The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

Autumn seas have their own charm.

Of course, summer seas aren’t bad either. Diving into the ocean under the blazing sun to cool off is pretty fun.

Splashing around with close friends, tossing them into the water and getting thrown in yourself—it’s a good time. Even if it means sand in your clothes and sometimes getting so soaked you end up squishing into the car afterward.

But the older I got, the less I enjoyed the process of getting into the water. It was tiring, and most of all, I didn’t look forward to changing clothes or showering afterward.

Sure, I was young again now, so fatigue wasn’t an issue. But that didn’t mean my body was waterproof. If this were a summer beach, we wouldn’t be lounging around like this having a relaxing moment.

There’s no way Claire would’ve stayed still.

Thanks to the sea being cold this time of year, we were actually able to—

Boing—!

“Wah!?”

A sudden noise above my head made me shriek.

It turned out to be the sound of a beach ball bouncing off my head.

“Unni, what are you doing over there?”

Apparently, the beach ball that the others had been playing with had bounced and hit me on the head.

“What the hell...?”

“We’ve still got plenty of time before dinner, right? We ate a ton at the rest stop, so we need to skip lunch and make room!”

“Ugh... I’d like to rest and relax like I was just doing a moment ago...”

“But you can’t come all the way to the beach and not enjoy the sand, right?”

Claire gave Mia an incredulous look, as if her desire for rest was incomprehensible.

“If Mia joins in, that makes four of you, right? How about we split into teams and make a game out of it? I’ll be the referee.”

“Unni, what are you saying?”

Claire gave me a flat look in response to my suggestion.

“Yeah! You’re just trying to get out of it!”

Mia, uncharacteristically, actually protested. Maybe she was finally becoming bold after spending so much time shoved into the midst of high-energy extroverted teen girls.

“She’s right, Mia! Good point. Unni, you can’t just sit out. Mia’s not exactly the most reliable teammate. And if we look at your physical ability, you’re definitely below Alice or Charlotte.”

“Exactly! So— Wait, what?”

Mia had been agreeing with Claire’s harsh judgment, then blinked and turned toward her with a confused face.

“That’s why you have to be on her team, so together you two make up one person.”

“......”

Claire.

For someone who calls me unni so warmly, you’re brutally honest.

“...Fine.”

Claire’s words were basically a fact to her, but there was no way I could just let it slide.

Blood-related or not, I’d grown up as a Fangryphon for a good chunk of my life. A provocation like that couldn’t go unanswered.

“So our opponents are Alice and Charlotte. I’ll make sure you understand firsthand that a team of three isn’t something to take lightly.”

I stood up from my seat as I said that.

*

“Don’t worry, Unni. It’s not like we were trying to win or anything. It’s just for fun.”

“....”

The only person on our team who actually scored a point was the one saying that, which made it all the more frustrating.

“A team of three isn’t to be taken lightly? Who said that again?”

Alice kept poking at my pride from the side.

“Let’s not be too harsh, Alice. Sylvia’s specialty has always been firearms. Of course her close-quarters skills would be weaker.”

But even Charlotte, saying that with a smile, had a teasing gleam in her eyes.

This was infuriating.

Really infuriating.

“Charlotte, do you have some sort of grudge against me?”

“And you’re not asking Alice that question?”

Well, of course Alice has a grudge against me. She’s probably been holding it in since we were kids, since she never really beat me in anything.

Granted, that’s only because I rewound time so many times to find the optimal outcome. It wasn’t something I could’ve pulled off just by talent alone.

Damn it. If only there were a shooting range nearby, I could totally dominate that.

Next time we head into town, I have to find an air rifle range. I’ll show them what my endlessly drilled shooting skills can do.

“...There’s no need to take it that personally. Look at Mia—she looks pretty refreshed, doesn’t she?”

That’s not “refreshed.” That’s just drained.

Mia was slumped in the folding chair I’d been resting in earlier, back fully reclined. She looked like a half-dried squid draped over the fabric.

If you really wanted to interpret that expression as one of enlightenment after purging all emotions... sure, maybe. But it looked more like the face of someone who’d given up on everything in the face of death.

“You two definitely need to raise your physical activity levels.”

“I think I’ve been active enough, thanks. Did you know I eat just as much as you all do, and my weight hasn’t changed a bit?”

“That’s the problem. That just means it’s not turning into muscle.”

Yeah, well, I have no desire to become some kind of gym rat.

I let Claire’s words drift past me while rubbing my belly.

Still, running around like that did seem like a good idea in hindsight.

If I’d exercised right after eating, I would’ve probably thrown everything up. But since we’d spent a good while in the car after gorging ourselves at the rest stop, my stomach had enough time to push all that food down. After that, running around helped empty things out nicely.

Now I was ready to put more food in.

“Ah, wait, wait.”

Claire suddenly grabbed the camera we’d left on the table.

She held it up at selfie angle, making sure we were all in the frame. The LCD screen rotated, so we could tell we were all in shot—though the screen was way smaller than a smartphone’s.

“......”

We all glanced at the screen and struck a pose.

“......”

“...Ah, oops. It was set to video.”

Claire ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ said it like she’d only just realized.

Alice gave her a look that said, Seriously?

“Well, it’s fine, isn’t it? Videos can be memories too. Even if we can’t keep them forever...”

Still, I’d been thinking ahead. Maybe not solar panels, but what if we brought over a hand-cranked or rotary-charged power generator? Then maybe we could adapt it to steam power. Something like that.

The goal was to watch videos for a long time—but more than that, the process of researching how to make it work might yield useful hints. After all, modern power generation still comes down to boiling water to spin turbines.

“Besides, someone asked me to upload a video too.”

Claire said as she stopped the recording.

“All right then!”

Then she spun around and—

“Let’s get started on the barbecue party!”

“Barbecue!”

Mia, who’d been sprawled out until then, suddenly bolted upright.

“Already? The sun’s not even down yet.”

Alice looked confused, but Claire wagged her finger.

“You clearly don’t get it. A barbecue party isn’t just about eating a meal. You slowly grill meat for hours, take your time eating, then when all the meat’s gone, you cook other stuff over the leftover coals while everyone gathers around to chat. That’s the party. And sunset is the best time to take photos!”

Claire, you really did your homework.

And Alice, who’d been looking up “aesthetic tents” since the very beginning, was clearly hooked by that line.

“Really? Then let’s start prepping now.”

Seeing the two of them fired up, Charlotte, Mia, and I exchanged glances and gave dry smiles.

Well, if it’s fun, then it’s fine.

*

Sizzle, sizzle—the pork belly cooked beautifully over the charcoal grill.

The campsite did have some rental gear, but we’d gone ahead and bought our own barbecue grill. The rental stuff they provided here usually didn’t look great in pictures.

...And to be honest, we just had the money, so why not? Claire and Alice had so much fun picking out equipment that I felt bad telling them “we don’t need that.”

We set up the grill we’d brought in the car, lit the charcoal, and laid the meat across the grate piece by piece.

When Claire flipped a strip of pork belly and the steam rose—

“Whoa!”

All of us, standing around the grill, instinctively gasped at the sight of it.

It was grilled to a perfect golden brown, with neat diamond-shaped grill marks seared onto the surface. Just looking at it made our mouths water.

“This was called samgyeopsal, right? I think I’ll miss this over there.”

“Knew it. Maybe we should talk to some butchers back home.”

Alice and Claire chatted as they worked.

“My homeland’s cuisine still suits me best, of course, but eating foreign-style grilled meat like this once in a while isn’t so bad either.”

Charlotte said with a smile.

With the rich smell of sizzling meat wafting around us, we chatted loudly and laughed beneath the glow of the red sunset.

In this moment, there were no princesses, no empresses, no noble daughters—just teenage girls having fun.

...Well, except me.