80. Mari Episode
80. Mari Episode
With her starring episode just about to begin, I headed to the office alone with her to manage the actor's mental state.
I locked the door, sat side by side with her, and gave her time. After hesitating, she finally opened her mouth.
"My episode... are you working on it?"
"Yeah. It's coming along well. Why the sudden question?"
"No... I'm just grateful."
"?"
Soon after, Ceres confessed her circumstances.
That she had always been grateful to me for achieving what she had wanted—to make a name for herself as an elf.
But after hearing Chris's words last time and reflecting, she remembered she had never once expressed thanks for it, and she wanted to use this chance to show her gratitude.
And finally, that she looked forward to working with me going forward.
I accepted her greeting now that she had finally evolved from a pointy-ear into a proper elf.
But as if that alone didn't settle her unease, Ceres bowed her head to me, nearly prostrating herself.
"I know a simple thank-you isn't enough! I have no intention of just getting by with words after lucking into a production like this. But I'm still lacking, so..."
"Hey, hey. That's enough."
I stopped her right as she was about to spiral into negative thoughts on her own.
A lead actor doing that was very bad for the production, but more than that, I absolutely could not stand seeing a colleague suddenly enter gloomy mode.
"Who says you lucked into anything?"
"Huh?"
"You're the one who performed Mari brilliantly, and you're the one who's managed your public image well, so who lucked into what? You're a full-fledged member of Bon Voyage Studio. Not a passenger on the ship—a crew member. The helmsman, at that. If you talk like that, what does that make the rest of the staff?"
"..."
"Today alone proves it. We got a great scene because all of you played along with my ad-libs so well. No matter how good I am, if you guys can't play along, the scene falls apart. It turned out this well because you did a good job, so have some confidence."
"..Thank you."
"All right, up you get. Looks like our pointy-ears has suddenly hit menopause, doing things she never used to do."
Maybe my joke landed well, because the prostrating Ceres snorted a laugh and shot back.
"Shut up. A kid who's still wet behind the ears telling someone they're menopausal."
The two of us traded quips back and forth, then looked at each other's faces and burst into loud laughter.
The private talk ended peacefully after I stopped us, saying if we went any further it would feel like setting off a bad-event flag.
*
The day after Allen's talk with Ceres.
Allen was attending a lecture as usual... or rather,
"..."
he was not.
Normally Allen didn't doze off much in class, but the accumulated fatigue from the recent relentless pace had burst out, and he was sleeping through the day's lecture.
Ordinarily the professor would have woken him up, but since his grades were good anyway and the professor himself was a fan of Magical Mari, he didn't bother to call him out.
The lecture ended and lunchtime came, but Allen didn't get up.
Ceres, who was in the same lecture hall, stayed in her seat until all the students had left, then rose once the two of them were alone in the room.
She had just taken two packed lunches out of her bag and was about to go wake him when a group of male students surrounded Allen.
And leaning over his head, they muttered in solemn voices.
"Hill of the Blizzard" "Stolen Spring" "Indifference and Prejudice" "Ten Years of Solitude" "Adventure" "Wandering Knight" "The Puppet's House" "Sin and Vengeance"
And when the last one asked, "Have you come to your senses?" a reply came from Allen.
"Wake-up complete, hahaha."
"Pff-hahaha."
When Allen answered in a sleep-hoarse voice, the male students laughed and threw their arms around his shoulders.
They asked if he had no special plans and wanted to grab lunch together. Allen said sure and walked out with them.
And Celestia, who had been silently watching the whole process, quietly put the packed lunches back into her bag and left the lecture hall.
*
Lately I'd been juggling acting as Riv, handling contract work as a priest—actor recruitment, location sponsorship, and so on—plus script and direction reviews, and lectures on top of it all, so my body was barely holding together.
And today that fatigue had finally burst. For some reason, I absolutely couldn't keep my eyes open.
As it happened, today's episode didn't feature Riv, so I spread out a makeshift bed in a corner of the set and shut my eyes for a bit.
Napping for a few hours with the explosions the magical girls were creating as background noise.
Around when filming was wrapping up, just as I was about to open my eyes, a woman's soft, measured voice came from beside my head.
"Hill of the Blizzard, Stolen Spring, Indifference and Prejudice, Ten Years of Solitude, Adventure, Wandering Knight, The Puppet's House, Sin and Vengeance"
I opened my eyes to a squint and looked up at the owner of the voice. It was Diane, reciting that familiar incantation while looking down at me.
Wanting to play along with her prank, I readied a line too.
And finally, the line I'd been waiting for came from her.
"Have you come to your senses, soldier?"
"Wake-up complete."
She responded to my answer with a somewhat ambiguous reaction, then issued a few commands.
After I performed simple commands like raising my right arm or fetching her water, she seemed to make up her mind and brought out what she'd been hiding behind her back.
A choker.
'Uh-oh. Why is she wiping her drool?'
Just as Diane, drooling as she brought the choker toward me, reached in, I snatched her wrist and sent her flying behind me with a belly-to-back throw.
Then I mounted her on the ground, subdued her with an artistic hold, and confiscated the choker.
"Hey, you crazy woman!"
"Tch."
At my curse, Diane showed no remorse, merely clicking her tongue.
Come to think of it, I'd forgotten.
This woman was a wizard too.
She'd been quiet since our first meeting, so I'd let my guard down too much.
As I kept Diane subdued like that, her resistance gradually weakened.
Thinking she might finally be reflecting on her actions, I looked at her face.
And Diane, with a faint flush coloring her cheeks, was enjoying my submission hold.
'Ugh. Crazy woman.'
Seeing that, I reflexively pulled away from her.
Diane got up on the spot, composed her still-flushed face, and straightened her clothes.
Whether I reacted one way or the other, she enjoyed it—a ruinous damage trade. Today too, the match between Diane and me ended with her overwhelming advantage.
And as always, having failed, she shamelessly pressed on this time too.
"Put this on me."
Shamelessly, she held out the choker.
This felt like déjà vu.
The difference from back then was that this time I had no suitable means to pull a con, nor did I see any gain to be had from conning her.
So as I was looking back and forth between the choker and her, a red thread flew in and snatched the choker away.
I turned toward where the choker had flown. Pia stood there, plainly masking her displeasure with a smile.
"That's enough, Diane."
"That's mine. Give it back."
"This is confiscated."
Diane glared at Pia, then departed with a "Hmph!" and a puff of breath from her nose.
The storm had passed. As I was catching my breath, Pia approached my side.
"You'd just woken up. Were you startled, by any chance?"
"Startled, nothing. There's no way a prank like that would startle me. If I had to pick a word, it'd be more like disgusted."
Whatever part of my answer satisfied her, Pia nodded and pressed the choker into my hand.
I looked at the choker now in my right hand and asked what she meant by it.
"Why are you giving this to me?"
"Ahem, ahem.."
But instead of answering my question, she averted her gaze and only cleared her throat.
Then she loosened her collar slightly, fully exposing the neckline she usually kept covered, and kept edging closer to me.
"Just. Use your words."
"It's been hot lately. Haha..."
"?"
It was late autumn and freezing—what was she talking about?
I looked back and forth between the hesitating Pia and the choker, then alchemically reshaped the choker.
Seeing the object I handed over, she wore a bewildered expression.
"What's this?"
"A fan."
"..."
Maybe she was moved by the miraculous alchemy of turning a choker into a fan, because Pia fell silent.
Dead fish eyes came as a bonus.
I had no idea what the Puppet Duchess might do if I let this continue, so I put some distance between us and retreated toward the person who had been watching me for a while.
"What's up? Something to say, Ceres?"
When I spoke to the owner of the gaze I'd sensed even before waking, she flinched in surprise.
At my sudden question, she babbled out something incoherent. To sum it up, she was inviting everyone to dinner at her house this weekend.
I appreciated Ceres's kindness, but unfortunately, I couldn't accept her meal invitation.
"Sorry. Because of the Mari episode next week, I have to go to Dreul Stardum's hometown for a location scout. This time I'll go alone, so you guys take the weekend off and rest."
Dreul Stardum was the orc wrestler playing Scapul.
The highlight of Mari's episode was scheduled to be filmed in his hometown, so I needed to move the equipment in advance and secure the location contract.
I'd wanted to visit Ceres's house sometime since I hadn't been able to go even once after the Civil War episode, but that seemed unlikely for a while.
Perhaps disappointed by my refusal, Ceres wore a regretful expression for a moment before forcing a bright one.
Unless you were utterly clueless, you couldn't help but find that emotional drop strange.
Come to think of it, Ceres's condition had been odd ever since she came back from visiting her family home.
If I had to put it into words—like a teenager who read a book, suddenly gained some profound lesson, and was now desperate to express gratitude?
Or like a tsundere childhood friend belatedly apologizing to the friend she'd treated coldly out of embarrassment?
I couldn't describe it precisely, but it was a vibe like that. A vibe-ish vibe.
Separately from managing my lead actor's mental state, her effort to become a better person was so admirable that I couldn't help but respond to it.
"Once the Mari episode ends, finals will pass and then it's winter break, so let's all go together then. I'll clear my entire schedule for that time."
Only then did the forced smile become a real one, and Ceres spoke.
"No taking it back when the time comes, okay?"
"Of course."
My response must have been the right one, because our elf leading lady happily returned to filming.