Danmachi – Card Wizard - Chapter 36

Early the next day, Aidan got woken up since Ais was excited about the MonsterFilia. “Aidan! Get up quickly! I want to see the festival.” She exclaimed with a smile, full of energy, as she dragged the boy out of bed and pushed him into the bathroom.

“Alright, alright, give me five minutes.” Answered the silver-haired boy as he quickly went and took a shower before changing into the clothes Ais prepared for him.

“So, how do I look?” Asked the golden-eyed girl as she twirled in front of Aidan, wanting his compliment.

“You look great as always.” He answered with a gentle smile on his face as he took her hand and drew her outside of their now shared room. “The MonsterFilia will only start at one in the afternoon. What do you want to do until then? I’m sure you have prepared something.” Continued the boy as he offered to go with the girl and make her day memorable while smirking at her.

“Well, first, I want to go and eat Jagamarukun for breakfast. It’s been a long time since we’ve eaten some. Afterwards, I want to go and see the stalls prepared around the Amphitheatre. I heard that there would be products from outside of Orario as they come for the MonsterFilia. For lunch, we will eat at Hostess of Fertility. However, we will have to eat a bit before lunchtime since they will close for the MonsterFilia. Finally, in the afternoon, we go and watch the show and finally, in the evening, I want you to accompany me to the defensive wall since I heard that the sunset is great over there.” Finished the girl as she showed him a bright smile, something he rarely saw from Ais.

“You prepared in advance, huh. Well, I’d love to accompany you for the day.” Answered Aidan as he showed a gentle smile and intertwined his fingers with Ais as they left the familia manor. He didn’t have to worry about the card business since the goddess would sell them by installing stalls in the city. In exchange, the familia would get a 10% cut which was a good deal since he wouldn’t have to deal with anything related to the business and would only have to produce them, which was extremely easy with the cards he owned. As such, he was truly free to spend and enjoy the day with Ais while others would have to work for the whole day.

Walking outside of the manor and towards the Amphiteatron of Orario, they stopped at a stall and sat down in one of the few benches on the side of the road to eat their food on the small plate.

As they sat down and slowly munched on their food, Ais started speaking. “You know, Aidan, I never told you why I want to kill the one-eyed black dragon.” She said as she lowered her head and rested it on his shoulder as he hugged her from the side.

Not speaking, Aidan waited for her following words. “The dragon captured my mother away. I want to kill it and take her back.” She said in a small but firm voice as she looked up at his face.

“Well, as I said in the past, I’ll help you kill him.” Said the boy as he grinned and kissed her forehead.

“I know you will.” She answered as a smile graced her face as she came closer to Aidan.

“Alright. Now that this is done, we have to go. You have made a schedule, and it would be sad not to follow it.” Grinned the boy as he got up and pulled the girl before walking towards the center place of one of the year’s biggest festivals.

—

Arriving next to the Amphiteatron, Aidan was shocked by the excitement and bustle of the road. Stalls stood on both sides of the road with countless people talking and laughing, walking in between and shopping.

“Let’s start, Aidan. There won’t be anything left for us!” Exclaimed the young girl as she saw thousands of people shop in the stalls, pulling him, the sadness from the previous topic wholly erased.

So, for the next few hours, the two youngsters made a circle around the entire stadium, visiting each stall one by one. At that point, Aidan was happy that Ais had her inventory card, allowing her to store her items in her card as she shopped without stopping.

Across the stalls they visited, Aidan also found some interesting food from Altena and the Far East. The cooks made food with ingredients from those places, and their way of cooking was utterly different from how people cooked in Orario. On the other side, Aidan also found a less popular item called Mordul. Aidan didn’t stop himself and immediately bought a huge batch as it would be pretty helpful in conjunction with his barrier card since the thing repelled monsters for a specific duration of time.

—

Having spent the entire morning running around on the street, seeing new sights, meeting new people and seeing more elves which were quite rare when there was not such an event, their stomachs began to grumble as they made their way towards their next stop, the Hostess of Fertility.

Considering they were already on the right side of the stadium, not to have to circle it, they walked back towards the center of the city. They continued on their way to arrive at the restaurant, which had left quite an expression on both youths in the past due to the parties that happened each time they were present.

“Hello?” Asked Aidan as he pushed open the door and saw a few waitresses currently cleaning the tables.

“Hello? What can I do for you, nya~?” Asked the cat-girl as she stopped wiping the table and came closer to the two of them.

“Are you open at this time to eat?” Asked Aidan as he looked intently at her ears with curiosity since he had never touched any. ‘Maybe I should ask Riveria to let me touch her ears when we go back to the mansion. Their ears are a bit different. I wonder why.” He thought as he waited for the answer from the waitress.

“Yes, we are open, nya~.” Answered the girl as she brought them to the table she had just wiped. “What would you like to order?” She asked as she got them a menu.

“I’ll take your special with sweet juice.” Answered Aidan as Ais nodded and added: “I’ll take the same.” said Ais as she gave back the menu to the waitress, who smiled and went to the back of the kitchen.

“Oh right, I forgot to ask something. Give me a moment.” Said Aidan as he got up and walked towards the kitchen to meet with the cat-girl.

“Oh? Did you forget to order something, nya~?” Asked the brown-haired waitress.

“Well, I would also like to order two large sandwiches along with four sweet drinks. Please store them in this card and don’t let Ais see the card, alright?” Asked Aidan as he gave him a spare card and the money to pay for those six items he just ordered.

Since Ais had taken the time to prepare a schedule for their day, he at least wanted to make it memorable and have a picnic on top of the defensive wall. He already had a table and two chairs stored in his storage card, and he was confident she would love their supper. After all, while it was pretty basic, the sandwiches from the Hostess of Fertility were delicious.

“Oh, I see, nya~.” Answered the one who took his order as she showed a knowing smile and went to add to the order while Aidan went back and sat in front of Ais, who immediately smiled.

“So, are you excited for the MonsterFilia?” Asked Aidan as he looked closely at Ais, who seemed to have a good time.

“Yes! I can’t wait to find which monster they brought to the surface and how they will tame those monsters. I heard that one year they brought out an infant dragon from the twelfth floor, and the tamer almost died because he wasn’t strong enough to tame it. In the end, they had to kill the dragon since that tamer was in danger.” Explained to the girl as she continued to relay the facts she had heard from the civilians during the morning.

“Oh, now, I really can’t wait for the MonsterFilia.” Answered Aidan as his expectations for the show slowly increased.

As they were about to continue talking, the waitress came by and gave them their plates of food and drinks as she slid the inventory card to Aidan secretly before winking at him with a sly smile and leaving them once again.

“Hum, we really should come here more often.” Said the golden-eyed girl as she took one bite after another of the food.

“Yes, the taste here is great. I can understand why this restaurant is Loki’s favourite.” Said Aidan as he also started to get engrossed in his food.