★
“Ahahaha, it’s coming it’s coming it’s coming— Sofie, run away—!”
“Ah, wait for me Eliza-san! Uuu, it’s so cold—!”
Among the ebbing and flowing waves, two young girls were having the time of their lives.
“Oh, it’s receding. Wait for me—!”
“Wah! A big wave is coming! It’s dangerous!”
“No problem, no problem, ahahaha—boof—” Elizabeth lost her footing and fell forward, coincidentally planting her face right into an incoming wave. “Puha! Peh peh peh, what is this? It really is bitter with saltiness.”
Sofie licked the tip of one of her fingers, then—“Oh, it really is!”—widened her eyes in astonishment.
Even during this exchange, the waves continued to gently roll in and out, repeatedly coming and going.
The two of them sat down where they were, enjoying the feel of the waves that reached up to their waist pushing and pulling, sharing a quiet moment gazing out toward the open ocean.
“Hm?”
“Eh?”
Immediately after they thought they spotted a black shadow in between the waves—
Splash!
“Uwah!”
“Eep?!”
“Nyahaha, look at what I got!” It turned out to be Moko, equipped with goggles and snorkel, who had jumped up from the sea.
“This large pair of glasses is amazing! I can see everything underwater. This flappy thing on my feet also makes it so much easier to swim. I swam like a fish and caught these!” In both her hands were fish still flapping about energetically. Moko walked over with her feet going splish, splash.
“I’m going to get us lots and lots of food for dinner! So then, I’m off again!” After chucking the fish onto the sand, Moko turned her heels and dived back into the ocean.
“Should we swim too?”
“......You know how to swim?”
“Ehh, I’ve swam lots in the river before. What about Eliza-san?”
“........................Teach me.”
“Sure thing ♪”
The two of them also strode into the ocean, holding onto each other’s hands.
✦ ✦ ✦
★
A distance away from the two of them, finally Sidorias’s special training was about to begin.
“Umm...... what is this rope for?” There was a rope firmly bound around Sidorias’s waist. The other end of the very long stretch of rope was being held tightly in Shouzou’s fist.
“Seasickness is caused by the irregular swaying that you are not used to. Which means that we need to help you develop a resistance against that swaying.”
Though the Onigawara family did have seasickness medication in stock, it was unknown what side effects might arise if taken by someone of a different race. That was why Shouzou opted to train Sidorias’s body up directly.
“Ooook...... But still, what is with the rope?”
“This is what we’ll be doing.” After taking some distance away, Shouzou pulled on the rope, then—
“NoooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO—”
—began to whirl Sidorias around in midair.
“So well, by repeatedly experiencing acceleration and deceleration in this way...... what is the matter? It’s not been even five seconds.” Seeing how Sidorias had gone limp in the air, Shouzou summarily threw him back onto the beach.
The young man looked so green in the face that he seemed about to puke at any moment.
“Th-This...... is even tougher...... than seasickness......”
“Could it be called ‘special training’ if it were not tough?”
“I might end up dying before I overcome my seasickness......”
(Was this method perhaps a bit too drastic?) Shouzou found himself almost feeling a bit of remorse—
✦ ✦ ✦
★
At the same time, the two younger sisters were looking on at the training scene between their father and the young man with positively sparkling eyes.
“Kana-onee-sama, Hina-sama wants to do that~!”
“What a coincidence. I was just thinking that I wanted to do it to you, Hinacchi.”
So without further delay, they “borrowed” some spare rope, which was then promptly tied to the inflatable tube that Hina had on.
Copying their father, they went a distance away, then Kana pulled the rope with all her strength and began swinging it around her head.
“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, THIS IS SO FUN~!”
“Nuuooh~ This actually takes quite a lot of strength!” Even so, in order to make it even more fun for Hina, Kana continued swinging the rope faster and faster.
However, what the rope was bound to was but a fragile inflatable tube.
BANG, pshhhh~
The inflatable tube ruptured, and all the air inside escaped.
Hina slipped out from the ring that had gotten slack.
“AHAHAHAHAHAHA~!”
“HINACCHI~?!”
As the inflatable tube—which had been her only support—shrunk, Hina flew off into the air.
Below her was open water. However, Hina did not know how to swim.
“Hm?” Shouzou was about to dash off to save his daughter, but then stopped.
“Kueeh~” A blue shadow shot forward in the clear blue sky with flapping wings.
Their pet blue dragon, Puru, caught up with Hina, then matched her speed such that it caught Hina with its back without any impact whatsoever.
“Puru-sama, thank you~” While circling through the skies, Hina continued frolicking in high spirits.
✦ ✦ ✦
Seeing that, Kana patted her chest in relief.
“All right, Kana, let’s have a chat right over here, shall we?” However, her older sister Yuna was almost immediately on top of her, sporting a smile that would instill absolute terror into anyone who beheld it. All that was left after that was a long, long round of being chewed out—