Watching Penny and Sam slowly walk toward him, Charlie knew he couldn’t stay here any longer.
Even if he tried to explain that he hadn’t been spying on them, he wasn’t sure he would believe it himself.
Run.
I have to run!
With that, he got ready to leave.
But first, he had to shake off the problem standing right in front of him: Lewis.
Then an idea flashed through his mind.
“Hey, Lewis, you’ve got a hickey on your neck!” he shouted, pointing at Lewis’s neck.
Lewis was startled and immediately looked down.
“How did you notice that?
I already wiped it off…
Hey, where’d he go?”
He whipped around in a panic, but Charlie was already gone.
“Hey, Mayor Lewis, where’s Charlie?”
“I just saw him!” Sam asked as he came up beside Lewis.
Lewis shook his head.
“He was here a second ago, then he vanished.”
Penny, however, noticed something else.
“Um, Mayor, why is your face so red?”
Faced with that dangerous question, Lewis simply chuckled and changed the subject with shocking smoothness.
“It’s nothing.
More importantly, you two.”
“It’s getting late.
You should both head home soon.
Don’t be late for the Egg Festival tomorrow.”
…
Back at the farm, Charlie dropped onto the steps of the little cabin, breathing hard.
“Hah…
hah…”
“I can’t believe that actually worked on Lewis,” he muttered, still a little surprised.
At the same time, he felt awful.
He had no idea how he was supposed to face those childhood friends after this.
It felt like he had just gotten himself added to some kind of social blacklist.
“Heh…
I really want to crawl into a hole.”
“I wonder what tomorrow’s Egg Festival is going to be like.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t go.
Spare everyone the embarrassment.”
Charlie sighed and raked a hand through his hair.
While he was sitting there feeling miserable, Robin noticed his dejected look from nearby.
She set down her tools and walked over.
“Hey, farmer boy.
What’s wrong?”
“You look pretty rough.”
“Uh, sorry, Robin.
I’m just a little stressed,” he replied.
Robin bent down to look at him.
“Stressed?
Did something happen?”
“You seemed pretty cheerful earlier.”
Charlie didn’t want to tell her about any of it.
He looked up, about to say something, only for his gaze to land right on Robin’s chest as she leaned over him.
His face went bright red.
I’m fine, Robin.
Thanks for checking on me.”
“I’ll be okay after I rest for a bit…”
After mumbling a quick explanation, he immediately looked away and hurried back inside, blushing with his heart pounding.
He decided to let the day end there.
He had been working until the early hours every day, so today he would just take it easy and get some sleep.
…
Saturday, the 13th
9:00 a.m.
After finishing his farm work, Charlie got ready to head into town.
It might be awkward, but he couldn’t skip the very first festival since he had come here, could he?
When he arrived, the square had already been decorated, and the first thing he noticed was a little shop stall.
He walked up to it, surprised.
“Pierre?”
“It’s a festival, and you’re still doing business?”
Pierre didn’t seem bothered in the slightest.
“Oh, farmer boy, there’s no such thing as making enough money.”
“Want anything?
I’ve got some new festival stock!” Pierre said.
“New stock?”
Now Charlie was interested, so he looked over the stall.
There really were quite a few things: Lawn Flamingos, Plush Bunnies, Strawberry Seeds, and a few other decorations.
“A single Plush Bunny costs 2,000g?”
“Pierre, are you robbing people?”
He was stunned by the price.
Then his eyes fell on the Strawberry Seeds.
“Strawberries?”
“Are these festival exclusives?”
“I definitely haven’t seen these seeds in Pierre’s shop before.”
Charlie checked the price.
100g per seed.
It was manageable, barely.
He hadn’t earned anything yesterday, and now he only had a few thousand gold left.
“Mm, fine, Pierre.”
“Give me forty Strawberry Seeds.”
Pierre smiled as soon as he heard the order.
“Sure thing.
That’s quite the purchase.”
Charlie handed over the money and took the Strawberry Seeds.
Their information appeared before his eyes.
[Strawberry Seeds: Plant these in spring.
Takes 8 days to mature, and keeps producing strawberries after that.]
After reading it, he put the Strawberry Seeds into his backpack and headed toward the Town Square.
The villagers had already finished setting everything up.
He wasn’t sure if Stardew Valley just really liked green, but everything from the tablecloths to the chairs was green.
Two tables covered in green cloth were piled with food: wine, Fried Eggs, Egg Soup, Egg Pancakes, even Chocolate Eggs…
“Uh, eggs…
eggs, and more eggs.”
Charlie really wanted to ask why every dish was made of eggs.
Eggs were a good ingredient, sure, but when everything was eggs, it was a little…
Just then, he noticed Shane nearby.
He was staring happily at the food on the table.
“Hey, Shane!” Charlie called.
Shane looked away from the food and turned to him.
You’re here?”
“Yeah.
It’s a town festival, so of course I came.”
Charlie looked at the food in front of him.
“Do you like egg dishes?” he asked.
Shane nodded.
“Of course.
Eggs are great, aren’t they?”
“To get ready for the festival, the chickens at my place have been working overtime.”
Charlie laughed.
“Then make sure you thank them properly for me today.”
Shane gave him a thumbs-up.
“Absolutely.
Tonight, I’m treating them to big bowls of corn and grain.”
After saying goodbye to Shane, Charlie went over to the trio.
As he got close, he still kept a cautious eye on Sam.
But after listening for a bit, Sam didn’t bring up yesterday at all.
It seemed like he had already forgotten about it.
Looks like I was overthinking it.
With that, Charlie finally relaxed.
Then he walked up beside the three of them.
“Hey, guys.
Happy Egg Festival!” he said with a wave.
The three of them answered right away.
“Same to you.”
Sebastian didn’t seem too fond of the festival, though.
“Same to you, I guess.
But this festival’s not that interesting.”
“There used to be a rotten egg-throwing event.
That was pretty fun, but…
Mayor Lewis banned it.”
Sebastian complained, and Charlie naturally offered a few words of comfort.
Though honestly, he thought banning a rotten egg-throwing event was probably for the best.
He didn’t want to end up smelling awful.
Sam stayed quiet the whole time.
He seemed a little out of it.
Abigail was different from the other two.
She seemed ready to join the Egg Hunt.
She looked pretty excited.
Charlie knew her personality well enough by now.
She just didn’t like boring things.
Thinking of that, he looked around.
“Speaking of events, where are those two kids?”
He looked up and finally saw the two children spinning around in circles.
When Charlie walked over, Vincent looked very excited.
“I’m bigger this year, so I’m definitely going to beat Abigail,” Vincent muttered.
Jas, standing next to him, immediately crushed that hope.
“No way.
Abigail always wins.”
Watching the two kids bicker, Charlie couldn’t help thinking back to when he was little, playing hide-and-seek and tag.
But if he tried to play games like that now, he was sure it wouldn’t feel the same as it had back then.
The thought left him quietly amused.
Being a kid really was nice…