Even though new visitors had arrived at the park, it was quite large, so it didn't really matter. It just so happened that Illness-san and I were sitting where the entrance gate was visible, so we saw them come in, but we probably wouldn't have noticed them at all if we had been further inside.
In fact, the people who appeared to be nobles riding the Flying Carpet looked our way and gave a slight nod, so I simply returned the gesture, and that was that.
I remembered how, back when I first went on a date with Kuro, I had worried about what the townspeople would think of me being out with someone as small as a young girl. Although Illness-san was even smaller than Kuro, I didn't care about those things at all anymore.
In fact, the height difference between me and Illness-san was relatively minor by this world's standards. It was common to see couples in town with height differences of over a meter.
With people like Acht or Tiamat-san belonging to such massive races, actual height differences could technically span dozens of meters. however, since Demons with bodies over five meters tall usually used Humanization Magic when in town, you rarely saw such extreme differences.
Even someone like Megiddo-san used Humanization when moving about in public, so I assumed there was a sort of implicit understanding... though I did recall Megiddo-san wandering around in his giant form on occasion. I suppose it just depended on his mood.
"Come to think of it, Kaito-sama... in the world you came from, how did people spend their time in parks?"
"Hmm, how we spent our time..."
It was likely just a casual question. Since we were relaxing in a park, she was simply curious if it was the same in the Otherworld. It was a perfectly natural thing to ask, yet it was a difficult question for me to answer.
Nowadays, my circle of acquaintances had grown, I had several lovers, and I could take pride in a fairly wide social circle. But before I came to this world, I had been an "Elite Loner." I didn't even remember having anyone I could truly call a friend.
Well, I’d had a fair amount of friends back in elementary school. But after my parents died in an accident, I was taken in by relatives and moved away. My friendships were essentially reset once I entered middle school.
From that point on, I tended to avoid others. I had become somewhat indifferent to everything, so I never made new friends. High school was no different; the only person who talked to me frequently was Akira, and even then, he was usually just scolding me for sleeping during class.
So, to find an experience of playing with someone in a park, I had to look all the way back to my elementary school days.
"Well... things like... playing catch, I suppose."
The memory I managed to dredge up was the one time I had played catch with my father.
"Playing catch... if I recall, was that for the ball game called baseball?"
"Ah, yes. To be precise, it's a way to practice for it. Come to think of it, there isn't really any baseball in this world, is there? Even though there's basketball..."
Hearing Illness-san murmur as she searched her memory, it occurred to me that I really hadn't seen baseball here. I had seen basketball played at an event I attended with Tre-san and the others; they even had a free-throw competition. But wait...
"Actually, I think there was a target practice game at the Six Kings Festival..."
"The game of baseball does exist in a way. However, it is quite a minor sport. Like basketball, that sort of sport is greatly affected by racial differences, so you really only see it played at special events."
"Ah, I see. That makes sense. Different races have different heights and physiques. Even if you limit it to just humankind, you have dwarves and other small races. It would be difficult to organize those kinds of sports on a large scale."
It made sense when she put it that way. Even setting magic aside, some races were naturally giants or possessed incredible physical strength. It would be very difficult to compete fairly without extremely strict rules and handicaps.
Perhaps that was why individual sports, like WANAGE or Magic Battles, were more mainstream here.
"Since we are here, I would like to try playing catch with you, Kaito-sama... but would it be difficult without the equipment?"
"Yeah, you're right. We could manage if we had a ball, but it really works better with gloves... hm?"
"Oh my."
Just as I was wondering what to do about her request, a set of baseball gloves and a ball appeared on the grass in front of us. A note was attached that read, "From the Attentive Transcendent Beautiful Girl." It seemed Alice had been listening.
Serious-senpai: "So that's the reason why Super Exciting Battle Sports are so popular..."
???: "Well, since it's a world where multiple races coexist, team sports are definitely on the difficult side. As you'd expect, individual or small-group sports tend to be the ones that become mainstream."