“At least tell me your name!”

“Don’t sweat the irrelevant stuff, hahaha!”

Astolfo grabbed Joanich’s hand and pulled him along as he marched into the heart of the festival. While Joanich grumbled from the back. Their first destination became the mirror exhibition right around the corner.

Astolfo ran right up to the vendor selling tickets near the entrance and brought entry for two. As he saw Astolfo paying the money for him too, Joanich let go of the small resistance he was putting up and willingly got dragged by Astolfo. Even if he had resisted in full, it would’ve been useless, he had already tried and the boy dragging him hadn’t even noticed.

“Woaaah!” Astolfo exclaimed with glimmering eyes.

As the two stepped inside a long passage, the mirrors around them exhibited the illusory scenery of rapidly changing night and day in a grassy field. Imbued with mirror magic, the scenery would sometimes zoom into the moons or display a myriad of suns in the sky.

“So you can do this with mirror magic…” Joanich muttered blankly while his feet stayed next to Astolfo’s.

“Mirror magic can’t make these images, you know?” Astolfo shrugged. Then, with a wide grin and condescending eyes, he turned to the young knight and began his sermon. “While magic has a wide range of applicability, it can’t change the inherent properties of what it is interacting with. Mirrors reflect, magic can’t make them stop reflecting or emit light to create a scenery like this.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Basically, they are using another magical or mechanical device to change the scenery, likely through something like a prop, and are giving us the illusion of realism by changing the way of reflection and retraction.”

Astolfo ended his speech with a scoff and prideful flick of his hair while Joanich continued wondering what he was even on about.

Soon, the pair reached the end of the passage that had continued to get narrower and stepped into a completely dark spot with a white door in front of them. Beyond the door, in a brightly lit space, was a small box of mirrors. Left, right, front, back, reflections everywhere.

“Woaah!” Once again, Astolfo’s eyes glimmered as he stepped into the box-like place.

He tapped the mirrors on his left and right and then reached for the one in the front, but that mirror was a bit too far. Astolfo walked further ahead and found a continuing passage on his left.

“Hey!” he shouted. “It’s a maze! A maze of mirrors!”

Joanich’s eyes widened as he followed Astolfo, who smiled and ran to his left just to crash head-on into a mirror.

“Ack!”

“H-hey, are you alright?” Joanich asked. Astolfo gave him a wry smile and said he was fine. Suddenly, Joanich nodded with determination and put on a serious glare on his face.

“This place is dangerous! I shall escort you out of here.”

It was Astolfo’s turn to tilt his head in confusion. By the time Astolfo could understand what was going on, a couple had come up from the turn behind them. Joanich turned to them and spoke up without missing a beat.

“You two, you must be scared. But worry not, I, Joanich, an aspiring knight am here!” With armor larger than his body, Joanich looked splendidly unreliable while saying that. “Now, all of you, form a single file. I will navigate through these dangers and lead you all to safety.”

The newcomer couple was completely taken aback by this sudden turn of events. Astolfo apologized to them with slightly red cheeks before smacking the young knight’s head with a knuckle of justice.

“You are just bothering others, shut up,” he said with gritted teeth and dragged him away.

The still embarrassed Astolfo made quick work of the mirror maze and after passing through another display of mirrors that reflected them in weird ways, like giving them horns and wings, the two children made it out of the exhibition with a satisfied smile.

“Well, that was fun,” Astolfo said.

“But, friend, you really do react at everything.” Joanich tilted his head. “You act all cool, but you are just a country bumpkin, are you not? Going all ‘waah’ at every turn.”

Astolfo’s smile twitched at Joanich’s remark. “What did you say, you dumb knight? What was that whole ‘I’ll guide you’ act back there? Were you planning on starting a circus inside a maze?”

“How rude! I was only acting for justice.”

“Oh yeah? And who says I am a country bumpkin? I was just acting like that because I was impressed!”

“Really now, friend?”

“You know what? Let’s go someplace else. I bet you’ll make a clown of yourself again,” Astolfo challenged with a haughty gaze.

“Alright! Let’s do that!” The young knight answered back.

And so, the two set off to visit all the places around. Astolfo awed in the face of talking plants and self-playing instruments, while Joanich lashed out in the face of carnival games. The two were fully immersed in the festival and soon forgot about their earlier argument.

When they came across people arguing, Joanich would step in without a thought, and when a peddler almost scammed Astolfo off of his money, the young knight scared him away. Astolfo happily dragged the hardheaded boy around, letting him loosen up and have some fun.

The young knight and the redhead were moving around, slightly tired from the numerous events they had seen yet excited about what to see next. Joanich’s eyes caught the sight of a crying little girl a little away and he rushed to her side in an instant.

As he saw the same thing happening for the umpteenth time, Astolfo sighed. “What a busy guy,” he muttered to no one and instead of waiting around, followed him to the girl.

The girl who was confused and scared by the strangely dressed man was crying even louder. With a few magical parlor tricks, Astolfo managed to make her smile again. The two found out that she was separated from her parents, and after a short search, managed to reunite them.

“Hah, you saved me there, friend,” Joanich said with a sigh of relief.

Astolfo hummed lightly as the two continued walking through the festival again. “It feels good to help someone, huh?”

“It does, doesn’t it?”

“Say, young knight.” Astolfo turned to face Joanich. “Why are you so adamant about acting like a knight?”

The young knight remained silent for a short while. Sensing a story behind him, Astolfo decided to shrug the matter of and not push any further, but the young knight spoke up before he could do so.

“It’s because… When I am a knight, my identity, age, or abilities won’t matter. Only my valor as myself, that will make me who I am.”

The unexpected words put a wide smile on Astolfo’s face. He turned away from the knight again and stepped forward and the young knight followed along.

“Astolfo,” he said.

“Yes?” Joanich asked.

“My name, Astolfo. I have seen you today, Sir Joanich.”

Joanich’s face bloomed into a smile as he nodded his head with an “Uh hn!”

“Well then, young knight!” Astolfo grabbed Joanich’s hand. Instead of resisting, Joanich gladly resigned himself to Astolfo’s guidance. “I also wish to see the central circle! Let’s go!”

The redhead and the young knight had much more left to explore.