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“New festival?”
“Yes. I’d like you to cooperate if possible.”
The baron brought up the proposal while scratching his head, which had turned completely white after giving up on dyeing it, during an early summer evening.
“How about increasing the number again?”
“Well, for Polka, there aren’t that many right now.”
”…Oh, right. For Polka alone, it’s only the New Year’s Festival, the Spring Festival, and the Harvest Festival.”
He began counting on his fingers.
Along with the Breakcore Beast Festival, the Selen’s biannual Spirit Festivals, the Lapaar’s Tide Festival, the capital’s Founding Festival, the Rengas’s Hero Festival, and Karlwin’s “Dragon Day,” and Granzi’s Liberation Festival, I personally feel like I’m always aware of preparations for festivals every month.
Plus, the Elf’s Spirit Temple has a unique 100,000-day calendar, so sometimes festivals happen at odd times, and I get called out on short notice. Thanks to that, my plans often get disrupted, and I end up getting scolded by Tetesu.
With all this, I’ve been so caught up in festivals that it’s starting to feel strange.
“I know it’s busy. But if you give the word, the Elves will move, and through Diane-sama, we can reach out to the Celesta.”
“Yeah, well, I get that. But what kind of festival is it?”
“It’s an art festival.”
”…An art festival?”
“Yes. I really want to make it a success.”
Currently, Polka has an artists’ circle centered around Gloria-san and Lanz. It all started when Lanz became a disciple of Gloria-san after Goat married and settled into family life years ago. Under a good mentor, with his natural focus and understanding of the female form, he’s now producing original erotic scrolls that rival professional works. Seeing this, young artists who want to become painters have emerged from among the former Karlwin residents, and naturally, sculptors like Frio, Diane-sama’s brother, and forest elves have gathered here, causing art pieces to proliferate in certain areas. Since the baron has been supporting Lanz as a patron since he started painting, he’s also been building galleries to store these works. But, well, with Gloria-san and Lanz, most of the collected pieces are nudes. It’s not exactly something you’d recommend to everyone. However, thinking about it, wouldn’t it be great to boldly promote these sculptures and other pieces along with Lanz’s works? The current era feels like traditional values are loosening up in a good way. It’s true that keeping them for just a select few would be a bit of a waste. The district where the atelier is located is filled with sculptures and murals, making it feel like another world, and it’s hard to believe this is just a hobby of some country folk—the scenery is breathtaking. The galleries are even more impressive, as they currently store Gloria-san’s works without assigning any value to them, which is hard to believe. After becoming my female slave, Gloria-san no longer has to worry about money, so she doesn’t have any desire for fame. Instead, her motivation is simply the joy of painting, which drives her to keep working at a steady pace. Despite the frequency, it’s taken a while, but she’s also had children and gathered disciples from Granzi and the northern forest, all of whom seem happy. However, the baron decided that wasn’t enough.
“Anyway, they’re planning a new art festival for early autumn. I think this is a good opportunity to hype it up.”
Nighttime.
Back at “Vapor Palace,” he gathered the girls in the dining hall and spoke of such things.
Among those gathered were female slaves with collar marks, dragons, cat beastmen who had come to play, courtesans from “Cosmos Shop,” and even an Elf woman from the northern forest.
Within the palace, nudity was allowed—mainly for Blue Dragons and a few female slaves who had been awakened to their exhibitionist tendencies—but except for those who frequently came and went, over half of the girls were basically naked all day long.
“So what are we doing? Like, standing next to the paintings as models, ‘Here I am♪’?”
“No, well, that might actually be effective in its own way, but it’s not exactly what I’m talking about.”
While feeding two of the girls, Cosmos-san casually said something bold. In fact, many of the pieces Lanz has painted feature Cosmos-san, Hilda-san, and Lyra as models.
However, from a viewer’s perspective, that might be exciting, but it’s a bit different, isn’t it? It’s not exactly what you’d want to promote for an art festival.
“Anyway, there are plenty of girls here in the palace. I think it’d be good to hold something like a amateur art competition.”
“Isn’t there something like this being held in the city?”
[Translation:]
“I’ll do it, but it seems like there won’t be enough people to gather.”
Paint supplies like canvas, paintbrushes, and other materials aren’t something you can just randomly gather. Painting is a high hurdle for complete amateurs in ordinary households.
However, within this palace, such tools are easily accessible and shared, and it’s also easy to have dragons bring them from the city. It doesn’t even have to be painting—sculpting or anything else is fine. I or Jeanne can prepare the tools for that.
“Glory-san said she’d handle beginner guidance, so if anyone’s interested, feel free to give it a try.”
“Is there any kind of reward?”
Oregano raised her hand and asked. Nearby were Laurel and her family, and of course, they were all naked.
“A reward… let’s see, how about this.”
I scratched my head and thought for a moment.
And then…
“I’ll give everyone this as a participation prize. One Andycoin. All of you.”
I snapped my fingers.
It was a “reward ticket” I’d made to mimic the “Isabel Coin” from Cosmos Shop. Using it would either let me request a handmade gift or have one of the dragons take me somewhere I wanted.
…Originally, there wasn’t going to be an option for being taken by a dragon, but Emma suggested and implemented it to lighten my load. The usage rate isn’t particularly high, but it does happen occasionally. The most frequent user is Naris.
As for “gifts,” they could be things like a few hours of dates. Though even those tend to turn into something more intimate quickly, since if I’m just aimlessly wandering around, the group tends to gather and end up playing together, so requesting a one-on-one date is now quite rare and considered a special privilege.
It’s not exactly a reward that seems like it’d make everyone happy—especially the non-slave girls—but given how much I’ve improved my skills over the years, even the courtesan girls can enjoy themselves thoroughly when I focus and attack. It’s been well-received by them.
After working hard with Hilda-san, Cosmos-san, and Glory-san for over a decade every night, my skills have definitely gotten better. They’ve gotten better.
“So, if you win… what would you like? I’ll make something special.”
I declared it all vaguely, wondering if that would dampen their enthusiasm, but the girls were already whooping with excitement.
Am I really that highly regarded? Even as a craftsman.
…But then…
”…If you win… could you make a baby? For real?”
It was Maya who hesitantly asked. Of course, she was also naked.
”…I’ll consider that too, but we do that already, right?”
“More than just a couple of times and ending it—like having sex dozens of times until you get pregnant.”
”…Okay, I’ll think about it.”
I was about to add that since there are kids around, we shouldn’t talk about such things too much, but the excitement had already drowned out any objections.
…Is that what everyone wants?
Well, it’s true that here in Polka, things like that heal quickly, so it’s not a big deal.
The children who usually stay in the palace are basically those who can remember from around age four or five. Anyone older than that moves to live elsewhere. Girls like Jeanne and Selen who stay with the Smysm family are also here, but most of the slave girls now have their own homes. Most live with their mothers’ families. The non-slave girls… well, they eventually return to their home countries to be raised. Most of them don’t have the resolve to completely cut ties with their homeland even though they’re involved in such things. By the way, even some of the courtesan girls from Cosmos Shop have ended up having babies by me without warning. It’s like they just casually mention it after a fight is over. I’ve accidentally gotten involved with the oldest one—Felicia-san, the white fox girl—who had a child. After that, whenever young girls try to seduce me, I make sure to confirm whether or not it’s my child. “I’d rather keep my daughter away from such things.” “It’s fine as long as it’s not forced, right?”
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[Translate] “You’ve got a good sense of style. Don’t slack off. If you pull this kind of trick in the competition, people will laugh at you.” [Respond] “Yeah, yeah. …So, if I win, can you bump my allowance?” [Ask] “What would you even spend all that money on?” [Respond] “Well… it’s none of your business, okay?!” My son stammered shyly. Hmph, did he think he could fool me? In this Polka, there aren’t many ways for kids to spend money. He’d probably just buy a souvenir from the traveling merchants and give it to his girlfriend. [Comment] “If you win, that is. Even though everyone’s amateurs, there are elves and dragons here too, so it won’t be easy.” [Respond] “Heh. I don’t think I’ll lose to anyone but Mom.” I felt a little uneasy about my overly confident son. Was he being spoiled too much? By the way, the reason for his allowance request was revealed later—it was because of that time Cosmos-san and her prostitute were showing off their bodies in the palace, and when I tried to sneak a touch, they said, “If you wanna do something naughty with us, you’d better bring some money, right? ♪”
And then, about a week later…
The girls from the palace started going out to sketch and other activities, and Polka suddenly became an artsy town.
[Comment] “This is a good opportunity. Polka is a nice town, but it lacked this kind of cultural vibrancy.”
Christie narrowed her eyes as she watched the artistic boom, with locals and the stationed crossbow corps joining in.
Now that she mentioned it, I could see her point. While people were healthy and beautiful thanks to the holy spring, the town was lacking in design flair.
…Though part of that was because Gloria-san, the lead artist, only painted erotic stuff.
And amidst all this, there was Elenia earnestly painting scenes from the forest.
[Respond] ”…Eh? Elen? You’re getting an allowance bump too, right?”
[Ask] “Allowance? There’s no way to spend it here. Wait, did you start this idea, Peter? Or was it Claudius?”
Claudius is Hilda-san’s child. He’s about the same height as Peter now.
While Peter is a bit of a wild kid, Claudius is more reserved and tends to cling to his mother, soaking up her maternal love.
[Comment] ”…Don’t you have any reward requests?”
[Respond] “I do, but I’ll say it if we win.”
Elenia said this while painting with a stern expression.
…I couldn’t help but think she looked cute with that serious profile, thanks to my doting parent syndrome.
And as I watched Elenia like this for a while, I felt strangely satisfied and thought maybe I shouldn’t bring up my unnecessary worries.
It’s possible that Elenia coming to the palace and wandering around half-naked, or trying to touch me all the time, is just because she lacks shame about being naked due to her environment. Maybe it’s because she wants to be more dutiful or clingy as a daughter.
Yeah, that must be it. The fact that Selen, my mother, is oddly lenient on incest is probably just a coincidence.
And then, the art festival began. People from Grange, the north, Celesta, and Rengafang all gathered, taking advantage of the opportunity to enjoy the paintings and sculptures placed throughout the town. …Though, as expected, the works by Gloria & Lanz, the master and disciple, were only about 20% of what was displayed outside. Still, their quality made sure they captivated the viewers, leading many buyers to the gallery, so it could be considered a success. And then, the main event at the baron’s mansion. The work chosen as the grand prize… was Elenia’s “Statue of Scales.” She gathered dragon scales and created a miniature dragon statue. Some thought it was too much of an unfair advantage to give the grand prize to this, but since it wasn’t explicitly forbidden, they decided not to exclude it, and it won.
Though silver and gold went to others, “The Lonely Tree” by Elenia barely made it into the bronze category.
[
] …I begged for forgiveness and managed to get her to let it slide for just today. I-I don’t want to be hated. If Elen hates me, I’ll die. …It might not last long.