This town is weird. Every single day I couldn’t help but think that. Wherever you go everyone is smiling, everyone is walking with their heads up, no matter if they are young, middle-aged or old, they seem like they have a goal in their life.

I kind of envy them, I myself also have a goal, a grand goal but…Putting that matter aside, standing in front of a black building, that looked like a big Lego, I was waiting for someone.

To be honest I don’t know why I accepted their invitation, I could have done so many other things, things that would bring me closer to my goal, but instead here I am with sunglasses on and in a white and red combination, waiting for my colleagues.

“Where are they, will they be late? This one finds this unacceptable…”

That was kind of cringe. I was waiting for them for a couple of more minutes and then I noticed two figures approaching me, with one waving his hand.

One of the figures was a lanky, young-looking man and the other looked like a macho man. Both are dressed in t-shirts with anime characters on them. Everyone would say that those two are probably nerds, the thing is, I am not different from them.

“HEY, you are late, this one doesn’t like late people.”

Uf, the cringe, get me out of here, I really want Earth to swallow me.

“Come on Your Highness, we are never late, just early.”

The lanky kid said that, a kid by the name of Shiba Ryo, my fellow Japanese and a colleague. With us two, the third member of this party today is Nikola, something, something. A foreigner, someone I wasn’t too familiar with but also my colleague. Our boss is encouraging us to keep getting to know each other more, saying that we will be more productive, so from time to time we go out like this. Though it is the first time it is us three.

“Hmph, a bad joke, that old man would give it a 1, let us go, this one doesn’t like wasting time.”

“Lead the way, YOUR HIGHNESS.”

After Shiba and I exchanged a couple of sentences, Nikola joined with a smug face and in a teasing voice said to me.

I kind of like and hate this nickname. Everyone in the company calls me “Your Highness”, because of the way I talk. Like I said I don’t mind it that much. One of the reasons is, that everyone got one and it was all so natural. All of sudden one day while working, in a stressed environment we all started barraging each other with different nicknames, it was a lot of fun.

“Shut up Chad!”

…

Kisato is a medium-sized town that has a lot of merit to it. It has everything one needs to live comfortably and it is relatively close to Tokyo. Also, it is well connected with all parts of this great country.

And we are currently in one of the more visited parts of this town. It is called an “Entertainment District” or as usually called by the citizens – “Mini Akihabara”. Though, “this one”, I mean I think it is maybe even better than the famous Tokyo district.

“Listen up Nikola, all boobs are good boobs, that’s a rule in this town…”

“You sure? I still think big is better.”

“I see we will need to reeducate you.”

What are these two buffons even talking about? How did we go from this part of the city being beautiful to boobs? Ew, so perverted.

Never mind them. The Entertainment District is situated in the centre of the city. It has places that sell manga, anime, games, movies and anything that can be put in the fun category. We plan to buy a couple of manga and to go to some game cafe so that I show these two how a royal plays games.

We were walking through the Entertainment District, talking about dumb stuff, watching people having fun and just enjoying our time when a person crashed into me.

“OUCH!”

“Oh my God, mister I am really sorry, I didn’t watch where I was going.”

The person who crashed into me seemed like a younger woman, with a stroller and a baby that looked like it was sleeping.

She seemed young but she had sunglasses and a mask on, so we couldn’t really tell, though from her graceful movements, my royal eyes could tell, she wasn’t just your normal run-of-the-mill woman.

“Please be more careful next time miss.”

Saying a few more words of thanks and sorry she left. All three of our pair of eyes were looking at her back, with Ryo looking like he was deep in thought.

“Shiba?”

“It's just, that she looks familiar.”

“She does?”

“Now that you said that, this one agrees, 10 points for your observation.”

“Hahah, you say you hate the old man but the way you started to rate things, you actually kind of like him, don’t you, you TSUNDERE Royal Highness.”

Damn, this had become such a habit. Stupid old man. I need to stop doing that, but it is, kind of fun.

…

Forgetting about the young woman, we were in the middle of buying manga in the dreamland of every weeb on the planet – the bookstore and not just any bookstore but the bookstore that has four floors, all filled to the brim with manga, and even some games and anime. Paradise on Earth.

For ten minutes we were quietly looking through the colourful covers, taking a manga, then putting it down and repeating that action, without much talking.

Till the chatterbox of the group Shiba Ryo broke the ice.

“You know what, I am kind of bored of reading Ecchi manga, Nikola my muscle-man, do you have any good action story to recommend.”

Hearing that I couldn’t stop myself from checking the weather outside, just in case axes start raining.

“So finally you came to your senses my perverted friend, let's see, oh this one is good, Bloody Monday, I think you will love it, it even has hot girls…”

“Oho, action and hot girls, that’s the best combination, let me check out the first three volumes, always going with the number three when checking the new series.”

Never mind, still the same pervert.

As for me, I was checking out some samurai manga. You already know that but I am a big fan of samurais and overall any media that has anything to do with historical Japan, it's just so magical to me.

Though that’s not the only type of story This one likes to read.

“This one is kind of in the mood to read some fantasy.”

Saying that I looked at the two in front of me and smiled. That was a nice smile, it should tell them I am in a good mood and also want to be part of the recommendation game.

But looking at the disgusted faces of my two colleagues, it is safe to say they got the wrong idea.

“Bleah, man, that was disgusting, remove that smile, this one is shivering here.”

Shiba Ryo started with his usual mixture of teasing and imitating me, while Nikola finished me off with his own type of I guess, Croatian humour?

“My dear friend, I don’t know what you are scheming with that smile on but just know we are friends, no need to try to use underhanded methods.”

What in the world are these two idiots talking about? What scheming and underhanded methods, I WAS JUST NORMALLY SMILING.

“Listen up, you two peasants, this one wouldn’t be Your Highness if it doesn’t KICK YOUR BUTT.”

The day that started normally, ended up loudly, with a shouting match. But still, I guess, I had a lot of fun. Even when we were arguing about silly things, even when the staff reprimanded us for being too loud, all of that was fun and a couple of times more I pulled out a smile, something that funnily enough scared those two – I guess I have more ammunition for the future.

All in all, I guess that this is the feeling of having friends, I think after today I can call them like that, the first time in my life I felt warm and fuzzy in my heart.

“Though, that doesn’t change the fact that they are still annoying most of the time…”