Chapter 566: Farming Festival, you call this praying for good weather and good harvests next year?
Kira was very depressed. How should he deal with this situation?
Should I say, "Excuse me, I am the author who lowered the literary standards of the novel world"? Would she be so embarrassed that she would dig her toes into the ground and make a three-bedroom apartment?
Fortunately, for the sake of Versailles, I just gave a bad review. Otherwise, if I kept praising the other party and the other party just said "rubbish", wouldn't I be very embarrassed!
It is right to be Versailles no matter what!
Long live Versailles!
Kira did not reveal his identity until they parted. Since the other party was not his reader, there was no point in revealing his identity. The reporter, whose name he had long forgotten, would not change her opinion of the novel or pester him for an autographed photo.
…
Traveling is to broaden your horizons, and traveling alone is to be free from constraints. Logically, Kira should be like Gildarts, traveling around the world on adventures, climbing one mountain after another, walking through one town after another, and then every time he arrives at a place, he will discuss the magic of life and the human body with the local beauties. Even if he gets tired occasionally, he will not stay in one place for too long.
But Kira had been in this town for a week.
The reason for staying here is not because there are irresistible food, wine or beautiful women here, but because a very important festival is about to be held here.
On the first day Kira arrived here, he heard that the people of this place would hold a festival called the "Farming Festival" at this time every year. The purpose was to pray to the god in charge of farming for good weather and a good harvest in the coming year.
At first glance, this festival seems similar to Magnolia's "Harvest Festival", but after asking the locals, Kira learned the difference between the two: the "Agricultural Festival" is to pray for a good harvest in the coming year, while the "Harvest Festival" is to give thanks for the good harvest this year; the latter is a parade and celebration, while the former is a serious ancient sacrifice, which is said to involve communicating with the gods and offering sacrifices.
To Kira, it sounded similar to the legendary shaman dance.
Yes, this huge empire whose magic level is among the best in the world and even has mechanical races, and whose territory covers the entire Western Continent, still retains this ancient custom of praying to gods to improve crops.
Logically speaking, the world of Fairy Tail is a Western fantasy world, and the Albareth Empire is even more so. The style of the painting is completely incompatible with this kind of sacrificial activities, but it exists, and it is said to be a custom preserved from ancient times.
Kira decided to stay for the sake of joining in the fun. He planned to experience the foreign culture at the festival and use it as a way to brag to the younger members of the guild or his descendants in the future. Now he just used it as material.
Time came to half a month after Kira stayed here, on the day of the 'Farmer's Festival'.
The setting sun melts gold, the slanting sun shines in the evening, and the residents of the town have made preparations for the sacrifice.
The main members of the sacrifice are the young people in the town. According to local people, elderly people and underage children do not need to participate in the sacrifice. They only need to attend the banquet at the end.
As for the reason... they don’t know either, but that’s the custom anyway!
Young men and women accounted for about half of the town's population. Like in previous years, they put on pure white cloaks in accordance with tradition and gathered in front of the mysterious ancient ruins west of the town. Everyone's expression looked solemn and dignified.
In the center of the huge square, there is a high stone platform. Young men and women are standing quietly below the platform, standing in circles around it.
On the high platform, livestock such as pigs and cows prepared for sacrifice, as well as food such as wine, fruit, and bread were placed on the edge. A strange magic circle was drawn on the ground in the center. At the center of the magic circle was a thick stone pillar, on which golden flames were dancing.
Kira, who was standing in the crowd, was stunned: "This 'Farming Festival'... is it really used to pray for good weather tomorrow? Why does it look so much like a ritual to summon a demon?!"
If this happened in Ishgar, it would definitely be considered a church that believed in black magic, or a church that worshipped some evil god, or followers of a demon!
As time passed, the sunset glow shining on the altar began to move.
At the moment when the clouds dispersed and the moon rose, several people who looked like they were responsible for "communicating with the gods" walked up to the altar. They stood at a distance from each other and stood along the edge of the magic circle. After looking at each other, they slowly spoke. Under their leadership, the rest of the people standing under the stone platform also began to chant in an orderly manner.
The voice is low, solemn and dignified, which makes people shudder!
Looking at the scene in front of him, Kira couldn't help but mutter to himself: "It's already strange that the festival is held at night, but I didn't expect the ceremony to be even stranger!!"
That’s right, contacting the god in charge of farming happened in the middle of the night. Just imagine how outrageous it is!
As for their way of connecting with the gods... Kira found out that these people were singing the most popular piece of music in the town, which almost all residents had heard since childhood.
He had heard this piece of music once before, and thought the melody was pretty good. The lyrics were all about thanking for this year's good harvest and begging for a good harvest next year. There was nothing wrong with it, so he didn't savor it carefully. But now, Kira only felt that it was eerie and scary. Hmm... the difference between the two is probably the difference between a nursery rhyme and a horror nursery rhyme.
Cold moonlight, mysterious festivals, strange rituals, residents wearing white cloaks, terrifying ballads...
The last time Kira encountered a similar situation was when Leon found a group of men to collect Moon Drops on Karna Island in order to release Deliora.
This moment is just like that moment!
But they actually told me that these people were praying to the weather gods for a good harvest next year? What a joke! ! My novel The Thirteenth Shield of the Empire was not as good as this!
The moonlight, the altar, the residents, the white cloaks, the magic circle, and the horror songs made up a horrifying scene. If it were a person with poor psychological quality, he would probably be scared away.
"What a weird atmosphere! These people can't be Zeref's followers... Wait! Oh my gosh! They are the citizens under Zeref's rule!!"
Kira complained casually, but halfway through his words he suddenly realized that this was not Ishgar, a place that was very secretive about the name "Zeff", but the Western Continent where Zeref was revered as the emperor!
Although from the information collected, this festival has nothing to do with Jellal, but since they are residents of the Albareth Empire, Jellal must take the blame!
This ceremony lasted for about half an hour, after which the people on the stage brought the previously prepared sacrifices - the livestock - to the center of the magic circle and killed them one by one.
This is one of the procedures of this ceremony, sacrificing livestock!
Sacrifice is one of the most common rituals in all magical worlds, but the objects of sacrifice vary depending on the object and purpose. For example, an uncle who returned from another world needs to sacrifice a bull's head to drive the goblins; or some humans sacrifice their souls to the devil in order to gain powerful strength...
In Kira's opinion, as long as it is not a human sacrifice, it is acceptable.
The scarlet blood slowly flowed onto the magic circle, soon soaking it in bright colors.
Under the moonlight, Kira could sense the tremendous magical power slowly gathering towards the magic circle, and then it was as if a switch was activated there, and the entire magic circle emitted a dazzling red light.
"Is this what they call building a bridge to communicate with the 'God'?"
Kira's eyes were fixed closely on everything in front of him, not daring to be careless, for fear that a dark magician, or an evil god, demon, or something like that who wanted to destroy the world would suddenly appear there.
His intuition told him that this place, this ritual, this so-called "god", held a great secret.
