""Ah!""
"Allen, Elena, what is it?"
"Wait a moment~"
"Just a little~"
As we were walking up the mountain, Allen and Elena suddenly walked into the bushes on the side of the road.
"What? What's going on?"
Evan, who was ahead of us, turned around and asked us what was going on.
"Sorry about that. It seems they have found something…"
"Haha, you don't have to make such an apologetic face, Takumi."
"That's right. I have had a lot of interesting experiences with those kids. Please let them do as they please."
I'm really grateful that Evan-san and Scott-san are such generous people.
Normally, people would have gotten angry or disgruntled with us if we kept getting sidetracked like this, but they didn't seem to be. They really seemed to be enjoying the unpredictable behavior of the kids.
"Onii~chan!"
"There were so many~"
In the meantime, Allen and Elena seemed to have returned. Well, I couldn't see their figures yet, just their voices. Still… I wonder what they mean by "there were so many"?
"""Whoah!"""
When I saw the returning children, it was not only me but also Evan-san and Scott-san who shouted in surprise.
They had brought back a total of six Pastel Rabbits, one on each arm and one on top of their heads.
"… Again?"
"Again!?"
"Takumi-san, wait a moment. By 'again' you mean that this had happened before!?"
Evan-san and Scott-san did not let my unintentional comment go unheard.
"Yes, well…"
We have encountered a large number of Pastel Rabbits once… no, twice before, so this will be the third time?
"Allen, Elena, what's up with these Pastel Rabbits?"
""Erm, you see… that! Um, guardian!"
"… A guardian."
Where did they learn those words…
"Then, what? Do you want to look for owners in the Guild again?"
""That!""
"But you won't know what kind of people the owners are like that, you know?"
They might be "guarded" if they can go to someone who will take good care of them, but they won't be safe if they get a bad owner.
The first time, I asked Mathias-san to take them to someone he knew, so I'm sure they are all well cared for. The second time, however, Allen and Elena picked the owners from request forms, so I don't know how the Pastel Rabbits are faring.
"Is fine!"
"Will choose properly!"
Allen and Elena were brimming with confidence.
I wonder if their intuition is working on the request forms too? You can't look down on the intuition of my children, so it should be fine, I guess?
"Well, as long as the Pastel Rabbits are okay with that."
I took out a large basket, and Allen and Elena put the Pastel Rabbits in it as if they were already used to it.
""Nonono!""
"Takumi, for real, wait!"
"That's right. Takumi-san, please explain properly."
Evan-san and Scott-san were looking for an explanation.
"Pastel Rabbits are extremely weak, as you might know."
"Yeah, indeed."
"Yes, but they excel at sensing danger, so they are monsters that can't be caught easily even if you try your hardest."
That's right. That is the common knowledge about Pastel Rabbits. However——
"It seems that they sense the danger from your stare when you try to catch them and escape. But for some reason, they will approach you instead if you don't have any intentions of catching them."
""No way!""
"It's actually like that. Even now, although they are in a basket, the basket is fully open so they could escape as long as they wanted to, but they haven't, right?"
"… They really haven't escaped."
"… Yeah, it's like a lie."
They seemed to be in disbelief at my explanation, but when they saw the Pastel Rabbits in the basket, they were stunned for a while.
"Here you go."
I lifted two Pastel Rabbits from the basket and handed one to Evan-san and one to Scott-san. The two timidly patted the Pastel Rabbits.
"Whoah, how amiable~"
"Yeah, I heard they get quite affectionate when raised with love, but they shouldn't act like this right from the start."
"Isn't that because they were frightened from when they were caught?"
If it was after being forcibly captured, they would have been frightened for sure. After that, they would slowly, and I mean slowly let their guards down.
"Nevertheless, every action you guys take is full of surprises~"
"Truly. A half a day hasn't even passed yet and I got already surprised so many times."
"I can only count the times we have been surprised for now, but the number is definitely going to increase so it's actually useless to count, no?"
"That's possible."
I would like to say that it was the children who were giving surprises until now, and not me… but there's no guarantee that I won't do anything beyond this point. Yep, let's keep quiet.
""Ah!""
Allen and Elena found something again and started running.
"Oh, what did they find this time?"
"It seems to be some herbs."
Evan-san and Scott-san started to look forward to what the children were going to bring next.
""There were more~""
When they came back, Allen and Elena brought another three Pastel Rabbits with them. This is nine in total.
"Again!?"
"You normally don't find these so readily, right!"
Evan-san and Scott-san let out words of disbelief.
""Also~""
"There were also."
"A mushroom~"
In addition, what Allen and Elena presented me was a Luminescent Mushroom that was the object of this request.
"Oh, that's a Luminescent Mushroom."
"What!? Oi, oi, oi! The sun is still up in the sky, ya know!?"
"No, they are only easier to find during the night, so it's not like you can't harvest them during the day. It's not impossible, but… they shouldn't be this easy to find, right?"
Evan-san and Scott-san now sounded dumbfounded.
Luminescent Mushrooms, as the name implies, glow slightly at night. However, they grow in places where it's difficult to find them, such as in the shade of trees, so even though they glow slightly, they are hard to see.
And yet, Allen and Elena had found a mushroom that was not even glowing.
"You did well finding it~"
""These children did~""
"Oh, the mushroom was just where the Pastel Rabbits rested?"
""Yeah!""
It seems to have been a coincidence. But, what a good luck~
"Did you pick it up knowing it was a Luminescent Mushroom?"
""Yea!""
"You did well remembering its characteristics~ how admirable, how admirable!"
""Ehehe~""
It's a mushroom that has very few unique traits when it doesn't glow.
So, if you want to collect them during daytime, you need to remember the very few characteristics the mushroom has. And it seems that the children didn't pick it up simply because it was a mushroom but because they properly remembered its characteristics.
"These kids are dangerous."
"Yes, truly. Evan, just like Takumi-san said, it doesn't seem like we will have a turn to show up."
"That really is not good."
"Yes, let's re-focus now."
"Ou."
Evan-san and Scott-san were whispering to each other, and fired themselves up.