60 Moonlight Festival
Selma Payne’s POV:
“Let’s meet at the school gate! Let’s set a meeting place.”
I wanted to go to the appointment with Aldrich hand in hand, but I couldn’t. On this day, only family members and lovers of the opposite sex would go together. So, to not reveal any clues, we could only bear the pain and go separately.
“I’ll see what I can do!” Aldrich hugged me and hid behind the thick curtains of the empty room.” I promise this will not be a lonely Moonlight Festival. The footsteps of the shepherd will always follow the Holy Moonlight.”
After I parted ways with Aldrich, I went to see my parents.
My parents had to leave in advance to give a speech at the festival, which meant I had to go alone.
“Keep in touch with the guards at all times,” my mother said worriedly. “Every year, a small accident will occur during the carnival parade. If you meet a drunkard or a hooligan, don’t tolerate it. Order the guards to beat them up!”
I realized this was an excellent opportunity, so I said, “I’ll be with my friends. Maybe Sir Aldrich can accompany us? He’s a valiant soldier. With him here, we’ll be very safe.”
As my father’s right-hand man, Duke Frank would be by my father’s side on such an important occasion. It was too pitiful for Aldrich to be alone. It wouldn’t be too suspicious if I asked him along with my friend.
As expected, my parents agreed.
So I immediately contacted Aldrich and told him that we could go out hand in hand openly.
He couldn’t refuse the surprise, so Aldrich and Duke Frank came to the palace together and naturally stayed by my side.
Due to the festival, the palace, which had always been in good order, became jubilant. The servants had a day off, and all of them were dressed up.
Along the way, we met many ‘servants’ and ‘incarnations’ of the Moon Goddess. They were all amazed by the handsome ‘shepherd’ Aldrich. Honestly, I was a little jealous but also a little proud for some reason.
“So many people are looking at you. They must have thought that the legend has come true.” We sat on the sofa in the bedroom, sharing the same glass of wheat juice. “Aldrich playing ‘Aldrich’, who can say this isn’t a beautiful coincidence?”
Aldrich looked at me affectionately and said, “Thousands of people pay attention to me, but they are nothing. Only the moonlight can stay in my heart.”
“You’re really into your role today.”
I admitted that I was bewitched and unknowingly gave him a passionate kiss.
After the kiss, I finally realized I had applied a bright silver and transparent lip gloss.
“Oh no, my makeup!” I grabbed the mirror, and, as expected, my lipstick was smudged.
Aldrich’s lips were now brightly colored.
“It’s my honor.” He gently wiped the residue from the corner of his lips. “To be able to taste the moonlight.”
Moon Goddess! How could someone say such sweet words so easily?
My lipstick was already ruined anyway, so I didn’t care about that and kissed Aldrich to my heart’s content.
This caused me to spend some time touching up my makeup, and we were late. When we arrived at the school, the girls had already been waiting for a long time.
“Greetings, Your Highness, the goddess.”
Avril, who looked like a Valkyrie, properly bowed to me. Mara and Dorothy followed suit.
“Thank you, my dear daughters.”
I pretended to return the greeting, and we couldn’t hold back our laughter.
“Let me introduce you. This is Sir Aldrich. He will be our guard today.”
I’d introduce them to each other.
“This is Avril, Mara, and Dorothy, my good friends.”
They greeted each other. Mara and Avril were a little excited, which was not hard to understand if one knew how popular Aldrich was among the young people.
We first came to the central square to listen to my parents’ joint speech. There was nothing much to say about these traditional prayers, but since the speaker was the beloved couple, the King and the Queen, the people were very enthusiastic.
In the end, my father announced the official start of the parade. He and my mother saw me in the crowd and winked at me playfully.
The float parade started, and the excited crowd followed closely behind.
We followed behind a carriage full of irises and raspberries, singing loudly to the band. Aldrich protected us tightly from being scattered by the crowd and gentlemanly acted as a support for us to dance in circles.
The revelry team came to a snack street. We felt a little thirsty, so we rested by the soda stall.
As they drank their soda and chatted, Avril suddenly pointed at a father and daughter pair in the distance and said, “Is that the southern Duke and Carolyn?”
We followed the direction she was pointing at and saw that the southern Duke, dressed in a Roman robe, was helping the gorgeously dressed Carolyn onto a float.
“Carolyn is also involved in the exhibition? I’m not surprised at all,” said Avril. “No one else in the world likes to be in the limelight more than her.”
“The drama club’s performance at the Midnight Opera House has been canceled because of the fight,” Mara said. “So maybe she needs another stage to shine.”
Maintaining her usual detest toward Carolyn, Avril said, “The price is to push away another girl as pitiful as Chloe.”
Next to the float was a girl wearing a grass-green tutu dress, not knowing what to do. It seemed like Carolyn had replaced her.
