Third Arc: Twenty-First Chapter

"The crown prince of the Kingdom of Altria, doing this hula hoop... It looks easy, but it must be a deep discipline. Hmm..."

"Whoa!"

Before anyone noticed, Elliot had risen from his freeze, no, recovered from it, and was standing right behind Georg, gazing intently at a hula hoop he had produced from inside his coat.

"Say, the make of those clothes..."

"You, sneaking up behind me, not bad at all! Whoever you are!"

You don't know?! They had blended in so naturally that he hadn't even noticed.

"Elliot, this is the son of Altria's Knight Commander, the..."

"I'm Georg! Good to meet you!"

Georg struck a pose with a needless glint of his teeth and a thumbs-up. Elliot, for his part, being the sort who doesn't sweat the small stuff, laughed heartily and returned the thumbs-up.

"Ha ha ha! I'm Elliot! The man blessed with a goddess's love!"

"A g-goddess's...?!"

As everyone recoiled at the baffling introduction and Georg reared back as if struck, Lady Remie crushed a meat sandwich with a squelch. Mayonnaise spurted from her slender white hand. The pitifully mangled thing she then rammed into Elliot's mouth with the speed of lightning.

"Mmpf."

"Oh-ho-ho... it's been warm lately, so his head seems to have warmed up too. Georg, this is Elliot. ...My fiancé."

I will pretend I didn't notice how, at the end, she sounded oddly regretful. Even so, it was heartwarming to see Lady Julia quickly wipe the mayonnaise off Lady Remie's hand with a handkerchief while Remie wore a strained smile.

"Is that so! He's a fine fellow! Good for you, Remie!"

"O-oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

The grand laugh I hadn't heard in a while was strained, but somehow it made me nostalgic, and I lined up beside Lady Julia and threw myself into the grand-laughter chorus. ...I was glad I had secretly kept in practice.

"Now then, pulling myself together... I'll show you the true essence of the hula hoop!"

"What... did you say!"

Elliot quailed at Georg's declaration, but what true essence? The bigger surprise was that the hula hoop had some martial-arts higher plane to it at all.

The gallery kept its distance from Georg as he slipped a hula hoop out from inside his coat, throats gulping. Hold on. Elliot and Georg both, what is with those coats? Is it a magic trick?

I wanted to point that out with all my might, but there was something else on my mind, so I held my tongue. Yes. Looking around again, a crowd several people deep had formed around us, everyone turning eyes full of expectation on Georg.

"Is this a street show?!"

"Heh... with everyone expecting so much, I can hardly stay quiet either!"

"Lady Juliaaaa?! You are quite the show-off, aren't you?!"

Lady Julia swept up her glossy hair and strode forward. Her back was as brave as a veteran warrior's, and yet her straight, upright posture was beautiful. And in her hand, of course, a hula hoop.

Leaving me behind where I slumped, limp, the hula hoop show by Georg AND Julia drew huge applause from the gallery. Lady Julia was an elegant, refined hoop-handler. And then. What even is that, I had never seen it used that way before, and Georg's hoop tricks left my mouth hanging open so wide it nearly said goodbye for good. They were, I will grant, the true essence of the hula hoop.