Chapter 1093: To the Friendship City ①

With the clear blue sky above me, a slight breeze pleasantly caresses my cheek. It’s a beautiful day and the temperature is just right, making it comfortable.

It’s a good day to go out, and in fact, I did go on an outing to a rather distant place.

There is currently a considerably huge open gate in front of me, and I can see quite a few people coming and going.

I’m in front of one of three entrance gates of the Friendship City, Hikari. The Friendship City, Hikari is a triangular city with the large cathedral in its center.

Rather, being a city where all the three realms are involved, I think the citizens here would be quite conscious of the number three. The number of gates is three, the shape of the city as a whole is triangular, and the city is divided into three sections.

When I visited during the Festival of Heroes, there were too many people and I didn’t have the luxury to leisurely look around, but after passing through the gate, I arrived in the plaza and in the center of the plaza is Neun-san…… or rather, the First Hero’s statue.

Well, it’s only a statue, so it doesn’t look exactly like her, but it captures her characteristics, so I can understand why Neun-san doesn’t want to come to the Friendship City.

That aside, my purpose of coming to the Friendship City this time is to meet, or rather, to greet Founder-san again. Responding to the letter I received and discussing with her about our schedules, I decided to visit today to say hello.

However, I am planning to greet Founder-san in the afternoon, so I was thinking of sightseeing in the Friendship City in the morning.

Incidentally, I also invited Aoi-chan and Hina-chan to go with me…… but even though they were interested in sightseeing in the Friendship City, they didn’t want to be involved in greeting Founder-san, and they apparently also had adventurer work to do, so they said that the three of us should go again some other time, and if I found a nice restaurant or a store like that, I should take them there at that time.

……They sure are extremely resolute kouhais. Well, I’m not sure how long the greetings with Founder-san would take, and even if I meet up with them after greeting her, it would be difficult with the three of us unfamiliar with the geography of this place, so it’s probably a good thing I came alone this time.

As I walked down a large street with this in mind…… I see, this certainly was the most famous tourist spot in the three realms. The atmosphere around me feels like they’re focused on tourism.

Just by looking around a little, I can find various souvenir and specialty stores, and there are also many restaurants.

……Ahh, there’s also that Hikari Manju that I have heard about. According to Neun-san, they were quite excellent, so I suppose I’ll buy a few, along with some souvenirs.

Even so, I think there are a lot of items related to Heroes when I look at the various souvenirs. There were even some stores selling unusual items such as Japanese katanas.

Well, katanas were famous for being the weapon used by the First Hero, so I suppose this is understandable.

As I continued walking along the street lined with many souvenir shops, I gradually began to notice a change in the trend of the stores I saw. The number of souvenir shops seemed to be decreasing, and the number of restaurants increased instead.

I guess this would be the area with many restaurants huh. Even so, they sure have a wide variety of restaurants here. Well, being a large tourist city, I guess it wouldn’t be strange if they have such a variety of shops.

Some of the dishes aren’t what I would have expected from the names of the restaurant or the names of the dishes written on their signs, so it’s quite interesting just looking through them.

It’s still too early in the day to go in, but it might be a good idea to know which place I’d like to go for lunch. Since we’re at it, I would like to eat something that only the Friendship City can offer……

As I walked along in a daze, one restaurant suddenly caught my eye. It was a small, compact store, less flashy than the surrounding restaurants. The reason why it caught my eye though was because of its distinctly Japanese-style architecture.

It somehow has the atmosphere of a set-meal restaurant in town, and although not flashy, the Japanese-style appearance is distinctive enough to naturally catch the eye.

I have heard that there are many people who yearn after Japan…… or rather, the other world where the people who held the role of Hero came from, and just as is the case with Rei-san and Fia-san’s house, there are a good number of people who make their houses in imitation of Japanese architecture.

However, such houses and shops are usually “a little different” from what I, a Japanese, would see, but this restaurant quite got it.

How should I say this…… It has this stability around it, not just crammed full of everything Japanese-related.

It must have been built by someone who knows about that world.

[……The name of the store is “Suiren”…… that’s how you read that, right? A nice, simple name———– Eh?]

My attention drawn, I looked at the store sign and immediately noticed something out of place. I mean, the name of the restaurant was written in kanji.

No, there are people in this world like Blossom-san, so them knowing about kanjis in itself wouldn’t be unusual, and the name of the store is written below the kanji using the letters of this world as well.

Not only that, but the sign also says “Japanese, greatly welcomed” in small letters on the edge of the sign. Yes, it says “Japanese”, not “Otherworlders”.

Perhaps, the person who wrote this……

[Ahh, is it a customer? Sorry! Even though you had come all the way to visit my place, we haven’t even opened yet. We open for lunch at 11 am…… Unnn? Hmmmm?]

[Eh?]

Suddenly, I heard a voice and turned to see a woman in her 20s standing there with shopping bags in hand. She looked at me with a surprised expression on her face and a little later, with a panicking tone, she asked me “in Japanese”.

[P- Perhaps, are you Japanese?]

[Eh, ah, yes. That’s right……]

“”

That confirms it. This woman is definitely Japanese…… and most probably someone who used to play the role of Hero.

Serious-senpai : [I knew it! They definitely would have met, wouldn’t they? It’s more strange if they don’t meet, wouldn’t they!? She had her store in the Friendship City. How can he not meet her after he raised that flag of going to the Friendship City to meet the Founder?]