After Rio had finished eating, we headed out. Rachel said La Fleur was right up the street, so that was our first destination.

The buildings that were destroyed in the capital attack were completely gone now and under construction. It seemed like the kingdom was rebuilding them. All of the rubble and debris were completely gone too.

There were still a lot of people walking around.

“It should be just up here.” I said as I looked at the signs of the buildings we were passing by.

“The capital is so pretty…” Rio commented as he looked around like a curious cat.

We hadn’t really explored any part of the capital except for the inn and a clothing store near it. It may have been my fault though, as I was focused on trying to save money. I mean, I don’t think we needed much other than the room and food, which we got from the inn.

“Isn’t it?” It was cool how people were still smiling and laughing even after their homes were attacked. They got a pretty strong mentality. I wonder if they got it because of the king.

Shortly after, we arrived at La Fleur, it was an old-timey café with flowerbeds in front of the store. It smelt great and there was a lot of color that popped out.

“You’ve ever had coffee?” I asked.

“Coffee? No, but I’ve served it to people. I know that Mr. Halen likes his coffee black, and Ms. Jennette likes hers with a lot of sugar.” He replied as we entered the store.

“Did you like the smell of it?”

“No…” He shook his head, “It smelt a little funny to me.”

“I think so too.” I replied before standing in front of the cashier, “Hello, welcome to La Fleur, what could I get you two today?”

“Could I get two hot chocolates?”

“Right away, your order will be ready soon.” She replied with a smile before turning around.

There weren’t much people around right now, it was probably too early.

“Hot chocolate?” Rio asked as we took a seat at a table.

“Yeah, it tastes pretty sweet. It’s really good though.”

“Okay! I’ll trust you!”

A few minutes later, the barista from earlier called out to me, “Sir, your order is ready.”

“Thanks.” I replied before taking out my tip pouch.

“Your total is 14 copper.” She showed a polite smile and I paid.

Maybe the Moonlit Inn’s prices are just too cheap, how do they even make money? If a large hot chocolate is 7 copper, something must be happening behind the scenes. 10 copper for a whole meal? How do they even afford to operate?

I took the hot chocolates back to our seats and handed one to Rio.

“They’re a bit hot, so you might want to wait or blow on it before drinking.” I commented before taking a tiny sip.

“Okay! Thank you!” Rio wrapped both of his hands around the cup before blowing on it. When he took a sip, he pulled away and mumbled, “Ow, I burnt my tongue.”

“If you take very tiny sips and you won’t burn your tongue.”

“Mm? Okay!” He started sipping on the hot chocolate very slowly, “This is great! I love it-ow! Burnt my tongue!”

…

The next place we went was to Glade, a clothing store that Rachel recommended.

“Choose anything you like, we can’t keep wearing the inn uniform everywhere.” I mean, we also had the first pair of clothes we bought, but there was no variety.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, just choose whatever you feel like.”

By the time we both had picked out our clothes, there was a vast difference in taste. I chose mostly casual clothes and stuck to three main colors, black, white, and brown. Rio had chosen really colorful, green, pink, red, just vibrant colors.

“I see you like your colors.” I commented.

“Uh-I’ll go change them-”

“Nope, too late.”

The total was 65 silver, I just gave the cashier a gold coin and got some change.

…

The next place we went was to an aquarium. This was one of the key places I had actually written about, it didn’t play any significant role in the story other than being a cool place with a lot of fish.

It was one of the go-to spots I would use whenever I had the main character leave Heavensward to have fun.

“Woah…Look at them.” Rio and I stood in front of one of the tanks. There were a variety of fish swimming around, small, big, long, colorful, there was everything you could think of.

It looked even better than I could of imagined.

“What kind of fish are those, though?” I mumbled. There were a lot of fish I could recognize, but there were a lot more that I couldn’t. I mean, I wasn’t exactly an expert on fish, but I did know a little bit.

“Look at that ones face!” Rio pointed towards a fish that was sucking on the glass.

“It looks kind of stupid.”

“It’s cute!”

“That too, I guess.”

…

After we looked at all of the fish, we visited a food stand in the central part of the capital.

“Two kebabs.” I said.

“Coming right up!” The man replied as fire appeared in front of him, he was cooking with magic.

“Woah…” Rio looked at it with glistening eyes.

A short while later, he finished cooking and handed us the kebabs. I paid before we sat down on a nearby bench and started to eat.

“That was so cool!” Rio spoke.

“What was?”

“He created fire and then cooked with it in front of us!”

“Yeah, it was pretty cool. The meats pretty juicy too.” The way he cooked kind of reminded me of how hibachi chef’s cooked back in my world.

“It’s amazing!”

“Better than Saul’s?”

“Nope! Mr. Saul’s is still the best! Haha.”

…

The final place we visited was a florist shop. There were a lot of colorful flowers in the flowerbed in front of it, with butterflies and caterpillars on them.

“Do you know what kind of flowers you want?” I asked.

“Um…What kind of flowers do you think Ms. Rachel and Ms. Jennette would like?” Rio asked.

“I have no idea. I don’t know much about flowers in the first place other than their color.”

We headed inside the store and the female cashier greeted us with a smile, “Hello! Welcome to Hua’s Flowers, do you two need help with anything?”

“Um, we’ll come to you when we do.” I replied.

“Okay, happy searches!”

Inside smelt fantastic, there were so many eye-catching colors around too.

“This one looks good, right?” Rio asked while pointing at a yellow flower.

The sign card below it said, ‘Yellow Lily’

“I think so.”

“It kind of matches Ms. Jennette’s hair, do you think she’d like it?” Rio asked.

“Probably? Unless she hates flowers, I don’t see a reason she wouldn’t.”

“Alright! We just need to find one for Ms. Rachel and Mr. Saul now!”

Rio looked at a bunch more flowers before ultimately deciding one for Rachel.

“This one looks pretty like Ms. Rachel!”

The sign card below it read, ‘Chrysanthemum’

“Alright, just one for Saul now, right?”

“Yup! Leo, could you do me a favor?”

“Mm? Sure.”

“Could you buy a vase and put water in it? I don’t think they sell them here, and I don’t want the flowers to wither.”

“I don’t think they’d wither that fast, but sure. Then here-” As I tried to hand him the pouch he spoke, “No-no, I want to buy these!”

“Mm? Okay. Then I’ll go get a vase.” I replied before heading out.

Luckily there was a pottery store nearby. Honestly kind of a genius move by them, putting a pottery store and florist next to each other?

When I got back to the florist, Rio was already waiting outside.

“I’m back.”

“I bought the flowers!” Rio had a smile on his face.

“Awesome, what one you’d buy for Saul?” I asked as I held the vase in front of him.

He put the flowers he bought in the vase. There were four of them.

“There’s a yellow lily, a chrysanthemum, a camellia, and a white rose!”

“Four?”

“The camellia is for Mr. Saul, and the white rose is for you!” He had a big smile on his face.

“For…me?” I smiled, “Hah, I see, thank you, Rio.” I ruffed his hair with my free hand.

…

On the way back to the inn, Rio started to speak, “Thank you, Leo.” He had a sincere tone.

“Mm? No problem.”

“Today was the second best day I’ve ever had…”

“Second? What’s the first?”

“When I met you.”

“Is that so?”

“Yup!” He had a big smile on his face.

“Well, it’s only the beginning. In the future, we’ll have more and more days that you don’t want to end.”

Rio only smiled and nodded his head.

A short while later, we arrived back at the inn. It was already dark out, so most of the patrons had already gone home.

When we entered the inn, we could see Rachel wiping a table clean.

“We’re back.” I said.

“Ah-welcome back, boys! Did you two enjoy your day off?” Rachel replied while wiping her forehead.

“We did, Ms. Rachel!” Rio secretly grabbed the chrysanthemum and hid it behind his back as he walked towards Rachel.

“That’s good! Where’d you two visit?”

“All sorts of places! A café, a clothing store, a food stall, and an aquarium!” Rio replied.

“That sounds like a wonderful outing!”

“It was! By the way Ms. Rachel…I-uh…I bought you a gift!” Rachel looked at Rio with a little curiosity before he held the flower in front of her.

Rachel’s face immediately brightened up as she took the flower before hugging him, “Aw~! Thank you, darling! It’s beautiful! What kind is it?”

Rio had a red face as he replied, “It’s a chrysanthemum, I got it because it was pretty like you.”

“Oh, you smooth little charmer!” She hugged him even more tightly before letting go, “I’ll treasure it, thank you!”

“Heheh.” Rio nervously chuckled, “I have one for Mr. Saul too! Is he here?”

“Saul? Yeah, one second.” She looked towards the kitchen before shouting, “Saul, honey! Could ya come out here for a second?”

Rio grabbed the camellia, hiding it behind his back before Saul came out.

“Mr. Saul, I want to thank you for always cooking for us!” He held out the flower and Saul carefully took it before nodding his head with a smile.

Huh. So that’s what he looked like when he smiles.

“Yeah! It’s a camellia! It looked gentle just like you!” Rio said.

Huh? Did he just reply to him? Did Saul say something?

“No problem!” Rio smiled.

Saul headed back to the kitchen with the flower.

“Ms. Jennette is here too, right?” Rio asked.

“Yeah, she should be in her office right now.” Rachel replied.

“Alright! Leo let’s go! Goodnight, Ms. Rachel!”

“Night, darling. I’ll make sure to put this next to my bed.” Rachel replied.

Rio and I headed upstairs to Jennette’s office. He knocked on the door before hearing a muffled, “Come in.”

“Ms. Jennette? Are you busy?”

“Hm? Oh! Welcome back you two, did you enjoy your day off?”

“Yup! Actually, Ms. Jennette I have something for you.”

“Hm?”

He held out the flower, “It’s a yellow lily! It’s pretty like your hair, haha.”

She looked at the flower for a moment before chuckling, “Hah. This is the first time I’ve received flowers without a hidden motive.”

“Actually, this is a bribe for a raise.” I joked.

“Huh? No! It’s not!”

“Haha, I’ll think about it.” She took the flower, “Thank you, Rio.” She smiled.

“It’s really not a bribe!”

“I know. I’m pretty good at reading intentions. Haha.”

…

After everyone received their flowers, Rio and I headed back to our room. I put the vase on the nightstand in between our beds before speaking, “Today was fun.”

“It was! I didn’t want it to end, haha.”

We should definitely do as much as we can before we get into Heavensward. They’re pretty strict about keeping people on campus for the first few months. Oh yeah-“Hey, Rio.”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to start teaching you how to read.”

I wasn’t sure on the exact specifics of the test for Heavensward. I didn’t remember almost anything about it other than they’d bring out your true personality.

It was another case of, ‘Damn, I really should of world built more.’

“Okay! I’ll try my best!”

“Alright. We’ll start tomorrow though, I’m tired.”

“Roger!”

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight!”