Jellyfishes Swimming in the Sky
There is a big festival in Legol even in spring.
It’s called the Spirit Festival, celebrating the spirits of the moon or nature or something.
Every spring, flying jellyfish-like monsters somehow emerge from somewhere and start coming into the city, so that’s just the season for it.
While “flying jellyfish” sounds like quite a fantastical creature, their actual form seems to be more like slimes than jellyfish.
Their name is Jellyslime. They float buoyantly through the air, catching and digesting insects that blunder into their semi-transparent bodies, like a carnivorous plant.
Their digestive ability is middling and mostly harmless to humans, so they’re treated about the same as small birds and other animals when appearing in the city.
The mystical way they swim languidly opening their umbrella-like bodies in the air does make it understandable why they’re associated with the spirits of the moon.
However, during the festival, people in the city often decorate these moon spirit impostors gaudily, or children half-jokingly catch and hit them against each other and such, scenes suggesting a lack of reverence. Poor Jellyslimes. Despite being on the silver coin design of Halpheria, they get treated rather shabbily.
“You gotta be careful to catch ’em without breaking ’em, y’see.”
“What’s in that bag, Mongrel-senpai?”
“This is a Jellyslime catching net I developed.”
It’s just a bug-catching net with a bag with holes on the end of a long pole, but it’s surprisingly effective against the airborne Jellyslimes.
Without hardly any chance to escape, he’s scooping up Jellyslimes left andright and tossing them into the large sack.
Today’s quota is 30, so just a little more. Avatars of the moon spirits. Let me catch you ever so gently.
“Didn’t you do Jellyslime catching missions back in your Iron Rank days, Raina?”
“Nah, there’s always plenty of hunting in this season so I never did any. Didn’t know it was a mission.”
“Oh yeah, you catch ’em and release ’em all together in the sewers to help purify the air and water quality. Takes time but they say it gets pretty clean without even cleaning.”
“I see…”
Well, I don’t do sewer missions so I don’t know the before and after.
“And of course, some are used for festival decorations too. You’ve seen the colorful Jellyslimes all released in the air at once, right?”
“Ah yeah, I have! That’s really pretty…so those aren’t naturally colored Jellyslimes?”
“Nah, humans color them by hand. Though the color fades away after about a day through the purification.”
It’s not a hugely lucrative job, but Jellyslime catching around town is kind of a fun, game-like activity.
This fantastical jellyfish gathering is quite soothing.
“Will you be going around the festival with Artemis, Raina?”
“Eh, well…not sure yet. Haven’t decided anything really. What about you, Mongrel-senpai?”
“Not decided for me either. The free beer and Jellyfish pickles are when it really gets going, so I’ll probably just wander around until then.”
During the Spirit Festival, the Count of Legol generously provides free beer and food.
Not the usual watered-down ale, but beers like real beer and wines that seem pretty expensive.
And they serve up delicious pickled jellyfish caught from the coastal areas as a snack. The salty vinegar flavor and crunchy texture is quite tasty. These edible jellyfish are regular jellyfish by the way – Jellyslimes are inedible.
“Why don’t you come around the festival with me then, senpai?”
“Sure, sounds good. But isn’t it a busy time for you? If Artemis gets a mission you won’t be able to play around, right?”
“It’s fine for missions. We just need to hunt and donate meat for the festival. Then we’re off.”
I see, a donation. Artemis is so thoughtful as always.
Handling missions for nobles, actively donating to festivals…just how high is Sheena aiming to rise? Is she headed for the capital? Though it doesn’t quite seem like she has her sights specifically on the capital either, somehow.
“Oh, that reminds me Mongrel-senpai, you still haven’t used Artemis’s bath again, have you?”
“Ah, the second time I promised. I was thinking of taking you up on it in summer. You think I should just get it over with?”
“No, not at all. Summer huh…not too far off.”
“A hot bath in summer feels great. I’d love to have one every day if I could.”
“…Then why don’t you just join Artemis?”
“Hell no.”
“Geez, what’s your deal…”
“But I’d help out on any interesting missions.”
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Thanks to all the monsters appearing, spring never gets boring.
There are plenty that threaten our livelihoods and vicious beasts increase too, but experiencing a fantasy world firsthand keeps it from getting stale even at my age.
I’m just terrible at spotting monsters myself, so it’s reassuring to have someone skilled as a scout with me. If we can dispatch them efficiently, we might even make it back for a same-day report.
“…Hey, why don’t we go bird monster hunting with the bow sometime?”
“The bow huh, could be good practice.”
“I can teach you, let’s do it next time. You’ll be melee support while I practice archery, Mongrel-senpai.”
“Sounds good. Been a while since I caught some birds.”
“We can start small before doing anything with Artemis.”
“Oh that helps. Too many people and I can’t focus.”
After making plans for our next hunt, I parted ways with Raina.
Chicken huh…maybe I’ll make some chicken galette soup.
Don’t want to spend too much time making a full consommé, but a light soup could be nice. Which makes me want noodles…should I make some Chinese noodles?
Chicken salt ramen with some kombu dashi…ah crap, need some soy sauce.
I wonder if any potion failures turned into soy sauce.
“30 Jellyslimes, excellent. You caught them quite cleanly. These will work well for decorations.”
“Seriously? That’s great. Be sure to release them with my name on them in town.”
“The brats’ll have a nice target then. Gahaha!”
After turning in the Jellyslimes at the processing station and getting my voucher, I quickly got out of there as more hunters were flooding back to report completions. Don’t want to get stuck in a bottleneck at the guild.
“Oh right Mongrel, we need to get these for every 10 Jellyslimes too. Here, take 3 portions.”
“Oh? Ah, decorative flowers.”
What the processor handed me were 3 stems of flowers
They are long, pale yellow flowers that grow in remote forest areas this time of year. Well-suited for gift bouquets and such, so they’re commonly sold around town.
During the Spirit Festival prep period, we get flowers by completing festival-related missions. Not that having them really means anything special. It’s a joyous occasion so we decorate our rooms and such I suppose.
In my previous life I only really bought flowers for grave visits and such…but I don’t dislike this cultural practice.
“Thanks, I’ll put them somewhere eye-catching.”
“Might as well catch more Jellyslimes and make a bouquet for a lovely lady while you’re at it.”
“Then the city would run out of Jellyslimes.”
“Gahaha!”
But with only 3 flowers, I can really just stick them in a slim vase and be done.
Come to think of it, I don’t even have a flower vase in my room. Now that I recall, I’ve just been stuffing them in the vases at the inn’s front desk. Last year it ended up becoming like an opening celebration bouquet until the vase’s neck snapped and the innkeeper yelled at me…
“It got away over there!”
“Catch it!”
As I’m walking down the street, I hear the shouts of children.
Seems they’re chasing after a Jellyslime that was leisurely drifting low to the ground.
“This works perfectly. Excuse me, little miss!”
“Huh? What is it mister?”
“Here, I’ll give you this flower.”
“Eh! Really!?”
I snap the 3 flower stems down to a manageable size and tuck one into the girl’s dark hair.
“There, looking lovely. Suits you perfectly.”
“Really!? Heheh, thank you!”
“Oi Lumia, we’ll chase it from this side!”
“Ah, gotta go! Bye bye!”
“Sure, be careful now!”
The energetic children scurry off chasing the Jellyslime.
As intended, the yellow flower I tucked into her hair stands out the most around here.
The festival draws near. I’m looking forward to the jellyfish cuisine.
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