Chapter 48: Duke Oses To prepare for the festivities, the residents had spent the last two days decorating the county seat. Festive, flowing ribbons were wound around tall poles, while bouquets of fresh flowers and baskets of silk ones lined the roadsides. The walls of the buildings on both sides of the road were painted in dreamlike, fairytale colors, and ropes strung with colorful triangular pennants stretched between the houses across the streets. At noon on the day of the celebration,…