Translator: Haruto.

Volume 3:
Ayesha, the Princess of the World.

We’ve arrived at the most famous tourist town of the Republic of Nysalis, Varcharia. The town is found along the shore of a large lake known as the Lake of the Heavens, and a steady breeze blows constantly through it.

“Wow… What a beautiful lake!” Mia exclaims, enamored by the sight of the impressive lake.

It took us thirty minutes or so to reach the town on foot after we left Kamia in a nearby forest. Varcharia’s entrance sits at the peak of a small hill and we’re currently admiring the Lake of the Heavens from up here.

In response to Mia’s comment, Lulune says, “I know, right? It’s more amazing than I imagined.”

I also can’t take my eyes off the lake as I ask, “You two have never come here before? Didn’t you pass through this town during your journey to defeat the Demon King?”

Lulune shakes her head and answers, “Nope. We visited the capital of Nysalis, though.”

“Ah, right, you wouldn’t have gone out of your way to visit a tourist town when your sole focus was to arrive at the Demon King’s lair as soon as possible,” I say, and Lulune nods her head.

I keep looking out at the lake for a few more minutes until I finally snap out of my daze and suggest, “How about we go in already? We can’t keep staring at the lake forever.”

“Good idea! Let’s go in!” Mia agrees excitedly.

“Well, it’s not like we won’t be able to look at the lake from inside the town. Although, it probably won’t look as amazing as it does from up here,” Lulune muses, seemingly reluctant to leave this spot.

“I heard the food in Varcharia is great, especially their fish dishes. But well, that comes as no surprise when the town’s so close to a lake,” I say.

Obviously enough, you can only find freshwater fish in this lake, but apparently, the fish caught here have mana in their bodies that improves their flavor for some reason. My mouth starts to water just thinking about the fish pizza and pasta they’ve got here.  

There are no walls surrounding the town, so we’re able to enter it without having to show our papers. It’s actually common for a town to have no ramparts in the Republic of Nysalis since there aren’t that many monsters up north.

Things would get somewhat troublesome if people were to find out that two of the Great Heroes have arrived, so we’re all wearing cloaks as we silently make our way into town. We then begin walking down a stone road lined by buildings with red tile roofs. The people around seem all rather calm and joyful; some have stopped on the street to chat, and kids are running freely here and there.

“I’m starving! I can’t wait to finally feast on something other than the dried meat we’ve been eating for the past few days!!” Mia cries out.

Being the foodie that she is, it must have been hard to satisfy her cravings with the plain food we prepared for the journey. She’s looking at all the different restaurants around us with excitement in her eyes.

“Alright, what do you say we have lunch at one of these restaurants, then? Are you okay with that, Lulune?” I ask.

Lulune nods and answers, “Yes, that’s fine. I can’t wait to try their fish pizza.”  

“Aw, come on, let’s eat some fish pasta instead! I don’t feel like eating pizza right now,” says Mia.

“Haa… you’re such a spoiled girl, Mia. You also want pizza, right, Alize-san?”

Lulune’s sudden question catches me off guard. Someone’s definitely going to get mad at me whether I pick the pasta or the pizza. So, after thinking about it for a while, I go with the safest choice.

“…Let’s just find a place that serves both.”

The two of them sigh.

“Alize-san can be a bit wishy-washy at times,” Mia comments, followed by Lulune, “Yeah, I wanted him to pick one or the other.”

***

After enjoying both the pizza and the pasta, we decide to look for a place to stay since the sun’s going down already. I don’t know if it’s because we’re so up north, but days have fewer hours of sunlight here…

“I’m sorry, but we don’t have any rooms available at the moment…”

That’s the third inn with no available rooms we’ve encountered. Varcharia being such a popular tourist town, it seems almost all inns are fully booked.

We step out into the street and continue walking for a while longer until we find another cheap inn.

“Well, we do have one single room available…”

A single room… That must mean it only has one bed. There’s no way that’s big enough for the three of us, so I think we should pass—

“A single room?! We’ll take it!!” Mia shouts.

“Ah, okay. Please follow me.”

The clerk then takes us to our room. Once she’s gone, Mia and Lulune begin taking off their cloaks.

“Phew! It’s too hot to be wearing a hood!” Mia cries out.

“Alize-san, I’m a little sweaty so do you mind if I take a bath first?” Lulune asks me, and I nod.

We were in situations like this hundreds of times back when we used to live together, so there’s no way I’m going to get all weirdly excited now… or so I thought, however, seeing how much they’ve grown does make my heart race a little.

“…Go right ahead,” I say.

But before Lulune makes it to the bath, Mia begins to whine. “Aw, that’s not fair! I want to go in, too!”

Lulune gives her an exasperated look and responds, “No way. It’s too small for the two of us.”

“Oh, don’t be like that! Let’s enjoy a nice bath together!”

Lulune sighs but agrees to share the bath with her in the end. I think she knew Mia wouldn’t back down no matter what, so she just gave up.

A moment later, I start hearing their voices from inside the bath. The walls are so thin that I can listen to everything they’re saying.  

“Stop it, Mia! Don’t stick to me like that!”

“I can’t help it! It really is small!”

“See?! I told you it’d be too small for the two of us!!”

I gulp without thinking… This is bad… and I’m not even sure why…

“Huh, you sure have grown since I last saw you, Mia.”

“Eeek! Can you not put your hands on me all of a sudden?!”

“No need to be shy! It’s not like they’ll fall off or something.”

“You know, I kind of wish they were a little smaller… They’re so big they make my back hurt.”

“Mia, are you trying to make fun of me…?”

“Huh? Not at all… But well, I can’t blame you for thinking that…”

“Urk…”

I feel rather restless listening in on their conversation…

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