Starry Festival

Starry Kingdom, Sword Flower University, girls' dormitory. Sonia stood with one foot on a chair, pulling her black stockings up from her ankles past her knees, then securing them with garters, pressing into her athletic thighs with a sweetly enticing fullness. She clipped a spring sword onto the strap. This was the easiest bladed apparatus for a sword sorcerer to carry; with a quick flick whenever needed, it extended into a regulated blade with a 1.2-meter edge, capable of serving as a casting medium for almost any sword sorcery spirit. Although Sonia could also afford a spatial ring, her space faction was currently only at the Gold rank, and the speed of retrieving an item from spatial storage depended on whether she had crafted the item herself, its size, and the quality of the spatial storage device. In simple terms, it would take her at least one full second to pull a weapon from a spatial ring, whereas drawing the spring sword from her thigh took a mere 0.3 seconds. Even if a 0.7-second difference wouldn't typically make much of an impact, the village girl preferred the peace of mind that came with having something tangible in hand. Besides, keeping everything in a spatial ring was a dangerous habit; quite a few spatial miracles could completely seal off spatial items or even shut down spatial leaps. Daidalos had mentioned that there was a sorcerer in the cult whose Sanctuary was known as "Boundless Hell." It could expand up to a hundred meters in radius. Within it, not only could she teleport freely, but all spatial sorcery spirits were suppressed; if an enemy forcibly invoked a spatial miracle, they would suffer a severe backlash, while she could strike at enemies within the Sanctuary with effortless ease. To delve into such a high-difficulty sorcery faction as space to this degree meant she had long since entered the legendary domain. However, the Four Pillar Cult had foreseen the coming of the "Ruby Mountain Annihilation Battle," so she had deliberately held back from advancing. Nonetheless, she already possessed legendary combat prowess. Before the "Queen," the "Prime Minister" Daidalos was permitted to remain silent, but she could not lie. Thus, Sonia's understanding of the Four Pillar Cult was instantly refreshed. She had thought they were merely an exclusive private club that, despite an exorbitantly high barrier to entry, could hardly stir up much trouble—after all, people themselves were the greatest power and the greatest resource. Yet if even the Sanctuary sorcerers within possessed legendary combat power, then what she had taken over on Yaxiu's behalf was indeed an unimaginably colossal underground force. Once Sonia finished getting dressed, Adele took her and Lois by the hand, resting her head against Ingrid's arm as her roommates dragged her half-asleep out of the dorm. "How late was she reading last night?" "When I opened the door coming back at four in the morning, I heard her hurriedly pulling the covers over herself." Adele let out a nasal whine like a whistling kettle and rubbed her eyes. "It's so bright." Sonia looked up; indeed, it was extraordinarily bright. Three days had passed since the starry sky had descended. With each passing day, the starry sky grew slightly brighter, as though the stars and the earth were drawing closer together. Walking along the campus paths, they didn't even need streetlights; starlight drifted among the flowers, trees, and walkways, so bright it felt as if they were walking inside the starry sky itself. "Hello, Senior!" "Good morning, Senior Servier!" "Good morning, Swordmaster Senior!" "Morning, Servier." A few students who were acquainted with Sonia took the initiative to come over and say hello, though far more only dared watch from a distance. The village girl responded to each one. Spotting a fresh-faced female student waving timidly at her not far away, she smiled. "Morning, Nuolin. Did you get pretty and decide you're too good to greet your senior?" The girl looked as though bathed in divine grace, her face flushing bright red as she waved her hands frantically to explain. "I—no, good morning, Senior!" "No glasses today. Did you go to Perfect Starlight for vision surgery?" Sonia asked with concern. "Even with thirty-four percent off, it's still not cheap. Did you take out a cosmetic loan? Do you need me to recommend some part-time campus jobs?" "N-no, not at all." The junior shook her head repeatedly. "M-my family sold a herd of Lalafells, so I had the money for the surgery." Sonia paused in surprise, then took her hand, her expression solemn. "While I support you remaking yourself in pursuit of beauty, I never meant you should bleed your family dry. I hoped you would become self-reliant and grow step by step. Return that money to your family, and I'll lend you what you need. Don't make your parents suffer for your sake." Clutched by the wrist by the Paw-Extending Swordmaster, the junior trembled from head to toe, nodding like a chick pecking at grain as she said meekly, "O-okay, okay, but... but there's no need for you to lend me money, Senior. With the pocket money I saved up, it's... it's actually enough." Saved-up pocket money? Everyone paused, taken aback. Aside from Ingrid, all of them had been to Perfect Starlight for beauty treatments and the like, so they naturally knew this sorcerer aesthetic salon was far from cheap. Even Lois, the wealthiest of them, wouldn't dare claim her pocket money alone could sustain spending at Perfect Starlight. Sonia blinked and asked tentatively, "How many Lalafells does your family have?" "I don't know, they're everywhere." The junior blushed. "Do you like Lalafells, Senior? I can have my family send some over to you, or you can go to the Sprout Pool shop outside campus, give my name, and take whatever you like. I've already let my family know." Seeing that the village girl had yet to wrap her head around it, Adele whispered a reminder: "Sprout Pool is one of the top six suppliers of Lalafells in all of Starry Kingdom." Sonia gave an embarrassed laugh. "Then... seems I misunderstood. Sorry about that." "No, no, you were completely right, Senior!" The junior looked at the Paw-Extending Swordmaster with utter admiration. "I will be self-reliant, refuse my family's money, and work hard to become someone as outstanding as you! I won't bother you any longer, Senior. See you next time!" "Wait, hey, that's not what I..." Sonia desperately wanted to urge her to squander her family's wealth and enjoy life, but found herself unable to say it out loud. Lois was floored. "All the Lalafells at Sprout Pool belong to your family?" Sonia had thought the junior was just a country bumpkin, only for her to turn out to be a closet billionaire? Watching the girl's departing figure, Sonia felt as if she had led a second-generation rich kid astray. Students filed into Starfall Auditorium one after another. The auditorium was open-air, fitted inside with starlight refraction devices that, paired with the starry sky already bright as day, bathed the entire hall in a sea of stars. At nine o'clock, Professor Wesley took the stage. As a venerable, highly respected professor of Sword Flower, he possessed an aura that naturally commanded quiet from the students. Without unnecessary pleasantries, he cut straight to the chase: "In response to the guidelines for the 'Starry Festival' issued by the Throne Room, our university will organize multiple Starry Festival activities over the coming month. Except for a few courses, most classes will be suspended. Festival activities will be organized by class and club, and may be held across different universities. The locations will not be limited to campus grounds. Every student is required to participate in at least two activities. Performance in these activities will be heavily linked to individual credits, and next year's club and class budgets will also take the outcomes of this event into account..." Indeed. Facing the anomaly where daylight was gone and the starry sky brought eternal night, the Starry Throne Room had neither offered placating words nor debunked rumors; instead, it met the outside world's doubts with an attitude of celebration. According to the Throne Room's explanation, this was a once-in-a-millennium spectacle for the Starry Kingdom, signifying that the Divine Lord of Stars was bestowing even more miracles and blessings upon the realm. Thus, this period of starry eternal night was officially designated the Starry Festival. The Throne Room and the House of Nobles would host numerous festive events in Jialesi, and various regions were holding their own celebrations, forcefully turning an abnormal celestial phenomenon that might have sparked social unrest into an occasion where everyone welcomed a "Starry version update." To Sonia and the others who knew the inside story, they couldn't help but marvel at the Throne Room's political finesse. Calling it "turning a funeral into a celebration" didn't even do it justice; "raising prices to clear inventory" was more like it. Yet in a sense, the Throne Room hadn't lied either. If the Divine Lord of Stars truly digested the angel completely and broke through to an even higher level, then as a realm protected by the Divine Lord, the people of Stars would naturally benefit as well. One could say that the subjects of Stars were inherently aligned on the same front as the Divine Lord of Stars; even if everyone knew the truth, they would only become all the more enthusiastic about hunting down foreign invaders. As for such a trivial matter as living beneath a false starry sky—did anyone truly care?