Fate Online: Shadow

Chapter 555: Village Feast

As dusk slowly settled, the torches or lamp torches nailed over the walls of the village and along the paths were slowly lit up, illuminating the village.

The villagers closed up shops and finished up their chores before slowly making their way towards the village square with their pots and pans in tow.

In the village square, almost all of the villagers had already gathered there and most had already started prepping the things they needed for the feast tonight!

While some of the players in the village also joined in the fun and had started preparing their own share of delicacies as they wanted the villagers to have a taste of the food out of this world!

"What's happening? Is there a festival going on?" One team of players who had just recently arrived from a hunt outside the village and saw what was going quickly approached one of the villagers he was familiar with and inquired about what's taking place.

"Ohh, Sugar! You and your friends are finally back! Come with me and join the upcoming feast!"

The villager was about to lash out in annoyance as he was in a hurry, but when he turned around and saw a familiar face, his face bloomed into a smile and even invited them.

"A feast? Is it the village festival today?"

"Festival? Well, you can also say that, but the village festival is next month. This time, a village feast is being held because the village acquired a very peculiar vegetable from the garden and Lord Shadow said we can have a taste. Everyone was so excited since that thing looks expensive, then news that we're having a feast tonight came!"

"What thing? Did a merchant caravan come here while we were away?"

"Were you even listening? I just told you that it was something that happened in the garden. Anyway, just come, everyone is welcome!"

The players and her friends quietly walked alongside the villager as they listened into their conversation. The villager even got a little annoyed as he felt like Sugar wasn't actually listening to him, so just shrugged his shoulders and then took off in a hurry while carrying that large pot containing a sack of mystery.

Ding!

[You have been invited to join the Snow Village feast!]

[Do not forget to go since there might be incredible surprises awaiting you!]

[The village feast will start in 02:02:09]

It wasn't just them; the other players also received the same invitation from the villagers they are close with.

"Whoa~ Now that I think about it, there hasn't been any news of festivals being held ever happening in the game, right?"

"Yeah, though this is just a village feast and not really the official festival of this place"

"In my book, a feast that involves the whole village is a festival! Woohoo! I'm suddenly feeling excited for tonight! I hope they have booze!"

"Now that you say it, me too! Come, let's log off first so we don't waste the remaining hours that we have for playing today"

On the other hand, Shadow is currently watching the ongoing festivities on the village square through his window.

"How did we come from just wanting to taste the cabbage out of curiosity to suddenly having an entire feast for the village?" he complained, but he was clearly excited for the upcoming feast for tonight.

"Though I wonder what kind of dish Old Buck's wife would make out of that huge cabbage?" Shadow mumbled as he made his way out of his log cabin.

As he walked past through his door, Shadow quickly activated his Shadow Meld, his figure slowly blended into the darkness of the night.

He moved past the merrying and cooking crowd and instead decided to walk around the village, not out of curiosity, but boredom and at the same time, he wanted to see if there are still things that need changing in the village that he might have overlooked the other day.

Except for the village square, the surroundings were devoid of people, though not entirely since there are still militias moving around in groups of two and with every log building, it would have one or two fire torches to keep the darkness at bay.

Since the village is not so big, it didn't even take long when Shadow once again arrived at the village garden.

He just stood there and stared at the flourishing vegetation before him, and somehow, he's suddenly deep in thoughts.

"What am I even doing? I look like some depressed fool acting like this" he chuckled when he slowly realized that people might mistake him as someone depressed by standing alone in such a shadowy corner.

He walked around the village, checking every corner to see if there were things that needed repairing, but he belatedly realized that the villagers were already self-sufficient even before they arrived, so there was really nothing to be repaired or to renovate since the villagers would quickly replace things that show signs of decay.

It wasn't long before he arrived at one of the stairs leading to the wall ramparts and made his way up.

"Wooo~ that's cold"

Arriving on top, Shadow was immediately assaulted by the cold wind, his body trembling as he hugged himself and rubbed his arms to generate some heat, and when he looked up, all he saw was pure darkness beyond the wall, there was nothing since the stars and the moon tonight are absent thanks to the light snow weather tonight.

"We really need to open up a road to connect the village to the outside world. I wonder if any of the general players heeded my call, and how are they faring tonight?"

He was suddenly worried about the players coming for a chance at the opportunity to become a noble. He knew first-hand how harsh the night in this land is since it wasn't only the weather and terrain that they had to face, they also had to worry about those monsters lurking in the dark that were attracted to their location due to the light coming from their camp.