Kays Translations

Chapter 75 – Summer Festival Part 1: The Festival Flower Supply

In this town, there’s a big festival held in early summer.

During the festival, a kind of pillar—or maybe a tower—is erected in the square, and everyone decorates it with flowers in their own way.

People use flowers to adorn themselves, and also give them as gifts to one another.

At night, a fire is lit in the center of the square, and everyone dances to the music played by a band.

It’s a rule to participate in the nighttime part of the festival with your face covered, so you need a mask, a veil, or some kind of disguise.

Because of that, clothing shops, flower shops, and general stores see this as a prime opportunity and come up with all kinds of new products. Food vendors set up stalls too—rows and rows of them line up.

Why? Because it sells. Festivals are when people loosen their purse strings. It’s prime time for making money.

Why is festival food always so enticing? I used to eat so much of it. My favorite was a small deep-fried snack that looked like a gear or lotus root—crispy and delicious, but also very oily.

Even though I was young and my stomach should’ve been fine, I still ended up tapping out halfway through—it was that oily. The oil must’ve been totally worn out. As an adult, I now understand why grown-ups hesitate to let kids eat from food stalls. In short—they’re unsanitary!

But that childhood thrill of eating at festival stalls was something special—something you can only experience at that age.

The deliciousness of that slightly burnt yakisoba, and the joy I felt when I was given a baby castella cake with the words, “Here’s a bonus!”

Laughing as we showed off our blue tongues after eating Blue Hawaii shaved ice.

The lively hum of the crowd, and the mixture of smells. I passed by my senior in the dim light, and he looked completely different from usual.

Now is the time of year when the town is in a frenzy as it prepares for the festival to create such fun memories for everyone.

As for me, it was kind of a coincidence, but since I like flowers, I had planted flower seeds in a section of my field.

When it comes to flower seeds, basically most of the cheap flower seeds are varieties designed for cut flowers.

The kind of seeds sold at 100-yen stores grow tall—really tall. Then they get blown over by the wind.

Even flowers that are beginner-friendly and spread by self-seeding tend to grow tall.

Personally, I prefer flowers that can more or less support themselves without stakes. Though even those tend to struggle once the blooms get heavy.

Strawflowers, cornflowers, larkspur, snapdragons, zinnias, marigolds, and phlox.

And just out of curiosity, I planted some sunflower seeds from hamster feed.

I mean, I had the space, and Mimi was there to help till the soil, so I wanted to try creating that dreamy sunflower field. The sunflowers germinated well and grew steadily—and eventually bloomed!

They turned out to be incredibly cute sunflowers. Sunflowers really do lift your spirits. I love those bright yellow blooms.

So yeah—I’ve got more flowers than I know what to do with!

By the way, a little tip: if you’re buying flower seeds at a 100-yen shop, be careful with asters. Their seeds seem to have a short lifespan. They grow well the first time, but they’re very weak against successive planting.

Most flowers can be sensitive to planting in the same spot repeatedly, but from my experience, asters are especially bad at it.

The instructions even say to avoid replanting in the same spot for five years. But come on—who has that kind of time? Flower lovers want to grow them every year.

Pansies, violas, and marigolds don’t seem to suffer much from this issue. That’s why they’re planted in school flower beds.

Just like baking enthusiasts, gardening lovers like to try all sort of unusual varieties. Then they end up circling back to the basics.

And then, the most basic flowers start to feel like the best ones.

Well, I did get a bit carried away and ended up growing things like Alba Coerulea oculate, Ixia viridiflora, and Echium bluebedder ……

Because I just love blue flowers.

To anyone unfamiliar with these names, it’s probably just gibberish. I’m not good at katakana, yet I can remember flower names no problem. If magic spells were flower names, I’m confident I can say it without stumbling.  

Oh, that reminds me—I once tried growing exotic stuff like castor beans and Datura.

Both are… well, kind of sketchy plants, if you want to call them that. It all depends on how you use them, though.

Datura will be particularly familiar to anyone who has read the first book in the famous, thick series about a rather knowledgeable and sharp-tongued second-hand bookseller, shrine priest, and fortune teller.

In that book, Datura is actually “Korean morning glory,” and it’s said that Hanaoka Seishū used it as an anesthetic. Though the flower that appeared in the movie version wasn’t Datura—it was an angel’s trumpet.

They used to be in the same genus, so it’s easy to mix them up. I think even the manga version showed an angel’s trumpet, so maybe I’m just remembering it wrong.

Datura is technically considered an herbal plant, but I wonder what would happen if I tried growing it here.

I have a feeling something amazing will happen. The flowers are beautiful though.

Anyway, back to flowers. There’s plenty of demand for flowers at the festival—for decorating the public pillar, for bouquets to give, and for tucking into your hair or pocket.

The easiest option is to sell them to the Agricultural Guild, but I could also wholesale them to a florist in town. Gordon’s general store might even carry some, I bet.

Apparently, during this season, many farmers grow flowers at the edges of their fields. So I came to Nia Farm to ask Dawn-san about it.

“Hey! What’s up?”

Dawn-san greeted me.

“I wanted to ask about where to sell flowers for the festival,”

I replied.

“Ah, flowers, huh? You should ask her.”

I see, so flowers are Milia-san’s department.

“Dunno why, but everything’s just going so well lately. We’ve been busy as heck,”

Dawn-san added.

“Yeah… a good harvest means more work. It’s nice, but still hardwork.”

I waved to Milia-san, who was working a little way off, and walked over.

When Miria noticed me, she stopped what she was doing and listened to what I had to say.

“If that’s the case, you can just sell them together with the ones we’re sending to the florist,”

Problem solved—just like that. Apparently, there were fewer flowers this year, so the florist had been asking if there were any more. Talk about perfect timing.

“But actually… could you come with me for a moment?”

Milia asked.

Wondering what was up, I nodded and followed her.

Then she said,

“I know it’s a bit presumptuous…”

As Milia-san said this, she handed me a bag.

Inside was a festival kimono.

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