CH 53

Once we entered the large shopping mall, we first went to the food court. There were normal a la carte restaurants, but there was no point in going there. Today’s goal was to let Satsuki-chan live the ordinary life that she’d never experienced before. There was no point in going to an a la carte restaurant or a coffee shop.

“Woah… there are quite a lot of people…”

“Yes. Oh! Right. Satsuki-chan, let us hold hands so we do not get separated.”

“Um… okay…”

She timidly held out her hand and I took it. Today I was wearing pants and a hat that concealed my hair, so maybe we looked like a young couple. Satsuki-chan shrank slightly; maybe she was nervous. But it was kind of cute how she held onto my hand tightly in return.

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Satsuki-chan was walking through a large crowd of people, which she’d probably never experienced. She had probably gone to places with a lot of people. There were a lot of people in attendance at plays or concerts. But in those places, the audience members walked orderly in pathways and there was no disorder. There were definitely a lot of people, but it wasn’t congested.

Compared to that, any ordinary person could imagine the crush of a weekend shopping mall. Similarly, I had gone to those places in my past life a lot. A normal high-class person wouldn’t have stepped foot in those places. At the very least, a child from the Five Norths families, let alone one attending Touka Academy, would never go to these places.

“Umm… there seems to be a row of restaurants, but… have you already decided where we are eating lunch?”

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“R yx qkdl okvb vbkp “qsse nswav” vbkdt, cwv rlabyrp ol nswze zssj yaswde vbkp yaly yp olzz?”

“Xb, vbld zlv wp vyjl swa vkxl zssjkdt yp ol oyzj.”

Rv zssjle zkjl Fyvpwjk-nbyd oyp kdvlalpvle kd vbl rzypvkn qsse xselzp. Fbl oyp zssjkdt kdvldvzu yv vbl rzypvkn qsse xselzp zkdle wr clbkde vbl tzypp ekprzyu.

“Xb… oso… vbkp kp…”

Fbl oyp zssjkdt qaydvknyzzu yv vbl rzypvkn qsse xselzp, yzxspv pvknjkdt blaplzq vs vbl tzypp. Rv oyp jkdey nwvl.

“Does one capture your interest?”

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“Um… I am not quite sure…”

Well, that was true. A child raised in a family that was a member of the Five Norths Association wouldn’t have eaten at those places. If they did go out to eat, they wouldn’t be eating at shops with plastic food models lined up like this, but instead shops where you would hear recommendations and today’s catch as you ordered.

Of course, she’d know the food displayed was ramen and donburi even if she only ate at those shops. She’d probably eaten it too. But she probably thought that the menu and plastic food samples of shops like these were very strange.

“If this restaurant interests you, we can eat here instead, so please say if it does.”

“Yes… but honestly, I do not quite understand… I will leave it to you, Sakuya-chan.”

While she was looking at the plastic food models, that didn’t mean there were any shops she wanted to enter or any food she wanted to eat. Actually, she may have just been in the position where she didn’t know much so she couldn’t decide.

In the end, we looked at each and every single shop but didn’t go into any, and we arrived at the food court like we originally planned. It was still early for lunch, but it was already quite crowded.

“A-Are we dining here?”

“Mm. If this is too much, how about entering one of the restaurants from earlier?”

Satsuki-chan seemed completely overwhelmed. That made sense. She had never eaten while sharing a big table with others or at a counter seat in the middle of noisy, disorderly crowds. She may have been worried about dust from this huge crowd. There were probably kids raised in high-society who worried about that.

“No… I am fine. I shall challenge this.”

Satsuki-chan gripped her hands together tightly and declared that. It was really cute. She was a completely different person from the usual too-mature-to-be-a-first-grader Satsuki-chan. Rather, maybe this was the real Satsuki-chan.

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“Haha, then, let us choose what to eat.”

We surveyed the shops inside the food court. This place mostly had familiar fast food stores and ramen shops, as well as stores selling food you could immediately eat like donburi.

“Satsuki-chan, have you decided on what to eat?”

“Umm… then, I would like to try that store…”

Satsuki-chan was pointing to a ramen shop.

“What!? Satsuki-chan, you want to try ramen!?”

That was super unexpected. No… it shouldn’t have been that strange to me, but… Satsuki-chan should’ve eaten ramen before too. That ramen was probably a high-end store’s speciality ramen, but…

“I-Is that odd? I will then change my decision.”

“Oh! I am sorry. I did not mean to imply that. It was just slightly unexpected. Then, let us eat at that ramen shop.”

I calmed the somewhat despondent and embarrassed Satsuki-chan. I wasn’t saying there was anything bad about ramen. It was just different from how I imagined Satsuki-chan, so I was surprised. I also hadn’t eaten ramen in this life yet. I was the one surprised to be eating ramen for the first time in a while. That was why I was thankful for Satsuki-chan’s choice.

“Umm… how should I go about this?”

“Oh… you just need to line up there and order at this counter. Once you pay, you receive a buzzer or a slip with a number on it, which you bring with you. Then you wait at your seat. Once your number is called or the buzzer beeps, you exchange that for your food.”

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Any normal food court would do things the same way. The only difference was probably whether the shop gave you a buzzer or a slip of paper.

“Please decide what you wish to order from the menu before it’s your turn in line.”

“Yes…”

Satsuki-chan, looking slightly nervous, meekly nodded. Maybe she had already decided what to order. Normally, we’d get seats and then choose what to order, but we’d be stuck if we did that now. Satsuki-chan seemed to have already decided, so it should be fine.

“Have you decided on what to order?”

“I’m ordering shoyu ramen… What about you, Satsuki-chan?”

“Umm… I would like tonkotsu ramen.”

Once it was our turn, we ordered. It looked like Satsuki-chan got tonkotsu ramen. She paid the bill, received the slip of paper in exchange, checked it, and secured a seat. Normally, just one person could secure a seat, but was it really okay for Satsuki-chan to go get one alone?

“When your number is called, take your paper and exchange it with the food, then bring it yourself.”

“Yes. I have come to understand the basics from watching others. I am fine.”

Oh? Maybe I was underestimating Satsuki-chan a little. She saw what others were doing and remembered it. She should be fine.

～～～～～～～

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After we waited a while, our numbers were called, we got our ramen, and we returned. We both got our ramen, so it came time for us to actually try it. By the way, I had paid. Satsuki-chan couldn’t have thought this would happen, so she didn’t bring paper bills. The attendants also brought credit cards, but it wasn’t like kids could pay using credit cards here.

“Then, let us eat.”

“Yes…”

Satsuki-chan, splitting apart her disposable chopsticks, carefully sipped her ramen. Then…

“Um… how to say this…”

“At times like these, it is alright to say whatever you wish without hesitation. Like that it tastes cheap.”

“Ahaha…”

I gave Satsuki-chan, who seemed to be troubled with her thoughts on the dish, advice. She didn’t have to lie and say it tasted delicious. It wouldn’t have tasted good to the discerning palate of a rich young lady. But I didn’t hate this cheap flavour. I had the sudden urge to eat it sometimes.

“This is greatly different from ramen costing thousands of yen that is prepared using high-quality ingredients and by first-class chefs. At the very least, it would not stand a chance against what you normally eat, Satsuki-chan. However, this is the so-called “commoner’s taste”. Even if it is not very delicious, such food is not bad occasionally, no?”

“That… is true… I have never eaten food like this before… Is this what is normal in society…”

Well, that was true. I didn’t think it was wrong to say that ordinary people regularly ate at food courts. Rather, for some people, such things were a luxury that they could only eat sometimes.

As I talked about many things with Satsuki-chan, we enjoyed ordinary food among other people.

～～～～～～～

“Oh! How does this look?”

“Well… it is cute…”

Once we’d finished eating at the food court, we window-shopped. We were currently looking at a store that sold accessories for girls.

We had looked at a lot of stores, but everything seemed to surprise Satsuki-chan. The shops we normally went to had employees opening the door and leading us in, recommending this and that. You bought things while consulting with the employee.

Compared to that, no one called out to us while we looked around this shop. Even if first graders were wandering around, employees wouldn’t go up and recommend stuff to them. Far from it; there were some employees looking at us like they were wondering what happened to our parents or guardians.

This was definitely all a first for Satsuki-chan. She didn’t look composed like usual, and instead looked like a normal first grade girl. That in itself fully satisfied me.

“What is above this?”

“Hm? Oh~… there is a car park above this.”

She probably thought that the top floor was also filled with shops, but it was instead the car park. There weren’t any shops and she didn’t have anything to do there, so I thought she wouldn’t be interested, but she had always been looking up. Maybe she was interested in it?

“Does it interest you? Would you like to head to the rooftop car park?”

“What? Is that okay?”

What would make it not okay… There weren’t many cars parked in the parking lot, so it’d be too much to say that you couldn’t go to the roof.

“Let us go look at the scenery as the wind is blowing, yes?”

“Yes!”

As expected, she wanted to go to the roof… To me, it was just a car park, but maybe it was one big adventure to Satsuki-chan. I thought that, but I was also looking forward to going up. We both rode the escalator and headed for the rooftop car park.

“Hmm… as expected, all that can be seen are the surrounding buildings…”

I had thought that maybe the view would be good, but it was normal that I couldn’t see much from the roof of a shopping mall in the middle of the city. We just saw the cars parked and the nearby buildings. Maybe Satsuki-chan was disappointed.

“The wind feels nice. Let us go towards the edge.”

I was wondering if Satsuki-chan was disappointed, but it looked like she wasn’t. There weren’t a lot of cars inside this car park, so the wind definitely felt nice. There was no smell of exhaust fumes.

The two of us went to the building’s edge and walked around the car park to see the outside. Then, we heard someone’s voice. From the voice and the conversation that we heard, it wasn’t anything good. But Satsuki-chan looked towards me and kept walking, dismissing it as nothing.

“Stop!”

“Huh? You’re bold, aren’t ya!”

When we got near the voices, we saw three lower elementary boys about our age and five fourth or fifth graders surrounding them.