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I told her that I had to go and meet Daniela, but she was welcome to have dinner with us. However, Lemon shook her head.

“I’m sorry. I think Miss Rindo will be waking up soon. And so I should return to the inn.”

“I see. Yeah, I wouldn’t leave her alone.”

“Yes. But the four of us should definitely have dinner together at least once before you leave.”

I was happy that she made that suggestion. I wanted to say goodbye to Manager before we left.

She was one of the few acquaintances I had that was from my home. It was sad that we had to leave, but we had things we needed to do…

“Alright, we’ll come and visit you before then.”

“Good. See you later!”

“Later.”

I waved as Lemon disappeared into the crowds of people. And then I headed for the inn where Daniela would be waiting.

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The sun was now below the walls that surrounded the city, and shadows began to fall. As if to battle the darkness, lights began to appear all over the streets just as I arrived at the inn.

“Daniela…ah, there she is. She’s really staring…”

She was looking straight at me with her hands on her hips. Like that, no one would want to walk past her… She was staring daggers at me. The meaning was clear.

She was hungry.

“Sorry, sorry. I know I’m late.”

“Very late. I am not sure I have the energy to take a single step.”

“Liar. Come on, let’s go.”

I pulled her by the hand. Sure enough, she was capable of walking just fine.

And so we walked through the city at night, hand in hand. Seeing the unique way the streets became crowded at night felt oddly nostalgic. Perhaps it was because we had spent so many nights in the forest. We had also spent many nights here. It didn’t help that I knew we would be leaving it soon.

However, this sort of melancholy for every stop was part of the charm of traveling. It was to find places that you wanted to return to, that one traveled at all.

“So, what is this place we are going to?”

“A bakery. …Oh, don’t look at me like that.”

It was almost surprising how disgusted she looked. I’d never seen that expression before…

“But…who goes to a bakery at night…”

“It’s good. I promise.”

“Hahh… Well, you do have good instincts.”

In spite of her misgivings, Daniela tagged along. That was why I loved her.

And like that, we arrived at the place I had come to with Lemon. You could smell the freshly baked bread from outside.

“Smells good, no?”

“Well, only because it is freshly baked…”

She was not ready to give up her meatatarian tendencies just yet. That was fine. I would open her eyes to the joys of evening bread.

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“Uhhh…I cannot eat any more…”

“Why do you always eat so much…”

Daniela had underestimated the possibilities of this place and was defeated after her first bite. The first thing she had eaten was similar to French bread. I also adored an ajillo of mushrooms and bacon. Well, it was something close to ajillo, anyway. I didn’t have the most refined taste buds, but it seemed similar enough.

In any case, this combination was enough to help Daniela calm down. As for me, I had some melted cheese with my bread. I told her that it was my favorite way of eating bread, which resulted in her eating all of it. Then she ordered some beef soup to go with her bread. Once she was feeling better and less on the brink of starvation, she ordered some Pot-au-feu, and at the very end, she got some French Toast as dessert.

And that led to where we were now.

“Hmm. It was more filling than I expected…”

“It soaks up all the fluids. But at least it digests quickly.”

“I see… So you can eat a lot of it then…”

“You’re hopeless…”

Daniela leaned on my shoulder as we made our way back to the inn. Then I helped her down onto the bed and lay beside her. I had missed beds so much. And so it didn’t take us long to be whisked away to the world of dreams.

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