“That’s Grandpa Theo’s grandson for you,” Cecil remarked, impressed.
“Curiosity must run in the family,” Carlo agreed. Members of the upper class usually ate tender, high-quality meat; they wondered how many nobles would be able to take a big bite of cheap, tough skewered meat and say, “Delicious!” Quite a few would probably wrinkle their noses at it.
Seeing Alexis blissfully eating, the stallkeeper said, “You must’ve been hungry, sonny.” He gave him another skewer on the house, and everyone smiled.
As Yui was running around and getting her fill of all sorts of food—from grilled meat to cotton candy to ice cream—she heard a cute squeaking sound. She stopped in her tracks. With Filiel in tow, she walked up to the stall where the noise had been coming from.
“So cuuute!” she exclaimed. Peeking inside a wooden crate on the counter, she could see a bunch of round creatures that looked like balls of fur about the size of her fist. The pure white fur that covered their entire bodies looked as soft as high-quality down. Two black, round eyes peeked out from each creature’s fur, making them look all the more adorable. There had to be about twenty of them in the crate. Yui noticed that out of all of them, one was staring intently at her, and she stared back into its cute eyes. Then, after they gazed at each other for a while, Yui said, “El! I want to take this one home with me!”
“Whoa, whoa, hold on,” Filiel said, trying to calm her bursting excitement. He looked to Cecil and Carlo, seeking help. They looked up at the sign on the stall, which had the words “Ploom Fishing” written on it.
“They’re plooms. Do you want one?” Cecil asked her.
Yui nodded. “Yeah, I want this one!” She pointed at the one she had locked eyes with.
Plooms were categorized as magic beasts, but they had absolutely zero fighting capability. Due to their calm nature and cute appearance, they were kept as pets. They were weak, but they had the ability to transform the fur that covered their bodies. Sometimes, they used it to defend themselves, hardening their fur like a sea urchin’s spines; other times, in order to get around, they softened their fur like feathers and rode gusts of wind, or entangled it with other animals’ fur. The stall seemed to be a game that took advantage of that trait. Players dangled a pole wrapped in an animal pelt and tried to get the plooms to stick to it—in order to win, players needed to successfully fish one.
Noticing that Yui, Filiel, and her brothers had stopped in front of the stall, the others gathered around too.
“Plooms, huh? A lot of people keep them as pets, even some noble ladies.” Alexis said. “Is she going to get one?” he asked Cecil.
“It does look like she wants to, but they’re living creatures, so I think we ought to talk with our mother or father before—”
“Hey, Cecil,” Filiel said, tapping Cecil’s shoulder. “She isn’t listening.”
Cecil shifted his gaze back to Yui and saw that she was excitedly paying the stall employee. “Hey, Yui!” he said.
“Well, isn’t it fine?” Carlo said. “She hardly ever shows this much interest in anything besides her research.” It was hard to imagine Layce or Sherina saying no to Yui, not when she was so motivated to keep one. Also, in order to take one of the plooms home, she needed to catch one within the time allotted, but it was possible that none of them would stick to the pole. It all depended on how the plooms were feeling. Additionally, there were a lot of plooms inside the crate.
“There’s no guarantee you’ll get the one you’re after, Yui,” Filiel warned, but she was fired up.
“Don’t worry, I’ll definitely get it.”
“Just where does that confidence come from?” Filiel asked, sounding exasperated. He wasn’t alone.
In the face of their doubts, Yui got a pole from the stallkeeper and dangled the end into the crate. The instant she did, the ploom that had been staring at her zipped over faster than the eye could see, pushed the other plooms aside, and bit into the end of the pole.
“Eh?” the stallkeeper exclaimed, and the others watching expressed their surprise along with him.
“Hey, mister, I thought plooms used their fur to stick to things,” Carlo said. “That one just bit the pole, and it blew away the other plooms around it.”
“Yeah, and it seemed seriously persistent, like it was saying, ‘I won’t give this up to anyone,’” Cecil said.
“Did you forget to feed it?” Filiel asked.
“Now isn’t that odd?” the stallkeeper said. “I just gave them their food. And plooms are omnivores, but they don’t eat fur.” The three of them raised numerous questions, but the stallkeeper was just as perplexed as them, despite his decades of experience dealing with plooms. After all, plooms were gentle, quiet animals. Apparently, they never attacked their fellows or, as the one had just now, moved quickly. “Well, I guess some of them are just like that,” said the stallkeeper, and everyone had no choice but to accept that explanation.
Yui, meanwhile, took no notice of the others’ confusion. She was overjoyed to have caught the ploom she wanted, and she was rubbing her cheek against its fluffy fur. “So cute,” she said.
“Pweeee,” the ploom squeaked.
“I have to give it a name. Hmmm...” Just then, a name spontaneously appeared in her mind. “Sully.” Something inside of her screamed that the ploom’s name was Sully. “Sully...” When she repeated its name, it made a happy-sounding squeak and nestled up to her. It was almost as if it could understand what she was saying. Curious, Yui tried asking the stallkeeper. “Um, excuse me. Can plooms understand human speech?”
“Plooms? Well, you can train them like dogs and tell them to ‘shake’ or ‘wait,’ but they don’t know what the words actually mean. They aren’t as smart as people—they’re just magic beasts, after all.”
“That makes sense.”
“They’re omnivores and will eat anything, so they’re low-maintenance pets. Take good care of it.”
“Okay.” Placing Sully on her shoulder, Yui left the stall behind.
By the time the magic Yui had cast on Filiel was about to wear off, more shops had opened for the day, and there were more people walking by too, so they hurried back to the inn. It wouldn’t be good if Filiel got separated from Yui.
When they got back, they went up to the balcony overlooking the main street and took a short break. Then, as if it had been planned, tea and various light meals were brought out to them. Yui gave Sully some of her food, but it didn’t try to eat any of the meat, vegetables, or bread she offered.
“It won’t eat any... Hey, Carlo, are plooms really omnivores?” Yui asked.
“They should be, but maybe it’s full.”
“But it’s been a while since then... Sully, is there anything here you want?”
“Pwee?”
They all knew that there was no way Sully could actually answer, but they watched Yui and the cute ploom’s exchange with smiles on their faces. However, what Sully did next rendered everyone speechless. It surveyed the table full of food, then bounced over to a jar of honey. It hopped up and down in front of the jar and squeaked like it was trying to get Yui’s attention. “Pwee pwee.”
“That’s what you want to eat, Sully?” Yui asked.
“Pwee,” it peeped happily, as if to say, “That’s right, it is.”
Yui scooped some honey into a spoon and held it out to Sully, and the ploom started licking it.
“You must like honey, Sully,” Yui said.
“Pwee.”
Watching the pleasant conversation between human and animal, Carlo asked his twin to confirm what he was seeing with his own eyes. “Hey, doesn’t it look like they’re actually talking to each other?”
“No, that’s impossible... Plooms don’t have that kind of intelligence,” Cecil said.
“Right, you’re right. It must be a coincidence.” Despite what he said, whenever Yui spoke to Sully, it surprised everyone when it responded and acted—it was like the creature could understand what she said.
Cecil shrugged. “It looks like it’s taken a liking to her, so I suppose it’s fine...”
“When we get back to the palace, I’ll ask someone who knows about magic beast behavior,” Filiel said. There was always the possibility that this was some new variety of ploom. Cecil was worried about letting it be near Yui, but it didn’t give any indication that it would cause her any harm, so they decided to wait and see how things turned out, then later ask an expert at the palace.
After a while, they heard loud wind instruments, and people began shouting and cheering.
“Oh, looks like it’s started,” Yui said.
A bunch of people in costumes paraded down the street, marching to the beat of a band playing on horns and drums. Large crowds of people had formed lines on both sides of the street to get a look at the costumed people, but those on the balcony were able to enjoy the parade without anything blocking their view.
They all gazed at the street where they had just been walking around, and Yui quietly took Filiel’s hand.
“Yui?” Filiel said.
“This is fun,” Yui said.
“Yeah...”