[AFTER] Chapter 232 – Playing around at the Playground!

Sitting at the steering wheel of the four door sedan that he owned, Takei was beyond excited to drive to a local park and have a lovely time with his family. This was something that he had always dreamed of when he was a kid, so seeing it happen made him very happy and proud.

"Hmm~ Today's such a good day~"

Today, the Tanaka family would be heading to a local park to have a fun family picnic together. The original plan for today was to just chill and relax, but Marie had a singular wish so Takei and Akari had no choice but to indulge their cute daughter.

While Takei was merrily humming due to his good mood, Akari placed Marie into the booster seat and strapped her in tightly.

"Is the seat belt too tight?" Akari worriedly asked.

Marie shook her head with a smile. "No, Mommy! It's good!"

Once Marie was secured in the backseat, Akari sat down in the passenger seat next to her beloved husband. She then opened up the music app on her phone to play some trendy songs that were popular right now.

"Time to go on an adventure!" Akari happily exclaimed

Takei looked at her with a questioning expression. "The park is an adventure?"

"Of course it is, what if we encounter some dangerous monsters there?"

"Why would there be dangerous monsters at the park? Is this a reverse-isekai story?"

"Maybe~"

Once the music started playing and everyone was comfortably situated in the car, Takei left the driveway of his house and made his way to the park. Since he was a bit of a fast driver, they arrived at their destination incredibly fast.

"We're here, do you see the playground over there, Marie?" Takei asked.

"Wow, it's big!" Marie nodded as she pointed at the swings. "Can you push me, Papa?"

"Of course, papa will always push you~"

Since today was an off day from school, many families could be seen enjoying a nice day at the park.

"Alright, I'll unload everything. Akari, can you take Marie out to play first?"

"Yes, Dear~!"

Akari unbuckled Marie's seat belt and helped her out of the car. Then, the two headed towards the playground as Takei worked on taking out the picnic supplies.

"Mommy?" Marie tugged on Akari's shirt.

Akari tilted her head and bent down to Marie's eye level. "Hm? Are you hungry?"

"No, I have a question. Is that okay?" Marie shyly asked.

"Mhm, what is it?" Akari gently replied.

"How did Mama and Papa make me?"

"..."

To say the least, Akari was speechless on how to respond to that type of question. Marie was too young to learn the actual truth, so Akari decided to go with the common lie that a lot of parents used.

"So basically, a swan dropped you off..."

"That's not true! I heard Papa and Mama talk about having naughty time at night to give me a brother!"

"Oh, is that so..."

She heard us talking at night! We speak pretty quietly at night, but she heard the two of us talking about giving her a brother... Takei, we messed up!

"Nevermind that, let's go play on the playground!"

Akari held Marie's hand as she ushered her to the playground to try and get Marie to forget about the previous subject.

"Mumu... okay, let's play!"

Although Marie pouted at first, she quickly changed moods and got excited to play on all the playground equipment. The first thing she decided to play on was the monkey bars.

"Mommy, look! I'm hanging upside down!" Marie happily yelled.

Akari giggled and waved at Marie. "Are you a monkey?"

"Yeah! I'm the king of the jungle! Wheeeeee!"

As the two of them were having fun, the person who had been missing had finally turned up. Surprising Akari from behind by wrapping his arms around her, Takei chuckled with a hearty grin.

"She's an energetic little kid, isn't she?"

Akari laughed in response to Takei's comment. "Fufu, Marie definitely doesn't get it from you."

"Oi."

"Am I wrong, Mr. Loner?" Akari tried her best to stifle her laughter. "We're lucky she didn't inherit any of your self-deprecating habits."

"For that, I'm very glad."

As the two parents were lovingly watching their child play, Marie noticed that they were not playing with her and immediately went over to complain.

"Can Mommy and Daddy play with me?"

""...""

Takei and Akari silently looked at each other and nodded at the same time.

"Daddy will push you on the swings!"

"Mommy will go on the merry-go-round with you!"

The two agreed with Marie's request and went to do exactly what she said.

First, they headed to the swings so that Takei could push Marie. Surprisingly enough, there weren't any kids on the swing so they had all the swings to themselves.

"Okay, Marie. Sit on the seat tightly, okay? Papa will push you and make you fly to heaven!"

"I don't want to die?!"

Although Marie was a bit scared about the last part of Takei's sentence, she still gripped onto the seat as tightly as she possibly could. It was quite scary for a four-year-old, but Marie trusted her dad to keep her safe.

"Here...we...go!"

Takei started pushing the swing slowly, but he quickly started ramping the speed up once he saw Marie's excitement growing.

"Wheeeee!"

Roughly a minute later, Marie was basically at the altitude of an airplane. Not literally, but she was quite high in the air.

"So fun!" Marie exclaimed.

After a few more minutes of swinging, both Marie and Takei got tired so they headed towards the merry-go-round. It was about time for lunchtime so the majority of the kids went to eat, which meant that a lot of the playground equipment was vacant.

"Are you ready to go round and round with Mommy~?"

"Yeah! Me and Mommy!"

Akari and Marie went around the merry-go-round while Takei was off to the side taking pictures of the two beautiful girls having fun. Takei wanted to take as much as he possibly could so that his parents would be able to see this glorious sight of their grandkids.

"What a beautiful family," Takei chuckled as he watched his two favorite girls have fun.

—

Look at how far the loner has come!

Serious-san: What should we name our kid?

Sugar-chan: Something spectacular, like Excalibur!

Serious-san: Uh, yeah... sure...