I didn’t exactly know what a magic sewing machine would be like... But it would probably be a good quality one. It was a remnant of an advanced age, after all.
“So this thing’s in the storehouse?”
“I think so, but— Whoa!”
“Let’s go, Touya! I want it!” Linze started yanking on my arm.
Alright, I get it! Calm down, please! It wouldn’t exactly be the same as the sewing machine in the video, and frankly, I didn’t even know if it’d work well or even be there at all...
But I couldn’t say that in front of Linze, who seemed so hopeful and excited, so I let out a small sigh and silently opened a [Gate] to Babylon.
◇ ◇ ◇
“This is-a the magic sewing machine! It’s-a perfect for-a the sewing, yes! Doctor Babylon didn’t-a make this. It’s by Rosetta!” Parshe brought out a strange device that vaguely resembled a pen attached to a small spinning wheel. Was that seriously the machine?
“This-a machine uses molto tiny and precise teleportation magic to move the thread through-a space. No needle, no danger! It-a has plenty of built-in safety features as well. No risk to fingers.”
Linze tentatively tried it out, brushing the pen part against two overlapped pieces of cloth. Amazingly, sewn cloth appeared from thin air and bound the pieces together.
Wow. That’s cool... I wonder how many different applications this thing has.
“This is useful, but it takes up a lot of magic... It probably won’t be helpful for big jobs, but it’ll speed things up.”
“That makes sense to me... [Teleport] uses up a lot, after all...” Sakura nodded her head slowly, it was her spell after all. Though in my case, it never affected my magic much. Whoops.
Either way, I wondered if it would lessen the burden on Linze. We luckily had three of these devices, which meant other people with more magic could help her out, too.
I just didn’t want her using up all her magic and collapsing or something.
“I’ll be okay. I won’t overdo it. If it comes to it, I’ll use my engagement ring to tap into your magic, okay?” Linze smiled gently at me, holding up the ring on her left hand as if she’d been reading my thoughts. I was glad she was thinking of her health.
“We’ll be able to finish in time for the show... That’s good...”
“When’s the show, anyway?”
“Day after tomorrow... With just Linze it would’ve been impossible...”
It seemed that Sakura’s mother, Fiana, had prepared a lot of events at the school on that day. One of them was going to be a puppet show. It seemed to be an event for children, even kids who didn’t attend the school were allowed to come by.
“There were puppets at the school, but they were all tattered... it was just easier to make new ones from scratch instead of fixing the old. I ended up going a little overboard though, haha...”
“Linze, you’re too picky... Nobody cares too much about the quality of the lining, we just need to be able to put our hands in there...”
“Th-There are subtle differences in hands, you know...?”
How fussy... Well, I guess that’s how artistic creators are. But I think Sakura’s right here... I don’t really care about puppet lining.
“I saw a puppet show when I was a kid... It was a lot of fun, but what I liked the most was the mascot character who showed up...”
“Mascot character...? What is that, some kind of wooden figure?”
Oh... I guess this world doesn’t have big mascot costumes... I remember seeing some of the tribes in the Sea of Trees have animal furs that kind of resembled it... But I guess it’s not close enough.
I pulled up some images on the internet.
“See? This is a mascot costume... It’s like a big stuffed toy without the stuffing, and people wear it. There are a lot of these at various events in my world.” The image I was showing was a mascot without the head part on, revealing the person inside. That kind of thing would upset a child, but it was the easiest way to explain what I meant.
“Wow... I want to see one...”
“Yeah! The children will love it!”
Huh? Wait a sec... You’re gonna make one? Hold on now, don’t go getting any ideas... Even with the magic sewing machine, it’d take too much time, wouldn’t it?
“Touya... If we make the suit... can you help us with the materials...?” Linze fluttered her eyes at me... That was unfair. How could I say no?
“I... I mean... I guess that’d be fine...”
“Amazing, Grand Duke...”
“Ahhh, thank you! Sakura, let’s use the new equipment to finish everything up right away!”
“Mhm...” We got the rest of the magic sewing machines and teleported back to the surface.
...How did things end up like this?
“Master. Would-a you like-a me to help?”
“No, don’t worry... But thanks for the offer.” If that clumsy idiot tried anything, we’d just waste a lot more time.
Alright... Let’s see... Just gotta look up the materials, uhh... styrofoam, and urethane... That’ll do.
The best equivalent to styrofoam was the innards of the Treants we’d recently killed, so we had that. The urethane could be substituted by magical beasts that had pillowy skin... That wouldn’t be too hard.
I was already thinking about what the costume might look like, but it was hard to picture. I decided to leave that kind of thinking to Linze, anyways.
I headed off to fetch the required materials.
◇ ◇ ◇
“Whoooa!! What’s this?!” Elze yelled out with joy as she hugged me through the costume.
Damnit... It’s too thick, so I can’t feel anything through it! We should’ve gone for something less fluffy!
“Whoooa! It’s a giant Kohaku! So cute!” Sue jumped up and practically tackled the opposite side to Elze. Luckily, I’d enchanted the costume with shock absorption, so it’d be fine no matter what.
The final product was a giant mascot outfit based on Kohaku. The giant bipedal result was something I’d taken to calling “Mr. Kohaku.” Though given that Kohaku was a girl, perhaps it should’ve been Ms. I hoped that this character would become somewhat of a mascot associated with Brunhild. I’d be able to move around and wave my arms in a fun way and have everyone wave back. That being said, it was hard work... I had my doubts this character would become as popular as a certain black mouse.
《My liege... What is with this strange behavior?!》
《Now now, Kohaku... Just because it looks like you, doesn’t mean it has to act like you...》
Kohaku sent me her thoughts on the matter. She seemed a bit mad.
《Fufu, I think it’ssss pretty good... It looksss just like you.》
《Come now, you idiot. It loosely resembles you. Why are you getting mad?》
《Kokuyou, Luli... You two...》
《Come on, Luli... Don’t tease her too much...》 I quickly stopped the quarreling before it turned into a full-on fight. Still, even if she wasn’t sold on the idea, this mascot would probably be really popular with kids. Sango and Kokuyou seemed to agree.
“What’s the deal with this thing, anyway?”
“Yeah, are you in there, Touya? What gives...?” Elze let go a little. She seemed puzzled.
“Ah! He can’t reply, the suit has [Silence] enchanted on the headpiece so no noise can come out... Even if he speaks, we won’t hear it!” Linze quickly explained the situation to everyone. There were a lot of mascot characters that did talk, but I wanted to cover all bases here. I figured a mute mascot would be better, because then anyone could get into the suit and play the part. It was a pretty smart decision.
“I think kids will love it.”
“Mm... We did good...” Sakura nodded to Yumina and muttered.
...Wasn’t the main feature supposed to be the puppet show?
Still, it was pretty tough... I had [Gravity] helping me out, but my movements were still restricted.
It was hot, too. I tried to use Wind magic to keep things circulating. Surely that would cool me down... But it didn’t. It was taking too long, at any rate.
Oh no... I tried to take off the headpiece but the arms of the costume were too stubby and limited in mobility. I couldn’t take it off. Linze helped put it on to begin with, so I turned to her for help again.
“Sorry... Could you take the head off?”
Oh, wait. Crap... They can’t hear me because of the enchantment... What do I do?! I tried to inform everyone that something was wrong by frantically wiggling and waving my arms. C’mon! Notice!
“...What are you doing, Touya?”
“Ah... Do you want to tell us something, Touya-dono?”
That’s right, Yae! You got it! I frantically pointed towards her.
“Ohoh! I was right, I was!”
I tried my best to point the arms of the costume toward myself in a desperate mime act.
“Pointing to yourself... So... you?”
“No, I think he means Kohaku.”
“I think he wants to see Kohaku...”
Hilde, Leen, and Lu all gave their own ideas. Come on guys, why did this turn into charades?! I spent a few more minutes gesturing like mad, hoping they’d realize I wanted the headpiece off. When they finally guessed it right, I fell to my knees due to mental fatigue. I’d been defeated by Linze and Sakura’s handiwork...
“...Grand Duke, you could have escaped with [Teleport] at any time...”
“Oh.”
Sakura spoke bluntly, and I stared blankly into space. Damn it...
◇ ◇ ◇
“Wooow! So cool!”
“He’s all fluffy!”
A barrage of children came at me from all directions. They weren’t doing any damage, but they sure were forceful...
It was the day of the puppet show, and my debut was proving popular. Well, it was technically “Mr. Kohaku’s” debut... We decided to just go with him being a guy mascot, since he wasn’t exactly meant to be Kohaku anyway. The kids were a little cautious at first, thinking I was some kind of weird summoned creature, but after a while, they started running at me all excitedly.
I was glad they were having fun, but they were certainly going all-out.
Hey, hey! Get off my back...! I can’t even run away because they just keep closing the distance... I can’t even run fast because of how stubby these legs are! My visibility was a bit limited too, so I ended up tripping and bashed my head... It hurt! I needed to calm down and collect myself. The kids riding on me all fell off, too...
Gh...
“[Power Rise]!”
“Whoa! Amazing!” I used my increased strength to quickly pick up all the kids and carry them around. I tried to gesture around to tell the kids to be a little more careful, but I wasn’t sure they were getting it.
“Alright, everyone. The puppet show is about to begin. Please come inside... You don’t want to be late, after all...” Fiana clapped her hands together and the kids began filing into the classroom. They sure seemed used to it... I was thankful she saved me.
“Are you alright? I think they just got a little excited because they’d never seen you before...” Fiana came over to check on me. I tried to say “No, it’s alright... I’m okay,” but I was muted in there... so I just gestured it. I decided that I should probably make the [Silence] enchantment a toggle.
After all the kids entered the classroom, I was led into another one by Fiana where I could discard the outfit. I used [Teleport] to escape the confines of fluffy, child-friendly hell. The Mr. Kohaku costume promptly collapsed to the floor without my frame supporting it.
“Whew...” That was rough. There were a lot of things I could improve on.
I stuffed the mascot outfit into [Storage]. I didn’t want the kids to see it in that deflated state.
I left the empty classroom and headed next door to check out the puppet show. The puppet show had originally been planned by the schoolteachers working there. It seemed that Sakura had caught on, and went to Linze for help.
Yumina and Lu also helped out after hearing the story, and the four of them worked hard all the way up until the event. I played my part, too.
When I got to the classroom door, I could hear Linze’s voice. It seemed that the show had already started.
I didn’t want to interrupt the performance by butting in...
I used [Invisible] to conceal myself, and [Teleport] to appear at the back of the room.
Infiltration complete... I looked around and saw Mr. Mittens in the corner... He moved toward me, nose twitching as if picking something up. I forgot his sense of smell was great...
“...You gotta be kitten me... That you, Grand Duke?”
“...Yeah, it is. I didn’t want to cause a fuss by coming in late...” I whispered in a quiet voice, so only Mr. Mittens could hear me.
“Makes sense to meow... Just be careful, I got purretty suspicious.”
“Don’t worry about it. Just tell Sakura I’m here, it’s fine.”
“Gotcha...” Mr. Mittens left without a sound. He was certainly something... He made good security, so I could give him credit there.
At the front of the classroom, the stage was set. There were a lot of puppets, rabbit ones, bear ones, dog ones, and cat ones... all dancing along the edge of a desk. Linze and the other performers weren’t visible to the audience. All they could see were the colorful puppets. It must’ve been rough to keep their arms up for so long.
Here’s an abridged version of the story... One day, a witch arrived in a peaceful forest full of animals. The witch treated the animals unkindly, so they asked her to leave, but she was very strong, and the animals could do nothing against her individually. In the end, the animals all teamed up together and drove the witch out of the forest using their combined specialties.
The story was kind of similar to “The Crab and the Monkey.” But the theme in The Crab and the Monkey was more based around retribution. The theme in this one was a little more about working together and finding strength in unity.
“This is a nice forest, I like it! This is my forest now, animals! Eheheee!”
The witch spoke out her threat, which caused the animal puppets to tremble. I was amazed that Yumina was the one doing that creepy, hoarse old voice. She was also playing the part of the cute forest rabbits, too... She had some serious voice acting skill.
Wait a second... That sound... Is the god of music doing the soundtrack for this thing?! The kids seemed even more drawn in by the tense atmosphere, and they all sympathized with the plight of the animals.
There was one child in particular who was watching the show transfixed, a piercing gaze. He couldn’t have been more than six or seven. He was staring at the puppets as if mesmerized. It was almost like he was committing their movements to memory. Seemed like he was mumbling something too... He was a weird kid, to be sure.
Still, everyone was having fun in their own way. It was pretty hard to find a way to appeal to everyone in a room, so I was impressed they’d done this well. And as I pondered, the show moved on to the final act.
“Hurray! We took back the forest!” Linze’s cat-puppets started yelling out in joy, and the story came to a close. Sakura summoned some birds for the ending roll and had them all chirp a song in tune with the god of music’s accompaniment.
Wait... This song... What the...? I guess they’re singing it without understanding English, but I know what it’s saying... Pretty weird to hear them say “Saturday Night! Saturday Night!” over and over like that... It doesn’t really even fit!
It was a nice song, and the kids were all clapping along to the beat in no time. The animal puppets swayed to the rhythm as well. Rock and roll could unite worlds, it seemed...
The puppet show had been a resounding success.
“Ahhh... I’m so tired...”
“We did good... We did really good...”
“I had a lot of fun!”
“I almost forgot some of my li
nes...”
“Good work. You should be proud, everyone.”
We cleaned up the performing area and set the classroom back to how it was meant to look. We then went to eat some light food, since it wasn’t quite time for dinner. Mr. Mittens sat on Fiana’s lap, gently lapping at some matatabi sake.
...Don’t get drunk, little cat knight... Sousuke had vanished along with his songs at some point, too.
“Thanks so much for your help today, everyone. The children seemed incredibly happy.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it, too!” Linze smiled at Fiana.
“You worked really hard, Linze. But please, get proper rest from now on... Don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”
“Okay. I promise!” Linze let out a little giggle. I was glad it all went without a hitch.
But when we went back to the classroom to gather up the puppets, something was off.
We’d stored all the puppets in a box by the side of the stage... but now they were all missing.
“Wh-Where are they?!” Linze began a frantic struggle, looking under and over just about everything in the room. It was a pretty big box... If it was still here, we surely would’ve seen it.
“...A thief?” Sakura muttered quietly. I wasn’t sure about that... They were just puppets. They weren’t exactly worth much. What would a thief want with them? Even if they didn’t have much material worth, they were still important to us... Linze looked at me, almost teary-eyed, and I resolved to find them.
Mr. Mittens had gotten black-out drunk on sake, but I tried to ask him for help. I was pretty sure his nose was completely useless when he was intoxicated, though.
“...You can’t help, huh?”
“Meow...? Milady... Where... Hic... Get meowtta here... I smell... Uhm... Lemme paws here... I smell... Hic... Catnip! Haha!”
He was definitely no use. Well, I wasn’t exactly mad at him. He’d been working hard... so it was fine.
“Touya, can you find them?”
“Leave it to me. I’ll get them back.” I nodded at Yumina and took out my smartphone. Then, I fired up the map and ran a search for Linze’s hand-made puppets... Luckily, the answer was clear in a flash.
“Whoever has them hasn’t left town. I’ll go ahead and catch them, alright?”
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 12 Page 19