056: With Ra-chan

I’m aware that -chan is an honorific, I’m leaving it in here because I like the way it reads.

“I’m four years old!” says Ra-chan cheerfully then “Ehehe” to top it off.

When you look closely, you can see she has an innocent but well-proportioned face. She’s bound to turn heads when she grows up.

“I’m Alfred, I’ll be seven years old soon” Al

“Al? Al is friend?” Ra-chan

“What are you talking about?” Al

“Al!” Ra-chan

“I’m right here!” Al

Ra-chan laughs at my response. When I asked her to call me “Alfred”, I just got called “Al!”. I wonder, is her cuteness healing my heart? If I had a younger sister, would every day be like this? I always had older sisters, whether in this world or Japan, so I haven’t had this sort of experience before.

“I’m Mina, a maid. You can call me Mina-chan?” Mina

What? I’m not getting called Al-chan, but Mina wants to be Mina-chan?

“Mina doesn’t get those words. You can be bad maid.” Ra-chan

I cock my head to the side and look back at Ra-chan.

“Bad maid!” Ra-chan

“Yeah, Great!” Al

I stroke Ra-chan’s head while smiling.

“Ehehe” Ra-chan

“Oh! What are you saying Alfred! Now Ra-chan is going to call me something weird” Mina

“Ah, yes. I’ll give you a cookie later, so let it go” Al

“I want one too!” Ra-chan

“I’ll get you one” Al

“Oh! That’s a cookie I brought!” Mina

The cookies made me thirsty, since Ra-chan will ask for a drink too, I was proactive and spent two bronze coins for drinks. Ra-chan is now drinking a green juice made from a combination of fruits and vegetables.

“Would you like to have a sip?” Ra-chan

Since Ra-chan offered, I went ahead and tried a bit, it was really good. When I get back to Koriat Village, I should look into making a mixer and making up some for myself. It would be delicious to make some with libra fruit, could be good for your health.

“This is very delicious” Al

“Yup” Ra-chan

“It’s good, kind of relaxing” Al

Since Mina isn’t doing anything about it, I guess I’ll have to bring up a certain subject.

“By the way, what is Ra-chan doing today? Earlier it looked like you were looking for someone, are you lost?” Al

“That’s not right!” Ra-chan

She shakes her head and firmly denies that she is lost. However, it’s hard for a bystander to not call her a list child.

“But you’re alone and was looking for someone.” Al

“I’m looking for my lost sister!” Ra-chan

I groan at her response. Is she really not going to admit that she’s lost? I won’t ask again as I don’t want her to start crying. Let’s leave that role for her sister when Ra-chan is found.

“How old is your sister?” Al

“Seven years old!” Ra-chan

So her sister is about the same as as me? I don’t spot anyone like that around us though.

“Where did you get separated from your sister… Where did your sister get lost?” Al

Ra-chan started to get sad when I said she got separated, so I rephrased to saying her sister got lost.

“Well… I don’t know!” Ra-chan

That’s probably true. She’s the one that likely got lost. I don’t say that since she’d start crying. It’d be dangerous to be with a small crying girl that I’m not related to on a main street.

“Hmm, you don’t know” Al

“What does your sister look like? What is her hair color?” Mina

“Well she’s a beautiful girl with the same hair color as me!” Ra-chan

I see, that’s not really helpful. Ra-chan gave similar answers when Mina asked about clothes. Ra-chan’s sister has the same hair color, and is taller than Ra-chan. She doesn’t have any curls, and her hair is so smooth you would want to touch it. Apparently I’m about the same height as the sister. The most important feature is that she’s wearing the magic academy uniform. I’ve seen a few children wearing robes today, they were wearing different colors like red, blue, black, etc., I wonder if they correspond to magic specialization? Apparently Ra-chan’s sister is wearing blue.

“Then you should stay on the main street, where it’s easy to spot people.” Mina

“What are you going to do Ra-chan? Wait here for your sister?” Al

“I don’t want to wait! I’ll go look for her since she’s the lost person!” Ra-chan

Ah, right. Ra-chan doesn’t want to realize she’s the lost child.

“Is that so?” Mina

“So let’s look for her together?” Ra-chan

Ra-chan makes puppy-dog eyes while grabbing my shirt. She’s probably anxious, but trying to not show it. That’s the case, right?

“We’ll look with you!” Al

“Yup!” Ra-chan

So we started off down the main street to find Ra-chan’s sister.

I shouldn’t have suggested walking around to find Ra-chan’s sister…

“Next! I want to eat that!” Mina

“It’s good! Stew with lots of ingredients. Next, let’s eat the meat over there! It smells good when the meat is roasted with lots of spices!” Ra-chan

I follow along as Ra-chan pulls me. We’re still wandering around the stall-lined south boulevard where we met. The number of people are increasing as meal time approaches, and the lines at stalls are getting longer. Huh, we should be looking for a sister in a blue robe, but instead we’re waiting in line for food?

“A tasty scent!” Ra-chan

“Onward!” Mina

Two girls are smiling at each other, Mina looks like an older sister. Even though I went out to explore the royal capital, I’ve only seen food stalls?

“Is the line moving?” Mina

“Slow” Ra-chan

Earlier they were having a fun conversation, but they’re getting frustrated that the line isn’t moving. Being surrounded by various scents that stimulate hunger, it’s natural they’re getting frustrated.

“It look like they ran out out of the current batch, and the next batch isn’t done cooking yet” Mina

“It’s boring just waiting in line” Ra-chan

“Well, since you said that, I’ll show you a little magic trick.” Al

I’ve come up with an act that resembles sleight-of-hand, I do it at Celia’s cafeteria occasionally. It seems like a good way to kill some time while we’re waiting.

“What what?” Ra-chan

“What is it?” Mina

So I didn’t get just Ra-chan interested but also Mina. I think the person behind us in line is also watching.

“Mina, you have a cookie, right? Let me borrow one.” Al

Mina is wary, but curiosity won over a single cookie as she reluctantly pulled one out of her pocket for me.

“So, this is a normal cookie.” Al

I start up my patter by letting the audience inspect the cookie to show that it is normal.

“Then I’ll put the cookie in my hand and cover it. The cookie should still be in my hand, right?” Al

My three person audience nods.

“Then, if I wave my hands three times, the cookie will disappear.” Al

“Eh! That can’t happen!” Ra-chan

“I’d be worried if you make my cookie disappear, Mr. Alfred!” Mina

After I stated the cookie would disappear, Ra-chan was in disbelief, while Mina was looking distressed. The other person in line just thought it was funny.

“Ok, well, let’s go. One… two… three!” Al

When I open my hands, there’s no cookie in sight.

“What! Where did my cookie go?” Mina

“The little cookie? Where? Did you make it disappear?” Ra-chan

Those two are now feeling my shirtsleeves looking for the cookie, but they won’t find anything. I actually transferred the cookie to the man behind us’s pocket using Transfer magic.

“The man there, can you check your right pocket?” Al

“Oh, ok?” Man

Perhaps he didn’t think he would be part of the trick, so he quizzically reached into his pocket.

“Oh! How did you get a cookie into my pocket?” Man

“Eh?! Did the cookie just go to that place?!” Ra-chan

“Why, my cookie!” Mina

None of the three have any idea how I pulled of the trick, but they’re enjoying it in some way. After their reactions, more people in line are looking over at us.

“Oh, you can eat that cookie.” Al

“Really?” Man

“But, Alfred?” Mina

“It’ll be fine, you’ll end up with more soon.” Al

Mina calms down when I promise to give her more cookies.

“It’s a normal cookie, not too sweet. It’s delicious.” Man

“Then I’ll pull cookies out of my pocket this time” Al

“Well, that doesn’t seem too magical.” Audience Member

“Indeed” Audience Member

“Did you not see the cookie disappear earlier? Did it really disappear? Let’s see if you can follow another cookie?” Al

Before I realized, it seems my audience has increased and some are pretty skeptical. I’ll start by showing that my pocket is empty by flipping it out. Then I place it back and speak.

“Now, I’m going to pull out cookies from this empty pocket.” Al

I thrust one hand into the pocket, and pull a single cookie out, transfer it to my other hand, then pull another, and another.

“What is happening?” Audience

The audience is reacting well, good thing I had practice from Celia’s restaurant.

“Yeah, yeah! Do cookies spring endlessly from Alfred’s pocket?” Mina

“Al is awesome, but how?” Ra-chan

Ra-chan verbalizes what everyone is thinking while I turn out my pocket again for the crowd.

“I don’t get how it works” Audience Member

“There’s no way that number of cookies would fit in a pocket that size.” Audience Member

“How did he pull them from an empty pocket?” Audience Member

“Is he a disciple of a famous magician?” Audience Member

Some people are getting a bit annoyed, I’ll need to fine some way to smooth over the issue. Really I’ just using Spatial Magic, Storage, Retrieval, and sometimes Transfer magic.

“Everyone! Stew is ready to serve!” Vendor

“Now that the stew is ready, the act is over. Let’s get some stew.” Al

“Oh! Al is tricky!” Ra-chan

“She’s right, Mr. Alfred!” Mina

“I’m not cheating. It’s a fun show because it’s hard to figure out the tricks. I did promise you cookies, so here.” Al

“Hooray” Mina & Ra-chan

Both of them cheer up at that point.

“Hey, do it again! This guy didn’t get to see it!” Audience Member

“I’ll figure out the trick this time” Audience Member

While Mina and Ra-chan get some stew, I’ve gotten stuck with performing for the audience. Perhaps Ra-chan’s sister will gather to watch the show and they can meet back up. I performed with that goal in mind.

“So I’m here to eat some stew, after I get a chance to eat some, I’ll do more magic.” Al

It seems like my performance brought in a bunch of customers, so I was given a serving of stew for free by the happy owner. After scarfing down the stew, I continued doing magic. I make sure to only use small things like spoons or small bronze coins, I want to make it believable I’m just really good at sleight of hand. The crowd grew as word spread, and eventually Ra-chan’s sister showed up as I expected.

“Ra-chan!” Sister

“Oh, sister!” Ra-chan

“Where have you been, why are you watching a street performance? I’ve been looking for you.” Sister

Her sister is quite pretty like Ra-chan said. I’m a fan of her hair that goes all the way to her waist.

“Let’s go home Ra-chan” Sister

“Yeah! See you Al!” Ra-chan

“You know that boy?” Sister

“Yeah. Al is like, brother for a day” Ra-chan

“Huh? What does that mean?” Sister

“What I said!” Ra-chan

Ra-chan and her sister held hands and walked off with that conversation. As for Mina and I, we’ve got to deal with our audience, so we won’t get to go home for a while.

I’d like to get back to the hotel soon…

Translation

Good Job!

Do Better!

Chapter

Love It!

What?

FFS!

Really?