A New Life In The Beast World-Chapter 152: The Festival (1)

The day of the festival soon came by, time flying quickly. Finn had taken a break from the grinder project over the last few days, wanting to get Serena’s pots done as well as help out with the festival arrangements.

Mostly because he was the most talented craft worker in the village.

Serena was fine with him taking a break considering how much progress he had made. There were two stone pieces left and some woodwork before they could assemble. Both of which would probably go quite fast.

Especially when Finn discovered that the stone being used was not the right one. He had an inkling about it, testing out another type of stone and finding that one more durable. Thus he switched to that one instead.

Of course it now meant Serena had a bunch of useless stone by the firewood, but at least there were less risks of the grinder cracking or breaking. She could find another use for all the rock. Maybe use it around the garden or something.

And despite the festival only starting once the sun had gone, the village was already bustling with festivities. Everything had been completed yesterday, so today was just a matter of celebrating.

Serena, Theo and Kiro were walking through the village center just after lunch and watching the villagers as they walked. Theo carried the vegetable dish Serena had prepared which they planned to handover to Merinda as their contribution.

Additionally, Serena had their offering plate. She wasn’t sure if they would have time to head back to the hut, mostly because Kiro wanted to look around before things started.

Not to say she wasn’t curious too. If anything, the cub was a bit of an excuse.

As they walked through the village center, looking for Merinda, they found rabbit beastmen and beastwomen everywhere. Many were sitting in groups already, some with their offering plates and decked out in their fanciest clothing.

If not for the fact that Serena had insisted they wear their best clothes today, the trio probably would’ve felt underdressed. Of course, they were still missing one thing.

These golden crowns that almost everyone was wearing.

From the looks of it, the crowns seemed to be made from some tall, dried grass. A few even had some rare wild flowers in them.

As she looked around, Serena noticed some were weaving said crowns and handing it to loved ones by the looks of things. Likely a tradition.

A few cubs ran past them and Kiro watched them with eager eyes. He looked over at Serena, almost begging to be allowed to go play. But Serena wasn’t letting go of him yet.

It was way too chaotic right now, even more so than when they were building the wooden stage for this festival. Granted the whole village was here, around five-hundred rabbit beastmen from her guess.

Not a lot compared to her former tribe or even a place like the Forest City which had several thousand beastmen living there. But it was still a lot of beastmen.

She wouldn’t be able to keep track of Kiro in this chaos. Maybe with that locating feature, but even that was limited and she wouldn’t know if he needed her if he got hurt or something.

"I think I see Merinda." Theo suddenly pointed out, bringing the siblings attention to him. "Looks to be over there with all those beastmen."

Serena turned her attention to where Theo was pointing, spotting Merinda close to the wooden stage. There were a few beastmen speaking with her, probably helping her coordinate the whole event.

Merinda looked to be in her element and was almost unrecognizable in her attire. The older beastwoman normally wore simple fur dresses, but today wore a layered, blue dress. Wool by the looks of it.

And likely expensive.

A plain wool dress cost a couple of crystals depending where you were. Dyed ones were even more so because of the process and were a symbol of wealth and status.

She remembered the book stating that it was mostly wealthy city beastwomen and high ranking priests who wore dyed wool robes. Thus it must’ve cost a fortune for the village to get.

Not to mention how expensive the copper jewelry Merinda was also wearing. She had a necklace with two crescent moons on them and jewelry weaving through her made-up hair and around her rabbit ears.

Serena had to admit the older beastwomen looked regal, befitting the priestess status. She guessed this was probably her formal priestess attire which she used for important ceremonies and festivals.

Turning her gaze away from Merinda, Serena looked at the beastmen standing behind her. Elder Samuel stood there wearing a plain wool robe along with four other older rabbit beastmen. Likely all Merinda’s mates.

Though Serena only recognized a few.

One of them was even carrying Becky who was wearing a smaller version of Merinda’s dress. She even had her hair done up in a similar fashion to her grandmother’s.

Guess she’s next in line for the priestess role. Serena mused to herself.

After all, one needed to come from a bloodline with divine power in order to become a priest. Granted they needed to go through special training and even then it wasn’t guaranteed that they would gain the power to officially become a priest.

Not to mention once they gained their power, they had to give up something. Which had Serena a little curious about what Merinda gave up. They still hadn’t had their chat.

But hopefully today was the day for that.

Seeing that the beastmen were leaving, Serena said, "Let’s hurry and go greet them before Merinda gets busy again."

Theo nodded his head, moving the dish into one hand before bending down to scoop Kiro up so they could move faster. The cub let out a bit of a panicked cry at the sudden movement, but quickly settled down.

"Sorry Kiro." Theo apologized. "But I don’t want you getting lost in the crowd."

Kiro let out a hum in understanding and with that they hurried to the rabbit beastwomen and her mates. As they got closer, Merinda noticed their approach and gave them a bright smile.

"Serena, Theo and Kiro. So nice to see you on this great day." The rabbit beastwoman stated in greeting as they got closer. "May Asdea bless you."

Serena and Theo stiffly nodded with an awkward smile. The former was still trying to get used to the idea of divine beings and not being sure how else to respond, having never really been around religion before.

She had an idea of it, but this was her first time really getting involved in anything religious.

Meanwhile, the latter was dealing with a worldview shift. Because up until basically a week ago he only ever knew that one god existed in this world. Now he knew there were three more and Serena was helping with their return.

A bit of an existential crisis to say the least.

"I hope that the change of season brings good change to you all." Merinda continued with the blessing. "Perhaps a cub after the rainy season."

That choked up both Theo and Serena. The snow leopard beastwoman was the first to recover and coughed, "I think it’s a bit early for that..."

"Yes..." Theo went red in the face. "We have to do a lot before then."

The rabbit beastwoman gave them a knowing look before she said, "Well I’m just glad you could make it today."

"We wouldn’t want to miss it." Serena smiled back. "Oh... And we brought a dish for later. Is there a spot we need to take it to?"

"I’ll take it." One of the older beastman stated, stepping forward.

Theo nodded in understanding, handing the large wooden bowl to the beastman. Once the rabbit beastman had it, he headed off to add it with the other food contributions.

"Thank you for the dish." Merinda stated, turning back to Serena and Theo once her mate had disappeared into the crowd. "It means a lot."

"It’s no problem." Serena said. "We’re glad we could do something. And thank you once again for inviting us."

"Of course. The more the merrier." Merinda grinned. "Now please do enjoy the festivities. We’ll have the ceremony once the sun sets. You can bring your offering plate to the wooden stage then."

Serena nodded her head in understanding. She wanted to ask when they could speak, if Merinda even had the time for that today, but decided not to.

Merinda, however, seemed to understand what she was thinking because she added, "Of course, I’ll need to steal Serena for a few moments before you go enjoy the festival."

"Um sure..." Theo murmured, glancing over at Serena.

Kiro, who was watching the whole exchange quietly, also looked over at his sister and whispered to her, "You won’t be long right?"

"No, it’ll be quick." Serena ruffled his hair, knowing the cub was getting bored. She then turned to Merinda. "Shall we go then?"

Merinda nodded her head and replied, "Yes."