Fairy Tale Chronicles

Volume 3 Sequel 2.3

Translator: Reflet

Editor: Weasalopes

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「Sensei, Haru, how do you ride this thing?」

Her eyes glinting at all the things she had rarely been able to touch as a child, Mio asked as she took a pogo stick Haruna hadn’t picked up. Her face appeared to be full of expectation. She was generally expressionless, so it was pretty easy to tell at times like these.

「Did your generation not really play with these things, Mio?」

「Generation? More like Mio’s body was weak, so she didn’t have much experience with stamina-based activities like this.」

「Ah, right.」

Understanding Tatsuya’s explanation, Hiroshi began thinking of how he could help Mio properly ride the pogo stick when suddenly, he remembered something rather unnecessary.

「Might not be a good idea to ride the pogo sticks in the garden.」

「Mm? Why’s that?」

「Cuz I think Lime planted solmizen, plus there’s a buncha other experimental plants being cultivated.」

「……So is that why Lime was sneaking around in the middle of the night?」

「Yup. It ain’t bad or nothin’, but she wants to keep it hush hush so we gotta be adults ‘n not say nothin’. At least that’s what I thought.」

「Well yeah.」

Tatsuya concurred with Hiroshi’s statement. Normally this would be something to pay attention to if she were messing around at night, but if all she did was tend to the plants at night in a sneaky manner, all they could really do was question why she chose nighttime rather than boldly in the daytime. Besides, she wasn’t exactly staying up all that much; only really till ten o’clock or slightly later. Compared to Makoto, who would often stay up into the morning, this was nothing. It wasn’t like anyone would find it surprising for her to wake up in the bathroom or something like that.

Incidentally, the reason why everyone was asleep and quiet at this time was because people in this world tended to be early to bed, early to rise. Other than precious few exceptions, people (both children and adults) tended to eat dinner from six o’clock to seven o’clock pm and go to sleep around nine. Restaurants also mainly closed shop eight o’clock at the latest, with no shops operating late night except for taverns.

「So I know Makoto-san’s still off doing her thing, but what about Fum ‘n the rest?」

「Fum-chan and Lime-chan are off playing with friends. Teres-san and Nora-san said they were going to restock spices alongside delivery. Layla-san is cleaning the Darl workshop.」

「Okay then.」

They listened to Haruna’s explanation of where the workers went and changed locations to play around some more.

「So we were talkin’ bout pogo sticks, right?」

「Mhm.」

「But I don’t think I gotta explain much for you to ride it.」

As he said that, Hiroshi gripped the handle, put his feet on the step, and began bouncing around with unbelievably springy movement. It takes skill to get it right the first time, but once you get past that barrier it isn’t especially difficult. The only thing was, you need quite a bit of skill to hold the balance for a long time as you find yourself getting more and more tired.

「And that’s basically how ya jump around.」

「Dude, that’s not even an explanation.」

「D’ya think it’s even possible to explain this by word of mouth?」

Hiroshi rebutted Tatsuya’s fierce interjection. Explaining this sort of exercise was in fact difficult. Illustrations were much more common than manuals or articles, but when it came down to it, actually watching someone riding it was the easiest way to understand.

「So go ahead ‘n try it.」

「Mm.」

Taking the pogo stick from Hiroshi, Mio attempted to jump, eyes glinting. In this case it seemed that attribute values and skills had less to do with it than the sense of the individual, and for a brief while, the clumsy sight of her failing to get on or losing her balance after one or two jumps and landing on her feet continued.

「……It’s more difficult than it looks.」

「Yup, you need a good sense of it for this kinda play.」

「And I fully realize that my athletic sense is in the negatives.」

Besides, Mio hardly had any experience of playing outside, as she was mainly watching people in gym class ninety percent of the time. As reflexes and athletic senses are most influenced by working out in that period, even with athletic skill obtained later on, Mio seemed to be struggling with getting the hang of it. On the flipside, she had picked up crafting relatively quickly, most likely due to her having to play alone in the room all the time.

「Ah.」

「Did it.」

She tried several more times after that, finally being able to jump around like normal. Mio had high attribute value, so once she got the hang of things she did whatever she could to repeatedly ensure everything was working out. Other than the times she landed on the ground on purpose, Mio continued to enjoy jumping around, despite her expressionless face. Ten minutes later…

「……I’ve had my fill.」

「Kay. Was it fun?」

「Mhm.」

Mio nodded at Haruna with a rather glossy expression before locking on to the unicycle.

「How do you ride that?」

「Ah～、sorry、I just made it but can’t ride it too well. What about you bro?」

「Nah, it’s impossible for me too.」

「Well hey, I can ride it.」

Unicycles were just plain difficult for anyone. Haruna once again demonstrated her unusually high specs by volunteering in place of the men who were quite honest about not being able to. As soon as she adjusted the height of the saddle, Haruna borrowed someone’s shoulder instead of touching the wall and clambered up onto the seat while retaining her balance, gliding forward and backward and moving around in a figure eight shape.

「Well this is what it’s like. With this being your first time, you’d better have someone support you when you get on.」

「Even with support, there are plenty of people who still can’t manage to pull it off though.」

「Yup. I’m just clumsy and can never manage to really ride the thing.」

Tatsuya and Hiroshi said something unnecessary in response to Haruna’s comment. To their credit though, unicycling has a much higher starting difficulty than pogo sticking does.

「Haru, give me a hand.」

「Kaaay.」

As Mio requested, Haruna did her best to support her balance. Still, there was no way that Mio could immediately ride the unicycle after her struggle with the pogo stick…

「……It’s hard to do.」

「I guess you’re not quite suited for doing something with these kinds of equipment.」

「Mm.」

Unable to really get started on the first pedal, Mio quickly fell to the ground. For Mio, who was incredibly adept at ropewalking and wall climbing, this was an unexpected weakness.

「How ‘bout we take a break for now?」

「Sure.」

「Agreed.」

It took fifteen minutes practicing pedalling while being supported by Haruna. After Hiroshi finished checking the other toys, he proposed that they change gears, to which Haruna and Mio agreed without objecting.

「But that was super fun.」

「Glad to hear it mate.」

Handing the unicycle she couldn’t quite master back to Hiroshi, Mio commented with a fulfilled expression on her face. Still, there were plenty of toys left to try out, and she was more than ready to take on the challenge tomorrow with enough time.

「So for tomorrow, I say we practice ridin’ bikes.」

「Yeah.」

「I’m excited for that too.」

And as they were laying out the plans for the next day, the group felt a resentful glare pointed at them.

「Without me? That’s so unfair……」

As everyone frantically turned around to look at the source of the glare, they saw Aearis reproachfully glancing at them from the workshop entrance, murmuring in a truly sad tone. Of course she had her usual disguise on.

「Elle-chan?」

「The specifications for the golem car were decided and I try coming over here to brief everyone, and what do I find……」

「W-What’s up?」

「All of you, enjoying yourselves like this, so unfair……」