At Makina-san's suggestion, it was decided that the three of us would play together, and Alice and I followed the excited Makina-san to a bazaar stall.
Even so, bazaars like this sure feel nostalgic. I've participated in various festivals in Trinia, and there indeed were stalls with a bazaar-like atmosphere.
However, they are still slightly different and the unique atmosphere lit by lanterns and the stalls around here is very different from that.
[However, stalls like these often have regional variations... For example, "shark fishing".]
[Shark fishing?]
[Oya? Kaito-san doesn't know about it?]
[I don't think there were such stalls in the bazaars I used to go to... There may have been some, but I may have just missed them. So, what is this shark fishing? There's no way that it's a stall where you would actually catch a real one, right?]
Bazaar stalls certainly vary from region to region and festival to festival. I think the one I went to in the past had eel fishing in it. It was expensive, so I didn't actually try it, but I remembered it as it was an unusual stall.
However, I had never heard of shark fishing. There's no way anyone could just casually catch a shark and keep it home, so I'm sure it wouldn't be the real one...
[Shark fishing is some kind of lottery. You would try fishing up toy sharks that would either be a win or a fail, and if you fished out a winning shark, you receive a prize.]
[Heehhh~~ They're fishing for shark toys, so it's shark fishing huh...]
I nodded my head in understanding upon Makina-san's explanation, but I also wondered "why sharks?", but there really isn't any point in throwing a tsukkomi at that, so I'll stop.
I guess it would either be that they could acquire shark toys cheaply or that they had a lot of them leftover unsold.
[There's no shark fishing nearby, but I see a die-cutting stall over there.]
[Die-cutting huh... I knew about such stalls from books, but I've never tried it out myself.]
[Ohh~~ Since there's an opportunity, let's give it a try!]
I've heard that die-cutting isn't so common these days, but there is a different variation of that named "candy cutting"... You have to prick the patterned thin candy with a pin or something to pull out the pattern, and if it comes out beautifully, you get some money or other prize.
I've heard that it's quite easy to break and difficult though. I guess you would need to have dexterous hands to play it huh?
At that moment, looking like she thought of something, Alice spoke.
[Then, since we're at it, why don't the three of us play a game to see who can cut it most beautifully?]
[...No matter how you think about it, I don't think I can beat you in a dexterity contest... Well, since we're at it, I guess let's go try it out?]
[It's decided then. Well then, the three of us will do die-cutting... I'll have the storekeeper Paradise grade it, and whoever scores the highest wins!]
[!?!?!?]
...I was briefly briefed on the situation, but the gray-eyed Eden-san that isn't operated by Makina-san... Hmmm, always calling them that is rather wordy, so let's just call them "Paradise-san" to distinguish them from the usual Eden-san.
Anyhow, I think that Paradise-san had a "despair-filled expression" on her face for a moment there... She doesn't have any expression now though, so I suppose it was just my imagination?
I was a little concerned about that, but for the time being, I decided to focus on the die-cutting game. In order to make it a fair game, it seemed like all three of us received the same patterned die, and we started die-cutting.
...However, this die... it's smaller than I expected. The pattern is shaped like a tree but... is it really possible to beautifully cut it out with a needle? I have a feeling it might break immediately...
This is the first time I've ever tried to do this, so I was a bit nervous, but I started at the edge and started cutting little by little... If I get a little negligent, I might break more than I thought, so this is quite difficult... Ahh, I just broke one of the branches.
I've already failed in one area, you know? Isn't this difficult? Errr, what about Alice and Makina-san... They've already finished theirs!?
Moreover, both of them were almost perfect in shape. Nope, this is hopeless. There's just too much difference in our specs for me to compete with them...
They both seemed to be waiting for me to finish, so I proceeded with the die-cutting even though I'm sure I would be in last place.
In the end, well, I think I did pretty well for my first time... but it was broken in two pieces and some parts were cracked. I don't think I could avail any prize from this.
[...Thank you for your patience.]
[My child, I think you did pretty well for your first time.]
[Ahaha, thank you. It's not as good as the two of you but...]
[Well then, let's get to the grading... We'll start with my child's work!]
Makina-san kindly supported me with a smile... As long as she isn't going out of control, she is a kind person. That's right, isn't it? As long as she's not going out of control, she's a kind and nice person... Seriously, if she just weren't going out of control...
While I had such a thought in mind, I looked at the grader Paradise-san. Looking at my work, Paradise-san declared.
[100 points.]
[Huh? No, ummm... It had some missing parts though?]
[100 points.]
[...It was even pretty cra——— [ 100 POINTS!!! ] ———Ah, yes.]
...She declared 100 points in a tone so strong that she won't let me say anything!? No, no, as expected, this is just too strange, but Paradise-san's expression as she said that looked pretty serious.
Errr, I guess 100 wouldn't be the perfect score and there would be scores higher than that, right... The atmosphere around her doesn't feel like that though. What the heck is going on?
[...Kaito-san, please don't tease her so much.]
[Eh?]
[Listen here, okay... For her, Kaito-san is "the being doted upon by her absolute superior". Do you think she can afford to be stingy with the points she'd give you?]
[...A- Ahhh... I see, I understand.]
In other words, it's like I'm being accompanied by Shiro-san and she's asking the Gods to grade me... I see, that's why she had such a despair-filled expression on her face earlier...
For Paradise-san... The role of having to choose who's better between her absolute superior, her absolute superior's best friend, and me, who her absolute superior really dotes upon... That's obviously impossible. There is no other way for her but to give us all full marks.