Two days later.
The Suflower Festival, without any strange signs, finally arrived as scheduled.
Compared to the usual serious academic atmosphere of Sumeru City, today's Sumeru City had a bit more of the relaxed air unique to a festival.
Even though the Suflower Festival did not receive support from the Akademiya, with Deena Dazed's help, many enthusiastic vendors spontaneously set up stalls at the Sabzeruz Festival and refused her subsidies.
In their words: it's a rare opportunity to celebrate Lesser Lord Kusanali's birthday, and the atmosphere is more important than money.
In fact, with the blessing of the celebration, setting up a stall at the celebration often yields three to four times the sales of a normal day. The vendors add to the festive atmosphere of the celebration, and at the same time, they can make a small profit. It's a win-win business, why not?
Although the high-ranking officials of the Akademiya looked down on the 'lowly' profession of vendors, despite their disdain, they had to grudgingly admit that Sumeru City currently needed merchants. Otherwise, who would supply the enormous daily consumption of food, clothing, housing, and transportation for the many scholars of the Akademiya and the ordinary citizens of Sumeru City?
Therefore, no matter how overbearing the Akademiya was, they could not explicitly prohibit these vendors from setting up stalls.
All they could do was target the most prominent figures at the Suflower Festival, such as the Zubayr Theater, which spread art.
However, this time, the Akademiya's tactics failed. Although they timed it to stop the Zubayr Theater's performance and announced the Art Ban.
But with the help of the Inazuma Delegation, this time they moved the performance venue from the Grand Bazaar to the Inazuma Delegation's station, thus evading the sanctions of Sumeru's laws.
Perhaps the people of the Zubayr Theater realized that this might be their last public performance in Sumeru, so they all cherished this opportunity and performed with exceptional effort.
These past two days, the people of the Zubayr Theater worked tirelessly day and night. Not only the Zubayr Theater's people, but many residents of the Grand Bazaar also spontaneously came to help. In the end, even the envoys of the Inazuma Delegation came to lend a hand.
Thanks to the stage, which consumed the most time and was already completed with Miyashiro's help, the remaining tasks of setting up the scenery, lighting, rehearsals, and notifying the audience were all completed in less than two days with the help of hundreds of people.
The only cost was that the people of the Zubayr Theater were all exhausted and passed out on the morning of the Suflower Festival, rushing to catch up on sleep. However, it wasn't a big problem, as the Zubayr Theater's festival performances always took place in the evening.
After all, the Suflower Festival's status is no longer what it once was; it can no longer be considered a statutory holiday in Sumeru. Everyone, from scholars to farmers, artisans, and merchants, has their own studies and careers to pursue during the day, and only in the evening do they have their own lives.
Among The Seven Nations of Teyvat, each country has its own festivals, and the importance of a festival in that country can be gauged by whether it's a holiday and for how many days.
For example, Mondstadt has the Windblume Festival, the Ludi Harpastum, and the Weinlesefest; Liyue has the Lantern Rite Festival and the Moonlight Merriment; Inazuma has the Hues of the Violet Garden; Snezhnaya has the Ice Hearth Festival, and so on.
Currently, the most official festival in Sumeru is the Akademiya Celebration, organized by the Akademiya.
As for the Suflower Festival, a festival where no one gets a day off, can it still be considered a festival? And who would pay much attention to it?
No matter what, this might be Deena Dazed's last Suflower Festival in her life. To ensure that she, kind-hearted but tormented by illness, had no regrets, her friends did their best.
Deena Dazed naturally knew everything that Nilou, Lumine, and Paimon had prepared for her. Therefore, she was, without a doubt, one of the most anticipated people for this Suflower Festival.
With such excitement, she still suffered from insomnia last night, which made her, already in poor health, look a bit weak, but the anticipation and excitement on her face were impossible to hide.
Early in the morning, accompanied by her bodyguard Dehya, she arrived at the Inazuma Delegation's station to wait, looking up at the huge stage prepared for her by everyone from the Zubayr Theater, lost in thought, her heart full of gratitude and emotion.
Such a massive stage was built in less than two days. She wondered how much effort her friends had put in these past two days.
Not long after, Lumine and Paimon arrived together to meet Deena Dazed.
Paimon: "Good morning, Deena Dazed, Dehya. We seem to have overslept a little, hehe."
Deena Dazed smiled gently: "No, we just arrived too early. Phew—this day has finally come. Every minute and second is as precious as gold! After that incident with the Akademiya, I thought I would have regrets. Thank you all so much."
Paimon: "No, no, thanks to Miyashiro, Nilou, and everyone else, we were able to make it. Deena Dazed, you've also put in a lot for this day. You must cheer up and enjoy it properly."
Dehya added from the side: "Hahaha, Lumine, Paimon, please accept Miss's gratitude. After she heard your news, she was so excited that she talked to me all night, which made me not sleep well either."
Hearing Dehya's teasing, Deena Dazed also swayed a little shyly: "Dehya—phew, I just hope my body doesn't hold us back too much."
Dehya patted her ample chest and said: "Don't worry, Miss, I'll take care of you. But speaking of which, your efficiency is truly remarkable. Such a large stage, built in less than two days, is simply incredible."
Paimon: "Hehe, the main credit goes to Miyashiro. He seems to have the ability to control trees. He just stomped his foot on the ground, and many trees grew out of the ground to form the current stage. All we did was set up the scenery and decorations on the stage."
Dehya was shocked to hear this: "Control trees? Just stomped his foot and built such a large stage? That's too incredible, isn't it?"
Paimon: "That's right! Back in Liyue, he once used trees to create a giant that punched Osial, the Vortex Vanquisher, directly away. I still find it shocking to think about it!"
Dehya licked her lips upon hearing this. As a mercenary from the Desert, she believed that strength was the ultimate truth. For this, she constantly honed her martial arts, eventually earning the title of "Blazing Mane Lion" in Sumeru.
But beneath her wild and rugged exterior, there was also a little woman's heart, who liked pretty clothes, was clean, enjoyed putting on makeup every day, and also appreciated men stronger than herself.
Dehya was a true beauty, and everyone who knew her agreed on this point. This appearance naturally attracted many suitors, but these suitors were eventually scared away by her fierce display.
Her reasoning was: "Why should a man who isn't stronger than me conquer me?"
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