After eating, we said goodbye to the Professor and parted ways.
It was the first time I was stepping outside the Academy without the Professor.
Since I'd never gone out like this without the Professor before, I felt both scared and excited. I felt empty yet my heart wouldn't stop racing.
As long as I stayed with Sera, Aria, and Karen, I could have fun safely and return safely. That thought made the corners of my mouth curl up.
"I was worried whether he'd really allow it, but I never dreamed he'd say we had to go and come back on the same day..."
Sera held her phone with both hands and tapped the screen quickly.
After being momentarily flustered by the Professor's unexpected words, she seemed to be looking for reservations at places she had thought would be good to visit.
I wondered if any place would accept a same-day reservation for a four-hour room rental starting right now. But that concern seemed foolish as I soon saw Sera making a victory sign with her hand, saying the reservation was complete.
"Um, Senior, how much should I pay?"
At the mention of a successful reservation, Karen cautiously spoke up. Sera stared at Karen for a moment and then shook her head.
"What are you talking about? Aria and I will split it. I came up with the room rental idea, and this is all so sudden for our junior."
"Let's go with that. I already talked with Urr during the morning lecture earlier."
When Sera pointed to Aria and shrugged her shoulders, Aria, who had been watching, also shrugged and told Karen it was fine.
Karen looked like she didn't know what to do, but Aria added some words to comfort her.
"Karen, don't worry about it too much. It's not that we have a lot of money, but as seniors, we want to do something for you. When you become a senior later, you can treat your juniors well too."
"...Still..."
"Come on, shall we stop by the convenience store first?"
Aria reassured Karen a few times that it was okay.
After that, everything proceeded smoothly.
The reserved accommodation wasn't that far. I learned for the first time that there were so many lodging facilities near the Academy.
Unlike the world I came from, I thought accommodation businesses wouldn't thrive here since they had convenient Warp Points, but that didn't seem to be the case.
With convenient transportation, there seemed to be no need to stay overnight. You could just pay for a Warp Point instead of accommodation.
Actually, it was hard to compare. I still didn't know how much Warp Points cost. I tilted my head, wondering if they charged based on distance.
If it was just teleportation, I thought they would charge similar prices.
Putting aside my minor questions, we first looked for a convenience store nearby before heading to our accommodation. I opened my eyes wide and looked up at the impressive size of the large convenience store.
"Come on, let's go in."
Sera gestured and led us inside.
The first things we saw were everyday items like stockings and cotton swabs. In the middle were preserved foods like canned goods and ramen, and only after going further in could we see refrigerators packed full.
"Urr, do you like ice cream?"
"Hmm, no? I don't particularly like it."
Since I hadn't eaten much ice cream even when I was with the Professor, I was indifferent. I could take it or leave it.
Aria asked me the question and then fell silent for a moment.
"Want to try some this time?"
"...I do know what ice cream is, you know."
"Great, let's go with this."
"Are you even listening to me?"
I glared at Aria with narrowed eyes, but she didn't seem to care and just dumped the ice cream into her basket.
Aria had a somewhat willful side. No, maybe Sera was the same way.
They had similarities yet differences, and differences yet similarities. I thought they really were worthy of being best friends.
"...Oh, a freezer connected to a frost magic formula... How does this..."
"Karen... are you really looking at that kind of thing even here?"
Meanwhile, Karen was examining the magic circle embedded in the ice cream freezer, her eyes shining as she started stroking her chin.
I wondered if she should have switched departments with Sera if she was going to be like this.
I already felt tired.
Aria was busy grabbing everything she wanted, and Karen was busy contemplating every interesting subject that caught her eye.
I moved with dragging steps. Almost escaping, I went to Sera's side, and she glanced at me.
"Urr, is there anything you want to eat?"
"I'll have juice."
"Hmm, you came all this way just for juice?"
Sera said in a sly voice, then started taking beer out of the refrigerator. One, two, three...
"Why, why are you taking so many?!"
"Huh? There are four of us, so we need at least this much. And can't each person easily drink two cans? Soju would be gone even faster."
"...You think I can drink two cans of beer?"
"If Urr doesn't drink it, I'll drink it myself."
Sera said that and added one more. The basket became heavy as a result. It was no wonder it was heavy with eight large cans of beer in it.
I was confident I could say it would be impossible if she asked me to carry it.
"Alright, now that we've chosen the alcohol, shall we pick some snacks? Ah, frozen food? Hmm, dumplings seem good too."
"Ah, I'll buy this."
"You will?"
Karen, who I thought was deeply absorbed in the freezer's frost magic formula, approached quietly.
There were many things inside the refrigerator.
"N-not this one."
When I looked at the numbers, it seemed that regardless of which country or world the convenience store was in, there was always a section that only nobles would browse.
It wasn't an ordinary price.
It was similar to the price of the beer we bought earlier, but the quantity was much smaller, making it feel wasteful.
When Karen turned away in horror, Aria, who had been watching us from who knows when, suddenly appeared and interrupted.
"Let's get one of each from here to here."
"Aria, you already picked a lot of ice cream."
When I grumbled and added a word to Aria, she shook her head.
"I didn't. I put them all back."
"...What? You acted like you were going to grab everything..."
"Well, you can drink several bottles of alcohol on the spot, but you can't do that with ice cream, right? It's better to eat snacks instead."
Aria answered nonchalantly and opened the refrigerator.
She picked out a tub of ice cream and something like a frozen gratin from inside.
"Wait, isn't that ice cream too?"
When Sera grabbed Aria's hand, Aria glanced at it and put it back down.
"My grand dream..."
"If your grand dream is from here to here, why don't you realize it over there?"
Despite Aria's desolate voice, Sera calmly pointed to the side.
Karen, who had gone ahead and was intently looking at something, turned her head in surprise. When our eyes met, Karen slightly showed me what she was holding.
...That's!
"Karen, what's that?"
"This is corn cheese. They say you heat it up with cheese on top."
"Ooooh!"
There was a menu item I wanted to eat.
It was something that could almost be considered a drinking snack, so it was hard to find in ordinary restaurants. I was so moved that I could find it in a convenience store like this, wondering if this was what miracles were like.
When I grabbed the corn cheese Karen was holding and expressed my admiration with a "Wooow," Karen showed me something else she was holding.
"How about this? It's inari sushi."
"...That, um, I do want to eat it..."
As they say, familiar tastes can be scary. There were tastes that remained vaguely in my memory that I found myself seeking out.
Of course, as a Demon God, it was closer to seeking the nostalgia of food rather than just a taste that remained in my memory.
I hesitated, trailing off, wondering if I should pick so many things when I could only taste the food but couldn't feel full. Karen handed it to me with a bitter smile.
"Here, if you want to try it, I think it would be good to try."
"Yeah..."
I nodded, deciding to buy this myself.
It seemed like we had picked a lot of things. By the time we had filled our basket with things that could be heated in the microwave, beer, and even one ice cream, the basket was completely full.
Are we really going to eat all this between the four of us?
While I thought four people might be able to do it, looking at the actual amount made me feel afraid.
"Let's eat this too. We'll take all of these."
Aria, not satisfied with that, pointed to all the chicken next to the counter.
She seemed determined to take the entire container that had skewers, hot dogs, chicken, cheese sticks, and all sorts of things.
I grabbed Aria's sleeve, thinking that even if she had a lot of money, buying this much would leave too many leftovers.
"Aria... aren't you buying too much?"
"I'm buying it because I want to take a bite of each. We'll eat it all, right?"
"That's true, but this is going to be too expensive..."
"It's fine. Sera will pay half."
At Aria's nonchalant voice, Sera objected.
"Hey, hey, that's crossing the line. You're doing this 'from here to here' thing and now you're asking me to split it?"
"Yes."
"No way, I'd rather pay for the room rental."
Sera grabbed her throbbing head and sighed.
While the part-time worker was scanning the barcodes with beeps, I took out the bills I had carefully tucked away in my inner pocket.
"Ta-da! I have 50 Rill."
"...I'm jealous."
"..."
When Aria said that, it didn't sound sincere at all. Besides, I wasn't showing off to make her jealous, so her comment was absurd.
"That's not it! I'm going to pay for my inari sushi and corn cheese..."
"Then I'll take it as payment for a kiss from Urr."
"Eh?"
"Thank you."
Aria said something strange on her own and rejected my money.
Looking at the money that was unexpectedly returned, I made a dumbfounded sound. Looking alternately at the bills I was holding tightly with both hands and at Aria, I made another dumbfounded sound.