Decorating the land lavishly with its flat-roofed two-floor structure, the building is still relatively new and pretty.
A vertical banner hanging from the roof reads “The History and Culture of Hemidzuka.”
Sakuya: Well well, that’s a rather nice-looking building, huh?
Kei: It is, isn’t it? I should have at least 200 more yen for you, Sakuya-san. Would you like to come and have a look, too?
Tsudzura: The parking is free, you know.
Sakuya: Even if it is free, with all the land they have available, I can’t say I’m feeling very privileged. Tsudzura: That is true~ This region does seem the kind where people won’t mind you parking anywhere, except perhaps the middle of a road, or in front of a shop entrance.
Kei: In that case, Sakuya-san, we’ll be going now.
Tsudzura: I shall leave Obana in your care. Today I didn’t bring the backpack I use to stow him away, and in this summer heat, I rather doubt the scarf pretension would work.
Sakuya: I gotcha. Be careful on your way back.
——————–
Kei: Wah, this place is one heck of a cuckoo. (TN: There is a Japanese idiom, “the cuckoo’s crying,” that refers to a business slump.)
Tsudzura: Truly a misallocated facility, isn’t it~?
Between the entrance and display cases, there was only one worker: the receptionist, to whom I handed my two hundred yen coins.
Tsudzura: Kei-oneesan, is it possible, you think, that anyone has ever entered this place with the half-admission discount?
Kei: Hmm… for normal people, I’d doubt it, but there might be student field trips or something……
Tsudzura: But with the population going down in this area, all of the school years might not even add up to thirty people!
Kei: I don’t think it’s depopulating to that point, though. This place has a convenience store and a Hackin’ Beef, after all…… (TN: Hackin’ Beef – the Akai Ito universe’s equivalent of McDonald’s. Its mascot is a man with a chainsaw…)
Convenience store franchises notwithstanding, I can’t imagine a fast food chain so widespread would build a restaurant in a region where they wouldn’t have a profit.
Kei: ……Now then.
I open the pamphlet I received at the entrance, and search out the target display item.
Kei: Fya!
I am accosted by Tsudzura-chan as she peeks in from the side.
Tsudzura: I’m so sorry, Kei-oneesan. My balance faltered a little.
Kei: Ah, I’m sorry. You can’t see it without stretching, can you?
Tsudzura: Tahaha, though I should have merely looked at my own, I think.
She frets, and hurriedly pulls away.
Tsudzura: Ah, Onee-san, the story about the snake god appears to be this way.
Kei: Tsudzura-chan, wait for me!