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[Disclaimer]
Scrapped Princess | Canzonetta of the Unforgiven | Beauty and the Beast | Part 2/3
"A dragon . . ."
The legendary demonic beast. The strongest of all creatures, said to have contended even against God during the Genesis War. In this day and age, throughout the continent of Dustvin, the word dragon would summon up this sort of fragmentary impression in the mind of the average person.
It was a different matter in the mythical age, but dragons were creatures that did not presently exist, and so there were various interpretations of their appearances.
The Mauserian church in Taurus had murals that depicted the Genesis War as well, but because they were so terribly abstract, they provided rather obscure portrayals. On the other hand, perhaps because the subject matter did tend to inspire creativity, religious artists and their ilk had plastered the image of the dragon over countless canvases. These too depended on the artist, however, and the dragon's form in one depiction differed entirely from that in the next--there was no one widely accepted interpretation.
Perhaps--just like God--it is precisely because the dragon had no fixed form that this demonic beast had been handed down throughout the ages.
But even so . . .
"That is one dramatic interpretive leap," Shannon muttered as he gazed at the mascot. No matter how he looked at it, he could not see it as anything but a poorly rendered crocodile. If not for the horns, it was, to all appearances, a runty crocodile that walked upright.
"Adorable, isn't he?" Coonan said confidently, and Shannon shuddered just a tiny bit. "This time around, we're planning to develop a new line of products centered on Soupy-kun here. Soupy-kun Cream Buns, Soupy-kun Chocolate Cornets, Soupy-kun Danishes, and so on and so forth . . . There's no end to the products we could develop, so we're aiming to make great strides. And then, once Soupy-kun here gains popularity with the children, I'm thinking of establishing a branch store in the Royal City too. WAHAHAHAHA."
As he recounted his grandiose ambitions in this way, Coonan reached into the bag he carried and produced a bun that was the spitting image of the mascot in question. It was crafted in excessive detail, though whether it contained cream or jam was a mystery.
"Tha . . . That's heresy!" Michelle said, sharply thrusting her finger at him. Be that as it may, her fingertip shook in apparent agitation. "Have you no pride as a baker? Fight fair and let your flavors do the work, your flavors!"
". . . I don't think you have any obligation to criticize others, though," Shannon said, looking over at Raquel.
And . . . as for Raquel herself.
"So . . ." murmured the Casull family's first-born daughter. She had her hands clasped in front of her apron as though in prayer and a dreamy look in her eyes. "So cute--!"
". . . I was afraid of that."
Shannon buried his face in his hands.1 Expected or otherwise . . . Either way, Raquel was of no use to anyone when she got like this.
"Hey, Raquel-san!" Michelle called, moving to pin Raquel's arms behind her back even as Raquel was drawn staggering toward the mascot. "Having your heart stolen by a rival shop's promotional gimmick--What are you doing? Hey!"
"Ahh . . . Soupy-kun . . ." Raquel murmured, spellbound. She seemed not to hear Michelle's voice at all.
And as a result, the men stared at Raquel, spellbound. At times like this, Raquel's eyes looked even dewier than usual, and strangely, men found it quite seductive.
"Frankly, one side is as guilty as the other . . ." Shannon muttered, seeming sick to death of the whole thing. "Me, I've got no idea what could be going through the mind of someone who'd get into an idiotic stuffed animal like that."
The mascot started, perhaps having heard Shannon's remark. The identity of the person within was a mystery, but they seemed a little hurt.
"What are you saying? If you can't understand his charm, then you must be very poor in spirit."2
"I've got struggles I'm dealing with."
Raquel drew nearer to Soupy-kun, dragging her employer along behind her.
In a last-ditch effort, Michelle cried, "ARGH, that does it! I'm docking your pay, Raquel-san!"
Hearing that, reason returned to Raquel's eyes for the first time. Well, it was quite a dim and unfocused sort of reason, though.
"WAHAHAHAHA. You see? Soupy-kun's great and terrible charm!"
Soupy-kun certainly did seem to have gone over rather well--not only with Raquel, but with the gathered women and children too. Every time those stubby arms waved, laughter and delighted shouts rose up from the crowd.
"Nonononononononono." Clinging to Raquel's back like a monkey, Michelle raised her voice in agony. "Damn--If that's how it's gonna be, then let's fight it out! A battle to decide whose promotional effectiveness is superior: Raquel-san's or Soupy-kun's!"
"I was hoping you'd say that. Though it's pretty obvious which is the superior foundation for a sales promotion. Between the adorable Soupy-kun, who is widely accepted among families, and some little girl who only appeals to the basest instincts of men--it's no competition."
Coonan puffed out his chest. Well, he did have a point, but . . .
". . . treated just like a mascot, huh . . ." Shannon said sympathetically.
And as a result . . .
"Ehh--?"
. . . the tragedy in Raquel's raised voice was a bit out of place.
She strained her neck to look at Michelle (who was still clinging to her back) and asked, "I have to . . . fight Soupy-kun?"
"That's right."
"But that's . . . that's . . ."
She agonized for a few moments.
But it seemed her characteristic decisiveness had immediately come forth because Raquel clenched her fists and nodded in apparent resolve.
"Ours is a blood-stained road, after all . . ."3
"Except it's not blood-stained. Not blood-stained at all."
Shannon's retort was disregarded.
"I understand. Well then," Raquel said, raising her right hand. "Pierce and destroy, O My Spear--!"
"Would you stop it?"
Walking hurriedly up to his offensive spell-chanting twin, Shannon shoved her head down. Raquel looked back at him as she toppled forward.
Sounding harassed, Shannon said, "What the hell do you think you're doing, suddenly chanting something like Gungnir?"
"But . . . if we have conflicting destinies, then I have to face the enemy with full force, and not make light of him . . . I thought that was the path I had to walk as a human being."
"What a lousy path--" Seeing the reproachful look in Raquel's eyes, Shannon continued, his voice tinged with a sigh. "Uh, I mean . . . What good will suddenly obliterating your opponent do? This 'fight' is and always has been a popularity contest, you know. Meaning, which of you can win over the most customers . . ."
"Really?" Raquel asked, blinking.
"Tha--that's right . . ." Michelle replied, sounding just a bit frightened.
Suddenly hearing a prohibited offensive spell being chanted is a frightening thing.
Mage or not, people are generally forbidden to use offensive spells unless they belong to a public organization, or have received a license from such a public organization. Though, under present conditions, learning such spells is not restricted in and of itself, and in cases of minor, nonlethal offensive spells, the authorities will not go out of their way to apply punitive measures . . .
Incidentally, Gungnir is a first-class assault spell.
"Since she said I had to fight, I just assumed . . ."
". . . could it be that I've hired someone unbelievable . . . ?"
It seemed Michelle, too, had come to a little better understanding of who this person called "Raquel Casull" was. But then, it was too late to regret it now.
"Well then, to battle!" Coonan announced in a ringing voice, as though to drive the point home.
Her grandmother was feeling well for the first time in a long time, so Winia had asked her to take care of the Big Bear, and then set off for the shopping avenue in search of the Casull siblings.
If she remembered correctly, they had some business with Boland's. On a related note, Winia was acquainted with the Bolands' only daughter, Michelle.
It seemed that the Boland family had originally run a business in a much larger city, but because an employee had run off with their money, they had closed up shop and moved here to Taurus to start over again. Apparently, a backwater town like this was boring to a girl like Michelle, who had grown up in the big city, so she had a bad habit of blowing trifling matters way out of proportion and causing an uproar.
She was not a bad person by any means, but still . . .
"I haven't seen Pacifica since this morning, either--Eh?"
Winia raised her eyebrows and came to a stop.
One of the blocks of the shopping avenue--right around the area where Boland's stood--swarmed with people. And cheers seemed to be rising intermittently.
"What's . . . ?"
Winia jogged up to the throng and pushed her way through the flood of people. And what she saw when she emerged at the front . . .
"Number 8: Soupy-kun does a somersault!"
The moment Coonan made this announcement, a mascot (which mimicked some incomprehensible creature) up on a platform tumbled into a forward roll, just as announced. It was a simple move, but because the mascot's head was abnormally large and its arms and legs abnormally short, this seemed to be an unexpectedly laborious task. The mascot's movements were fretfully slow, and on top of that, it did not even stand back up after it had finished--it merely flailed its arms and legs around.
To put it bluntly, nothing could have been more oafish, and yet . . .
"Kyaaa, cuuute!"
"Ohhhh, you're adorable, Soupy-kun!"
"Soupy-kun's got style!"
The audience appeared to find it adorable. For its part, the mascot (called "Soupy-kun," or something like that) tipped its head to one side, seeming pleased that it had been so well received. That innocent gesture--reminiscent of a baby bird--got the audience fired up again.
"Ahh, Soupy-kun, you're just . . . you're so cute, dammit!"
"Soupy-kun, look over here!"
Gazing in blank amazement at that sorry sight, Winia murmured, "What . . . is that?"
". . . what, indeed."
"Oh, Shannon-san."
Now that she looked . . . Shannon was standing right beside her with his arms crossed. Well, he always looked listless, but somehow, his air of exhaustion seemed to have grown deeper.
"Where's Raquel-san?"
". . ."
Shannon silently jerked his chin toward . . . Raquel, on the platform, in a waitress uniform.
"Number 9: Raquel is abashed!" Michelle cried out. She was standing just a little way from the platform, as though it had been arranged in advance.
Raquel took the hem of her apron between the fingertips of both hands, delicately lifted it to her mouth . . . and said just one thing.
". . . ohh . . . you dummy."
The next moment, roughly half of the audience (just about all of it male) cheered this time.
"Whoooa, cuuute!"
"Look over here! Pleeease!"
"I LOVE YOUUUUUUU!"
"Oneesama, you're amazing!"
Raquel turned to Michelle with a vacant expression and asked, ". . . was that good?"
"You're doing great, so good, keep it up, Raquel-san--No, from now on I'm calling you 'Onee~sama'!"
Punching a fist into the air, Michelle nodded. Her eyes had an unusual gleam.
[Next] [Previous]
Notes:
1) How does one describe a Double Face Palm in a narrative fashion? Back
2) Pretty sure this is Coonan talking. Back
3) 所詮、血塗られた道なのですね (shosen, chinurareta michi na no desu ne), which is a paraphrase of Kushana's line from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Back
Oh man, that gutter could swallow the Skid.
[Disclaimer]
Scrapped Princess | Canzonetta of the Unforgiven | Beauty and the Beast | Part 2/3
"A dragon . . ."
The legendary demonic beast. The strongest of all creatures, said to have contended even against God during the Genesis War. In this day and age, throughout the continent of Dustvin, the word dragon would summon up this sort of fragmentary impression in the mind of the average person.
It was a different matter in the mythical age, but dragons were creatures that did not presently exist, and so there were various interpretations of their appearances.
The Mauserian church in Taurus had murals that depicted the Genesis War as well, but because they were so terribly abstract, they provided rather obscure portrayals. On the other hand, perhaps because the subject matter did tend to inspire creativity, religious artists and their ilk had plastered the image of the dragon over countless canvases. These too depended on the artist, however, and the dragon's form in one depiction differed entirely from that in the next--there was no one widely accepted interpretation.
Perhaps--just like God--it is precisely because the dragon had no fixed form that this demonic beast had been handed down throughout the ages.
But even so . . .
"That is one dramatic interpretive leap," Shannon muttered as he gazed at the mascot. No matter how he looked at it, he could not see it as anything but a poorly rendered crocodile. If not for the horns, it was, to all appearances, a runty crocodile that walked upright.
"Adorable, isn't he?" Coonan said confidently, and Shannon shuddered just a tiny bit. "This time around, we're planning to develop a new line of products centered on Soupy-kun here. Soupy-kun Cream Buns, Soupy-kun Chocolate Cornets, Soupy-kun Danishes, and so on and so forth . . . There's no end to the products we could develop, so we're aiming to make great strides. And then, once Soupy-kun here gains popularity with the children, I'm thinking of establishing a branch store in the Royal City too. WAHAHAHAHA."
As he recounted his grandiose ambitions in this way, Coonan reached into the bag he carried and produced a bun that was the spitting image of the mascot in question. It was crafted in excessive detail, though whether it contained cream or jam was a mystery.
"Tha . . . That's heresy!" Michelle said, sharply thrusting her finger at him. Be that as it may, her fingertip shook in apparent agitation. "Have you no pride as a baker? Fight fair and let your flavors do the work, your flavors!"
". . . I don't think you have any obligation to criticize others, though," Shannon said, looking over at Raquel.
And . . . as for Raquel herself.
"So . . ." murmured the Casull family's first-born daughter. She had her hands clasped in front of her apron as though in prayer and a dreamy look in her eyes. "So cute--!"
". . . I was afraid of that."
Shannon buried his face in his hands.1 Expected or otherwise . . . Either way, Raquel was of no use to anyone when she got like this.
"Hey, Raquel-san!" Michelle called, moving to pin Raquel's arms behind her back even as Raquel was drawn staggering toward the mascot. "Having your heart stolen by a rival shop's promotional gimmick--What are you doing? Hey!"
"Ahh . . . Soupy-kun . . ." Raquel murmured, spellbound. She seemed not to hear Michelle's voice at all.
And as a result, the men stared at Raquel, spellbound. At times like this, Raquel's eyes looked even dewier than usual, and strangely, men found it quite seductive.
"Frankly, one side is as guilty as the other . . ." Shannon muttered, seeming sick to death of the whole thing. "Me, I've got no idea what could be going through the mind of someone who'd get into an idiotic stuffed animal like that."
The mascot started, perhaps having heard Shannon's remark. The identity of the person within was a mystery, but they seemed a little hurt.
"What are you saying? If you can't understand his charm, then you must be very poor in spirit."2
"I've got struggles I'm dealing with."
Raquel drew nearer to Soupy-kun, dragging her employer along behind her.
In a last-ditch effort, Michelle cried, "ARGH, that does it! I'm docking your pay, Raquel-san!"
Hearing that, reason returned to Raquel's eyes for the first time. Well, it was quite a dim and unfocused sort of reason, though.
"WAHAHAHAHA. You see? Soupy-kun's great and terrible charm!"
Soupy-kun certainly did seem to have gone over rather well--not only with Raquel, but with the gathered women and children too. Every time those stubby arms waved, laughter and delighted shouts rose up from the crowd.
"Nonononononononono." Clinging to Raquel's back like a monkey, Michelle raised her voice in agony. "Damn--If that's how it's gonna be, then let's fight it out! A battle to decide whose promotional effectiveness is superior: Raquel-san's or Soupy-kun's!"
"I was hoping you'd say that. Though it's pretty obvious which is the superior foundation for a sales promotion. Between the adorable Soupy-kun, who is widely accepted among families, and some little girl who only appeals to the basest instincts of men--it's no competition."
Coonan puffed out his chest. Well, he did have a point, but . . .
". . . treated just like a mascot, huh . . ." Shannon said sympathetically.
And as a result . . .
"Ehh--?"
. . . the tragedy in Raquel's raised voice was a bit out of place.
She strained her neck to look at Michelle (who was still clinging to her back) and asked, "I have to . . . fight Soupy-kun?"
"That's right."
"But that's . . . that's . . ."
She agonized for a few moments.
But it seemed her characteristic decisiveness had immediately come forth because Raquel clenched her fists and nodded in apparent resolve.
"Ours is a blood-stained road, after all . . ."3
"Except it's not blood-stained. Not blood-stained at all."
Shannon's retort was disregarded.
"I understand. Well then," Raquel said, raising her right hand. "Pierce and destroy, O My Spear--!"
"Would you stop it?"
Walking hurriedly up to his offensive spell-chanting twin, Shannon shoved her head down. Raquel looked back at him as she toppled forward.
Sounding harassed, Shannon said, "What the hell do you think you're doing, suddenly chanting something like Gungnir?"
"But . . . if we have conflicting destinies, then I have to face the enemy with full force, and not make light of him . . . I thought that was the path I had to walk as a human being."
"What a lousy path--" Seeing the reproachful look in Raquel's eyes, Shannon continued, his voice tinged with a sigh. "Uh, I mean . . . What good will suddenly obliterating your opponent do? This 'fight' is and always has been a popularity contest, you know. Meaning, which of you can win over the most customers . . ."
"Really?" Raquel asked, blinking.
"Tha--that's right . . ." Michelle replied, sounding just a bit frightened.
Suddenly hearing a prohibited offensive spell being chanted is a frightening thing.
Mage or not, people are generally forbidden to use offensive spells unless they belong to a public organization, or have received a license from such a public organization. Though, under present conditions, learning such spells is not restricted in and of itself, and in cases of minor, nonlethal offensive spells, the authorities will not go out of their way to apply punitive measures . . .
Incidentally, Gungnir is a first-class assault spell.
"Since she said I had to fight, I just assumed . . ."
". . . could it be that I've hired someone unbelievable . . . ?"
It seemed Michelle, too, had come to a little better understanding of who this person called "Raquel Casull" was. But then, it was too late to regret it now.
"Well then, to battle!" Coonan announced in a ringing voice, as though to drive the point home.
Her grandmother was feeling well for the first time in a long time, so Winia had asked her to take care of the Big Bear, and then set off for the shopping avenue in search of the Casull siblings.
If she remembered correctly, they had some business with Boland's. On a related note, Winia was acquainted with the Bolands' only daughter, Michelle.
It seemed that the Boland family had originally run a business in a much larger city, but because an employee had run off with their money, they had closed up shop and moved here to Taurus to start over again. Apparently, a backwater town like this was boring to a girl like Michelle, who had grown up in the big city, so she had a bad habit of blowing trifling matters way out of proportion and causing an uproar.
She was not a bad person by any means, but still . . .
"I haven't seen Pacifica since this morning, either--Eh?"
Winia raised her eyebrows and came to a stop.
One of the blocks of the shopping avenue--right around the area where Boland's stood--swarmed with people. And cheers seemed to be rising intermittently.
"What's . . . ?"
Winia jogged up to the throng and pushed her way through the flood of people. And what she saw when she emerged at the front . . .
"Number 8: Soupy-kun does a somersault!"
The moment Coonan made this announcement, a mascot (which mimicked some incomprehensible creature) up on a platform tumbled into a forward roll, just as announced. It was a simple move, but because the mascot's head was abnormally large and its arms and legs abnormally short, this seemed to be an unexpectedly laborious task. The mascot's movements were fretfully slow, and on top of that, it did not even stand back up after it had finished--it merely flailed its arms and legs around.
To put it bluntly, nothing could have been more oafish, and yet . . .
"Kyaaa, cuuute!"
"Ohhhh, you're adorable, Soupy-kun!"
"Soupy-kun's got style!"
The audience appeared to find it adorable. For its part, the mascot (called "Soupy-kun," or something like that) tipped its head to one side, seeming pleased that it had been so well received. That innocent gesture--reminiscent of a baby bird--got the audience fired up again.
"Ahh, Soupy-kun, you're just . . . you're so cute, dammit!"
"Soupy-kun, look over here!"
Gazing in blank amazement at that sorry sight, Winia murmured, "What . . . is that?"
". . . what, indeed."
"Oh, Shannon-san."
Now that she looked . . . Shannon was standing right beside her with his arms crossed. Well, he always looked listless, but somehow, his air of exhaustion seemed to have grown deeper.
"Where's Raquel-san?"
". . ."
Shannon silently jerked his chin toward . . . Raquel, on the platform, in a waitress uniform.
"Number 9: Raquel is abashed!" Michelle cried out. She was standing just a little way from the platform, as though it had been arranged in advance.
Raquel took the hem of her apron between the fingertips of both hands, delicately lifted it to her mouth . . . and said just one thing.
". . . ohh . . . you dummy."
The next moment, roughly half of the audience (just about all of it male) cheered this time.
"Whoooa, cuuute!"
"Look over here! Pleeease!"
"I LOVE YOUUUUUUU!"
"Oneesama, you're amazing!"
Raquel turned to Michelle with a vacant expression and asked, ". . . was that good?"
"You're doing great, so good, keep it up, Raquel-san--No, from now on I'm calling you 'Onee~sama'!"
Punching a fist into the air, Michelle nodded. Her eyes had an unusual gleam.
[Next] [Previous]
Notes:
1) How does one describe a Double Face Palm in a narrative fashion? Back
2) Pretty sure this is Coonan talking. Back
3) 所詮、血塗られた道なのですね (shosen, chinurareta michi na no desu ne), which is a paraphrase of Kushana's line from Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Back
Oh man, that gutter could swallow the Skid.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 11:30 pm (UTC)LOL :D After this it's getting more and more absurd - I love this episode. Raquel chanted "Gungnir" to fight Soupy kun. He didn't stand a chance. Raquel's definition of "fight" is too straightforward. Thanks goodness for Shannon :)
Haven't gotten the time to rewatch the anime, but didn't Leo wear Soupy at some point and when they left he got the outfit or was it another mascot?
Thanks so much for translating this :)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 11:46 pm (UTC)Yup. In the anime, the siblings run into Leo before reaching Taurus, so he gets stuck playing Soupy-kun when Pacifica gets tired of people ignoring her. Unlike in the novels, only Raquel's campaign is successful, though it doesn't draw nearly as large a crowd as here. Leo also gets the costume in lieu of severance pay once he quits.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-06 06:31 pm (UTC)I'm curious, what is the literal translation? Kudos to you because that line from Shannon sums up his situation neatly.
I wonder why the anime gave Leo Soupy-kun story. So Leo never gets Soupy kun in the story at all? Why does Soupy Kun score so high in the poll, I wonder? I thought because of Leo, maybe Soupy had other charms that I haven't read yet ;)
no subject
Date: 2011-09-07 12:20 am (UTC)Eh, like I said, it's been years since I read the novels, so my memory's fuzzy. I'm pretty sure Leo never has any connection to Soupy-kun, though.
I think the reason Soupy-kun ends up being so popular (as the fan comment on the poll seems to confirm) is that Raquel keeps using him in her spells. Like, I'm pretty sure she reconfigures her Thor spell into a swarm of little Soupy-kuns at one point, and one giant Soupy-kun at another. Then in Giat she uses Ægir to gather a bunch of water into the shape of Soupy-kun and then rides around in it like it's a mech or something (she has to keep her head sticking out of its chest so she can breathe, the sight of which causes Shannon and Cernes to stop and stare in the midst of battle). In one of the supplements, she has a virtual Soupy-kun possess Shannon as a countermeasure against brainwashing. There are probably many others I'm forgetting. X D;
no subject
Date: 2011-09-07 01:01 am (UTC)"... Raquel keeps using him in her spells."
I see. Raquel really likes Soupy kun. Since she's #1, he's riding on her success ;) Too bad we didn't get to see Soupy kun as spells in the anime.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-07 01:42 am (UTC)