This is a wholesome chapter.
As Kousuke was browsing the items displayed at the food stalls, a woman tending to one of them approached him.
“Oh my. You two seem quite close, don’t you? How enviable.”
The eyes of the female stall owner were directed towards Silvia’s arm, which was linked with Kousuke’s.
Simply put, Kousuke was currently walking around town with Silvia’s arm linked with his.
Of course, they weren’t alone; Kouhi and Nana were accompanying them as well, but neither of them typically commented on the situation.
Consequently, it had the complete appearance of a date, so the female stall owner’s words were spot on.
Silvia smiled at the female stall owner’s comment.
“Oh? Do we seem that way?”
“What are you talking about? If you’re not married, then what are you?”
Looking at the couple, who could only be described as a perfect match from an outsider’s perspective, the female stall owner shrugged.
By the way, the stall owner running a neighboring stall nodded vigorously in agreement with the female stall owner’s words.
There was a possibility they weren’t married but were lovers, however, even if that were the case, people generally preferred being called a married couple over lovers. The female stall owner knew this and spoke accordingly.
As a result of her strategy, Silvia’s mood brightened considerably.
“Oh my. Thank you very much.”
“Well, it costs nothing to say it. If you were to buy something from my stall, that would be the icing on the cake.”
In response to the cunning female stall owner’s words, Silvia glanced at Kousuke’s face. Kousuke, seeing her look, gave a wry smile and turned his gaze to the items on display.
The food the female stall owner was selling was something like a crepe. Considering it was a small stall, there was a considerable variety of fillings available.
While Kousuke was impressed by this, Silvia was already beginning to consider her choices. Kousuke, with a wry smile at her eagerness, decided to ask the stall owner a question that had piqued his interest.
“Still, you have a lot of tropical fruits and food, don’t you?”
“Ah, it’s all thanks to the Fourth Floor.”
“The Fourth Floor? …Ah, I see what you mean.”
Kousuke tilted his head for a moment, not understanding the female stall owner’s meaning, but he quickly grasped it and nodded.
Several years ago, at the request of Razek Amamiya and Crown (Towa and Schmidt), Kousuke had thoroughly modified the environment of the Fourth Floor. Initially, he had received a request to see if it was possible to grow southern crops within the Tower. Towa, of course, knew that the floors could be altered to the manager’s liking. Spotting this opportunity, Towa had decided to create a perpetual summer environment and cultivate tropical crops. If this plan succeeded, theoretically, it would become possible to grow any kind of crop within the Tower alone. This would yield results that could not be ignored, both for the management of the country and the organization known as Crown.
It had been some time since Towa had requested the environmental changes, and Kousuke had almost forgotten about it. However, as he understood it, the efforts to change the Fourth Floor’s environment had apparently borne fruit.
“So, they’ve become available at prices that can be sold at food stalls like this.”
Even if crops could be grown, to make them affordable enough to be sold at food stalls, a certain amount of production was necessary. Conversely, the fact that such crops were now appearing at food stalls meant that mass production was being achieved.
“Ah. They’ve been consistently available to the public since around this spring. Thanks to that, we can sell them at the stalls now.”
“I see. That must be pleasing for you as a shop owner.”
“For us, it’s a source of business, after all.”
As the female stall owner said this with a hearty laugh, Kousuke responded, “That’s wonderful then.”
While Kousuke was talking to the female stall owner, Silvia had apparently decided on her fillings and placed her order during a lull in their conversation. After Silvia finished ordering, Kousuke, without much deliberation, chose what he wanted and placed an order just like her.
“Here you go. …My, that’s quite a lavish order. Is everything alright?”
Kousuke and Silvia were dressed in attire that seemed to befit the middle class. Nevertheless, their order at a single stall was rather extravagant, prompting the female stall owner to ask. Kousuke smiled in response.
“Don’t worry about our wallets. If you’d like, I could buy out this entire stall?”
“Hahaha, now that would be something! I certainly hope you do.”
The female stall owner laughed heartily once more, and Kousuke returned a small smile. In reality, Kousuke possessed enough wealth that even buying out the stall for the day wouldn’t strain his finances. However, he had no intention of directly refuting what the female stall owner had dismissed as a joke. For the record, Kousuke was careful not to sow seeds of trouble himself. …Though whether that caution was bearing fruit was another matter.
After finishing their ordered food in front of the stall, Kousuke and the others resumed their walk through the town. They weren’t heading anywhere in particular, just strolling and looking around. Nevertheless, Silvia seemed to be enjoying herself, which put Kousuke’s mind at ease. No matter how many years passed or how many times he tried, Kousuke still had no idea what would please her on a date. Regardless of Kousuke’s inner struggles, his date with Silvia progressed smoothly.
“Still, looking at it again, you’ve really grown, haven’t you?”
Kousuke understood what she meant without her elaborating. Following Silvia’s gaze, he saw she was looking towards the end of the long road stretching before them.
“Honestly, I never thought it would get this big.”
“Really?”
“Of course. In the beginning, I thought if it just became like a village, that would be enough.”
This was Kousuke’s true, unvarnished feeling. Back then, shortly after conquering the Tower, he had thought it would be enough to attract hundreds of people and create an environment where adventurers could thrive. He had never even considered the possibility of building a country. Yet, things had rapidly escalated to this point. From Kousuke’s perspective, it was a fortunate miscalculation. However, Kousuke’s biggest miscalculation was becoming an Avatar.
Perhaps sensing Kousuke’s thoughts, Silvia smiled slightly with a meaningful expression.
“I never imagined I’d end up serving a god directly back then either?”
As Silvia responded, Kousuke let out a small chuckle. It was possible that Silvia might have become a princess priestess like Eris at some point, but now there was no point in thinking about that. After all, she was by the side of Kousuke, the Avatar and her husband.
“Well, that’s probably true. …In that case, I must tip my hat to Silvia’s foresight back then, wouldn’t you say?”
When Kousuke and Silvia first met, if Silvia hadn’t intervened in that commotion, their current future might not have existed. Thinking about it that way, Kousuke’s words weren’t wrong. However, Silvia saw it from a different perspective.
“I appreciate the compliment, but I didn’t necessarily know this was going to happen.”
“That’s true. If you could foresee such a future, then you’d indeed be worthy of being called a god, wouldn’t you?”
Silvia’s eyes widened slightly in surprise at Kousuke’s jesting remark, but she quickly let out a small laugh. Seeing this, Kousuke laughed along with her.
This was a date chapter with Silvia.
I wrote it because I had a sudden idea. It wouldn’t be very interesting if I just wrote about reporting on the tropical floor, after all.
