"Ouch-! Stop chewing on my finger. I don't want you to make a habit out of it."
I scolded the small puppy I was feeding in the middle of the night. Because of this, my sleep schedule was fucked over.
The puppy burped and opened its eyes fully for the first time. It blinked as it looked at me before yawning and going back to sleep.
I was likely the first thing the puppy ever saw and I felt like looking after it was even more. After all, having a small life depend on me was a huge burden that I needed to take into account.
The night passed with me waking up every few hours and once the sun started to rise up, I decided that it was time for me to wake up for real and head out.
Usually, the early hours were not filled with too much noise, but today seemed to be different.
There were loud voices cheerfully reaching me and I decided to open the door and check out what was happening.
"Huh-! Is there some kind of festival or something taking place that I don't know of-?"
I asked as I opened the door. There were a lot of people outside, walking around. The energy in the air also felt much more cheerful compared to before.
"Excuse me, but may I know what is going on here?"
I asked someone walking past me and the girl holding the basket turned around and giggled at me.
"We're approaching the harvest festival. I need to hurry up and get moving, or else I would be late for my stall. I hope you have a nice day, mister."
The girl told me before she disappeared in the crowd.
Harvest festival… it was something I had heard before from elders. Those who lived in villages usually celebrated a successful harvest to thank the gods for it.
I had never gotten a chance to attend it in modern times because I was too busy studying to get out of the orphanage.
It was not something to be sad about either. I was quite sure that most children around me had never gotten a chance to enjoy a festival either. At least, not traditionally.
Money and time were two things the modern world was short on and they affected orphans like me the worst.
"Still, now that I had a chance to enjoy a festival, I should take it. Who knows when I will get another chance like this again. Should I set up a stall as well? Do I need to sign up for it?"
These were questions I wanted answers from. So I grabbed my hat and went outside. The store was locked behind me and I took in the happy faces of people around me.
When I turned the street, I saw people putting up their stalls and I walked toward the closest vendor.
"Excuse me, but may I know where I need to sign up in order to put up my own stall?"
I asked the merchant and he gave me an almost dirty look. I was almost afraid that I was going to get punched.
However, contrary to what I believed would happen, nothing did. I even got an answer for my question.
"Tsk, are you new here or something? There are no rules or sign-ups for the stall. You just take your stuff and settle where you can. It's every person for themselves out here, kid."
The older man told me before he went back to his preparations.
Now that I knew what I needed to do and what I could do, I decided to head back to the shop and drag out a table and chair with another one which contained a few books.
My main reason for setting up a stall out in the open was to interact with more people and hopefully be able to earn some faith points from some of them.
At first, I made my makeshift stall in front of my shop, but then I noticed that no one else was there on my street.
In fact, most stalls had shifted to the second street I had been in before. So that was where I decided to come.
Dragging the chair and table almost made me break my back. I could confidently say that I was not the most athletic person. But doing this much told me just how out of shape I actually was.
As soon as the chair was in place, I threw myself on it and relaxed.
I got a lot of dirty looks from people around me, but I did not care about them at all. I wouldn't have made it this far in life if I got scared by other people's thoughts.
"Tsk, another one showed up."
"Looks like we have more competition this year."
"He looks awfully young for a storekeeper. He's gonna get ripped off since it's his first time here."
While everyone was talking about me, I took out some stuff to display in front of me. I had not brought a lot of stuff, so I was able to set up quickly.
I was the only bookstore on the street while the rest was either food or entertainment. Because of this, I got weird looks from all around.
'I have a feeling I am not welcomed here, but these people are too polite to tell me to fuck off. Should I… go away…?'
The uncomfortable feeling I was having increased by the second and I almost moved to get up.
But I was not about to give up my place just because I got a few stares from people. I was going to tough this situation out.
The only time I got up was to go relieve myself and to feed the puppy. But I came back as soon as possible.
However, despite my efforts to sell things, no one visited my shop. Most people were not interested in books and only wanted to have fun.
If I knew this was going to happen, I would have brought the music box. But then there would be a chance of it getting stolen, so it was better for me not to take a chance.
The sun went down and with that, I packed my stuff and went back to my shop as well. Tomorrow would be a better day for sure and I vowed to at least get one customer who could earn me faith points.
And thus, the second day of the three-day festival started. But unlike the day before, today the atmosphere looked tense.
The stalls were still placed, but the people running the stalls looked ready to run. Even the people enjoying the festival looked like they would start bolting any second.
And then, it happened. On the other side of the road from where I was, I heard the sound of a huge explosion that made me gasp out loud. But my voice was swallowed by the suddenly rising smoke.
"T-They are here-! The gang is here to collect taxes. Hurry up and run-"
The child warning everyone suddenly gagged as he was grabbed from behind. And then walked out the biggest man I had ever seen.