Chapter 9, Idle talk 5 [9-18] Sakura, meeting Lewis’s friends together with George
Chapter 9, Idle talk 5 [9-18] Sakura, meeting Lewis’s friends together with George
Tl: Jun
ED: Jun
Los Angeles, USA.
Yuuji’s younger sister Sakura and her husband George was in the car their friend Lewis was driving.
Lewis had told them to go meet “his friend, a married couple with large connections who seem to know of patternmakers.”
‘Mr Lewis, is the married couple living here somewhere? This is sort of… a high-end residential area though… Moreover, would it be fine to be at their house despite it being a first meeting?’
‘There’s nothing to worry about Mrs Sakura! The husband and wife are people you can talk with you know, I’ve been in their care since my youth! Don’t be so nervous, they’re nice people and of course it’s better to enjoy yourself I’d say!’
The driving Lewis was carefree, ignoring Sakura’s unease.
Next to Sakura sitting in the back seat, George fiddled with the tablet while humming. It appears he was already interested in having found a pattern maker. Which ones should I show first, he was grumbling.
‘Aalright we’ve arrived, it’s here! Wait for a bit alright!’
Where Lewis stopped the car was in front of a house.
No, it should be in front of a house.
The place that could be seen inside the gates had no house, but it would be likely that the house would be further ahead after one enters with the car.
Paying no heed to Sakura muttering “Eh, no way, what is this” in Japanese, Lewis went to the intercom and informed them of something.
The gates opened.
‘Now then, I wonder if the two knows the patternmaker~!’
Lewis was in good spirits and doing things at his own pace.
Sakura was dumbfounded.
George was fiddling on the tablet.
Disregarding the chaos inside the car, the party arrived at a palatial residence.
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The living room, where light shone in from a large window.
No, it was likely an excessively spacious room that appeared to be a living room.
Sakura made herself small and sat quietly on the sofa.
She had noticed it.
The fact that the casually placed modern sofa was a famous and high-priced masterpiece designed by a designer.
Sakura sat without leaning on it. She was lower middle class. She was greeted by an elderly woman and guided to the living room, but she seemed to have suffered damage from the palatial residence and could not seem to remember.
On the other hand, Lewis and George were feeling at home. They did not falter from the palatial residence and instead, the two were getting excited in their conversation about american comics for some reason. They were creators doing things at their own pace.
‘Hey, I’ve kept you waiting. It’s been a while, isn’t it Lewis? How have you been?’
Who appeared was an elderly married couple and a woman.
Sakura, who heard about Lewis’s friend, was shocked about their age difference with Lewis.
However for the US, a friend with age difference was not unusual.
‘Oh dear me, so I was right. Young lady, do you remember me, I wonder?’
The elderly woman who guided the party to the living room seemed to have been Lewis’s friend. They did think it may have been the case during the guidance, but they must have been convinced after seeing her again. A sophisticated elderly woman showed a tender smile and talked to Sakura.
‘Eh? … Excuse me, but have we met somewhere?’
‘Yes we did. A few years ago I suppose… On the return plane to Los Angeles from Japan. I’ve talked to you when you were sitting next to me on other side of the aisle, young lady. I suppose you don’t remember me?’
‘Aah! That time! You remembered that well don’t you!’
That was when Sakura received contact from her friend Emi, who started saying something incomprehensible which was “Yuuji went to another world”, and flew to Japan.
It was when she finished tidying up troubles at Utsunomiya and went back to Los Angeles.
It was when she splurged and used the business seat.
Certainly, Sakura was approached by a sophisticated woman sitting across the aisle.
Finally remembering her, Sakura showed surprise.
‘Yes, you made a lovely smiling face of an adorable young lady. Is your beloved brother doing well?’
At that time, Sakura was twenty eight. She could not be called a young lady. No, surely she was merely calling her a ‘lady’ in english. Probably.
Sakura showed an embarrassed grin, appearing like she was not as dissatisfied as she would have others believe. It was her time of supreme bliss where she was able to enjoy the merits of the childlike japanese face to the maximum.
‘What, so you were acquaintances Mrs Sakura! You could’ve said so if that was the case! Moreover, you talked about your brother? That’s gonna save us time then doesn’t it!’
Lewis went on and on with his rapid-talking as usual. He was excited. It was a mystery as to why he was friends with a sophisticated elderly woman.
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‘… and so, we’ve been looking for pattern makers and also people who could give them directions with the assumption that we’re using tools and techniques of what we here would call the late middle ages of Europe”
It was George who told their long story in front of the elderly couple and a woman. It seems even Lewis could not be entrusted with this. As a designer managing his own advertising design office, he was familiar with presentations.
The eyes of the elderly couple sparkled, listening to this really shady story. To the point that they cheerfully shifted their attention even towards Lewis as he suddenly cut into the conversation.
On the other hand, the other woman quickly snatched the tablet from George and eagerly checked the otherworld videos, pictures and designs. Her eyes were bloodshot and her expression ghastly.
In the end, the elderly woman raised a merry voice.
‘Fascinating, it’s fascinating! Isn’t it, dear!’
“Hum… I unexpectedly want to believe this, but… My boy Lewis, so even you can’t find any signs of processing on these images and videos?’
‘Oh stop it, I’ve told you didn’t I! If these were processed, then I will bow down and go to learn from him right away! You’re probably be able to make these images if you spend the time for it, but the videos would be fairly impossible, you know! It would be impossible for me no matter how many years I would spend on it!’
‘Is that so… Well if you say so, then this video would be genuine…’
The elderly man said and pondered. Lewis was geeky, moody, doing things at his pace, eccentric, single and unpopular, but his skills were genuine as a CG creator.
Even so, he was amazingly dependable.
‘Right, don’t you think so, dear!? Wouldn’t this be interesting?’
‘Yes… Lewis, George and Mrs Sakura. This story, how much of it has been spread? Could this be a famous story in Japan?’
‘Hmm, how much I wonder. I’ve requested our attorney to refuse all referrals to media and news coverage of things like secondary usage of the images and videos. But then, wouldn’t it spread on its own I thought…’
‘I see, so you turned down the media. In that case… hum…’
Hearing Sakura’s words, the elderly man pondered while speaking some ramblings.
Appearing like he had calmed down, that part was as expected of Lewis’s friend. The point where he would not mind his surroundings seemed to be similar.
‘Wonderful! It’s wonderful! I will do it! Leave the designs, patterns, sewing instructions, everything to me!’
Suddenly, the woman who was staring intently at the images on the tablet shouted. It appears that this woman was the patternmaker Sakura and the others were searching for. She was eccentric. Birds of a feather seem to flock together even in the US.
Ignoring the woman shouting “First a silk dress right!? Preparing one for a proposal is lovely, isn’t it!?”, the pondering elderly man talked to Sakura.
It was chaos.
‘Mrs Sakura. You are not planning on making this story into a movie are you?’
‘ …Eh? Excuse me? What did you just say?’
‘That being said, first would be tying an exclusive contract and from there we do a fund-raising however. Of course I will pitch in a suitable sum to your brother. He must be doing video requests too. Whether we would make that into a movie as is would be a different story though… Aah, I want the interaction towards the media even stricter than now from here on. If we’re going to do it, then I’d like our side to have control over the public access to information after all.’
‘Eh? Ehm…?’
“Dear, do talk after putting everything in good order. Also Lewis, my boy. Oh dear Lewis, haven’t you explained them anything about us? Really, just like always isn’t it’
The elderly woman said and began to take control of the place. It was natural, but with Lewis’s initiative, they gave each other’s names and finished their introductions. There were no strange points in particular.
The elderly woman once again turned to face Sakura, who was blankly tilting her head, and then spoke.
‘My husband is a producer and I am a scriptwriter. This girl I often request to take charge of clothes. Us married couple combo are relatively famous, but I wonder, are you not aware of that, Mrs Sakura?’
The elderly woman showed a tender smile and spoke to Sakura.
However.
The sophisticated elderly wife’s polite words further put Sakura in disorder.
‘Aah, indeed I have heard of your name…wait, eh? EEeeeeeh!?’
Yes, this is Los Angeles, USA.
Its super high end residential area, Beverly Hills.
Sakura’s shout echoed in the palatial residence of the married couple, a Hollywood famous producer and scriptwriter duo.