When I asked the two, they nodded.
As expected from animals?
「These children will dig up the bamboo shoots, so could you carry them?」
Swaying Bear was paired with Fina, and Hugging Bear with Shuri.
「Swaying Bear, I’m in your care.」
Fina petted Swaying Bear.
「Hugging Bear, we should do our best so we don’t lose to Sis, okay?」
「I won’t lose either.」
They headed in different directions.
Then, should I dig around here?
While walking around the area, I dug up all the slightly bulging places.
I didn’t find any shoots sometimes, but I was successful more often than not.
Meanwhile, Fina and Shuri were bringing bamboo shoots to me with their small bodies.
The shoots were all sorts of sizes, big and small.
They brought them over many times, but Deiga-san didn’t bring even one.
You just had to dig and you could find them, but he left during my explanation, so I wasn’t able to tell him the trick to finding them. I became worried.
I continued to dig while worrying about Deiga-san.
It wasn’t good to take too much, so I stopped after taking a moderate amount.
The next time Fina and Shuri came back, I told them that we would stop.
「I lost to Sis…」
Shuri seemed sad.
「Shuri, you lost because you went too far.」
「I thought I would find more if I went farther, though…」
「The next time we do this, think about how far you have to carry them, okay?」
「Ugh.」
Shuri puffed up her cheeks and clung to her partner, Hugging Bear.
「Hugging Bear, I’m sorry. We lost because of me.」
Hugging Bear lightly patted her head. Was he saying she shouldn’t mind it?
Deiga-san was really late though. How far did he go?
I used detection magic to find him. He didn’t go too far.
「I will go to Deiga-san, so please wait here for a minute, okay?」
I left them there and headed towards Deiga-san.
When I reached him, I saw a lot of holes. Even now, Deiga-san was digging a hole.
「Deiga-san, what are you doing?」
「What are you saying? I am digging up bamboo shoots. I’m having trouble finding them though…」
I knew it. He really was digging randomly!
「Deiga-san, there’s a trick to finding bamboo shoots, you know?」
「Is that so? You should have told me that earlier!」
「You went off on your own before I could tell you, right?」
「Was it so?」
「Yes, it was. You find bamboo shoots by carefully looking at the ground for places where the earth is bulging up a bit.」
I looked around and found a place that was bulging up.
「Deiga-san, that place over there bulges up, right?」
「Ah, you’re right.」
「Please go and dig over there.」
Deiga-san went to dig where I told him to.
「Oh! It’s really here!」
「It was about to sprout soon. If it did, it would have become a bamboo.」
「I see.」
Deiga-san swung the hoe carefully not to break the bamboo shoot.