Chapter 41
“I’m looking forward to it. Aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
Inside the dark tent.
Sitting beside Heter, I whispered in a low voice so I wouldn’t disturb the people around us.
After giving him the bracelet, we headed straight for Lil’s Puppet Theater.
Despite the late hour, the area around the tent was packed with people, and my anticipation began to grow.
“You seem pretty excited.”
“Yeah.”
A medieval fantasy world without TV, smartphones, or even movies.
The only entertainment I had was books and the occasional street performance I saw when traveling to a large territory, but that wasn’t enough to satisfy the dopamine I’d grown used to in the twenty-first century.
That was why I was looking forward to this.
Whether a proper performance could satisfy my dopamine cravings.
“What could it be about? If it were just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill puppet show, I don’t think this many people would have gathered.”
Even in my previous life, I had hated being spoiled for movies or books.
That was why I had come without knowing a thing about this puppet show, my heart pounding at the thought of what new story might entertain me.
“I don’t know either, but there was one strange thing.”
“Something strange?”
Bringing a hand to his mouth, Heter muttered in an even quieter voice than mine.
“When we entered, I saw a priest waiting near the entrance.”
“Couldn’t he have just come to watch the show?”
“That’s possible. But he stayed by the entrance the entire time we were lining up and going inside.”
“Come on… You’re being too paranoid.”
Hiring a priest required paying the church far more in offerings than one might imagine.
But this wasn’t a colosseum where gladiators fought; it was merely a puppet show. Why would anyone go to that expense to hire a priest?
“That makes no sense.”
“You think so too?”
“Of course.”
As Heter and I whispered back and forth,
Pop.
“Oh, I guess it’s starting.”
At last, a faint spotlight came on in the middle of the stage, and a puppet of a little girl began bobbing and moving beneath it.
“Hi! My name is Amy. I live with my mom and dad and my little brother!”
It seemed that this puppet named Amy was explaining the setting of the play.
‘…Hmm?’
Should I call it the uncanny valley? The puppet looked strangely human yet awkward in a way that gave me an odd sense of discomfort.
‘This world has the technology to create golems that resemble humans with magic, so why did they make it look like that?’
It was almost as if someone had made it that way on purpose.
Just as I was beginning to sense something ominous,
“And this is my friend Louis! Daddy bought him for an incredibly cheap price at an antique shop!”
Saying that, Amy showed the audience a puppet even more grotesque than she was.
‘Ah….’
With the knowledge from my previous life, I realized it the moment I saw the puppet Amy was holding.
Why the puppet looked like that, why this puppet show was so popular, and why a priest was waiting outside.
As I said before, this was a world with very little entertainment to satisfy one’s dopamine cravings.
What if… a modern-feeling horror movie suddenly appeared in a place like this?
‘It was bound to be popular.’
Besides, people seeing something like this for the first time would have a very low threshold for fear.
How low? Low enough for merely being startled to cause trouble.
“Haha.”
The genre of this puppet show was… horror.
***
‘So many audience members came today.’
In a cramped space set aside near the tent ceiling,
a man smiled down at the audience.
His hands moved nonstop, like those of a first-rate pianist, and the puppets onstage moved like living people in time with them.
The man manipulating the puppets while looking down at the audience from the ceiling was named Lil.
Yes, Lil of Lil’s Puppet Theater.
‘Hmm, who should I target today?’
Lil scanned the audience with his eyes even as he manipulated the puppets.
He had had one particular hobby for a long time.
It was… bringing couples watching his puppet show closer together.
Couples who laughed while watching the puppets move comically, or grew closer after seeing an emotionally moving ending.
Lil moved the puppets to see such sights.
Then one day.
“Eek!”
“W-What was that?!”
He saw it.
When a puppet sprang into the audience as part of the staging, he saw a woman startle and a man pull her into his arms.
And then.
“…W-What are you doing?!”
“Y-You’re one to talk!”
They were blushing and acting bashful… people who were exactly one step away from becoming a couple.
‘Ah.’
Seeing that, Lil realized something.
Besides bringing couples who were already together closer, he could also serve as a bridge that helped relationships between friends who were more than friends but less than lovers progress further.
From that day on, Lil changed the direction of his performances.
He shifted from the comedies popular at the time to a type that made people draw closer to whoever was beside them.
That was how the puppet show ‘Louis,’ currently being performed, was born.
A dark venue, a strangely unsettling puppet, an eerie song, and puppets suddenly springing out from the audience, the floor, the ceiling—everywhere.
The couples this show had brought together already numbered in the double digits.
‘Though I don’t think the general public sees it the way I do.’
It wasn’t as though he performed Louis because he wanted the public’s recognition.
If anything, their interest had earned him enough money to hire a priest.
He was simply always grateful to the public.
“…Oh?”
Just then, a man and woman sitting side by side caught Lil’s eye.
They were a handsome pair whose looks seemed to shine even in the darkness.
What was more, one of them was clutching the other’s hand and trembling, so the puppet show seemed likely to have an excellent effect.
‘It’s you two today.’
With a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, Lil moved the puppets he had hidden to the area around the couple’s seats.
By the time this puppet show ended,
he hoped their hearts would flutter even more for each other.
***
Thump-thump-thump.
The tempo of the drums used as background music gradually quickened.
‘If this keeps up….’
She’ll come out of that wardrobe.
“There you are, Amy!”
“Aaaah!”
‘I was right.’
The story, the song, and the puppets were all good; this puppet show really was well made.
It was well made, but…
‘It’s just… nothing special.’
If anything, it was so well made that it felt very familiar to me.
After all, I had seen dozens of movies with this sort of atmosphere in my previous life.
But.
“Khee-hee-hee!”
Squeeze.
“Ugh…!”
“Ah, I-I’m sorry, my liege.”
“It’s all right….”
Apparently, it was all very new to Heter, who was gripping my hand so tightly that he was practically crushing it.
“Are you very scared?”
“Scared? It’s not that.”
Heter shook his head at my question.
“Really?”
Eventually, I pretended to look ahead again, then…
“Boo.”
“!”
Squeeze.
“Ugh!”
“S-Sorry….”
As Heter hurriedly let go of my hand, I let out a silent chuckle.
Who would have thought that Heter, who seemed to be an all-around expert at everything, would be helpless against scary things!
At last, Heter seemed a little more human.
‘Seeing him scared, I think he’s kind of cute too… Huh?’
Damn, what was I thinking just now?
A man as big as him being afraid of ghosts should have seemed pathetic, so why was I thinking it was cute?
“Ahem… But why are you so scared?”
This was a medieval fantasy world.
There ought to be undead monsters such as ghosts and ghouls, after all.
“Because those usually aren’t a knight’s concern; they’re the province of priests and holy knights….”
“But what about things suddenly popping out?”
“That’s because of this creepy atmosphere…!”
Rattle.
Before long, Heter flinched again when the stage floor creaked.
“….”
“I-I’m sorry.”
Oh dear, the person sitting beside us didn’t look very pleased.
Well, this might have been forgivable once or twice, but it was gradually approaching double digits.
I really needed to do something about this….
‘Would it be a little much to tell him to close his eyes and cover his ears?’
In any case, we’d come all this way, so it would be a shame if he went home with bad memories.
Sigh… I suppose it can’t be helped.
“Heter.”
“Yes?”
I called Heter softly, then held both arms out toward him.
“Come here.”
“…?”
Heter looked at me like a startled rabbit.
“I’ll cover your ears until the puppet show ends.”
“Ah, I-I’m all right.”
“What do you mean, you’re all right?”
It wouldn’t matter if it were just the two of us, but he was constantly disturbing the people around us now.
Besides, he’d come to see this puppet show because of me.
“Hurry.”
“….”
A moment later, his head leaned toward me, and I pulled his face into my embrace.
“?!”
“Stay still.”
Heter recoiled violently in my arms.
But this was unavoidable.
Even if I covered his ears, he would still be startled by a puppet suddenly springing out among the audience if I didn’t cover his eyes as well.
Besides, wouldn’t hearing someone else’s heartbeat make Heter a little less afraid?
‘In any case, Heter is my retainer.’
There was nothing strange about letting him into my arms.
Mm-hm. Of course.