「Let’s go! Ready, set, go!」
As soon as I gave the signal, I took a deep breath.
The moment I put my mouth to the balloon, I heard voices from beside me.
「Done!」
「I’m done!」
「Huh!?」
Before I could even blow air into the balloon, they’d already finished.
Beside me, their balloons were fully inflated.
Dori and Sena had managed to blow up their balloons in one go before I even started.
I realized it was a mistake to challenge them to a competition.
There’s no way I could win against a monster and an explorer.
But I couldn’t just give up here.
「Papa, wouldn’t this be better for Dori and neenee?」
While I was looking for another balloon, Yuri pulled out a large balloon from somewhere.
「You’re right, this might make it fairer.」
In their hands were straws and film balloons.
Using a straw would reduce the amount of air being blown in, so it would take longer to inflate the balloons.
「This time, I’ll win!」
「Yuri won’t lose either!」
If someone says I’m being childish, I’ll admit it.
But without this, it wouldn’t even be a fair competition.
「Ready, set—」
I took another deep breath and started blowing air into the balloon.
Did they notice I started before finishing the count? Everyone was looking at me.
But that didn’t matter.
「Mmm! You’re so slow!」
「As an explorer, I can’t afford to lose.」
Everyone else started blowing air into their balloons after me.
But clearly, Dori and Sena’s balloons were inflating faster.
Both of them were inhaling and exhaling continuously.
I’ve heard that wind instrument players can inhale through their noses while exhaling through their mouths.
Maybe they’re doing something like that.
I never thought Dori, who’s good at sports, would also have a talent for music.
Come to think of it, when we were seasoning the potato chips, I noticed her sense of rhythm was definitely better than mine.
「Done!」
But the first one to finish was Yuri.
I was too busy watching the other two, so my balloon deflated, and I ended up finishing last.
I even cheated a little, but still lost… Well, let’s just say I let the kids win this time.
「Ah, Papa!」
「Over here, it’s Dori-chan!」
They didn’t seem interested in me, focusing instead on their own balloons.
The balloons Dori and Sena had inflated were film balloons printed with my and Dori’s faces.
Sena must’ve prepared them secretly.
She did mention making merchandise without permission.
There were also balloons with Grandpa, Grandma, Potato, and Karaage’s faces.
But Dori’s expression darkened.
Was it because I cheated?
「Dori, are you okay?」
「Neenee, not here…」
Dori was desperately searching for a balloon with Sena’s face.
Indeed, the balloons only had our family members on them.
Maybe they ran out of budget, or perhaps they forgot to make one for her.
「I’m fine without—」
Turns out, it was neither.
「But you’re family, right?」
「Huh…」
「Neenee’s family, right? Right, Papa?」
「Yeah. She’s been with us for a long time.」
Sena has been with us longer than any other explorer.
At this point, it wouldn’t be wrong to call her family.
「Wha… I’m going for a quick run around the mountain!」
Sena suddenly stood up and ran off.
I guess explorers really can’t sit still for long, huh?
「I’m worried about Papa-san de gozaru.」
「As long as she doesn’t go on a rampage, it’s fine.」
For some reason, Ordinary Person and the Samurai were looking at me with warm eyes.
「Should we prepare together?」
「He’s really unaware, isn’t he?」
「If that’s intentional, he’s quite the strategist.」
Both of them waved their hands dismissively.
The doghouse probably wasn’t finished yet.
Once the balloons were ready, we tied strings to them to keep them from flying away.
「Since we’re at it, should we prepare a balloon for Sena too?」
「Yeah!」
「Let’s make one for everyone while we’re at it.」
I grabbed a black pen and started drawing everyone’s faces on the balloons.
「Papa, who’s this?」
「Hm? This is Haruki.」
「Haru…ki…? Haruki is—」
She looked around and whispered softly in my ear.
「He’s much cooler than this.」
I never expected to hear from Yuri that Haruki was cool.
If he were here, he’d probably be freaking out right now.
But my artistic skills have their limits.
Even to me, it just looks like an egg with seaweed on its head.
As for Dori, she tried to draw Sena, but she pressed too hard and the balloon popped.
「I’ll handle this part, so you take care of that, okay?」
「Thanks.」
「Thank you!」
「I’m not doing this for you two, you know!」
Yuri was as tsundere as ever.
Haruki must really be special to her.
I left the caricatures to Yuri and decided to work on attaching the items she handed me instead.
「A garland… but how do we hang it up?」
What Yuri handed me was a garland with flags decorated with drawings of vegetables.
It’s meant to be hung on poles or something, but do we even have a tall ladder at home?
Grandpa might’ve taken it without asking, and the storage shed only has small ones.
As I was pondering what to do, Dori brought something over.
「Karaage!」
「Ah, chicken can fly, right?」
The plan seemed to be having Karaage hold one end of the garland in his beak and fly up to hang it.
I handed the garland to Karaage, who eagerly took it in his beak.
Karaage backed up, then ran forward with momentum, flapping his wings vigorously to take off… but he didn’t.
He only managed to “fly” about 5 centimeters.
It was more of a hop than a flight.
「Karaage, did you get too fat from eating too much?」
He’s clearly rounder and bigger than before.
His body must be too heavy to fly.
At this rate, the kids could probably play hide-and-seek inside Karaage.
『Kweeeeh!』
「Ouch… that hurts!」
It seems Karaage isn’t actually fat.
He spread his wings wide, proudly showing off his figure.
「Still got that nice pigeon chest…」
「Ouch, ouch!」
Apparently, he wasn’t trying to show off his chest.
Come to think of it, Karaage is a Kakapo (temporary) disguised as a chicken.
Wait, can Kakapos even fly?
「He’s really unaware, isn’t he?」
「He’s so unaware it’s worrying.」
I spent a while being poked by Karaage.
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