The Taste of Mackerel Can~

"What did that make you think of?"

"Oh, nothing..."

Adam shook his head, signaling for Sakura to keep watching.

Before long, the actors playing the two sisters and wicked stepmother also came onstage.

Unlike Toya, who looked like a machine reciting lines with his reluctance written all over his face, these people seemed thoroughly immersed in their roles.

More accurately, they even seemed to be having a bit of... fun?

"Wah... wah... wah... I want to go to the ball too."

Toya recited his lines expressionlessly, without the slightest fluctuation in his tone.

Sakura, sitting below the stage, looked like she could barely bring herself to watch.

"Excuse me~"

"Huh?!"

Hearing another familiar voice, Sakura immediately perked up. However...

Amid a chorus of excited squeals from the fangirls, Yukito entered with a mackerel can perched on his head and handed Toya a slip of paper.

"This is an invitation to the ball... Where did you get it?"

While reciting his line, Toya could not help glancing at the can on Yukito's head.

"Because I can use magic~"

Yukito smiled and pointed at himself.

"Then what is that on your head?"

At last, Toya spoke his first genuinely heartfelt line since taking the stage.

"It's a mackerel can~"

Yukito smiled at the audience below.

"A discarded mackerel can will turn into a magical can after a very long time!"

"An object gaining sentience with age... a tsukumogami?"

Though he remembered the plot, Adam still could not quite suppress the twitch at the corner of his mouth when he saw it with his own eyes.

Beside him, Sakura was so shocked for the second time that she nearly fell off her chair.

"Umm... maybe it's social commentary, telling everyone to cherish resources... probably?"

Tomoyo did her best to smooth things over for