WE WENT TO THE DON BRACO PEACH FESTIVAL
It was my turn to make dinner that night.
“The girls won’t like it if I put in too many herbs, but I wish I could put in a lot~”
I tossed herbs into the stew, toeing the line that my daughters would tolerate. These herbs weren’t for taste but more as a substitute for vegetables.
After that, I defrosted some of our stock of boar meat and cooked it up, then poured a whole bunch of special sauce over it to get rid of the gamy taste. Around here, we couldn’t just get whatever we wanted at a grocery store, so our meals were generally rough. But I always made sure they tasted as good as they could.
Still, it was delightful to have time to cook in the first place. When I was a corporate slave, I only ate out… And not at fancy restaurants, just the chain joints that were open late into the night… The people working there started to recognize me…
Then, the door opened, and Halkara and Laika came in.
Laika would usually take Halkara back and forth between Nascúte, where Halkara worked, and here. But sometimes, it was Flatorte who took her. They took turns, much like we took turns making our meals.
“I’m home~”
“Another smooth flight today, Lady Azusa.”
This was fantastic—Halkara was home much earlier than usual. People really only needed to work about six hours a day. Maybe even less.
“Hello, welcome back, you two~ …Hmm? What’s that letter you got there?”
Halkara was holding something, probably sent to the Halkara Pharmaceuticals factory.
“You’re very sharp, Madam Teacher. I was just about to tell you what this is.”
Halkara came into the kitchen to explain, then pulled the piece of paper out from the opened envelope.
“Around this time of year, the elves of the Nobleaf Village hold their festival. They sent me an invitation.”
“Noble-leaf? Elf place names sure are unique… Is that a part of the Wellbranch Marquessate, too?”
Halkara’s hometown was a part of the Wellbranch Marquessate, which was in Hrant Province.
“No, Nobleaf Village is in Ontos Province, which is a bit to the south. To an elf, that’s an entirely different country. Our connection is not very strong.”
In elf society, if someone lived in a different forest, they were basically foreign.
“See, I just opened a factory in my hometown in Hrant, right? That is how information about other elves in Hrant got to the factory in Nascúte.”
Halkara had closed her factory in her homeland of Hrant before, but once she made amends, she had reopened operations there.
“So what kind of festival is Nobleaf Village holding?”
That was the most important point.
“The Don Braco Peach Festival.”
“The Donburako Peach Festival? Momotaro?!”
Donburako was a weird Japanese word for the sound of a peach floating down a river. It had absolutely no use outside of that, so it was kind of a waste of a word.
And I couldn’t think of anything else besides the folktale of Momotaro that featured a scene of a peach floating down a river. Maybe there was one in myth or fairy tales from other countries, but I doubted they had a word like donburako to go along with it.
“What is a momotaro? Don Braco is a festival that reveres a hero from Nobleaf myth. He was said to have come from the village of Braco.”
“So he’s a good man from Braco! Still, Don Braco makes him sound really important…”
Titles and standings changed all the time depending on the era, so it was hard to tell what the title of don actually meant, but he must’ve been a noble of some kind.
“He is a legendary figure, so it was given to him more or less at random~ It is said he was born from a peach, after all~”
“He is Momotaro!”
If you told me to name any myth where someone was born from a peach, the only answer I’d have for you would be Momotaro.
“Please, what is a momotaro?”
But of course, no one knew the tale in this world.
“Well, I’m not surprised you wouldn’t know the story of Don Braco,” said Halkara. “The legend is told in only one region of the elf lands, Madam Teacher. I will tell it to you now.”
“Sure. I’ll listen while I cook.”
It’d be perfect for a bit of background noise.
“Now, let me tell the story of Don Braco. My, this brings back memories~ I first heard this story from an old lady who used to live in my neighborhood.”
Just like a folktale.
“Once upon a time, a long time ago, there lived a peach couple in a village called Braco.”
“Wait!”
“What, Madam Teacher? Please don’t stop me when I’ve barely gotten started. You will ruin the flow.”
Sorry, but the question I had about the setting was right at the beginning…
“What do you mean by peach couple? Like, two peach trees living as husband and wife?”
In my mind, I pictured two clothed peach trees standing next to each other.
“The version I was told is about two peach fruits as husband and wife. Only peaches lived in the village of Braco.”
“But peaches can’t even eat, let alone get married. The only reason the trees would exist to get married is because of the pits in the fruits, right?”
“I honestly do not know what to say when you complain about all the details~ Please don’t get so caught up in them; it is just a legend.”
Well, the original Momotaro tale had a lot of weird issues, too, so I’d keep quiet.
“And so the wife went to the river to do the laundry.”
Exactly like Momotaro.
“There, she found water flowing through the river.”
“Obviously!” I could’ve guessed that myself!
“Why must you say that? The river must have been dried up, but she found it mysteriously full of rushing water when she went to clean their clothes.”
“Then why did she go there to do laundry at all?”
The first time you hear a myth or a fairy tale, there’s always a worrying number of bizarre issues…
“You are much too particular, Madam Teacher. It is what it is, all right? But then, around that time, the peach husband went to the mountain, where he was sadly eaten by a human. Poor thing…”
Oh, so this story had humans in it…
“The wife was sad her husband had been eaten—but it turned out they had been blessed with a child! A cute baby peach had been born!”
A peach emerging from another peach… Really weird mental image. But the weirdness didn’t stop there.
“There are no elves at all… There’s only been peaches so far.”
“Yes, and the baby peach grew quickly into a fine elf.”
“That sounds like an eventful childhood!”
There must’ve been a mage who appeared and turned the peach into an elf; otherwise, it would be super weird.
“Please, Madam Teacher, refrain from making any commentary. This simply is how the story is supposed to be.”
Does plants-turning-into-elves make sense to elves?
“The elf became a hero, and people began to call him Don Braco. He lived happily ever after.”
“Right, so it’s all normal after that—wait, at least tell me what he did!”
She totally skipped over the part I was most interested in!
“There are several different versions. Some tell of Don Braco defeating the melons, one speaks of how he developed his homeland by turning peaches into a local specialty, and one tells of how Don Braco worked with a peach and apple coalition to take down pears in battle.”
“Wait, that second one—was he just pimping out the peaches?”
Weren’t all the residents of Braco peaches…?
“The Peach Garden Vow, the one where Don Braco takes a vow of brotherhood with his confidants, the apple and the grape, is the most popular. That tends to be the only one that ever gets the stage adaptations.”
“That whole concept is a mess!”
You’ve got humanoid versions of an apple and a grape, yet they’re spending all their time in a peach garden? So they’re being watched by hundreds of peaches?
“Oh, Madam Teacher. I’m repeating myself at this point, but it is nothing more than a child’s tale, so please don’t take it seriously. An elf would never be born from a peach, and it makes no sense that an apple and grape would act as his underlings. They seem so weak in comparison.”
That put an end to the conversation, but this whole story was a little too out there, even if it was just for kids…
As Halkara told me the story of Don Braco, the stew reached a comfortable simmer.
“By the way, do they sell a lot of peaches at this festival?” I asked, bringing us back to where this all started. I was way more interested in that.
“Yes. It’s just full of peaches. They hold a championship to see which peach looks most like a butt.”
“Wow, now that’s something I don’t care about.” Was she purposely bringing up the stupidest bits of information? “I want to go if we can have some peaches, though. Falfa and Shalsha would love it.”
I could see them gleefully running around. Great chance for all of us to eat some peaches, too.
“Then we should go to the festival. If we take Miss Laika and Miss Flatorte, then we should reach Nobleaf Village over in Ontos Province in no time at all.”
“Yes, I would like to go, too!” Laika called from the dining room. Apparently, she had heard the whole conversation about the peach festival and was fascinated by the idea. I bet she was envisioning peach-flavored sweets. She liked meat, but she also liked sugar. Most girls liked both.
“By the way, do you know the story about Don Braco, Laika?”
“No, this is the first I’ve heard of it. Shalsha may know of it.”
Maybe it really was just a tale passed down among elves.
“I overheard a bit,” Laika said, “but there were no elf characters besides Don Braco, were there?”
She found an inconsistency that even I hadn’t noticed.
When we told everyone about the peach festival over dinner, I saw Falfa’s and Shalsha’s eyes sparkle.
“Peaches are so yummy! Falfa loves them!”
“It has long been said that peaches have warding effects. This would mean that Don Braco, the elf born from a peach, is a holy figure. Shalsha also loves peaches.”
Shalsha gave a serious analysis of the story, but to her mother, the affirmation that she liked peaches was much more important.
Flatorte was on board, too. “I’m going to enter the eating contest!” A dragon would be a formidable opponent…
“Miss Flatorte, there is no eating contest…” Halkara immediately corrected her before her hopes could get too high.
“What?! Then where will I compete?!”
Why did she think she was going to compete? I guess to her, everything was an opportunity for competition, even a peach festival.
The one who was least enthusiastic about all this was Sandra. She couldn’t eat peaches, of course, but that didn’t seem to be the reason why she was down.
“Peaches, hmm… They’re all so arrogant… I think they’re a bunch of jerks…”
Ah, the reviled snobbish types of the plant world…
“Peaches and chestnuts start getting all snooty around the age of three. Just three years. Three! Meanwhile, there are plenty of cedars that live for centuries. I wish they would learn a thing or two from persimmons. They don’t start talking about reaching midlevel until around eight years.”
I knew it meant something entirely different, but it reminded me of a saying about, like, something-something, three years for peaches and chestnuts, eight years for persimmons…
All that aside, we decided that the whole family would be going to the peach festival.
“Let’s eat all the peaches we can!” cried Falfa. She and her sister were overjoyed; there were no amusement parks in this world, so this was perfect for them.
And since we may as well go all the way with this, I extended an invitation to everyone I could—including Beelzebub the next time she came over. And she came over often enough that it didn’t take long.
“I shall be there if I can make it,” she said, so that made it about fifty-fifty.
On the day of the peach festival, we arrived at Nobleaf Village.
There was a sign on the gate.
This was essentially a farm, so we weren’t in a deep forest; this was a wide, flat plain with peach trees lined up as far as the eye could see.
And even though we were on flat land, we were still rather high up on a plateau. This was some pretty good altitude.
“This looks so different from the Wellbranch Marquessate,” I said, recalling the complicated network of carriage lines that stretched across the region.
“Of all the elven lands, the Wellbranch Marquessate is the most urban. Nobleaf Village feels so rural in comparison~ I am a city girl.” Halkara looked proud of that fact. Even to elves, the city tended to have a higher status.
“Don’t elves need a forest of some kind? All I see are peach trees,” Flatorte asked, curious. There was definitely an image that “forest equals elf.”
“The elves of Nobleaf Village live in the surrounding mountains. This is a basin, so you’ll find mountains if you go a short distance in any direction. Look, you’ll see them.”
Now that she mentioned it, I could see the green mountains; the plains didn’t extend all the way to the horizon. It looked an awful lot like Japan. I’d never been to Yamagata or Nagano Prefecture, but maybe this was what the peach groves there were like.
“Let us go, then,” said Shalsha. “There should be plenty of stalls selling peaches.”
Falfa and Shalsha dashed off toward the event area before Halkara was even done talking.
They were faster and more enthusiastic than when they ran around the house in the highlands.
They really were ready to eat some peaches!
“Don’t get lost, okay~? Just be careful!”
“Okaaay!”
“Understood!”
It was a festival, after all, so all this running around was kind of a given. I just wanted them to have fun.
The two dragons seemed ready to jump into the fray, too.
“Halkara,” I said, “why don’t we all go off on our own to the places we want to?”
“Good idea. Nobleaf is in a rural area, so the festival area is not large enough for any of us to get lost.”
She sure was leaning into that city-girl superiority, huh…?
“Laika, let’s compete to see who eats the most!”
“No, it is much more meaningful to carefully appreciate the flavors of each dish. We shouldn’t treat it like a competition.”
“Then let’s compete to recommend the best peach food we find to each other!”
“I accept your challenge!”
After settling on a competition that was more feminine than I was expecting, the dragons hurried off, too.
“I don’t think I can drum up that much excitement for this. I’m just gonna chill.”
I leisurely walked toward the festival grounds.
The first thing I spotted was—
—the stupidest thing!
Halkara was really waffling over which peach to vote for.
“Number three looks most like a butt, but it’s a bit tame. Number seven has personality.”
Oh yeah, she did mention that there was an event like this… I didn’t know she’d be this interested in it.
I ignored her and kept going…
The next thing I spotted was a big banner.
What were they doing here?
Elves were wearing armor and chanting, “Don Braco Tiger! Tiger!” I guess they were supposed to be dressed like Don Braco.
It was starting to sound like they were saying Taiga… It reminded me of the petitions people held back in Japan to make their local general into the main role of the Taiga dramas…
Yeah, there was always something weird about the festivals here…
I’d seen plenty of times how there was nothing fantasy-world-esque about the demons’ lifestyle, but Halkara’s hometown in the Wellbranch Marquessate had also had a twenty-first-century flavor to it with all those local not-bus lines everywhere. But maybe every variety of elf had a unique world view.
I went in farther to see a massive line in front of a temporary building.
Whatever this was sure was popular; every elf in line was male. Maybe they’d be racing while carrying a big peach or something.
There was a thick, black curtain hanging in front of the building with a sign right next to it.
“Can’t you do this somewhere more discreet?!”
Don’t put it near the front!
I know this festival is all about peaches, but now we’re even bringing real butts into it? Seriously?
Once I passed that sketchy zone near the entrance, the festival all finally came together with rows of stalls selling various peachy wares.
I also spotted Falfa and Shalsha sitting on a bench, eating. Peaches are always good no matter where you go.
I decided to go simple and buy a sliced peach—but there were still so many different types. I didn’t know what to get.
Yikes, that product naming sense!
Were they really naming fruit products grandma and grandpa…? Fresh and juicy was not the image that brought to mind.
I bought Don Braco’s Mother, which seemed to be the most standard.
I was handed a wooden bowl that had several cut slices of peach in it, along with a single wooden skewer stuck into one of the slices to serve as a toothpick.
I immediately put a slice in my mouth.
“Wow, it’s so good! You can always count on peaches to be delicious!”
So sweet and juicy! It was simple, but it had a graceful, refined sweetness—now this was what peaches should be like. I made the right choice.
I sat down next to Falfa and Shalsha.
“How is it? Is it good? Oh, I don’t need to ask.”
Both of them were euphoric. No one would they say it was bad with an expression like that.
Falfa was drinking the peach juice that had pooled at the bottom of her bowl. Oh, that stuff was good, too!
“Falfa is so happy! It’s like heaven!”
“This is utopia. Absolutely marvelous.”
“Isn’t it? I’m jealous they live in a place where they can pick such tasty peaches.”
Fruit production was not a perk of living in the area around the house in the highlands. Maybe we could try planting a peach tree near the house.
No… Sandra hates peaches, so we probably shouldn’t.
But now wasn’t the time for me to leisurely wander around and look at things.
“Gyaaaaah!” That sounded like Flatorte screaming from far away.
“What’s she gotten herself into this time…? I’m going to take a look…”
I made my way toward the sound.
A dragon on a rampage would completely ruin an elf festival. If she needed to be stopped, it was my responsibility as head of the house to do so.
Phew, she’s just taking part in some event. What’s she doing?
I looked at the panel next to the stage.
“They have to fight through all that?!”
I didn’t think I’d ever seen a more unnecessary prize. I’d hate for that to show up on our doorstep.
“Uuugh… The sweeter I expect it to be when it hits my tongue, the nastier the sourness is afterward…”
Flatorte brought a slice to her lips with a look of pain. In a way, she seemed much more serious than usual.
The other competitors endured the sour peaches with puckered lips.
Why did these people enter anyway? That’s what I really wanted to know. They wouldn’t even get any fame from this.
“I will eat through the pain! If I lose, then I’ll be left with nothing but the sourness on my tongue! I will at least win!”
Is that really where she wanted to place her passion? Well, the peach farmers would be grateful for an event like this, where they could get rid of otherwise useless peaches.
I saw Sandra sitting in the audience.
Maybe this was more interesting to her, since she didn’t care about how any of the peaches tasted.
“Ahhh, peach dropouts. It’s tragic, really. Failing to make use of your status after being lucky enough to be born a peach—that’s more pitiful than living one’s whole life among weeds.”
Sandra always had some unique opinions…
“Hmm, I find myself less annoyed with peaches. There is cutthroat competition within the peach world. All they really need to do is struggle within their society to create even sweeter fruits, then give the best ones to the animals. Then they can get even better fertilizer.”
Hearing a plant’s perspective was making it harder to honestly think about how good they tasted. Eh, let’s just say everyone’s enjoying the festival in their own way.
Flatorte was still eating the sour peaches.
This was going to take a lot longer than I thought, so I decided to go somewhere else.
Beyond the food stalls, there was an exhibit on how they grew and harvested peaches.
I say exhibit, but there wasn’t much more than some text and diagrams; definitely not a place Flatorte would enjoy. I was thinking about giving this a pass, too.
But I found Laika there, examining the plaques.
She was such a good student! Too good for this world!
“Hmm, I see. And so that is how they make good peaches. I had no idea they undergo such strict inspection before getting shipped out… It takes more than I thought to preserve a brand.”
“You really are a hard studier, Laika.”
“Oh, Lady Azusa!”
She hadn’t noticed me approaching her at all.
“I bet the people who made this would be delighted to see you reading this so earnestly.”
“I have learned just how detailed the work process must be in order to preserve brand peaches. I am again reminded that I must not be conceited. Some of what I’ve learned here can be applicable to polishing my strength.”
“I’m really impressed that you can convert that into a warning for yourself…”
I tried to read some of the descriptions, but there were so many words, I gave up. A witch’s plant knowledge and a farmer’s plant knowledge were totally different. Witches didn’t know how to raise peaches.
“I’m leaving, Laika…”
“All right, Lady Azusa. I will be here a little longer, so please, go and enjoy yourself out there.”
I wasn’t sure who was the teacher and who was the apprentice anymore…
Just past the exhibit was what looked to be a relatively peach-free rest area. There were also a few stalls that had nothing to do with peaches, either. Maybe the spot was for people who were sick of the fruit.
Hmm, what to do? Guess I should go back to where all the peachy goodness was.
“Phew… This is the easiest place to be…”
I heard a voice coming from high up, and I found Rosalie floating nearby. She had her arms wrapped around her, like she was cold or something. Did ghosts get cold?
“Oh, Rosalie. You seem unwell; are you okay?”
She wasn’t zipping around in excitement, at least.
“Yeah, I’m fine… I guess places with lots of peaches aren’t for me. I start shaking and stuff…”
I remembered what Shalsha said. “I’ve heard peaches have warding effects…”
So they could drive away spirits.
The Japanese word for paradise on earth had peach in it, so maybe it really did have some holy element to it.
“I’ve just learned that places full of peaches aren’t exactly for me… What a relief to find this little spot.”
“Sorry, I did this to you, Rosalie… I wasn’t expecting this kind of problem…”
I hadn’t even considered that this event would be bad for her. As a living person, there was so much I didn’t know.
“No, don’t worry about it, Big Sis. I’m still having fun. There’s tons of people to talk with here, so I’m not bored at all.”
People to talk to? Which means…
“Right now, I’m talking with a whole crowd of other ghosts who escaped.”
“There’s other ghosts here?!”
Well, as long as she had a way to pass the time.
“All right, then stick around here for a bit, okay? I think Laika’s going to be hanging out with the exhibits for a little while longer.”
“Got it, Big Sis!”
I decided to go back to the stalls again.
When I got there, I found a very unique-looking girl sitting in the market’s eating area.
She was wearing a lot of white. Nothing but white.
Hey, is that…?
I walked around to get a look at her from the front, and sure enough—it was Wynona. I’d sent word to her about the event, and apparently it caught her interest.
“You’re here, Wynona!”
“Ah! Please do not speak so suddenly to me, Stepmother.”
“Uh, could you not call me that when we’re around lots of other people?”
I only looked seventeen—elves were known for their youthful looks, but people were still turning quizzically toward us.
“But it is the truth, is it not, Stepmother?”
Don’t do it on purpose! “What’ve you had to eat today, Wynona?”
She tended to only eat food that was white in color, after all. She had her preferences, and she really stuck to them.
“Peaches. That is essentially the only thing they sell here.” She was looking at me like I’d asked a stupid question.
“But I mean, peaches actually have color, right? Oh! You don’t actually eat only white foods—that’s a relief.”
“These are white peaches.”
“Never mind!”
“I will not eat yellow peaches.”
Oh, I’ll just let her do her thing. No one’s stopping her.
“By the way…” Wynona’s eyes darted around. “…Where are my sisters?”
Every time she saw Falfa and Shalsha, she would get nervous in the way a high schooler might around an older student she admired. Nothing like the borderline contempt she treated me with.
“They should be around there somewhere. Probably lined up for some stall—Oh, there we go.”
The two were in line to get some peach tarts, getting ready to pay.
When they turned around, they noticed me and came over.
“It’s Mommy and Sister Wynona~ ”
“Hello, Sister Wynona.”
They both called her Sister Wynona with the utmost respect… Maybe because Wynona looked older… The relationships around me were all way too bizarre and complex.
“Ah, I see you are in good spirits… Sisters…” Wynona froze up.
I wondered if there was some kind of emotional subtleties that only slime spirits could understand when it came to this stuff. Mission successful! I thought, and maybe it showed on my face, but I couldn’t tell you without a mirror.
Wynona never came to the house, so she rarely saw Falfa and Shalsha. She struck me as the type who wouldn’t come over without a reason. But that wasn’t too unusual.
My expectations had been influenced by Beelzebub, who would come over all the time for literally no reason. If anything, she was the unusual one.
But the peach festival was perfect. Anyone could come and go as they wanted. And maybe—or maybe not—run into the people who invited them, so it should have been an easy decision for Wynona.
“Do you want some peach tart, Sister Wynona?”
“No, I cannot so easily take things you offer to me, Sisters. I will treat you instead!”
That was a little weird, though.
“We hear a lot about your activities, Sister Wynona.”
“Oh, I’ve barely done anything. You, Sister Shalsha, are looking delightfully lovely today, as usual.”
Their way of giving compliments was all over the place. Wynona was the one living a more grown-up lifestyle, so that’s no surprise.
Anyway! They were having a friendly conversation, so I slipped away to find something else to do. Slime spirit bonding was a good thing.
I got in line for peach juice—100 percent pure. The good stuff.
But there was a person ahead of me in line who seemed familiar. As soon as she said, “Please give me the one with the juiciest droplets~” I was sure of who it was.
“You came, Momma Yufufu!”
“Oh, Azusa! I finally found you~ ”
Yep, I’d reached out to her, too.
“Well, now that I have, why don’t we have some mother-daughter alone time~?” she suggested just after I’d purchased my own juice.
“Yeah.”
It was nice to attend a festival as parent and child; I never got a taste of this when I was a kid. We sat down on a bench.
“How is life as a parent going?”
“I’ve got a stepdaughter now, so I’d say the difficulty went up a bit.”
“Ah~ I understand how you feel~”
“Do you really, Momma Yufufu?” That sounded like a classically insincere response. “It seems most of the people I reached out to ended up coming. But I haven’t seen the one most likely to show up yet.”
“I’m here, Elder Sister~”
I knew that voice right away—Pecora was jogging toward me.
I could see an exhausted-looking Beelzebub behind her. Ah, chaperoning again. Fight the good fight.
“Oh! If it isn’t Pecora~”
“Miss Droplet Spirit Yufufu, thank you for all your hard work on your magic stream. ”
They started to greet each other. Oh right, they knew each other because of the magic streaming…
I was glad to hear that they were still getting even more and more unique networks.
“Elder Sister,” said Pecora, “let us line up for that peach stall over there!”
“I already had some.”
“Please play along with your younger sister,” she replied, yanking me to my feet.
Well, I guess I could just stand in line with her. I invited Momma Yufufu to come with me for a bit, too.
But Pecora ended up passing the peach stall.
“I want to know what’s in there, Elder Sister.”
“No! Definitely not! We’re going back!” I pulled Pecora away.
Why is she interested in the weirdest stuff?!
Everyone had their own fun at the peach festival that day, and I couldn’t have been happier. It had the perfect amount of things to do and see in one day.
But…
“I don’t think I need to eat any more peaches for a while…,” I mumbled on our way back atop dragon Laika.
Almost every single stall sold peaches only, so I was sick of them now.
I ended up eating extra peaches since I went around the festival with Pecora, too. Demons sure eat a lot…
“I know~ I drank too much peach liqueur, so I think I’ve had all I can take…” Halkara sat behind me, her face pale.
“But that’s how it always is with you!”
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