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As soon as we stepped onto the street, we spotted the stall we were looking for.
We asked the stall owner to prepare the apple candies in time for the start of the offering dance, and he gladly agreed.
"Alright, let's enjoy ourselves properly this time."
The moment I said that, my steps felt naturally lighter.
The first place we stopped was a lottery stall.
Inside a large wooden box were balls of every color, and the prizes included stuffed animals, accessories, and even some strangely luxurious magic tools.
Oliver's eyes stopped on one of them.
"You definitely don't need something as flashy as that gold ring."
Shion chuckled and poked fun at him.
"The look is awful, but… it feels like it might actually be useful."
"You've always had a habit of picking up weird magic tools like that."
I remembered how, back when we were in a party together, Oliver would buy all sorts of magic tools that made you wonder what possible use they could have.
"Then how about a contest to see who can draw the best one?"
"Sounds fun."
"So, how do we decide the order?"
"Should we all draw at the same time on the count of three?"
Everyone nodded at Shion's suggestion and lined up in front of the box.
We each reached into the box, closed our eyes, and
"Ready, go!"
On the signal, the four of us pulled out our balls.
"…White."
"White…"
"Mine's white too."
"…I drew red."
After a brief silence, everyone's eyes focused on the color of the ball Luna had drawn.
"You actually got it…"
When I muttered that, the stall owner nodded with a huge grin.
"You're good, young lady! The first prize is… this one!"
What he enthusiastically held out was exactly the flashy gold ring that had caught our attention earlier.
"…I really didn't think I'd actually draw it."
Luna smiled awkwardly as she stared at the overly assertive ring resting in her palm.
"What should I do… It's a bit too flashy for me."
As she spoke, she glanced sideways at Oliver.
Noticing her look, Oliver raised an eyebrow slightly.
"…What?"
"Nothing. I won't use it anyway. You were the one who seemed interested in how it looked, right, Oliver?"
When Luna said that with a slightly teasing tone, Oliver opened his mouth for a moment before closing it again.
He then averted his gaze just a little.
"…Yeah, I was a bit curious. But when you hand it over like that, it feels like I lost."
"It's fine. Just accept it honestly."
Luna gave a soft laugh and gently placed the ring into Oliver's hand.
The gesture was casual, yet it somehow looked incredibly kind.
"Thanks… I'll take it."
Oliver muttered quietly.
◇
Next, we tried the shooting gallery.
The targets included bottles, bells, and strangely detailed wooden animal carvings. It looked more difficult than it seemed.
"…None of them are falling."
Shion let out a small groan as she stared at the prize that refused to budge even after she hit it with all three shots.
"I could knock them all down easily with magic."
"You can't say that here."
When I smiled wryly, Shion puffed out her cheeks in annoyance.
◇
After that, we moved on to goldfish scooping.
Shion and I both sank our scooping nets after just two or three tries.
Luna was being careful, but she still could not quite get the hang of it.
Meanwhile, Oliver quietly reached out his arm—
"Gotcha!"
With calm, precise movements, he easily scooped one, then another, and ended up catching three in total.
"…That was an unexpectedly impressive talent from Oliver."
At Shion's jab, Oliver looked away, looking a little troubled.
◇
The last stall we stopped at was the candy cut-out game.
It was a surprisingly strict activity where you had to carefully shave away sugar candy to neatly cut out a designated shape.
"Ugh, it broke."
"It broke again."
"…This is really hard."
While the three of us failed one after another, I silently kept shaving away at the mold and quickly cut out the shape perfectly.
"…Amazing."
"To succeed on your first try… As expected."
Shion sounded astonished but narrowed her eyes happily.
Luna shrugged and smiled.
"We can take a prize for this, right?"
When I held out the cut-out piece, the stall owner nodded.
"Yeah! Pick whichever one you like."
Among the lined-up prizes, one in particular caught my eye.
It was a small snowflake ornament carved from a translucent, pale blue-white stone.
I chose it without hesitation.
"I'll take this one."
"Hey, what did you get?"
Shion tilted her head slightly and peered over.
"…This."
I gently placed the snowflake ornament I had picked up into Shion's hands.
"Eh?"
"I thought it would suit you. If you like it, will you take it?"
Shion blinked in slight surprise, then her cheeks colored faintly as she nodded.
"…Yeah. Thank you. I'm really happy."
She carefully cradled the ornament with both hands and gave a gentle smile.
Seeing that, I naturally smiled back.
Luna, who had been watching the exchange from a short distance away, whispered softly to Oliver.
"…He did that on purpose, didn't he?"
"Definitely. One hundred percent."
"Well… that kind of thing isn't bad."
The color of night slowly grew deeper.
The time for the offering dance was drawing near.
"Alright, shall we head to the Tenrei Shrine now?"
When I called out, the three of them quietly nodded.
We stopped to buy the apple candies along the way, then made our way toward the Tenrei Shrine.