At noon, the sky was clear for miles, without a single cloud in sight.
Beneath the warm winter sun, Wilderness Town entered one of its liveliest times of the year.
Crowds of townspeople put on their best clothes and gathered at the banquet grounds assigned to their neighborhoods.
Nearly ten thousand people could hardly celebrate the New Year together in one place. The possibility of a stampede alone would have worried Ymira sick.
To hold this banquet, the newly appointed King's Hand had prepared more than a dozen venues, evenly distributed throughout Wilderness Town.
Each banquet ground could accommodate roughly four to five hundred people, with a large bonfire at its center.
Numerous tents stood around it, filled with wooden tables laden with all kinds of food.
The food was served in specially made, three-layer metal trays. Charcoal went in the bottom layer and water in the middle, allowing the steam to keep the food above warm.
Quite a crowd gathered before each tent, choosing whatever food they liked. Whenever a tray emptied, someone immediately refilled it, and would keep doing so until the banquet ended.
More than a dozen barrels of alcohol were scattered around each venue. Residents could choose between mead and beer, overseen by their neighborhood managers, and every guest was entitled to three large cups.
Children were not allowed to drink alcohol, of course, but honey water had been prepared especially for them.
Each venue also had a dozen or so fully armed soldiers to maintain order. Most of the time, their presence served only as a deterrent. In all these years, no one had ever caused Allen trouble at the banquet.
The residents filling the grounds ate and drank with smiles on their faces. Every so often, someone raised a cup and shouted a toast: