Zabuton and her kin were not going to participate in the Outside Parade.
She had been adamant about sitting this one out. Her reasoning was that if beings feared by the public showed their faces, it would only lead to trouble. It was true that people in the Demon Kingdom were terrified of Zabuton and her children—which was a shame, really, considering how cute they were.
Still, if Zabuton said no, then there was nothing to be done. Or so I thought, until about half of her children staged a protest. They flopped onto their backs in front of her, flailing their legs in a desperate plea to join. It was adorable.
Even Zabuton seemed troubled by the display, but she didn't budge. Rules were rules. I was impressed by her resolve, but it turned out she wasn't entirely immune to her children’s charms. Claiming it was important to oversee the costumes of the other participants, she eventually gave them a tacit blessing to accompany the group—provided they remained hidden.
In other words, they could go as long as they stayed inside carriages where no one could see them.
The spiderlings were overjoyed. After expressing their gratitude to Zabuton, they immediately set to work building something. I watched, wondering what they were up to.
It was huge... a spider costume? It was stylized and quite charming, but it was actually larger than Zabuton herself. Its shape wasn't modeled after her, though, but rather after the tall one, Makura. They had even reinforced the inside with wooden boards to help it keep its shape.
Were they really going to join the parade by hiding inside that thing? Oh, look at that—they could move the legs quite skillfully. They must have rigged up some kind of internal gimmick to operate the limbs. Impressive.
But was it safe? It looked like there were nearly a thousand of them packed in there. I worried the ones at the bottom would get crushed.
"Make sure you leave yourselves plenty of room," I warned. "Only put in half as many as you have now. Cramming yourselves in like sardines is a bad idea. It's fine if you have to build a few more costumes."
I also suggested they stay still. While a moving costume wouldn't necessarily look out of place, it might attract curious children. Since Zabuton had gone through the trouble of giving them her blessing, we needed to make sure they weren't discovered.
Thankfully, they seemed to understand.
We decided to transport the costumes on carriages—one per costume. I figured Village Five would have plenty of roofless carriages we could use, so I told the spiderlings I’d handle the arrangements with Yoko. I was the Village Head of Village Five, after all.
That night, however, when I asked Yoko to secure the carriages, she gave me a look of pure bewilderment.
"What is it?" I asked. "Is there a problem?"
"N-no... I simply didn't think the Village Head was aware of the current state of affairs in Village Five," Yoko stammered.
Well, I had been busy in the fields lately. Had something happened?
"Ah... regarding the Outside Parade," Yoko explained. "Participants from Village Five will be joining the procession as well."
That made sense. Since I was participating as their Village Head, it would look poor if the entire group consisted only of residents from the Village of the Great Tree. I had felt bad about the extra work, so I’d left the selection process to Yoko, who in turn had delegated it to the Village Council.
"Indeed," Yoko continued. "I had decided that fifty participants would be sufficient to maintain the balance of the parade and left the rest to the council."
Fifty seemed like a reasonable number to me.
"The Village Council shot back, demanding two thousand—or at the very least, five hundred."
"Two thousand?" I repeated, stunned.
"I thought that number was excessive, so I checked with the Demon King... but he said it was perfectly fine. Thus, we've moved forward with a contingent of two thousand. Consequently, every available carriage—roofed or otherwise—has already been claimed."
I had no idea things had escalated that far.
"Yes. And though I said two thousand, that number will likely grow. The spectators will almost certainly try to move along with the procession."
That sounded like a logistical nightmare in the making.
"Because of this, the idea of the parade finishing in half a day has been scrapped. We should expect it to take at least two days."
"Two days? But aren't we using the Teleportation Gates? The actual distance shouldn't be that far."
"That would be true if everyone were disciplined and followed orders," Yoko said with a sigh. "But these people are in a festive mood. Alcohol will be involved. I cannot be optimistic enough to believe their movements will be smooth."
When she put it like that, I had to agree. It wasn't as if thousands of people could walk through the gates simultaneously. It would take time.
"Wait, if it's going to take more than two days, won't we need to provide meals for everyone?"
"I'm already making those arrangements," Yoko assured me. "Food and drink aren't an issue, and I'm having temporary washrooms built as well, but..."
"Is there something else?"
"The stalls. Merchants are fighting over the best spots to catch the parade spectators, and the competition has become so fierce that the Security Team is starting to panic."
"I see..."
"The Village Head should proceed as normal," Yoko told me. "Just... please make sure to offer the Security Team some words of appreciation once this is all over."
I promised her I would.
In the end, I failed to secure any carriages. I’d reached out to the Goroun Company as a last resort, but even that didn't work. It seemed Shashato City was also struggling to find enough carriages for the festivities. Michael-san had offered to divert the carriages his company intended to use for the parade over to me, but I turned him down. I only wanted to borrow them if they were spares; I didn't want to disrupt his own plans.
Instead, I asked him for carriage wheels and axles. Since those were consumable parts, they were kept in much higher supply than the actual carriages. I managed to secure quite a few.
With the wheels and axles in hand, all I needed were the bodies. I could probably manage to build some simple, roofless wagons myself. Since they only needed to carry the spider costumes, basic handcarts would do just fine.
I’d have to wait until my field work was finished to start, of course. I considered asking the Mountain Elves for help if they were finished with their current project, but then I remembered their habits. If they got involved, they would undoubtedly "demon-modify" the wagons into something unrecognizable.
It was probably safer to do it alone.
Village Head: "I'll just do it myself." Zabuton's Children: "We'll help!" Village Head: "You guys... thank you."
Zabuton: (Watching silently, wishing she could help, but swamped with costume work.)
Village Head: "I'm definitely doing this alone." Mountain Elves: "Has our credibility crumbled that much?"
Civil Official Girls: "So, how many carriages did your project end up combining into?" Mountain Elves: "Still seven." Civil Official Girls: "Is that so? But you're still working on it, aren't you?" Mountain Elves: "Yes. We're currently attempting a humanoid transformation... Hehehe, it's going to be bipedal!" Civil Official Girls: (Staring blankly, not understanding the purpose of a walking carriage but choosing not to ask.)