The morning soon passed through a thin veil of mist before entering Mira’s Japanese-style room. Still drowsy, she heard what sounded like a bell melded into the air.

「Mm… what’s that noise?」

Mira peeked her face out of the blankets, looking around. She managed to pinpoint the source as somewhere outside her window, and then the sound stopped.

『Notice from the continental railroads: A train departed from Woodholm station at 8:15, expected to arrive on the left lane here at 12:45. Notice from the continental railroads…』

It was an announcement from the station, indicating the state of the trains departing and arriving. Since this world did not schedule everything to the minute like in the modern world, they broadcasted everything daily like that.

When the announcement was over, Mira opened her menu and checked the time, 8:30.

(That gives me around four hours left.)

Mira lazily pulled herself up, stretching lightly before walking to the window. She rubbed her sleepy eyes with the palms of her hands before she looked at the morning scene outside, seeing a broad scene of people from all races and in all sorts of attire walking from one place to another. Looking up a bit, she saw the large building of the station, waves of people walking in and out in droves.

She watched the crowds absentmindedly for a while, until the station finally reminded her of her experience last night.

She had only taken a quick peek inside the station, but it was large enough that it would take her a long time to explore fully.

She really wanted to explore the station before she had to leave, so she hurried to get out of her night robe and she went through her morning preparations. First, she washed her face in an ornate sink similar to what one would find in a shrine, then she sat on the Japanese toilet and it was time to change into her Magic Robe Set.

「Oh right, I almost forgot.」

Muttering to herself, she lightly flicked the small bell fixed next to the flowers in the room. The waitress had told her that was the signal for breakfast to be brought to her room last night.

Once she was done changing, she poured herself some tea and sat down. Some time passed like that, with her doing nothing but just leisurely drinking from her cup.

「So peaceful…」

She muttered, sounding like an old man in retirement with nothing exciting left in his life.

「Good morning. I brought your breakfast.」

A pleasant and calm voice came from the corridor outside, ringing clearly inside the room. Mira stood up, turned the key and let the waitress pass.

The food she placed on top of the table replicated a Japanese breakfast perfectly.
Mira sat at the table, almost salivating for it already. The waitress explained all the items in front of her, just like she had done the night prior, and then Mira grasped for the natto and began mixing it around.

Once she was done eating, Mira sat in front of the mirror, the ribbon that tied her hair the day before in her hand. Somehow she simply could not get to tie her own hair the way Mariana had done, which made her frown.

(Hmph… Me with twin tails is the cutest though…)

Since her current appearance was what Mira considered perfect, her despairing thoughts would sound extremely narcissistic heard by a third party. Having spent almost three weeks in that world, she had gotten fairly comfortable with her own appearance.

After many attempts and redos, Mira finally got her hair into a shape she was satisfied with and proudly puffed her chest.

Done with her preparations, Mira stood up, took one last look around the room to check for any missed items, and then left the Sky Room with a slight reluctance.
After wandering a bit through the corridors, Mira finally found her way to the front desk. She had passed by the shoe lockers, but when she saw the wooden steps at the entrance she remembered about it and retraced her steps. The key to her room was the same as the shoe locker one, so she was told to retrieve her shoes before returning the key to the front desk.

「Thanks.」

Her shoes in hands, Mira returned the key.

「Thanks for your patronage. And umm… I’m sorry if I’m being rude, but are you sure you want to go out with your hair looking like that?」

The receptionist had a corporate smile as she took the key and thanked Mira, but after looking more carefully at her, she could not stop herself from asking that. Mira tilted her head slightly in return, gently patting her hair to check if it was still bound the way she had left it.

It still felt the same, but she felt bewildered at the reaction from the receptionist.

「That was my plan, is there something wrong with it?」

Still confused at her reaction, Mira asked back. The receptionist then smiled gently, not a corporate smile like earlier, but a more maternal one. 「Could you excuse me for a bit?」 she said, taking a mirror from the front desk.

Mira nodded, and the receptionist placed the mirror in front of Mira and untied her hair. Mira had not noticed earlier, but her hair only looked decent from the front, the sides and rear still terribly messy. It was bad enough that anyone who looked at it would want to volunteer to fix it, just like the receptionist had done.

Mira could not comprehend how different it looked from other angles. The receptionist took some time to rearrange Mira’s hair, her reflection showing her just how much of a difference that made. Once that was finished, the receptionist gently ran her fingers through Mira’s silver strands of hair, checking for any imperfections.

「Much better.」
「Sorry for the trouble, and thank you.」

Mira left the Starry Moon, the receptionist watching her off with a warm smile.

Mira headed straight towards the station, her eyes focused on the large building. It was as large as one of the school buildings she had seen in Arkite Academy, standing majestically illuminated by the morning sun.

After navigating her way through the thick crowd at the entrance, Mira was inside the station. The entire building was lined with shops as far as she could see, but the first stall seemed to be operated by the station’s staff, with a large ‘Front Desk’ sign in front.

She made that her first target, since she still had to figure out how the train system worked in this world.

「Can I ask a few things?」
「Sure, go ahead.」

The lady behind the desk smiled softly seeing the young girl with twin tails, her face barely sticking up from the tall desk. That was a question the receptionist had heard many times and answered in like, but to Mira, it sounded like a very kind response for someone at work.

「I’d like to travel somewhere, could you tell me how to ride a train?」
「I see. Let me explain how the tickets work first. We have three different tickets, for each class, which are all sold here.」

The receptionist kept smiling as she explained, letting her see the three different tickets on a tray. One was white, the other a light blue and the last red. They were not made of paper, but a similar material to the permits for dungeons.

「Each color represents a different type of ticket. This is the economy class one, the next ones are premium class and first class. A ticket only covers the fare from one station to the direct next one. The prices are 5’000 Rils, 10’000 Rils, and 20’000 Rils respectively.」
「Hmm, one ticket for each station, huh…」

(That sounds like a pretty different system to what I’m used to.)

Mira groaned to herself as she looked at the tickets, even though they all looked the same except for their color and the writing on them. It was easy enough to imagine what economy class was, but to Mira who loved comfort above all else, premium and first class sounded much more enticing.

「I’m planning on going all the way to Alispharius, how many stations away is that?」
「Mm, Alispharius is five stations away from Silverside. That would be a total of 25’000 Rils in economy tickets.」

Hearing the reply of the smiling receptionist, Mira pointed at the first class tickets.

「Then give me five of these.」

Saying that, Mira fished out ten mithril coins from her waist pouch, placing a total of 100’000 Rils on the tray. The receptionist was slightly taken aback at first, but she quickly regained her smile as she checked the coins.

「Alright then. Here are your first class tickets, check them if you want.」
「Mm.」

Mira nodded slightly as she took the tickets, stashing them into her pouch. The receptionist watched her do that, slightly concerned and trying to find the right moment to speak.

「You know, first class tickets are very expensive, you shouldn’t place them somewhere others can see easily.」

She gave her some advice. Mira also noticed she was being a bit too careless.

「Oh right, I’ll keep that in mind.」

Accepting her advice, Mira readjusted her waist pouch to hang closer to her stomach. She then thanked the receptionist and went to check the other stores, imagining what traveling in first class would be like.

Mira checked the time on her menu, it was 9:10. She recalled the train arriving past midday, so she was happy she still had plenty of time to explore all the stores around here, the station building appearing even larger seen from inside.

The second floor was also lined with small shops, selling all sorts of miscellaneous items. It almost felt like one could find almost anything there if they looked long enough.

Mira still had three and a half hours left, and wishing to make out of it the best she could, she strode straight towards the closest shop to start her spending spree.
The first one had a sign with ‘Moon and Silver Towers Specialty Store, Silverside Branch’ written on it. It seemed to be a souvenir store from a widespread franchise, and judging from how full of people it was, it was doing pretty well.

「Ugh…」

Near the entrance was a spot that stood out, Mira’s face cramped up when saw child-sized versions of robes she was very familiar with, nine variations in total.
Those were Sage Robe replicas. They were displayed prominently, but Mira’s attention was more focused on the number of robes for sale.

(Why are there only three of mine…)

She counted the robe on display plus those neatly folded up behind in reserve. The other robes had at least five, while Luminaria had so many it was almost insulting to compare them to Danbulf’s.

(I’m sure they’re selling by the heaps… I’m still popular…)

She aggressively comforted herself in her mind before leaving that place.

Walking past the clothing items, she reached the food section of the store. There’s no better souvenir than local food, so she attentively looked at all the items, focusing on those that looked the most expensive.

First, she saw what could be called the staple of all places, cookies. The ones in the store were made from muscat grapes grown in Arkite, which were ground into a bright green jam that shone like an emerald that was then stuffed into plain cookies. Those sweet and sour cookies were very popular around there.

Next, there were muscat candy and muscat drinks.

It was time to check the next section. There they sold things one could imagine whenever ‘souvenir shop’ is mentioned. Pennants with the Nine Wisemen written on them, pin badges of King Solomon and the Wisemen, small lanterns of Arkite Kingdom, small elaborate sculptures of Lunatic Lake that let the workman’s skills shine, or well-made ornaments shaped after the Silver Linked Towers. To Mira, those were all items that sounded neat on paper, but if someone received one as a gift it would be difficult to find a use for them. But as if to contradict Mira, that was the most visited section.

In the end, Mira just bought 600 Rils worth of muscat cookies and left the souvenir store.

The next store she saw was a bookstore, and obviously enough, most of the clients were spellcasters. There were a few burly and muscular men in there as well, probably accompanying a spellcaster, as they all looked bored at the shelves.
Mira picked up a random book on display, titled Introduction to Magic. It was all about the basics of magic, fundamental skills to train, and how to manage catalysts, its contents were faithful to the title.

Looking around, she noticed there were similar introductory books for other branches of spellcasting, and the last page of them was a flyer inviting the reader to attend Arkite Academy. In a way, that told them that was the place to go if they wanted to learn more.

She returned the book to the display, then forced a chuckle noticing a pile of martial arts instruction booklets next to the books. Those explained the basics of swordsmanship or spear use, but only to an introductory level. They obviously also had ads for different schools on the last page.

(They’re stacked…)

Impressed with what she had seen so far, Mira walked inside the store. There were illustrated bestiaries and plant catalogs, as well as tourist guides with historic locations and facts.

Further inside she saw picture books. That reminded her of Emera, who Mira met deep underground of the Ancient Temple Nevrapolis. She had spoken enthusiastically about books she read growing up, with stories about the Nine Wisemen. The store also sold fiction titles, in a variety of genres.

Further up, at a height Mira was unable to reach, there was also more adult literature of dubious reputation. She stood on her tip-toes trying her best to reach up there, but all she accomplished was getting disconcerted and worried stares from the store’s staff and other clients. Eventually, she seemed to give up, heaving a deep sigh, but to their surprise, the girl appeared to be stepping on air as she climbed up, causing staff to rush in and snatch the book from her hands.

(Ah… they took it away…)

Mira sulked, unable to check that book she wanted, but then something else caught her eyes at the end of the store. It was not some educated and mature title, but plain entertainment for the masses, manga volumes. That was clearly produced under the influence of former players. Mira was unable to find any title she was familiar with, all being new series.

(I didn’t imagine I’d see so many manga series at once… It’ll be fun to dig around this!)

To dig around, that was Mira’s way of saying she would search for series she found interesting. She began from the very start of the shelf, looking at all the books, checking their covers and reading the summaries.

Meanwhile, all the concerned onlookers that had gathered saw the girl was in a good mood going through the manga shelf, so they slowly dispersed while sighing in relief.
In the end, Mira picked up the first volume of a few series that caught her eyes, then added a map of the areas surrounding Alispharius on top of it and went to check out.

After that Mira went to check the other stores. She was satisfied after checking a branch of the Dinowal store there, which sold a lot of useful tools and catered to adventurers. There were many other souvenir and regular shops as well, or stores focusing on medical items sprinkled in between. As she moved through the station building, she kept finding unexpected items right and left, making even just glancing at the shops fun.

Some time passed since she began wandering about. She was currently trying to escape the staff of a clothing store that had caught a glimpse of her, when a familiar bell rang.

『Notice from the continental railroads: The train arriving on the left lane is moving on schedule, it will arrive here in one hour. Notice from the continental railroads…』

「One hour left huh…」

Hearing the broadcast, Mira checked the time and resumed her window shopping. As soon as the announcement was over, crowds of people flocked out of the stores and headed up the stairs to the second floor. Most of the food stalls were up there, many stores specializing in making and selling lunch boxes.

Many scents mixed up in the air, but since they all were of food, it still managed to smell appetizing. The thought of eating made Mira remember the bliss of eating while traveling on the train, snacking on a lunch box while watching the scrolling scenery through the windows.

Before she realized it, she was already in front of displays with lunch boxes, carefully examining their contents. The first store was painted with pastel colors, giving it a more westerner appearance. It usually operated as a regular restaurant, but when the train was about to arrive, it began selling lunch boxes near its entrance as well. Most of them were sandwiches of fish, meat, or vegetables, creating very colorful meals that appealed to the female crowd.

And they succeeded at that, most of the clients lining up to buy from them being women. Mira gently pushed her way through that crowd and went to the next store. The second floor was getting more crowded while Mira looked at a store called 『Comfy Lunch Boxes』. They only sold lunch boxes, but in many variations. They had fried chicken, grilled meat, meatballs, and seaweed-wrapped ones, appealing to the masses. They were also cheap and in large servings, so most of the clients were adventurers, some burly warriors going as far as to buy two at a time.

(Lunch boxes have such an alluring appearance, I’m getting so hungry just looking at them.)

Mira forced herself to move on and leave the fried chicken lunch boxes behind, going to the next store. That one sold more fancy stuff, their items looking very elaborate. There was omelet rice with demi-glace, cabbage rolls cooked in tomato soup, and Scotch eggs with a fragrant herb scent.

「That’s so nicely made…」

Seeing how the omelet rice cooked to the perfect point, Mira got her nose as close as she could and caught a delicious whiff of demi-glace and butter.

But there was always the chance another store could have something better, so Mira made a mental note with the omelet rice as a candidate, and moved on to the next store. Unbeknownst to her, the brimming smile of an angel-like girl leaving the store after smelling the omelet rice would cause an influx of so many clients that it would lead to record-breaking sales.

The next place she visited resembled the Starry Night inn where she spent the night a great deal, built with a strong influence from traditional Japanese architecture. A salesgirl in oriental clothes stood selling the items, which were slightly different from a full lunch box, things like rice balls being sold by the unit. There were more than a dozen different items to choose from, with a shelf to the side housing garnishes and tea. The tea was sold by volume, containers sold separately.

(There’s chicken here too…)

Rice balls were such convenient food that they became common even in a different world. Their ease of production also makes them popular.

Right next to that store was another one with a similar style, this one selling different varieties of fried rice, with mushrooms, bamboo shoots, chestnuts and others. There was a very fragrant smell coming from it, the slightly browned rice enhancing the lunch boxes’ appearance even more. The side dishes only elevated everything to a whole new level.

(That delicious fried rice with bamboo shoots I had in the countryside before was the best I ever had.)

She declared that as her second candidate, then looked at the next shop, and the next one after that. From fancy stores that sold their cheapest items at 2000 Rils, barbeque shops that prided themselves in their skewers, shops that sold items that resembled fast food the most like burgers, or elaborate sushi shops, there was something for everyone there.

After checking through dozens of shops, Mira found the most classic form of lunch boxes. The cheapest priced at 500 Rils, the most expensive one at 1300 Rils. They were boxes with many compartments, filled with rice and many side dishes. In short, box lunch sets. They were simple, but included a large variety of dishes, which felt good on both the eyes and tongue, creating what could be considered the holy grail of lunch boxes.

Mira recognized many of the ingredients, and since this was going to be her first train ride in another world, she decided there was no better companion to make her feel safe than a box lunch set.

Mira got closer to the items on display, checking what differences the more expensive ones had. There were a number of side dishes, but the main meat or fish used was also different. The cheaper ones used common white fried fish, while the expensive ones had grilled salmon and mini burgers.

Seeing so many familiar items, Mira finally decided on one and walked pompously into the store and ordered the most expensive one.