Chapter 254: Floats
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
As I hid my identity and wandered amongst the crowds of people, I could see everyone around us celebrating joyously and consuming alcohol. I felt myself being affected by this festive atmosphere, and this imperceptibly raised my spirits.
I had already sent Aivla off. It was rare for to be in such a great mood, and I definitely did not intend to waste my ti with soone like her, soone who I barely knew. Angels were all of the ridiculously stubborn-type, anyways, and it was impossible for to teach her anything at the mont. So I sent her away to learn Nanxiang Law for a few months.
I soon arrived at the Wood District, the most flourishing business district in Diffindor. Right now, various stalls decorated the roadside, selling snacks, accessories and even war morabilia.
Yet just as I entered this business district, a cute, blonde-haired little girl appeared beside . She maniacally charged towards the stalls, in search of new snacks to taste.
Her long, blonde hair almost brushed the ground. Harloys, who had gotten hungrier and hungrier, had so barbequed at in one hand and smoked fish in the other, along with a chicken leg hanging from her mouth. The cute and respectable princess had now beco a greasy little rag, her red little face soiled with stains.
Ever since Harloys had reobtained her ability to eat and her sensation of taste, she seed to have evolved into a ga-foodie. Luckily, most of the ti she was only tasting the flavor of the snacks. Although she didn’t stop her mouth at all, she didn’t eat much of anything; it was fortunate that the silly cat that always claid my head as her perch wasn’t getting fatter.
“Humph! No matter how much I eat, I won’t get fat. After all, I can just give the fat to my Greed bodies; they’ll just beco fat in my place. I’m always going to be a magical beauty whose age is in the single digits... Ah! Roland! Look over there! What is that?!”
As Harloys said sothing that would make just about any woman feel jealous, she hopped up and down and pointed down the street. The slowly progressing float parade [1] 1 seed to be finishing its first cycle around the city.
Float parades were a tradition in all human countries. The rich countries of the central plains would decorate their floats with fresh flowers, gold, beautiful won and artwork. But the floats of the Northlands didn’t have flowers or anything like that.
We were, however, the lands with the highest level of ice sculpting techniques. Legends, epics, heroes, and even real-life people could transform into miraculous works of ice and snow. With the addition of so colored lights, the colorless sculptures of ice would tamorphose into vivid works of art thanks to the refraction of light. The characters would appear to co alive.
Of course, this alone would seem too simple. Each float would have their own unique specialties and functions.
For example, the largest bakery chain in the city, The Asa Bakery, sculpted various desserts, which seed exceedingly tantalizing to the viewers. They were even people throwing around discount vouchers as a way of advertising their bakery to the masses.
“Sweets! Confectioneries! Banana boats! Strawberry sundaes! Orange custard! Sugar bread rolls...”
Alright, I could only smile wryly as I watched the Banshee Queen steal as many vouchers as she could. It seed that my ho would soon be littered with innurable dessert crumbs.
The Phillip Carriage Company’s float was a pumpkin carriage that appeared to co straight out of a fairy tale, and it was pulled by a majestic stallion, decorated as a rat. Yet the outer shell of the carved pumpkin along with its decorations were far more exquisite than a real carriage. As it crawled forward steadily, the gigantic pumpkin carriage didn’t shake even a bit, a testant to the astonishing craftsmanship it was made with.
The Golden Peak Tailor Shop’s float had beco a platform for models to show off the newest line of clothing. However, I felt only pity for those poor girls; they had to freeze in this manner, their faces pale in this cold, wintry weather. They were working hard at showing how little they were wearing.
Even if it was the new year, this place would remain cold and silent in the past. But with the revival of the East Mist, more and more people chose to return to the city, and many major rchants had invested in this place. The three examples I had just given were all rchants that weren’t originally from the East Mist; they were using this celebration as an opportunity to advertise their businesses.
Even the recently ford Town Security didn’t let go of the excellent opportunity. On their float, Momo showed off their new uniform as she cracked her whip loudly in the air. The snow sculpture that represented a criminal was whipped; snow and ice shards flew everywhere. It did appear rater painful... but what was with those strange people following that float around?
With such a large number of floats, there would, of course, be so that were incredibly strange. For example, the ones from a certain Gentlen Alliance with too much energy, or from the gno engineers who similarly had too much energy to spare...
“One, two, three! If you want to learn bulldozing, co to West Town chanical Engineering School!”
On top of a large gno chanical reaper, they were showing off their newest product—the “Safety-brand” bulldozer.
*Boom!*
Alright, it was probably more of a “Safety-brand” explosive. Both the audience and the gnos themselves were used to their contraptions exploding. The gnos simply got back up and sent the unlucky gno who had gotten burnt to find a priest. anwhile, the other gnos began rummaging for parts that could still be salvaged, showing off their excellent technical skills right on the spot.
It was then that from amongst the rubble of oil and scrap parts, a cool-looking motorcycle appeared on the gno’s float. That bulldozer chanic from earlier was now seated atop the motorcycle, showing off different tricks, his driving skills, and the excellent horsepower of the motorcycle... was it really true that one could drive anything after learning how to drive a bulldozer?
“One, two, three! If you want to learn motorcycling techniques, co to West Town chanical Engineering School!”
Alright, that was even t with so scattered applause from the audience. To them, this was much more enjoyable to watch than the other performances.
From a certain standpoint, if the gnos didn’t have personalities that viewed explosions as daily occurrences and, more importantly, the survivability of a cockroach, they wouldn’t have been able to reach such heights in the realm of gno engineering. In that case, for their persistence and shalessness, I should give them thirty-two likes... I might as well notify Town Security later than I normally did for their usage of the “Safety brand.” At the very least, their spirit of “never giving up” was sothing worthy of appreciation.
“You’re so reckless; watching them from so close! Didn’t you hear? At first, they had been giving a performance regarding a cha made from the combination of five smaller chas, taller than even the city walls. By now, so many explosions have occurred that they only have a bulldozer remaining, which was actually the previous cha’s right hand. You still dare to watch them from such a close range?”
*Boom!*
The explosion and the following fire behind constituted the best evidence of that kind-hearted person’s words. Everyone instantly backed up, leaving a wide swath of space around the gnos’ float.
Yet the sa miraculous performance occurred again. Despite the fact that the majority of the parts had been rendered into useless pieces of scrap tal, the gno engineers didn’t give up. They worked with their tools and grease, and a gno chanical saw was soon put together in front of us.
The gno chanic got back on his feet and imdiately used the loud saw to chop off a piece of wood. And, once again, I heard that familiar gno advertisent.
“Three, two, one! Learn wood-cutting! Co to West Town chanical Engineering School!”
“...From a huge combination cha to a bulldozer, then to a motorcycle and finally a saw. It’s like a dissection; from a person, to becoming a right hand, and then the index finger, and finally a fingernail... Let that poor saw be! It’s the only remaining survivor in its entire family; so pitiful!”
Alright, for the sake of that pitiful survivor, I imdiately requested assistance.
“Hey—hey—hey! Elisa, help contact Town Security! Tell them that the ‘Safety brand’ is doing a float...”
There was no need for to say anything else. Two dark elf knights appeared in no ti, leading a Town Security team. The gnos, upon noticing this, didn’t say another word and picked up their spare parts before fleeing the scene.
That was how the first empty float appeared. The strange part, however, was that many people began tossing snow-white stones onto the gno’s float.
“What’s this?”
“The voting for the best float. Every citizen received three white stones, and if they like a certain float, they can toss them onto the float. After the float parade is over, the float with the most votes will be the winner. The prize for first place is quite abundant.”
Elisa’s familiar voice spoke from behind . I hadn’t realized that she had arrived, and when I looked around, I saw many small white stones on many other floats as well.
“Ah, so they’re sympathy votes. In that case, who’s currently in first?”
“...From what I know, one of the Gentlen Alliance’s floats is currently in the top three. It’s that one; take a look.”
Alright, I could discern what was happening with a single look. That float was a simple one; it only had a huge sign that stated, “If you want revenge, take revenge. If you don’t have a grudge against them and simply don’t like them, feel free to vent on them as well.”
Under that sign, several unlucky gentlen were tied up.
“Clothes-Slicing Demon!”
“Naked Eagle King!”
“Seller of Fake dicine!”
“Explosives Maniac!”
“Professional Dine and Dasher...”
These unlucky gentlen had been sold out by their own companions. They had ridiculously high “popularity,” and were currently “enjoying” the warm welco that the citizens were giving them. Yet, taking into consideration the fact that they were all at the minimum of the Gold rank, if not the Legend rank, their cries of agony were likely fake as to lure more people into attacking them with stones—the stones that were actually votes.
One party was willing to take the blows, while the other party happily attacked them. The gentlen were willing to take the blows, and were even happy about it... Well, let’s just pretend that they were happy about it, since the speed at which they accumulated stones was astonishing.
*Crack!*
“Hahaha! Look, Elisa! See that unlucky fellow? Who would be so bad as to smash a bottle of ink on Yingou’s [2] 2 head?”
The original plan was for the Gentlen Alliance to join the military parade as well, but I had reconsidered; I needed them to maintain their neutral image as rcenaries for my future plans, which were currently in developnt. It wouldn’t be appropriate for them to appear to be closely tied to the governnt, and that was why I had them not join the military parade. But I had indeed never expected them to pull off sothing like this.
“Whose idea was it? It’s so evil.”
After I finally finished laughing, I decided to casually ask that question.
“It wasn’t anyone in particular. I heard that when they were discussing what to do for the float parade, Kasio said, ‘If only Big Bro Beifeng was here. All he has to do is walk around, and with his popularity, we’d easily win.’ They actually calculated things, and, with his current reputation, they really did have a chance of winning in popularity as long as he wasn’t beaten to death. Then they figured that since Beifeng wasn’t here, they could make things up with quantity. And, so, those unlucky gentlen were sent out on the parade, and the effect is surprisingly good.”
However, my attention was no longer on the gentlen’s float. Not far away, there was a float by unknown makers that actually had sculptures of and Karwenz. Many people even silently placed their voting stones on that float, and judging by the mountainous pile on top of it, it seed like it was even more popular than the Gentlen Alliance’s float for venting on their own mbers.
“The royalty made this float. I heard that Princess Reyne personally made those sculptures.”
Seeing those twin sculptures approach closer and closer, I couldn’t help but sink into nostalgia. For once, Harloys even worried about .
“...Oh, today’s your birthday, so it’s Karwenz’s birthday as well, right? But, a tightly wound string will always snap in the end, so just forget everything and have plenty of fun today.”
Hearing this, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“You’re thinking too much into it. I was just thinking that between us two brothers, I’m the more handso one... but why is it that there’s such a huge difference between our popularity with won?”
Yep, of course I didn’t say sothing as embarrassing as the second half of that sentence out loud, but it seed that just the first half alone caused to receive much condescension from Elisa and Harloys. And, so, I looked around for a different topic to talk about.
“Right, since that Gentlen Alliance float is in the top three, and the royalty’s float is most likely in the top three as well, what’s the other one?”
Upon hearing this, Elisa’s expression beca rather strange.
“Take a look for yourself. It’s that one in the southwest direction—yep—the Xiluo Empire undead float. In a way, it’s the sa type as the Gentlen Alliance’s float.”
“Love, courage, and hope!”
“Love and peace!”
Even though I glanced over it for a split second, I was almost blinded by those oily and shiny muscles. Omar’s body was getting buffer and buffer, but... at the very least, shouldn’t you wear so more clothes? You’re not one of Eaglestorm’s believers, are you?
And, when I discovered that the rhythm accompanying Omar’s dance was Gria’s abnormally scary, piercing singing, I didn’t say another word. I turned and ran away.
“For the sake of everyone’s lives, they can have the number one prize!”
Note:
1. If you don’t know what floats are, do check this link out: sgoogle/search?q=float parade&tbm=isch
2. To those who don’t rember, Yingou is the younger of the Beyar Brothers. (Source: Chapter 4)
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