Hi all! Reine is back in action!

First of all, we're sorry for the long update, but we hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Sooo... here we goes: RACING!

Gwen

At last, it was the first day of a new season. Many things had happened last summer, good and bad, so I just hoped nothing bad would happen on this fall.

"Gwen, Reine, are you inside?"

I quickly went to the door and opened it. Dunhill was there.

"Good morning, I want to talk to you about festival plan." he said.

I asked Dunhill to come in and fetched Reine. The three of us then sit together in the living room.

"It's a pity that both of you could not attend last season crop festival because of that unfortunate accident."

"Yeah, even though I was really looking forward to that." Reine said, looking disappointed. Last season, I told her not to go out and locked her in the studio. I myself didn't go because I found no point on going.

"Hohoho, don't worry though, I have planned a lot of festivals for this season!"

The light had returned to Reine's face when she heard the words 'a lot of festivals'. She really liked this kind of thing when people gather together. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I guessed I also wanted some form of entertainment in between the farm work.

"So, there will be Cow Festival on the 4th, Horse Racing Festival on the 21st, Foliage Festival on the 25th, and Fall Crop Festival on the 30th."

"Noted," I said as I wrote down the specified date on the calendar.

"Thank you, Dunhill!" Reine said excitedly.

Dunhill left soon after and Reine continued her work in the studio. I went out to work in the farm. Talking about festivals reminded me of a year ago, when I was still going out with Will. I remembered that I always looking forward to festival days because they were the only days Dad and Mom didn't ask me and Reine to help out their work. They were also the only days I could see Will without worrying about work or anything. I remembered one particular incident during Cooking Festival, 2 years ago.

The faint scent of cherry blossom greeted me as I opened the front door and took a deep breath. It wasn't long since I needed my coat and scarf but now the air began to warm up. Kazuki greeted me enthusiastically when he saw me entering the stable with a brush in my hand.

"Good morning, Kazuki," I said, "Today you gonna get some nice brushing."

I started brushing his mane and moving downwards to his body. He nuzzled me gently. "Aren't you a good boy?"

After I finished brushing, I realised that I forgot to bring the horse treat for Kazuki.

"Wait for a while, I'll come back soon with your treat," I told Kazuki as I walked out the stable.

BUMP!

"Ouch,"

"Are you okay, my lady?"

Okay, I just bumped into someone and fell. I didn't recognise his face. He didn't seem to be someone from this village (Well, I knew everyone who lived in Leaf Valley). He stretched out his hand to help me stand up. I gladly received his help and stood up.

"Thanks, who are you?"

Looking closer, he was quite good-looking. His white hoody and trousers didn't make him looked less noble. Still a satisfactory image of an English gentleman I guessed, especially seeing that he also had blond hair and clear blue eyes.

"Pardon my intrusion, I am William Regison. Are you by any chance Miss Gwen Kreiss?"

Why did he know my name? I just nodded to answer his question.

"I have heard about you from your father, It really is an honour to meet such a beautiful lady like you. I would like to chat more with you, but I need to attend some other business. See you and take care."

He bid goodbye politely and left. I continued on my way back to house to get Kazuki's treat. At night, when Dad had come back from his busy farm schedule, I decided to ask him about that person. He did mention that he knew me from Dad.

"Dad, who is that person who was in the farm this afternoon? He's around my age, I guess."

"This afternoon? You must be talking about William"

I nodded.

"He's one of Dad's client from the horse breeding. You remember a year ago? There was one white stallion born in the stable and he is the owner of that foal," he said, "You know, he comes from Regison family, that wealthy family from the West."

Leaf Valley was well-known for its champion horse, Black Thorn, in the horse racing world. Yes, Black Thorn was Dad's horse and after he won the race, people started coming to this village to breed their horses. Kazuki himself was one of numerous Black Thorn's foal. I remembered, half a year after Kazuki was born, a white foal was born from the same mare. He was the only white-coloured horse born in this farm (Leaf Valley's horses were mostly dark-coloured, even Kazuki's fur and mane were pure black) which was why I remembered about that foal. Soon after that foal was born, he was taken by someone. Now I knew who was that certain someone. I wonder how was that white fella doing now.

Before I realised it, it was already a bright summer day, the day of cooking festival. People were already gathering in the town square, excited about the festival that was about to happen. I didn't really want to go, but Reine entered as a contestant and she forced me to go to watch her win. Well, that was when something went wrong.

"Gwen!" Reine called me from among the crowd.

I made my way to the contestants' place and saw my sister's pale face, "What happened?"

"There's no mushroom!" she whispered frantically. "And I can't leave this place to find some now!"

"Can't you just make something without mushroom?"

She shook her head in panic.

"Okay, I will try to find some."

"I'm damn nervous now."

"It's okay, I'll be back before you know it!"

Okay, I had to find some mushrooms and gave it to Reine before the cooking festival officially started which meant I had about one hour from now.

The best mushrooms would be found near the mountain areas, so I ran there as fast as I could. I gathered some common mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms, unsure of which one she would prefer, and put it in my basket. After I felt it was enough, I ran back to the town square. I glanced at my watch, shoot, I had to reach there in twenty minutes. I didn't really pay attention to the road that I didn't realise there was a rock in front of me. I tripped and my knee hit the ground, and the mushrooms I had gathered scattered on the ground.

"Oh no!"

I quickly tried to stand up, but my knee hurt too much that I couldn't bear it. Shoot, I wouldn't make it on time.

"Gwen!"

I turned my head to find who was calling me and Will was there with Arthur. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Not exactly," I said as I tried to gather the mushrooms that I could reach back.

Much to my surprise, Will stepped down from Arthur and helped me gathered the mushroom back into the basket before giving it back to me, "Hold this tightly," he told me with a smile on his face.

"Uh, thanks."

Suddenly he lifted me up and walked back to Arthur. "Sit, Arthur," he commanded, which was immediately obeyed by the white horse. He put me gently on Arthur before he stepped on the saddle and sat behind me. With a gentle nudge, Arthur stood and began galloping back to the town square. I held my basket tightly, afraid that some of the mushroom would fall.

"Thanks, William."

"You are most welcome,"

"I thought you're already there."

"I was," he said, "but then I saw you leaving after talking with your sister. I thought there was something wrong so I followed you."

"Why?"

"Because I'm worried about your safety," he said with an awfully honest tone, "It turns out I'm right, doesn't it?"

I stole a glance upwards to his face, which was never so near and I just realised how clear and beautiful his eyes were, and how long his eyelashes were.

We arrived just nicely. I gave the mushrooms to a grateful Reine (well, she'd better be) just before the contestants were called for a briefing.

The contestants were given two hours to cook whatever they wanted to cook, as long as it fell into the Soup category. All the contestants cooked feverishly, moving in their station like an angry snake, including Reine.

After their two hours was up, the bell was rung to notice the contestants. Reine was the third to present her dish to Pierre the Gourmet (I didn't know his last name), and she presented Tom Yum Goong. Now I knew why she wanted those mushrooms and why she didn't specify what kind: Reine always liked her Tom Yum Goong to have a variety of mushrooms of the season. I just hoped she didn't put too much lime in it (she loved limes more than normal people did).

In the end, Reine did win the trophy like she had believed. She gave it to me at the end of the contest, "Because without you I couldn't have done this," she told me.

She never knew that someone else deserved her thanks, too.

William Regison. He was a nice guy, a really nice guy whom I was so afraid to lose. When he confessed his feelings, I felt like the being the luckiest girl in the world. And I arguably was: he treated me like a divine being. But, I guessed there should be give-and-take here: in this case, he expected me to do the same. He wanted me to spend most, if not all of my time with him. Well, he did come by to the farm quite often (he said he wanted to spend as much time as possible with me) and helped out, which greatly pleased Dad as he was willing to learn how to do it.

As time passed by, my ability to accept how Will wanted things to be done diminished. We started to argue, from petty things like where to go for dates to more serious things like where to settle down. Will wanted me to be a regular housewife, the kind who only needed to manage the household, but I wanted to be a full-fledged farmer.

In the end, we decided to meet in the bar and talk it over.

"It's hard, isn't it?" he said, "I love you, angel, too much I couldn't bear to be parted from you."

"I love you too, Will." I said, honestly, "But I have had a dream that I've nurtured since I was so young, long before you came into my life. I can't just give it up."

"Why can't I become your new dream? Like you are mine?"

"It's not that simple, William Regison." I said, "As much as I want it to be, I guess."

"'I guess'?"

"Yeah," I murmured as I stirred my glass absent-mindedly.

"Do you not want to be with me anymore?"

"I do!" I replied, "But I can't give up on being a farmer!"

He didn't say anything back then, and I decided to take a pre-emptive strike, "Since you can't make up your mind, let me tell you my decision."

"We are done, William."

Before he could say anything, I put down some money for my drink, rose up and left. It was rude of me, of course, not saying goodbye or anything, but I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to get away from him. That was one of the reasons of my enthusiasm when Dad told us the story of his family land in his hometown and his decision to let us take over there. It was just what I needed to get away. Two days after that, my sister and I packed our things and moved out to our new lives.

Time sure passed by fast and now, it had been three seasons since I last heard about Will. Since that day, he never contacted me: no visit, no letter, nothing. I wasn't even sure he was aware of my moving out. But I guessed, it was the less hurtful way for both of us. I didn't know how I should face him if we ever bumped into each other in town; what to talk about, or even whether I should greet him. It would be very awkward.

My mind kept going back and forth while I was foraging until my eyes noticed a white horse, reminding me of Arthur, Will's horse. But I knew full well it couldn't be him, since this horse was rather young. I bet he was of the same age with Kazuki. It slightly resembled Thor, if not for their eyes (Thor's was darker).

"Gwen?"

There was a sudden hit in my heart. That voice. I would never forget it. How could I? I turned my head. Blond hair, blue eyes, a smile as charming as ever.

"Will?"

Reine

I spent my day in the studio, starting on the interior of a new house whose future occupant was, as always, yet unknown. I was pretty thrilled in working on this house since it should be a Travel Agency. After four hours straight, I guessed I needed some rest, so I took a walk to the town. Maybe I should visit Iroha, since I hadn't seen her for quite some time.

I knock on Iroha's door and she answered from inside, "Please wait!"

Soon after, she emerged from the door, I greeted her and she welcomed me in. We sat in her living room and she served me some tea and rice cakes.

"How's life? You're very busy right? You have to juggle between the farm work and renovating the houses."

"Yeah, but I guess I can manage because my sister is with me."

Iroha smiled, but then she sighed long. "Why?" I asked, "Is there anything bothering you?"

"This town... is rather empty." she said, "I saw Neil helped Hana to carry the supplies for her store. I went to help them out, but that made me wonder, how if no one was there? What would happen if she needed some help?"

Hana, the General Store's owner, often complain about her hips. What if Neil wasn't there when she needed help?

"Oh, speaking about this, have you heard that a new guy is moving into the town?"

A new person? I never heard about that.

"Is he staying in the inn?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure, but he shouldn't have a choice right? Maybe you can ask Dunhill."

Iroha was right, me and Gwen haven't finished renovating another house so he shouldn't have a choice other than staying in the inn if he wanted to live here. Well, if he wasn't one of the anomalies. This reminded me of a certain someone who didn't stay in either of them. William Regison, the freakingly rich guy who stayed in his freakingly huge yacht that was harboured at the beach.

Well, being rich didn't make him arrogant though. He was very kind to other people, especially to Gwen. I did remember that he helped me once during tough time, during cooking festival. Gwen never said anything about this, but I just knew. Well, I saw Will leaving the town square after Gwen and they came back around the same timing, how could I not guess? I thanked Will personally after the festival and he merely smiled and said something about gentleman's duty.

Okay. Not my kind of guy.

I still didn't know why they broke up, though. Gwen never told me the detail. Anyway, I feel more motivated to continue renovating the house after hearing the news. It's just nice that people moving into the town. After spending some more time with Iroha, I quickly return to the studio to continue my work. I could not wait for more people to move in!

Today was the 4th of Fall, time for Cow Festival! I couldn't hide my excitement as this would be my first festival in Echo Village.

"Gwen! Quick, let's go!"

"Huh... Okay..."

Gwen seemed to be less energetic (she was never exactly energetic, but still...) since William came into this village. Yeah, I heard the news that William Regison was the new guy moving into this village soon after Gwen went home that day. When I told her about the news, she enthusiastically answered, "That was Will." and went back to the room directly.

She was lost in thought more often as well. Something surely happened between William and Gwen, but I didn't have a say in this. This was Gwen's private life and I didn't have a right to poke into their problem. Gwen didn't say anything to me anyway. I was hoping that Gwen would rely on me more, but I guessed she was just that kind of person who didn't like to rely on others.

In the meantime, the least I could do was trying to cheer her up.

"Come on, we need to bring Remu to participate in this festival!"

Gwen smiled and nodded, but I could tell that she was trying really hard to fake her smile. We brought Remu together to the festival ground. Many people were already there, including people from other villages. This would be a fun festival and I hoped it would cheer Gwen up.

I registered with Dunhill with my name as a representative from Echo Village (considering that Gwen would not want to, especially in this state). Dunhill mentioned that this festival was to measure how close we were to our animals and we needed to perform something in front of the audience later. Quite different from other village's festival indeed. I remembered that the cow festival in my hometown didn't have this kind of performance act. I should think about what to do later in the stage now.

"Wow, Gwen, this is cool! Do you have any suggestions about what to do?" I asked her, trying to grab her attention in this crowd.

"Just do what you want."

Okay, I had enough with this. I decided not to bother her again before I got annoyed myself. I had to control myself, especially because this was the first festival I participated. I needed to make a good first impression, for our farm and for our village. If we win this, Echo Village could be more well-known among other villages and towns and more people would want to move in.

Gwen was watching Remu so I took a walk around the festival ground. I felt more nervous as I saw many good cows from other villages. All of the cows there were clean and healthy; could I really win this festival? I started to doubt myself. Calm down, I needed to calm down. Shoot, I hadn't even thought of what to do in the stage for the performance and the festival would start in one hour time. I was quite screwed.

That was the moment I saw William among the crowd. Even though he moved here like three days ago, I never met him once in this village. This would be the first time for me seeing him personally in this village. I walked towards him, I felt that at least I had to greet him for being a new resident in the village.

As I approached him, I realised that he was actually not alone. He was talking with someone and that was... Allen? The crowds prevented me to hear to their conversation, but they both had a very serious expression on their face. I sensed some drama was going on.

"Reine?"

"N-Neil?"

Oh damn it, it's this feeling again. These days, I couldn't project my voice freely in front of Neil, I wondered why.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you participating?" he asked with his usual tone.

My words were stuck in my throat. I really hated this, just why the heck I couldn't bring myself to say something?

"Hmm? Your face is red, are you okay?"

"Just leave me alone!"

"Huh?! What's your problem?"

Nice, and just when I managed to say something, I shouted at him. He was obviously annoyed at me. I didn't say anything else. He turned his back against me and walked away.

"W-wait!" I didn't know what happened to me, I just intuitively grabbed his hand. I could hear my heart beating faster every second now.

"What?"

"I don't know what to do!"

"Huh?"

"The performance."

"Oh, that. Just act natural."

"But what if Remu doesn't listen to me?" I said, exasperated.

"You know, no matter how short the time they're with you, they will recognise and remember you. Whether it'll be good or bad, it depends on how you've treated them."

I felt reassured by Neil's word. That's right, why did I start to doubt Remu? My bond with Remu wasn't limited to owner and animal's bond, we were one big family, with Gwen, Thor, Chika, Chiki, and even Kazuki (although not exactly the typical loving relationship between a horse and its master).

"Thanks, Neil!"

I bolted back to the place where Remu and Gwen were. Neil's words really brought up my confidence. Yes, I could win this cow festival. To be exact, I would!

Soon after, Dunhill commenced the starting of the cow festival. One by one, the contestants from other villages entered the stage and perform something short. At last, it was my turn to go with Remu.

"Let's do our best, Remu!" I said as we entered the stage together.

I did what Neil suggested me to do, just be myself. I ended up playing with Remu, but Remu was clearly enjoying her time and me, too. I guessed that was what was important.

Now was the time to announce the winner. I was really nervous to hear the results, I hoped we win. Dunhill soon stood up in the middle of the stage and the crowds started to cheer very loudly.

"To end up, today's festival, I proudly announced the winner is..."

Please, let it be Remu.

"Remu from Kreiss' Farm!"

The crowds started to cheer and clap again. I didn't hear it wrongly right? Yes! We won! This would be a huge step for the village to gain back its reputation and of course for Remu.

After the prize presentation (I got a new milker and some money), I was approached by Rod and Allen. Well, Rod was dragging along Neil with him.

"Congrats Reine! Your performance was the best!"

"Thanks Rod! I still have a lot more to go though!"

"Well, I guess you deserve a congrats from me, although this is only a beginner level," Allen said.

Both Rod and Allen stared at Neil, who it turn stared back at them with confusion coupled with annoyance, "What?" he asked.

"Aren't you going to say something to Reine?"

"I never said I would," Neil replied.

Neil stared at me and that feeling came back. Shoot, what should I say to him? My words were lost at the moment his eyes locked mine in that sharp gaze.

"Thanks for your advice, Neil..." I finally managed to say something.

"Oh, sure,"

I then realised that Allen had been staring at my sister who didn't seem to realise she was being stared at; she was just staring absent-mindedly at the empty air. That made me remembered Allen and William's conversation:

What were they talking about?

How did they know each other in the first place?

Well, maybe this wasn't the appropriate time to ask, so I kept it that way.

What will happen next? Stay tuned to find out!

Thanks for reading! R&R will be much appreciated ^^