"Damai's beauty persist throughout the year, but like most regions throughout the world, it peaked during the Serpent Festival."
The sun was just rising on the horizon. Its golden rays were peering into the room through the slit of the draped windows.
Jonah and I watched morning came as we enjoyed each other's warmth on the bed, lying blissfully under the wool cover.
"Ah, Serpent Festival is my favorite."
The shepherd said as he wrapped his strong arms around me from behind, resting his chin over my shoulder.
He went on.
"We would make lanterns and float them down the river. Praying for the lost ones and hope fortune for the year to come as the lanterns vanish downstream. There would be music, dancing, and feasting after."
"It truly is the best time of the year."
I said, cupping his head beside mine with my hand.
"How do you celebrate it in Seraphold?"
He asked.
"In Seraphold, all of Damai actually, we don't use lanterns. We use fireworks."
Jonah's voice brightened upon the term.
"Fireworks! I've always wanted to see one!"
"Oh you would definitely love the Serpent Festival in Seraphold. We would put on firework show all through the night, across the entire city. The sky would be so bright for so long you would probably not even realize daybreak was already looming."
I told him, recalling the last time Seraphold was that merry.
It had to be quite a few years before I came to the forged land.
Around that time, it was not that appropriate for holding big celebration given chaos was rampaging across the whole world.
"I would really love to see that. Hey, does any royalty ever comes to Seraphold? I heard the princesses and princes would visit the large cities during the Serpent Festival."
Jonah asked eagerly right by my ears. His head was still snuggling by mine.
I nodded to him.
"We had several visitations over the years. But the most significant one was when the Crown Princess Samesta came to grace the city with her presence."
"The crown princess?!"
"Her Highness just turned 14 a few months earlier. It was from that age the royalties were allowed to commence a Serpent Festival. Each of the royalties would choose a city every year to perform that long-standing tradition."
It was also a political play.
Though royalty by blood, princesses and the princes of the empire still needed to garner support from the lesser nobles.
They would often choose certain city in order to gain favor from strong noble houses. Very often, the Seven Great Houses, of course.
I continued.
"And Her Highness chose Seraphold as her first city. It was truly a great honor to the Zeref family."
The Emperor of Tsatu Empire had nine children. They were borne through one wife and four concubines.
The Seven Great Houses and other smaller factions in the empire would often attract the emperor's favor through His Majesty's children.
But the Crown Princess Samesta had the duty of being neutral and fair as she would lead the entire nation in the future.
She could never be seen favoring one faction.
And most of the nobles actually believed she was leaning toward one. The Anashta was the one being rumored the most.
Samesta was aware of this prejudice.
Which was why the city-choosing of her first Serpent Festival commencement would be scrutinized to see which faction she was actually leaning to.
That was why Seraphold was chosen.
It was a dominion of one of the few minor noble houses which had a neutral standing in the empire.
By choosing the Zeref, Her Highness managed to avoid a scheme that could tarnish her image.
"Her Highness was incredibly beautiful and very intelligent. An extraordinarily powerful mage too. I still remember when she held my 4-year-old self in her arms and taught me how to feel my mana vessel."
It would be around twenty years before Dunia ended and I came to the forged land. And five years before Loro and the other border cities were first invaded by the monsters. And three years before my mother's death in Fajar.
Many things happened since we met. But the memory of our encounter was still quite vivid.
One could not simply forget such overwhelming individual.
Even time could not erase her presence in my mind.
Jonah shrugged at my words.
"The crown princess does sounds like an incredible woman. But there is only one mage that I care about."
He drew his head and started caressing my nape.
His show of affection reminded me of something I wished him to understand.
"Jonah, I need you to keep doing what you did last night."
The shepherd chuckled mischievously.
"Sure. But aren't we supposed to get those maps from Jeanine later today?"
"Not that, Jonah."
I turned around and faced him with a serious gaze.
Seeing the smirk vanished from his mouth, I continued.
"When you suggested me to hold my anger for Darius and let him report what he saw inside the dungeon. You reminded me when I was doing something that was not proper. I want you to keep doing that."
"Fina, you want me to disagree with you?"
"I need people who won't hesitate to speak their mind when they think I'm wrong. I need my closest comrades to be those people."
He avoided my eyes when I said those words.
I grabbed his chin and made sure he was looking back to me.
"I'm liable to mistake, Jonah. If you truly care for me, you would see to it that you correct me every time."
The man stared at me with agonized eyes.
Eventually he sighed and replied.
"I promise I will be honest to you about my thoughts. But I won't go out of my way to disagree with you. If I think your idea is great, I will support it all the way!"
I nodded to him and gave the shepherd a small peck on his forehead.
"I can take that for now. Thank you."
Jonah was the one that I had to convince of all my comrades.
Shanny had never minded to sound her objections to me.
Trudy even knew how to change my opinion when she thought otherwise, given her request to be an instructor.
I probably still had to ask her to be less-agreeing with me. Though not as intense as I was with Jonah.
And Darius might hold great respect over me, but he would do what he thought was right. Just like how he infiltrated the dungeon without permission.
I was certain he knew I would not allow it. He was not foolish enough to not aware of the fact.
Despite how much I wanted to keep lying on the bed with Jonah, we had a mission to accomplish before returning to the lobby.
I sent the shepherd away so we could get dressed up and be ready for the second day of the exploration.
Though he, indeed, was quite hesitant to leave my room.
Soon, I grabbed the sacks of collectibles under the bed, got out of the room, joined Jonah in the hallway, and walked down to the common room where our other comrades were in the middle of their breakfast.
Darius was alone at one table while Shanny and Trudy at another next to him.
Jonah promptly joined Darius while I went to the ladies.
Trudy was fidgeting by the time I sat. She was avoiding my eyes.
"What's the matter, Trudy?"
I asked.
The woman flinched at my calling. She squirmed in her chair.
Shanny was grinning between the two of us as she drank her fruit juice. The two of us and Jonah on the other table, actually.
Eventually Trudy began speaking. Her face was turning red.
"The walls…Serafina…They're quite…thin, you see…"
The woman's cheeks were as red as tomatoes at the end of her sentence. Though she actually could not finish her sentence and let her words trailed off.
Shanny was eyeing me curiously, studying my reaction.
If the woman thought I was going to blush like a girl that just celebrated her coming-of-age ceremony, she was sorely mistaken.
"Is that so? We will try to keep it down nexttime. I'm sorry if we troubled your sleep."
Trudy's face grew even redder than I thought possible.
Shanny simply chuckled and shook her head in disbelief.
I noticed on the next table Darius was smirking and whispering something to Jonah's ears. The archer's arm was wrapped tightly around the spearman's shoulders.
The shepherd's face turned redder than even Trudy's.
Seeing my comrades were riled up to start the day, I immediately set us off to depart for the Merchant Street.
I sent Shanny and Trudy to go with Darius to the mercenary guild store with Jonah's money to buy more elemental stones.
Darius may had promised, but I would like to be certain just in case. Those women would make sure he did not do anything foolish.
Jonah and I made our way to Caramille's Boutique.
As expected of Jeanine, she did her best to acquire what I ask of her.
537 maps.
All the empire's regions, all the lands in Dunia, islands and archipelagos around the continents, maps of all the cities there were, detailed maps of certain renowned locations, and even schematics of well-known fortresses and castles.
I wondered how she managed to procure all of them in less than two days. But I doubted she would reveal her channels to me, a stranger.
As I requested for the deal, she had packed all the documents in bundles of scrolls and tubes kept inside five huge trunks.
After some convincing, I managed to have myself carry one while Jonah wielded the rest. The shepherd wanted to carry all five.
Jeanine also succeeded in the other thing I wanted her done. And it was quite disturbing to learn what she discovered.
"There is no ruin in the Sherefiah basin. But I caught wind of some disturbing rumors from mercenary mages. Apparently there is a weird energy accumulating in that area. They don't know what that could mean though."