Vol. 9 - Ch. 468 - The classic staple of summer games — Watermelon Splitting!

To say, there was no end to the fun events you could have at sea, but if I have to point out one, the one that took the cake was—Watermelon Splitting.It was supposed to be a classic summer beach event that combines after-meal exercise with dessert. I mean, that's how it goes, right? So I really want someone to explain what in the world I was seeing.......

"Here I come. ‹Cross Slash›!"

Rika swung down her weapon—a practice wooden sword with ATK +1. Needless to say, it also, or atleast shouldn't have an edge, yet...... the skill she used immediately split watermelon into four parts.

I seriously doubt if I woke up from the wrong side of the bed today.

I had made sure she was properly wearing a blindfold but the watermelon was split precisely from the middle. Karua, who had been encouraging Rika all the time, praised her with glittering eyes.

"Nice. Amazing, you're fantastic, Rika!"

"Umu. I think this can become a good training regime."

It isn't, what do you think a watermelon was, a dummy tool? I swear even Rika could act like an airhead sometime...which looked kinda bizarre when matched with a samurai-like tone.

"Zephyr, put another one on! I want to try out this time!"

Lana raised her voice while wearing her talisman. Oh my goodness, what was she planning to do equipping that?! Don't tell me she was hoping to use ‹Shining Sabre› as the sword? It will only just make a watermelon fountain out of it and nothing!!

"Stop, use the wooden sword, that's the stuff of actual summer! And stop putting on a talisman."

"Whattt? But Rika used her skill..."

"Rika is a warrior, and you're a saint, Lana. Heck, why are we even talking about skill? Listen here, games are meant to be taken as effort. Skills are foul-play."

"Eh, it was a foul!?"

Rika let out a surprised yelp hearing my words when I tried to put a hold on Lana's plan. Ah, yeah, that was on me. I should have explained it earlier.

For a few minutes afterward, I held a meeting and briefed everyone about the normal way of water splitting. Then we put blindfold on Lana, twirled her on the spot to confuse her sense of direction and gave her a push.

"Ahh, ugh, this is making me light-headed!?"

"Right, Lana-sama. Just a bit to the right!"

"Ahh, you moved a bit too much to the right, Lana-sama. Take a step back, to the left. Oh how much I do want to help Her Highness Lana..." Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NøᴠᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

"It's against the rules, Shizu. No helping out."

"I know alright!"

Somehow, Shizu and Ester's excitement meter was rising far more sharply than Lana herself.

"Yes, you're there, Lana-sama! Now swing the sword-desu!"

"Here huh! Take it!"

Once Pamela signaled, Lana struck down with the sword.

Thump!

A faint dull sound echoed as a small crack ran on the stripped green surface of watermelon.

"Hurray! What do you think, Zephy...r! Wait, whaaat?! Why does it not split completely!?"

Lana beamingly called out to me at her, seeing she had landed the hit, but that immediately changed to an astonished yelp when she removed the blindfold and saw the actual outcome.

Well, Lana's STR was at the rock bottom, and watermelon was also quite hard. This was the general result when you don't use skill.

"Actually, that's how it goes with the watermelon splitting. Basically everyone takes their turn to shave off its defense."

Would it have been fun if watermelon was so easily smashed? It's when you try out in anticipation that it brings out the real thrill of this game. Yes, that's why the best way was to have girls with low STR attributes try out.

It was a magnificent failure when Rika did it. Girls with high STR attributes would be left for last.

"Ugh, this is much harder than it looks."

"Hmm, it's really not easy. Can that even be split without using skills?"

Hannah failed to land a hit, meanwhile Sierra managed to achieve that but the crack only spread a bit more ultimately.

"Uh-huh, It really felt weird using it."

"Tahaha, I couldn't even hit~."

Rina was slightly bummed out after using the sword, which she hadn't used for quite a while, feeling not quite content with the result. Well, yea. She hasn't used a sword since she had gotten ‹Master-Planner Princess. Her movements were quite robotic.

Misato was quite an athletic person but it seemed like she couldn’t handle her balance when blindfolded, resulting in tipping to sometimes one side or sometimes ending up twirling. In the end, she missed it.

"My words, that was such a shameful result, Misato. Let me show you how it's done."

Next was Mert's turn, who looked quite confident for himself.

"Mert-sama has trained moving in the dark or using blindfolded teleportation etc during his training at home~."

Misato revealed the reason behind Mert's mysterious confidence.

What? I see, in that case, a little bit of obstacles was necessary for our veteran, no?

After hearing the reason, I decided to present him the advanced stage of water splitting and took out a scoop from ‹Item Bag›.

In the meantime Mert was being spinned by Misato, I quietly scooped some area between Mert and Misato.

——Alright, I am done too.

And—

"Wh-Whoa, ack, what's this!?"

Mert immediately tipped into the hole immediately. A bigger hole might lead to injury so I made sure to leave it only up to his ankle. Then again, the unevenness of the ground when blindfolded could make a vast difference.

"Argh, what in the blazes, a sandy knoll? It wasn't here earlier though?"

Mert slowly dragged his leg out and started walking while checking his footing. In the meanwhile, I continued to scoop out the sand and create small bumps in the path of Mert.

How should I say, that felt refreshing.

"Hey, what's this scraping sound I have been hearing since earlier?"

"Go, go, Mert-sama! Right, it's just slightly left to you~."

"Oh, this wa...ooooah!?"

Misato was in charge of giving him hints but she probably found the spectacle funny and intentionally lured him toward those small holes, which made conquering this advanced watermelon splitting stage a bit hard for him.

"Damn, I will remember it, Zephyr, Misato!"

"Hahaha!"

"Tahahaha~"

Ultimately, Mert failed in landing a hit to the watermelon and was shaking with frustration.

At the very least, in exchange for his frustration, it proved to be an amazing spectacle for everyone.

After that, this seemed to have somehow stirred a spirit of rivalry between others and attracted even more members to participate in this advanced stage.

Mert being himself, when he saw others tackling the advanced stage of Watermelon splitting, he just muttered 'I see' and forgave us.

Well, when you're in the side of audience, scenes like this are indeed funny, right?

Now then, what should be our next game.