411-409 Making toys




 Well.
 I didn't care about the other bastards.
 There was one thing I needed to focus on more than anything else.

 Junior.

 Born last year, my hope. Or rather, my son.
 A shimmering stardust.

 Junior is growing up fast as the seasons change from winter to spring.
 I can't take my eyes off of him for a moment, because the degree of change in a child at this age is day by day.

 Every day brings new excitement to them.

 Junior, especially these days, has already started to learn to crawl.
 Junior has gained a lot of mobility.
 He is like a tiger with wings; he can use his hands and feet to break into any place he goes.

''It's not safe over there!
He's going to fall! We are going to bump into each other!
It's not a piece of wood!

 At home, I feel safe because the spirits of the earth are watching over me, but I'm really afraid that children at this time of year are going to get into terrible trouble if I take my eyes off them for a second.

Is there anything we can do to help...?

 Anyway, I wanted to make sure that junior didn't go up to a dangerous place without permission, and didn't hit or fall or touch anything dangerous.

 Then it occurred to me.
 Babies at that age are full of curiosity. They will go up to anything that catches their attention, which is a risk.

 So I thought if I gave him something more interesting and intriguing to do, he would be more likely to stay in one place and manage it.

'Let's give them a toy.'

 Toys are of interest to children more than anything else.
 Toys grab children's hearts and minds.
 That's why children will gawk and cry with all their might in the toy section, and children are fascinated by toys.

 If junior has developed enough physicality to learn to crawl, he will also understand the fun of toys.
 It would be a relief to parents if he or she would quit the dangerous adventure because of their fascination with toys.

 In fact, Junior's room is already crammed with toys, like the wooden horse (not the triangle) that Mieral made for him, and the rattles that the Demon King gave him through the Pandemonium Trading Company.

 But I think our junior has moved up a notch and is now at an age when he or she is playing with more intelligent and sophisticated toys.

That's why we're going to develop a new toy that uses their overflowing intellect.

 The one that came to mind immediately.

 Building blocks.

 As the name suggests, it is a toy to be played with by piling up wood.
 What's the fun in that? It's a wooden block in various shapes that can be assembled to look like a variety of things.

 The blocks are made up of a limitless number of combinations, with as many endings as there are users. It is said to stimulate children's imagination and foster a rich sensibility.

Okay, let's make some building blocks!

 To develop our junior's sensibilities.
 The purpose is starting to blur early on.

    * * * *

 So I started to make the building blocks....

 First of all, I had to choose the right materials.

What kind of wood should we use for a baby toy?

 Babies are delicate in many ways.
 Babies are delicate in many ways, and unintentional factors can be detrimental to their health.

 The various components of wood can have an effect on the human body and can have unintended consequences.

 I have heard somewhere that a camping trip to a camping site where people died of poisoning when they used a tree branch as chopsticks.

 It's not that extreme, but babies don't have the resistance and immunity that adults have, so you have to choose the materials more carefully than anyone else.

 If I didn't have that kind of care, I would have chosen cedar wood as the only choice, but I wonder how it would be? Cedar for the baby?
 Cedar has pollen allergies and all that.
 What does pollen have to do with wood? You'll be told that, but they are a baby. We have to take into account the possibility of that happening.

 Would premium wood cypress be OK?
 I think the high quality of the building blocks makes them very safe, and I want my junior to use them, even if they're just blocks.

But wait!

 I've heard that cypress wood is a problem for people who don't like its distinctive smell.
 I've heard that it's often used as a building material for baths because of its unique smell, but on the other hand, it's not used for tableware because it interferes with the delicate fragrance.
 I heard it's not allowed to be used for rice containers.

 After all, cypress may be bad for a baby's delicate sense of smell!

 So what is it?
 ........lacquer is definitely a bad idea. It gets ripped.

 No, no matter what kind of wood it is, if the surface is varnished after processing, does it matter what the composition of the messy wood is?

 ... no!
 Children have a habit of wanting to put anything they get their hands on in their mouths.

 Even the building blocks are sure to be slobbered over with deloddero if passed to Junior!
 But what about it? How is it possible that the licked varnish can't just melt off and get into Junior's body and cause something bad to happen to him?

 I don't know!
 I don't know what's right for the baby!

 I don't know what kind of material is right for the baby, and I don't know what kind of material is right for the baby, and I don't know anything!

    * * * *

 In the end, I had to ask for help from the elves.

 Come to think of it, they've already told you about the time they gave Junior the wooden horse.

 If that wasn't enough, we could ask them for help.

 So I asked the Elf Team for help.

"The building blocks," he said, "are pretty ordinary for a saint.

 The squad leader, Mieral, told me.
 As expected, it seems that building blocks are orthodox children's toys even in this world.

"What's this unusual toy? Building blocks! It's wonderful! I didn't think that was going to happen.
 I don't care if that happens every time, it's just too tiring.

I'm not sure what kind of shape the building blocks should be in. A basic cube?
There should be a variety of shapes. How about a triangle or something?
'No triangles! That's a sharp angle! What if something goes wrong and it sticks in Junior's face!
You're really overprotective, Saint.
'A gentle shape that won't hurt you no matter what angle you hit it from.... Yes, how about a circle? Like a circular sphere from all angles?
It's going to be a hell of a challenge as a building block, isn't it?

 He was a guy who was so overprotective that it was the opposite.

How many blocks would be the right number of blocks? Twenty thousand?
Less, please.

 Thus, with the help of Mieral and the others, the otherworldly building blocks were successfully completed.

    * * * *

 But this time, the completion is not the end.
 Everything is a standard for my breath junior.

 It all depends on whether Junior will like it or not.

Will Junior be able to play with the building blocks?

 I held the building blocks out in front of Junior in fear.

'I thought they were making a mess, but I didn't know they were making this mysterious thing!

 While being dismayed by his mother, Prathi.
 Junior took one of those blocks, of the building blocks in question, in his hand!

''Oh?!''

 Myeral, my co-creator, cheers with me.

'Junior's interested in building blocks? Success? Is that a success?
No, not yet. Children will always play in ways that are beyond our expectations.

 Indeed, Mieral is right.
 You just grab the pieces of the building blocks you've grabbed and buzz them around as if they were airplanes and that's it! It could be a pattern.

 However, our junior was different.
 He piled up one block on top of another.

"Oh!

 And then take yet another block and turn it on to yet another of the two stacks of blocks!

"'Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!'

 Me and Miera caught up with me and Miera, and even Prathi cheered loudly.

'You understand this! Junior knows what building blocks are!
That's what I'm talking about, son of the master! That's clever!

 We are the ultimate in parental stupidity.
 Junior put it on top of the third step, then on top of the fourth step. Junior put it on top of the third step and then on top of the fourth step.
 Like a tower.

"...?

 While we were struggling to understand the situation, Junior knocked down the tower of blocks he had built with his own hands.
 The rattles rattle.

 And then he piles them up again from scratch, breaking them down and building them up again.
 This is like...?

"Sai no masonry!

 One pile for my father, two for my mother, and so on.
 It's a never-ending, self-supporting process.

This is the junior way of having fun with blocks...?

 Babies never play with blocks in the way adults expect them to.
 I thought I knew the theory that babies don't play with blocks in the way adults are supposed to.

 ...my child.
 Why do you have to play such a tricky game?