Chapter 103: Ch 102: New Festival - Part 1

Not a lot of time had passed before their first festival, but Aiden already felt like it was time for a second one.

By now, Goddess Apophis’s name had spread far and wide due to her deeds, and almost everyone knew about her incredible capital city. But Aiden needed to show people an even grander future here.

Only then would they start to turn toward Goddess Apophis and begin to ask for her protection.

But bringing this topic up with his goddess was not an easy task. Especially since she was angry at Aiden for the whole mess with Goddess Paphelia.

She still believed that the rude goddess deserved to die, and she was utterly furious when Aiden decided not to kill her. But she had only shown her true colors once they returned to their temple.

His goddess had remained calm until they were in the temple, and then she had smacked Aiden’s wrist before slithering her way back to her room, leaving Aiden shell-shocked while looking at her back.

After that, he had tried to coax her outside, and it had worked a few times. Aiden had also pushed a lot of his work aside in order to chase after the goddess, and she had finally relented and told Aiden what she wanted.

Her solution was simple - she wanted to lock Aiden in a room until he could not leave anymore or see anyone else. And as much as Aiden wanted to accept this, he knew that this village wouldn’t run itself.

Sure, they could go a few days without him, but more than a week and he began to worry.

But he also needed to reach a compromise with his goddess...

In the end, he made a pact with his goddess that he wouldn’t go anywhere without her, and she finally allowed him back outside.

Aiden let out a sigh as he visited the village to check up on the progress of various facilities. All his missions were going smoothly, which made him feel better.

Finally, after a thorough inspection, he decided to gather the heads of various tasks at the village and discuss the future with them.

They all gathered quickly, and Aiden decided to present them with the new festival plan.

"I was thinking of having another festival soon in our goddess’s name. The winter is about to be over soon, and that means the hibernation season will be over. I would like to celebrate this."

Aiden did not realize how long it had been since he came here, but almost 5 months had passed.

Between working hard and getting kidnapped, he had spent a lot of time and watched over his goddess. And he was not the only one who had a hard time.

The people that believed in Goddess Apophis deserved to get a reward as well.

"Oh! A festival? Kids would love it. The school will help out during this. We can also use this time to have the kids apply their skill set they are learning."

Aiden nodded at that idea. He also wanted to promote the academy, and this was a good solution to increasing the school’s fame.

"We will need to build stalls, but we think it is a good opportunity to widen our working skills. Please let us know if you need anything special made."

The dwarfs and the fairies nodded in agreement, showing that they wanted this festival as well.

Once everyone was in agreement, the news of the festival spread across fast. By the end of the day, everyone knew that there was going to be a festival after a week, and now it was time to spread the news outside.

Caelion and the others helped a ton in this.

Aiden personally went to give an invitation to Lord Rain and his village, but the reason behind this was to spread the news to local merchants.

His goddess, as expected, was furious at his decision to visit this village. Especially since Goddess Paphelia was here. But she calmed down once she did not even see a wing of that butterfly goddess.

On Aiden’s side, the news was being spread faster and in a controlled manner. And this time, the anticipation of having even more people was building up.

But with good news came bad news as well. Their territory was beginning to attract all kinds of demons, and their forces were limited.

So it was time to start preparing for automatic-security devices all around.

Aiden decided to keep it simple for now and start with the place near the academy. That was the most important site that needed to be covered for security reasons.

Since the most important part of this festival was to promote the academy as well as the potion and wine industry he was about to set up, he needed to make sure it was absolutely safe for them.

The first thing Aiden did was ask the dwarfs to begin working on the security devices around the academy. He did not need anything too complicated for now, but he wanted something that could at least warn them if a demon approached.

While the dwarfs worked, Aiden also asked Lumi to keep track of the merchants who had shown interest in the festival.

There was no point in having a festival if they could not use it to establish connections with the outside world.

The potion and wine industries were still in their early stages, but Aiden knew that once they started producing properly, merchants would come rushing toward them.

’It would be better if we already had a few reliable contacts before that happens.’

He did not want to depend on a single merchant or organization.

Having several groups competing for the chance to trade with his territory would give him much more freedom.

At the same time, preparations for the festival continued.

The villagers were already excited, and the children were especially eager to participate and there was no time for them to waste here.

Luckily, things were easier this time around.