kscans

Chapter 110 - Little One and the Seaside Forest

"What is with them, seriously."

Despite all the fuss, the Castrato brothers ended up where they were meant to be.

Little One sprawled out in the Honeybee Carriage, her eyes fixed in a stare. She sighed at the scene before her.

"So, what’s that?"

"Eh?"

Lucas turned around. It seemed that after getting scolded by Little One in the kitchen, he had stormed off to his girlfriend and managed to make up with her. He was now wearing a scarf over his head and a pair of black sunglasses. It was a bizarre getup that hardly matched his knightly uniform.

"These are all the rage in the castle town."

As Lucas flashed a grin, Little One burst out laughing.

Right, they were doing a paper-story show of Haml*t right now, weren't they?

Bufufu. Chihiro covered her mouth, her shoulders shaking, while the other knights stared intently at Lucas’s sunglasses.

"Are those not lenses?"

"They must be expensive."

"No, it’s just colored glass. Black is popular because of the paper-story show, but there are plenty of other colors like brown, blue, pink, and purple. It's just glass, so it isn't that expensive."

Little One was in stitches as Lucas explained that the pink and purple ones were also popular with the ladies.

Seriously? Oh, give me a break!

Sunglasses with a thoroughly medieval outfit were just too strange. Gufu gufu. Little One struggled to stifle her laughter.

In Frontier, where things like bottles and windowpanes were common, glass was not an expensive material. This new application, sunglasses influenced by the paper-story shows, was just another use for it. And they were even popular with the ladies.

Little One made a mental note to go see the castle town for herself next time.

"A little while ago it was the pointed hats, wasn't it?"

"Ah, all the kids were wearing them. It was cute."

That was the influence of Pinocch*o. When Little One had suggested things like angel and fairy wings with shoulder straps, they had been a huge hit, and character-related merchandise had become wildly popular on the streets.

Items teetering on the edge of becoming fond memories or cringe-worthy parts of their past.

It's one thing for kids, but you shouldn't be buying them, Lucas.

Ban ban. Little One slapped the floor as she rolled around laughing for a good while.

"My children love the paper-story and puppet shows too. Like Thumbelina. Though they cried during ‘The Tongue-Cut Sparrow.’"

Ah, sorry about that. I definitely made the wrong choice there.

Chihiro’s laughter stopped cold.

The paper-story and puppet shows mostly drew from children's fairy tales like those by Grimm, Aesop, and Andersen, as well as old Japanese folk tales. Forgetting that some of these stories were quite traumatic, Chihiro had scribbled them down as they came to mind, only realizing her blunder after they had been published and performed. Children would tear up at the cruel scenes. Some even cried out in fear, which she deeply regretted. She had rushed to have them taken out of print, but the adults had conversely recommended them as a good opportunity for children to learn about injustice and karma, so they remained.

Snow White also ends like the original story, with the scene where the wicked stepmother is made to wear red-hot iron shoes. Originally, Chihiro had ended it with the princess marrying the prince for a happily ever after, but when she casually muttered something like, "and after this, the stepmother angers the prince and gets punished," everyone got excited, saying that was more realistic, and it was added in.

I’d completely forgotten this world has a medieval mindset.

Because of magic, it was easy to get a fantastical impression full of dreams, but this was a proper medieval world. Quite realistic and cruel depictions were popular. Blood for blood. Punishment for sin. A life for a life. The more straightforward the tale of poetic justice, the more readily it was accepted.

What a new discovery.

Little One let out a sigh.

The theater would be completed in the fall, a building to commemorate the twins’ tenth birthday. She planned to invite the royal family and make a grand event of it.

I’m looking forward to it. We’ve gathered everyone from actors to staff just for this.

Theatrical plays had been performed in Kilfan until just a few decades ago. People involved back then were still alive and had been teaching them about the stage and acting. In fact, they were even more enthusiastic than Frontier and were genuinely delighted about the revival of theater. Inspired by Frontier, there were even plans over there to build a kabuki theater, which had Little One buzzing with excitement, waku teka.

Incidentally, what was once called Little One's Dance, now known as the Bon Odori, was also slowly gaining popularity. The dance, which could be performed with just a single wooden scaffold, or yagura, and didn't take up much space, had caught on as a form of entertainment for the common people. It was simple enough, as all they had to do was erect a yagura in the existing public dance squares, and the dance itself was simple. It seemed to have captured the hearts of the novelty-loving people of Frontier. What’s more, the Bon Odori could be expanded with endless variations by creating new songs. To people who only ever danced the same traditional songs every time, it must have seemed refreshingly new.

Furthermore, the paper-story and puppet shows weren't just staying in Frontier. They were being exported to Flowers and Donautil, and there was an unexpected response with inquiries coming from neighboring countries that had seen them.

Little One’s circle was slowly expanding.

It spread a lot more easily than the Golden Ring. Or maybe it went viral?

Delicious and fun are justice, Little One thought to herself. There are no borders when it comes to song, dance, and food.

And so, this time, new members had joined the Little One Squad. Molotov, eighteen years old with tawny eyes and dark brown hair. He was the first boy to apply when the call for actors was posted. Having just come of age at the time, he had been attending the academy to earn his librarian qualifications and was scheduled to work at the library in the castle town. But captivated by the potential of theater to bring stories to life, he had turned down the librarian job that was already lined up for him.

"How could a story be brought to life? I wish to see it with my own eyes and take part."

Molotov had been a boy with a still-innocent face. Now, he was a star street paper-story performer in his own right. His assistant was Farmy. She was Molotov’s younger sister and, apparently struggling to find work, had followed her brother.

As a general rule in Frontier, children were not supposed to work until they came of age. However, commoners sometimes had circumstances that forced them to work, and such cases were overlooked. If a family ran a farm or a business, children became important workers from around the time they received their Baptism. Due to this ambiguity, children working was tacitly permitted.

Originally, street paper-story shows were a form of entertainment. The performers were essentially confectioners selling sweets. The paper-story was just a bonus to attract customers. In Frontier, however, the paper-story was the main event, and the sweets were the bonus. To keep costs as low as possible, they sold thin rice crackers made from compressed mochi imported from Kilfan, with jam or paste spread on top. It was a variation of the old sauce-covered senbei from Earth.

Little One’s favorite was plum jam. They could enjoy seasonal jams, and it wasn't just sweet things. There were also liver paste, salsa, and whole-grain mustard sauces. Since the crackers themselves were plain, you could easily spread anything on them and enjoy.

These were only sold at the paper-story stalls, so they were quite popular. Even adults came to watch the shows just to eat them. By making the thin crackers exclusive to the paper-story performers, they didn’t compete with other shops. In fact, performing in front of a store served as good advertisement, and they had built good relationships.

She had brought these two along this time to promote the paper-story and puppet shows. It had been a request from Romel.

"Since you're going on a long trip anyway, do some advertising for us. The theater will be finished soon, so go make a name for Frontier."

Prince Romel had said it so casually.

Frontier was well known to its neighbors and had a reputation in distant lands, but in reality, very few people traveled to a country that was several months away. There was a strong sense that rumors had taken on a life of their own, and many places thought of it as a mysterious and terrifying nation of wizards. So, the idea was to bring something peaceful and show off the good side of Frontier. Naturally, a mountain of sweets and honey to be presented to the other countries was piled up in sealed orbs.

"It's like I'm a tourism ambassador, nyo."

"A tourism ambassador. That’s a clever way to put it."

"You will be the face of Frontier, so please be prudent, will you? .....Pants are forbidden."

Hyrulia narrowed her eyes gracefully. Her flower-like face was smiling elegantly, but her eyes weren't smiling at all.

"Uweeeh?!"

Little One trembled alone.

The Little One Squad nodded emphatically as if to say, "Of course."

With Adonis, Zack, and the others offering wry smiles, the Honeybee Carriage flew towards Castrato, their lodging for the night.

And getting caught up in trouble was, by now, Little One's default setting.♪