The day after Kousuke entered the Eastern Town, as planned, the children arrived with their two mothers.
“Faaather~”
“Faaather~”
Seeing Kousuke, the children ran towards him with a pitter-patter, and Kousuke welcomed them with open arms.
“Oh. Were you good kids?”
Since he couldn’t lift all three at once, Kousuke hugged them all tightly together.
A muffled sound came from Seiya, but Kousuke ignored it.
Kousuke intended to dote on them excessively, but the children themselves protested.
“Father, it hurts!”
“Oh. My apologies.”
Saying so, Kousuke released his hug and patted each of the children’s heads in turn.
After being patted on the head by Kousuke, the children ran straight to Nana.
Realizing the children had come to her, Nana wagged her tail back and forth with all her might to welcome them.
Watching them, Kousuke turned his gaze to Colette and Peach.
“It seems they’re back to their usual selves.”
“Yes. If anything, they’re too energetic, which is a bit of a problem?”
“Last night was quite something~”
Miku, who had learned she would meet Kousuke yesterday, was bouncing with joy and excitement, her mood soaring.
As a result, she didn’t go to sleep at her usual time and stayed up a little late.
It was only when Peach told her, “If you don’t sleep properly, you won’t be able to meet Father,” that she finally settled down to sleep.
It seemed this was the case not only for Miku but also for Seiya and Shia, and Colette had a look of complete agreement on her face.
While watching the children play with Nana, Kousuke asked Colette and Peach,
“So? Did they seem alright?”
When he had parted ways with Kousuke last time, they had returned to their village due to their exhaustion.
He wanted to confirm if their stamina had fully recovered, and also if they had been living a proper life apart from that.
This was the promise he had made with the children last time they parted.
If they lived a proper life, they could travel together again.
In response to Kousuke’s question, Colette and Peach exchanged glances before nodding with wry smiles.
“They’ve been living extremely proper lives, it’s surprising.”
“Father’s power is immense~”
“No, rather than my power, aren’t they just happy they can go on a journey?”
Kousuke implied that if his power as a father were truly immense, they should have been the same before their journey. Colette and Peach both sighed.
“We can’t say that’s entirely untrue, though.”
“Father’s power is immense~”
Colette nodded enthusiastically at Peach, who repeated herself.
Seeing that they seemed to understand each other, Kousuke looked confused and bewildered.
Floria then gently tapped Kousuke on the shoulder.
“There, there. Don’t worry about it. Mothers just have their own struggles.”
“That’s right. We don’t understand the struggles of being a father, do we?”
Colette and Peach nodded at the words of Silvia and Floria, whose support was somewhat unclear.
As for Kousuke, he didn’t know how to respond and tilted his head, replying,
“Is… is that so?”
“If the experienced ones say so, then it must be true, right?”
Seeing Shurein’s face, which seemed to say “just accept it as it is,” Kousuke stopped trying to say anything further and simply nodded.
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After the general greetings (?), they split into two groups and decided to relax in the Eastern Town, just as they had with Ryusen.
As expected, Kousuke toured the Eastern Town with the children.
“Father, what’s that~?”
“…Hmm? What are you talking about?”
Her sleeve pulled, Kousuke looked in the direction Miku was pointing, but he didn’t understand what she was concerned about.
Perhaps impatient with Kousuke tilting his head, Miku, while holding his arm, pulled him towards what interested her.
And as they approached the stall to some extent, Kousuke finally understood what Miku had been concerned about.
Kousuke hadn’t heard it amidst the clamor of people, but Miku’s ears had caught it.
As Kousuke got closer to the stall, he heard a tinkling sound.
Kousuke, who never expected such a thing to exist in this world, widened his eyes in surprise and moved even closer to the stall.
“…I never thought there would be wind chimes here.”
Seeing a wind chime for the first time since arriving in Asgard, Kousuke muttered as if in disbelief.
As if catching Kousuke’s voice, a man who looked like a stall vendor grinned.
“Oh, you know this?”
“Hmm, well, if you say I know it, I do… But where did you get these?”
“Ah. They say it’s from an island nation at the eastern tip. I was so drawn to this sound that I ended up buying quite a few when I found them on the other continent.”
The stall vendor said this and then laughed heartily.
Kousuke was about to accept that they were bought from the East Continent, but then he suddenly realized something.
“…No, no matter what, if you’re selling them at this price, I don’t think you’ll make a profit?”
From the vendor’s previous words, Kousuke understood that the man himself had traveled to the East Continent to purchase them.
Considering the costs of transportation by ship, etc., it seemed impossible for the wind chimes he was selling to be profitable.
In response to Kousuke’s worried words, the stall vendor laughed heartily once more.
“Don’t worry yourself. I have more of the ones I bought. Those are properly sold in the shop.”
It turned out the seemingly carefree man before him was the third son of a medium-sized merchant guild. He had discovered the wind chimes when he traveled to the East Continent for his company.
He fell in love with the wind chimes and bought a lot, but he couldn’t sell them at his family’s shop. So, he received enough funds to buy a stall and is now selling them.
By the way, when he went to buy them, he had apparently secured the route for his next shipment (cleverly, of course). It seems that as long as he orders them, the goods and wind chimes will be delivered by ship.
Kousuke, impressed by what was, in a way, a natural action for a merchant, had his sleeve pulled by Miku, who was looking at the wind chimes with sparkling eyes.
“Hey, hey, I want this~”
“Hmm? Have you decided which one you like?”
Miku blinked when asked.
Kousuke’s question was asking if Miku had decided which one she wanted, but Miku hadn’t expected to be bought one.
“Umm… uhh…”
“Hahaha. Take your time and think about it.”
Kousuke said that with a laugh to Miku, who was desperately trying to think.
In the end, Miku chose a wind chime made of metal, in a shape Kousuke was familiar with.
He didn’t know what kind of metal it was made of, but its sound had struck a chord with Miku.
“Be careful not to drop it, okay?”
“I’m okay~”
Kousuke cautioned her, but Miku, who was happily listening to the sound while holding the wind chime in her right hand, gripped the string tightly as if she would never let go.
Kousuke thought her arm must be tired from holding it up for so long, but since she was engrossed, he decided to leave her be.
Incidentally, Seiya and Shia, who were walking with them, didn’t seem very interested in the wind chimes and were looking around for something else at other stalls.
In the end, Miku kept enjoying the sound, switching the hand holding the wind chime from right to left, all the way until they reached the inn.
To give the East Continent some flavor, I randomly decided to include wind chimes.
Just because wind chimes appeared doesn’t mean ninjas or samurai will show up lol.
By the way, Kousuke and the others, seeing Miku’s inability to let go of the wind chime, had returned to the inn a bit earlier.
