was a day for all to laugh and play.

This was the beginning of the feast of plenty.

"Amazing..."

The cheers erupting all around the city can be easily heard wherever you are.

My first Goddess Festival. The first harvest season I've spent in Orario.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited by the thought of a huge festival being held in the city known as the center of the world.

Bards conjure pleasant melodies on strings and pipes, urging passersby to make the most of the festival and not waste any time.

I'd love to enjoy the festival to my heart's content, but there's something just as important.

Honestly, I'm equal parts excited and nervous.

I'm standing in front of the bronze statues of a goddess, waiting for someone.

"Syr still isn't here..."

This is Amour Square, a spot paved with colorful flagstones while various flowers and plants brighten the space. There are lots of other people here besides me, and almost all of them—everyone other than me, actually—are couples snuggling together.

Incidentally, this is the same place I once waited to meet up with my goddess to enjoy a meal together (though that time Demeter and a few others followed after us and the whole thing ended up not happening). It's also rather close to Wish Café as well as the suggested meeting place noted in the second page of Syr's letter.

"Maybe I came a little too early...? No. Trust Master's lessons."

I am feeling a little nervous with the lovey-dovey mood around me, but I suppress my doubts. Hedin—the elf who I've come to call Master after that short stint in hell—appears in the back of my mind.

His training regimen was more demanding than anything Miss Eina ever put me through. I remember sitting at attention and absorbing Master's lessons designed for his incompetent pupil.

"It's absurd to even bother explaining it at this point, since it should obviously go without saying, but the battle begins long before you meet. Coming early, late, or just on time—they all affect a couple's power balance. It is a more complex and difficult match of stratagems than what an adventurer will face."

"M-more complex...?! Wh-what's the right choice, then?!"

"There is no single correct answer. Just as there are countless ways to deal with the multitude of monsters that you may encounter, the number of possibilities explodes when considering your and your partner's personalities and how they might come together. It is even possible for the weather on the day and the layout of the location to influence things."

"W-weather and geography, too...?!"

The number of things that I needed to factor in shocked me. I turned pale at just the thought of it. I could see how dating could be more difficult to master than adventuring. A date truly was like war—no, like the Dungeon!

Incidentally, maybe because he understood that I didn't know anything about the finer points of relationships between men and women and had too little knowledge to work with, Master seemed to helpfully compare everything to the Dungeon or adventurers when explaining things. It surprised me at first, but amazingly, I actually did seem to remember it a lot better when he did that.

Though he did scold me and glare at me like I was a walking pile of trash while calling me a Dungeon fanatic. I wonder why?

"It is necessary to make full use of all one's techniques and tactics from the very start—however, in your case, messing around with pointless tricks is just a waste of time."