"You won't use a cane? Then what about an umbrella?"
"I'll carry one if it rains. But I don't really use such big umbrellas. A three-fold umbrella that can fit in a bag is more convenient."
Cider looked displeased. But he soon nodded. What could he do—they didn't want to stand out.
"The coat should be fine to wear as is, and shoes don't matter either. Ah, but no hat."
"Then what's the difference from indoor clothes?"
"There isn't any."
"...I see."
He had no choice but to accept it. Cider put down the hat.
"Good. The outfit is settled. Now there's one thing left."
Esperanza also nodded with a resolute expression.
The spaceti machine was complete, but for the two of them to cross over to another world, various problems remained beyond just technical issues.
Such as a Christmas present for the sister who had waited so long.
"Unni and brother-in-law's gifts are done. I just need to decide on my nephew's... I really have no idea. He should be about seven years old now? What do you give a seven-year-old boy?"
Since there weren't many objects valuable across worlds, the gifts for the sister and her husband could be chosen relatively easily. A diamond necklace and a luxury watch would work anywhere. It was a bit burdenso, but Cider was surprisingly stubborn about it.
'A bit... no, quite burdenso.'
But she understood the aning. Probably her sister would understand too. Though she probably wouldn't wear the gifted necklace around, sothing suitable for everyday wear could be gifted later.
"They say first impressions are important with kids. I need to choose well, but I don't know what boys like these days... What did you get when you were little?"
"A tie pin?"
"Say sothing helpful."
"Well. The most morable gift I've received so far was, ah."
"What's wrong?"
Cider said with a strange expression.
"I did receive a teddy bear once."
"A teddy bear? This might sound rude, but it really doesn't suit you."
"I was probably four years old then. It would have suited
at four."
"You being four years old doesn't suit you."
A finger poked his cheek punitively. However, Esperanza didn't back down either.
The battle between the mouth of truth and the finger of punishnt ended in an ambiguous draw. Cider, still unable to stop laughing and giggling, pulled Esperanza into his arms and sank into the large armchair.
"Ah, right. So how was that teddy bear? Four and seven are a bit different, but."
"Nothing much to say about it. Um, it's not an interesting story though."
"What kind of story could there be about a teddy bear?"
Co to think of it, she rembered Cider's expression had been strange earlier. It wasn't the kind of expression to make while telling an ordinary story about "receiving a teddy bear when I was four."
"What is it?"
"So, when I was four. It was probably around this ti. A winter with lots of snow. One of father's guests gave
a teddy bear as a gift and left. I nad it, um, Teddy."
Even as a child, he probably had the face of an old man and only said annoying things, but he nad a teddy bear.
"Isn't the very concept of a teddy bear amusing? Still, it was my first ti seeing a bear as a stuffed toy rather than taxidermy, so I seed to like it quite a bit."
Teddy bears were unpopular toys. This world had no President Roosevelt, nor any businessman inspired by his anecdotes to create teddy bears. Toy shops mainly sold puppies, rabbits, and sheep dolls rather than dangerous animals like bears. That's why Esperanza had bought Jack a rabbit doll long ago.
But for such a rare teddy bear to be nad Teddy. What an amazing coincidence.
"I can't imagine you liking a teddy bear."
"My lady, if you say that one more ti, the story ends here."
"Okay. I won't say it, so hurry up and tell ."
Esperanza made a gesture of pressing her lips shut. Cider looked at Esperanza with suspicious eyes, then kissed her forehead and began the story again.
"That teddy bear wasn't an ordinary doll."
"Was it possessed by a ghost?"
"Um, similar."
Cider giggled. Really? Esperanza warned while gripping Cider's sleeve for no reason.
"I hate ghost stories."
"It's not a ghost story. Not a ghost, but it made sounds. When you pressed its belly, it would say 'I love you!'"
So it was a magical device. If it was when Cider was young, that would be 20 years ago, during the early days of magical engineering. Probably a guest had gone to great lengths to prepare an impressive gift to curry favor with the Count. Cider's voice dropped slightly as he searched his mory.
"It was fascinating at first. I kept pressing its belly. If I had pressed it maybe a hundred more tis, the magic power would have run out. While pressing it like that, I had a strange thought. I covered the teddy bear's mouth and pressed its belly again, but I could still hear the sound. So, what do you think I thought?"
It seed like she could guess, but maybe not. Esperanza, completely absorbed in the story, tilted her head and said:
"Well? 'This one speaks through its belly, not its mouth'?"
"It would have been nice if I had such a cute thought, but I thought the bear had eaten Teddy."
Uh, uh oh. Sohow she could guess the rest of the story. Cider smiled mischievously, turning Esperanza's ominous feeling into certainty.
"So I cried and cut open the teddy bear's belly. There was a black machine inside. There was a round button attached to the part fixed to the belly."
He pressed Esperanza's lips firmly with his finger and said:
"When pressed, it said 'I love you!'"
When Esperanza made muffled "Mmph, mmph" sounds, Cider pressed and rubbed the finger on her lips before releasing it.
"So, I thought: Ah, Teddy is trapped inside this. I ignored the teddy bear that had beco rags and started disassembling it."
This person had a screw loose from childhood. Esperanza clicked her tongue inwardly. She made eye contact with Cider. He laughed hollowly as if he knew what she was thinking.
"So what happened?"
"As I disassembled it, at so point it stopped making sounds. I had succeeded in removing the sound-making component, but I was shocked and thought Teddy had died because of , so I hugged it and showed it to people passing by, asking them to save Teddy. Everyone laughed so much."
Thinking about it, it was really a bizarre scene, but it made her laugh. The image of an angel-faced child crying and saying absurd things was vividly drawn in her mind.
Young Cider Claiborne. She said she couldn't imagine it, but he must have been an impossibly lovable and adorable little boy.
"So did the adults fix it for you?"
"There probably wasn't anyone in that house better at handling such things than four-year-old . I just ended up with Teddy's ragged leather, cotton stuffing that had leaked out, and a broken machine."
It was a story that couldn't be heard without tears. Esperanza leaned her back against the armchair armrest and laughed until she could barely breathe. Teardrops hung precariously at the corners of her eyes. Cider wiped away her tears with his fingertips and protested.
"So, what did you get when you were little?"
This ti Esperanza searched her mory. Of course, she didn't have as grand a story as Cider's.
"Toy guns or swords? Blocks or... ah, I got a magician's set once. Though I broke it after playing with it a few tis."
"A magician's set could be found here too, but it seems like it would be too much about personal taste."
Toy swords or guns were safe choices but conversely too ordinary.
"Then what should we do?"
"Since it's a gift for a kid anyway, wouldn't it be better to buy it there?"
That made sense. Esperanza nodded while looking at the crackling fireplace.
"Good. Then we'll have to go a bit early. You'll want to look around too."
"Shall we?"
"There will be lots of things you want."
"Well, that sounds exciting."
Esperanza was confident. She could guarantee this much. Cider Claiborne's eyes would spin.
??????°??☆????°??????
"...Hurry up and co."
"Just a mont."
Yeah, I knew this would happen.
Esperanza planned to raid a toy store for her little nephew and headed to the shopping district from late morning. They could have a al here, go to a cafe, then head ho around rush hour.
She hadn't made an appointnt with her sister, but that couldn't be helped. She had also booked accommodations in case there was nowhere to stay. They could stay a few more days anyway.
But she hadn't expected Cider to be this much of an obstruction.
The city center crossed by an eight-lane road. Gray skyscrapers piercing the sky. Buildings with glass on all four sides. Office workers walking briskly with takeout coffee. The square devices in their hands. Airplanes crossing the blue sky and a hundred-story tower as tall as they could reach, as massive as a demon lord's castle. To Cider Claiborne, all of this was pure ecstasy.
She knew he would like it. She had secretly anticipated it too. But people should let others walk!
The hand she held tightly to keep from getting lost suddenly stopped with a clank. This was already the fifth ti. Wondering what it was this ti, she turned around to find Cider staring intently at a giant billboard advertising the latest electronic devices.
She knew this would happen, but she didn't know it would be like this!
"This won't do. You need so special asures. Let's go buy that."
"...We can't even use it when we go back, right?"
That's right. Once the battery dies, it'll just beco junk. But then he shouldn't have stared at it so intently.
"That's why we brought so much money for tis like this."
What they brought wasn't money but gold. For staying a few days, that was more than enough—it was excessive.
A little later, Cider erged from the store with the latest tablet in his hands. They didn't need calling functions anyway. They chose the one with the biggest screen. The feeling of coming out to applause from the staff was quite strange.
"Are we going to buy gifts now?"
"Not now... there's sothing I want to do before we get luggage."
Esperanza said only that and led Cider by the hand.
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