I Reincarnated as an NPC Witch

Festival of Light

Abigail snapped out of her thoughts and looks at her door, “Who’s there?” She rises on the bed and looks around. There’s nothing that comes after that. She finds it very strange as she cautiously gets out of the bed. She approaches the window and looks outside. Nothing was there. She looks at the door and waits for a knock. None arrived. She decided to cautiously and quietly approach it. As she was in front of it, she immediately opened it without any hesitation. To her surprise, nothing was there. Just a lit-up hallway in the middle of the night. Her heart sank in this realization, “Who called me?”

Abigail steps out of the room and looks around, she can’t see anyone around nor any trace that someone was there. She cautiously goes inside her room and takes a peek at the hallway one last time before closing the door. She locked the door and she leans on it. She holds her hair and looks around, she shakes her head in frustration. “Did I just hallucinate that? No… It can’t be.” She looks around, “The sound of the voice was clear… and new. I can’t be creating new voices in my mind, rather, I will hear my friend’s voices—“ Her eyes widen as she holds her mouth with her hands. She shakes her head, “No… That’s too much, isn’t it? If I did that, I am just screwing myself more! I shouldn’t be creating new things for a while or at least not now.” She groans, “I am just making this harder for myself.”

Abigail marches to her bed and throws herself there. She lays there horizontally and looks at the ceiling. “I don’t know what’s happening. Did I create that voice? Because it will never be an inside voice, I can hear it physically. And, it’s new! It’s not even remotely close to any of my friends’ voices. And, they most probably are asleep now.” She grabs a pillow and slaps it on her face, “What are you doing, Abigail? What are you doing!?”

She stopped her whining as she heard something on the window. In instinct, she immediately rises up from the bed and sets aside the pillow. She looked at the window with suspicion as she quietly approaches it. As she arrives there, she immediately looked out the window. To her surprise, she can see people on the thin divider trim of the building. They were cloaked people. “You!” She shouted at them that alerted them. It made them jump out of their position, “Plan B!” One of them shouted. As they landed on the ground, their figure slowly disappear into a fog and only their cloak remained.

In curiosity, Abigail immediately left her room and came running downstairs. The sound of her footsteps echoed through the hall and conquered the silence of the manor in this time. It woke up some of them, especially the heroes. She rushed outside and to the part of the garden where she saw the cloaks were. As she arrived, she cautiously walked up near it. She summoned her wand, preparing to attack if the cloak suddenly came to life. She managed to set aside one of them to see if there are people under it in some manner. But, she found nothing. It didn’t satisfy her as she points her wand at one of them and levitated it in the air. She looks inside the cloak. Nothing was there either.

As she was inspecting these suspicious garments, her friends come to her aid. “What happened, Crocus?” Wren asked as they all rushed to her. “What are these cloaks?” Keeana approached it as Abigail stopped her. “Don’t go near it yet, we don’t know if they are somewhere in these cloaks.”

“Them?” She looks at them, “I was talking to myself earlier and I heard someone say my name. I thought it was a hallucination, a product of my mind and anxiety. But, I heard some noises on the other side of the wall of my room. There, I saw them sneaking up on those thin trims of the building. When they saw me, they immediately jumped here and became fog as they landed on the ground. Only their cloak remained, or at least, it is what I think for now. They also shouted something about ‘Plan B’?”

“Plan B? Are they planning something for you?” Abigail shrugs, “I don’t know, but whatever it is, I am glad that I prevented it.” Edsel crosses his arms, “People with cloaks spells danger.” Lavena slowly approaches the cloaks and looks at them, especially the pendant on the collar. She looks at Abigail, “Could we get our hands to these now?”

“Just be careful and prepare if someone pulls you in that or whatever. I am not sure how much ability could a person get with a cloak.” Lavena kneels on the ground and grabs the cloak by the pendant on it. It was a blue gem shaped like a diamond with a dark blue metal trim. It shines at the light of the moon. There was something engraved in the middle of it, it was a hook with two loops. “Look.” She said as she shows it to them, pointing at the engraved symbol. “What’s the meaning of that?”

They looked at each other, no one answered. “It looks like some sort of a curled-up whip!” Keeana commented. Catrina takes a good look at it, “I am not familiar with this symbol, but I’ll look up to it. Alchemy has all sorts of weird symbols and I am not surprised if I don’t know this one.” She crosses her arm as Keeana tries to question her knowledge, “Are gems related to Alchemy?” Catrina looks at her, “Most symbols are related to the elements in the world, which is used in alchemy. A single symbol, especially on a pendant made of a gem, will not mean any language, it will most probably mean some sort of an element or a representation of one. Especially if it’s on a cloak, it will represent a clan or something, and most of them, if not all, are represented with elements they relate their group with.”

“So, a group is after Crocus. That’s not good news.” Abigail sighs, “It is and it’s terrifying. Not just for my safety, but for all of you. Since you are associated with me, there’s a high chance you all are on their target list. I mean, I really don’t mind that, I’ll be terrified and all of that. I am just sorry if you guys will be pulled in this chaos that I don’t even know existed and I signed up for.”

“It’s not good news, but it’s not new news either, Crocus. As a hero and especially saving a lot of people out of their demise means someone will target you for that.” Keeana agreed with Lavena, “Besides, rebels, bandits, people of the individuals we fought against going after us is not relatively new. As Vena said, it’s part of these heroic adventures you are having, which you clearly and knowingly signed up for. If that makes you less terrified.”

Abigail’s eyes widen, “I just recently healed the Count, right?” It was a moment of silence until everyone got what she’s talking about. “Yeah! Do you mean those ice bandits are after you?” “I am not surprised by that, but I am confused. They do really have a mission to kill the Count?” They all looked at each other. Catrina looks at them, “I get it now. It’s the symbol of ice but without the addition of another line at the other end. Which means coldness without restraint.”

“Coldness without restraint…” Lavena looks at Abigail, “It’s really confirmed that these are some sort of ice mages and they are rebels.” Gallant slides in, “Does it mean that the Count has some sort of connection to these people before and are avenging of some sort?” Lavena sighs, “The Count’s past business isn’t our business, Gallant. Whatever is happening here is our business. Protecting the Count and ourselves is our business as well. Whatever nasty past he has with them, the threat has been diverted to us. We have no choice but to fight against them.”

“How about let’s talk about this tomorrow? We’re all relatively tired of this. If you are finding anyone to scout again, I will pass this time. I can’t wait to get back to my sleep again.” Winsel stretches his arms. “Winsel’s right, I think the best time to think about this is tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow’s the Festival of Light! We must not have a problem thinking about a festival such as that. In fact, we should be celebrating!” Lavena sighs, “Well, we can’t promise ourselves to not think of problems when we are a magnet of one, can we?” Keeana puts her index finger on her mouth, shushing her, “Don’t jinx it, Vena! Have positive thoughts, nothing will get us tomorrow. And, nobody will say otherwise, got it?” She crosses her arms as they all agreed with a hint of tiredness and irritation. “I am glad to hear that. I wish you meant it. Besides, we deserve a little bit of rest, don’t we?” Before they can even answer, Keeana responded to her question, “We do! And nobody will say otherwise.”

They came back to bed after that night and woke up to a bright new day. They woke up with the sound of a band marching across the manor. The Count and her daughter, both still in their sleeping garments, happily watched the parade on the grand balcony of the manor. “Good morning, great heroes! The Festival has begun with cheerful and energetic energy with the parade, courtesy from the Endale School of Music and Arts! Come and see this!” He said to them as he saw them approaching him. They watched the parade through the balcony and waved at the people involved as they go around the front gardens of the manor.

After the energetic alarm clock, they went to the dining hall where there’s a lot less food than any breakfast they had. “We will have a small and light meal for today’s breakfast. Because I want you to go out there and try everyone’s dishes.” Yris nods, “Festivals will never be completed if you don’t try everyone’s best recipe for this celebration. I assure you, you won’t be disappointed with what they can offer. Because they will offer a lot of it.” Some decided to eat less and Gallant specifically decided not to eat at all. “If that’s what we will have this day, I will not eat then so I could afford to eat them all. I still need to maintain my figure, you know?” They all laughed as they enjoyed their light breakfast.

After that, they went their way outside the manor and to the city, which each street have its own table and its own food. It was a grand feast on each street. “You know what makes this festival much happier and heartwarming?” Abigail looks at Lavena, “What is it?” She sighs and smiles, “Well, it’s the day where the homeless people of each city have the best days of their lives. These foods will remain on these tables and the homeless could enjoy the warmth of having foods in their stomach. When I was a kid, I normally snatch some food in our potluck and immediately give them to the homeless. Even they had the chance sometimes, they don’t take it because they are afraid of someone pushing them away when they try to get some.” Abigail looks away and whispers to herself, “This game got a lot more immersive than I thought it would.”

They scattered around the town and tried everything that this festival offers. The noon breaks as there was a dance in the plaza. Abigail joined in and had fun switching partner by partner. She looks at the male in front of her, “This is fun, isn’t it?” The man laughs, “It is, it’s a shame that it would end.” Her heart sank as she saw his face glitched.