74. Return in Glory
74. Return in Glory
Even under Ceres's furious, unrelenting assault, the broad grins never left the faces of the party.
No matter how many times she hit him, Ceres was taking the worse end of the trade—and in the midst of that absurd mismatch, the group crossed the border and headed for the capital of the Hyphen Kingdom.
After a brief ripple, they arrived on the other side of the portal, where wooden buildings that seemed to live in harmony with nature welcomed them.
As befitted a city of elves, there was little sign of lime or concrete—only structures built from wood.
Even the roads were made not of stone but of packed earth, to the point I started wondering if elves had some kind of aversion to stone.
The moment they reached the capital, Ceres took off her shoes.
Nikolai, who caught sight of this, voiced his confusion.
"What are you doing?"
"What do you mean, what am I doing? You walk barefoot on earth."
"Huh?"
As Nikolai stood bewildered by her confident declaration, she placed herself at the head of the group and began strolling barefoot down the road.
At this, Nikolai and the rest of the film crew, assuming it was elven culture, moved to take off their own shoes.
But Allen and Pia stopped them.
"Forget it. Elves don't have a custom like that. They wear shoes too."
"Ceres is probably trying to get revenge. The dirt roads in elven cities aren't soft enough for shoes to damage them, so don't worry—keep them on."
"Well, they are soft enough that walking barefoot won't hurt you. And actually, plenty of tourists go barefoot because the sensation is so interesting, so what Ceres said isn't entirely wrong."
As Allen and Pia took turns explaining, the group began sheepishly putting their shoes back on.
They were a little curious about the soft dirt roads Allen had mentioned, but it felt like a waste to walk right into Ceres's trap.
They could experience the feel of the earth under their feet at any time during their stay in the city anyway, so for now they chose to keep their shoes on.
"Tch."
Ceres clicked her tongue once and put on the shoes she'd been holding.
And as arranged beforehand, she took the lead as their guide while the group followed slowly behind.
*
Ceres gave them a tour of the city in a highly systematic order, as though she'd meticulously prepared for this.
She began her guide with pride, clearly determined to show her companions the greatness of the elves.
Her triumphant, confident attitude chipped away little by little as the tour went on.
- The city where Magical Mari's protagonist, Celestia Claudius Diaporos, was born and raised!
- The forest where young Miss Claudius played as a child!
- The training ground where Magical Mari honed her skills!
Every place steeped in her memories, every tourist attraction she knew, everywhere she went.
Magical Mari could be seen all over.
It had been fine right after they'd crossed through the portal.
Aside from the occasional magical-girl-esque outfit, the capital was an ordinary elven city.
But the farther they moved from the district with the portal, closer to the district that held Celestia's family home, the thicker the scent of Magical Mari grew.
The street where Celestia was born had apparently been fully committed to marketing Magical Mari as a tourist commodity—everything there was Magical Mari.
The girl who beheld her transformed hometown froze on the spot.
"..."
"Hey. Didn't you come back to your hometown over summer break?"
Finding her reaction strange, I asked Celestia.
She massaged the bridge of her nose and offered what barely qualified as an excuse.
"I got word about it back then, but I had no idea it would turn out like this."
"Aha. So it was still under development."
Of course she wouldn't have known, since the finished product wasn't out yet.
While Ceres was in a state of mental corruption, coughing up blood in a corner of the street, Nikolai tapped my shoulder.
"Boss. Doesn't this look familiar?"
"You mean Baker Street?"
"Yes. You know it."
Of course I did.
The street that had become the backdrop for Charlotte Holmes and was now the eternal holy land of Sherlockians.
That street was now unfolding before our eyes in a different way.
"Wow~ The street where Magical Mari was born~"
"I said cut it out!!"
When I teased Ceres in jest, she gave me a delicious reaction.
Pia, who'd been enjoying the show, quietly approached me, looped a red thread around my finger, and whispered through telepathy.
[Would you happen to want a John Street too, Allen?]
[Haven't really thought about it, but I'll let you know if I need one later. Probably would be best after we shoot John 3.]
[...Didn't the John Armstrong Series end with 2?]
[Details are spoilers, so it's a secret.]
Pia's eyes spun in circles.
She seemed flustered that such a major secret had popped out of my mouth so casually, but of course I'd only told Pia this because it was Pia.
The Puppet Duchess was excellent at keeping secrets, so I could trust her with this much.
[This is a secret from Leon and the Emperor too. I'm only telling you because I trust you.]
[Hehe... No matter what happens, I'll keep it strictly confidential!]
Even through telepathy, I could feel her good mood—probably because our collection of secrets just for the two of us had grown.
Then Pia suddenly turned her head, as if something had occurred to her, and looked toward Diane.
After exchanging glances with Diane, she turned her gaze back to me.
With an oddly triumphant expression on her face.
In contrast, Diane wore a slightly displeased look.
"Alright. Let's get moving again."
Fearing the two might start something if left alone, I resumed the tour to clear the air.
With the not-yet-fully-recovered Celestia at the front, we began our tour of Baker Street—no, Ankura Street.
*
People adapted to anything, and Ceres gradually grew accustomed to the street.
By the time she had grown used to a street that praised Magical Mari every five steps, Celestia's final destination was her family home.
Just as Diane had done back in Duke Karamzin's territory, there was no particular reason to refuse Ceres's invitation.
The Claudius Mansion was a little small for the home of a senator's family.
It wasn't that he was frugal; unlike humans, for whom the concept of territory was directly linked to power, the size of a mansion wasn't a particularly important factor to elves.
Calling it “a little small” only meant it was small for a senator whose status rivaled a count; it was still large enough to accommodate the entire club.
Ceres told the group to look forward to elven hospitality and pressed the mansion's doorbell.
Ding-dong
I'd assumed elves would use some kind of nature-friendly doorbell, but the chime was exactly the same as my own house's, and I couldn't help but let out a quiet snicker.
Soon, a woman's voice that I assumed to be Celestia's mother came from the other side of the door.
[Is that you, Ceres?]
"Mom, I'm home~"
[You're a little later than you said.]
"Something came up during the immigration inspection."
[I see. You must be hungry. I'll open the door right away.]
With her mother's words, the front gate opened.
And as the mansion door opened, a woman who was the spitting image of Ceres welcomed us.
"Oh my. Are you Ceres's friends? Come in, quickly. I've been waiting for you."
Madam Claudius greeted us warmly.
But not a single person in the group could respond to the lady's bright smile.
Even Ceres, upon seeing her own mother's appearance, could not share in the affection of a long-awaited mother-daughter reunion.
"Mom... what is this...?"
Ceres pointed a trembling finger at her mother.
A flowing dress adorned with frills
A sparkling brooch on the chest
Fluttering, ribbon-trimmed arm sleeves.
An outfit we'd seen all year long, one we couldn't possibly fail to recognize.
It was a Magical Mari cosplay.
As everyone stood speechless from the sudden shock, the lady brought a finger V up beside her eye and answered Ceres.
"You and I look exactly alike, don't we? And since you said you were coming with the film crew, I thought I'd have my accuracy judged as well."
"Mom!!!"
"Oh my. Why are you shouting, child? So, which one of you is Priest Price?"
"Uh... that would be me?"
Caught off guard by the lady's sudden question for me, I awkwardly raised my hand.
"So, in your opinion, how accurate is it?"
"Don't say it! I'll kill you if you do!"
Ceres grabbed me by the collar and shook me back and forth.
As Ceres rattled my head around, I chose my words as carefully as possible so that neither mother nor daughter would be hurt.
"I could believe you were Mari herself, Madam."
Satisfied with my safe answer, the lady guided us into the mansion.
Perhaps sensing that I'd let it slide without scheming to tease her for once was cause for unease, Ceres asked me bluntly.
"What's with you? What are you plotting now?"
"I'm not plotting anything. I swear on my films—I won't tease you inside this mansion."
"....Why?"
"Because this hits too close to home."
Normally, her reaction would have been too delicious to resist and I would've started scheming how to tease her, but as a son with a mother in the Dina Knights, I simply couldn't bring myself to mock Ceres when her family was in this state.
Nikolai, who'd likely had a similar experience, had worn an unbroken smile the entire time we strolled the streets, but now his face had turned gravely serious.
The rest of the group also hadn't had their brains so pickled in dopamine that they'd lost all sense of decency enough to make fun of someone's mother cosplaying as a magical girl.
Before entering the mansion, I patted Ceres on the back and whispered to her.
"Hang in there."
"...Thanks."
For the first time since entering the Hyphen Kingdom, Ceres rediscovered a sense of camaraderie.