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Volume 10 Chapter 299

The Hero and the H&T Trading Company

「Luna. I don’t see any problem with it. Besides, the girl seems to be hungry. If it were darling, he would surely lend a helping hand to someone in need」
「Thank you, Citri-san! ……So, let’s trade them. Which ones would you like?」
Since Citri approved the exchange of bread for the brooch, Luna led Akari to a nearby bench and let her choose the bread she wanted.
「Can I have these two, and these two of this one?」
「Of course. Here you go」
Luna, who had small bags, put the bread Akari selected into them and handed them over.
「Thank you so much! Here, take this」
「Wow. It’s really beautiful. I’ll cherish it」
After a brief conversation, Akari parted ways with Luna and Citri.
Citri is a daemon, and moreover, a former Demon Lord.
Enhanced by Haruto, her magical power far surpassed what she had as a Demon Lord.
To ensure she could live a normal life within the magical academy’s premises, Haruto had created magical devices to suppress her magical power and provided them to Citri.
Thanks to the enhancement by Haruto, Citri had perfected control over her magical power.
With Citri’s perfect control over her magical power and the magical devices provided by Haruto, nobody could tell that she possessed Demon Lord-level magical power.
She even deceived Tet, the god from another world.
Akari, who had no reason to suspect the presence of a Demon Lord in such a place, couldn’t rely on her skill , which wasn’t functioning anyway.
Moreover, the blessing Citri had received from the Evil God had already been removed by Haruto.
Citri wasn’t a Demon Lord.
Akari had come to this world to defeat the Demon Lord, but there was no Demon Lord to defeat.
　──＊＊＊──
「This is so good!」
「Yeah! It’s so tasty」
Feeling very hungry, Akari and Tet couldn’t resist any longer. After parting ways with Luna and the others, they immediately entered a nearby square, sat on the grass, and began eating the bread they exchanged for the brooch.
「I gave them the brooch…… I hope it’s okay for Luna-san?」
Akari became worried about the potential consequences of giving away items of world-class or higher rarity to Luna.
Her judgement was clouded by hunger, but after eating some bread, she regained a bit of composure.
Upon reflection, she became anxious about giving away potentially powerful equipment without any explanation.
「It’s fine. It’s an item made by Akari. It won’t harm anyone」
—That’s right. Although Akari didn’t consciously consider its effects, everything she made was in the『Protection』category, legendary-class ornaments.
When the owner faces danger, the item automatically activates magic to avoid it. While it might save the wearer, it wouldn’t harm anyone else.
After Tet explained this, Akari felt a little relieved.
「I just noticed something on this bag of bread… …It says H&T Trading Company under the name of the bakery」
Akari realised this after finishing the four pieces of bread they exchanged for the brooch with Tet.
The H&T Trading Company had opened that bakery.
「What does it mean?」
「It means there might be even more delicious things waiting for us where we were going!」
Akari planned to visit the H&T Trading Company to sell the items she made. However, if the bakery and the H&T Trading Company were related, it wouldn’t be surprising if they dealt with other delicious foods as well.
「Eh? Is that true!?」
「Yeah!」
　『Maybe—』, just as she had thought about it, her responded.
This was the first time she had used her since coming to this world.

　──＊＊＊──
Akari and Tet had arrived at the royal capital of Glendale.
Since Akari gained the ability to use her Hyper-Intuition, she became able to specify more detailed locations without people and could teleport from the Ifrus Magic Academy to the royal capital.
「Is it this way?」
With the effect of the Skill Master, the accuracy of her Hyper-Intuition was increasing rapidly.
Even without Tet’s guidance, Akari knew the way to the destination, H&T Trading Company.
By the way, Tet, having eaten bread and feeling full, was sleeping in Akari’s arms.
After walking for a while, Akari spotted a building with a large H&T Trading Company logo on the signboard.
「I-Is this it?」
There was a building there, about ten times larger than the Production Guild of Appristos.
Although there was anxiety with Tet sleeping, a delicious smell wafted from inside the building.
With more anticipation than anxiety, Akari stepped into the H&T Trading Company’s main store.
The main store was bustling with many people.
Not only humans but also elves, beastmen, dwarves, and various other races were walking around.
It seemed that the building had four floors, and on the ground floor where Akari was, there were many retail stores selling specialty products from all over the world.
「It’s like a department store……」
As Akari murmured involuntarily, it seemed like a so-called underground department store. Since various items from all over the world were sold, it could be called a local specialties exhibition.
However, not only food items but also equipment such as weapons and armour, as well as items such as recovery potions, were being handled.
Actually, this was a system devised by Tina, who heard about the department store basement from the world where Haruto originally belonged, and introduced it a few years ago.
Originally, the main office of H&T Trading Company only had functions to gather products and manage logistics worldwide.
However, Tina introduced the department store basement system, which made it the main store.
However, Akari’s destination was not on the ground floor.
The counter for buying and selling items was also set up on the ground floor, and many adventurers and merchants were gathered there, but her items couldn’t be sold here.
Akari sensed this with her Hyper-Intuition.
So, she proceeded to the back of the building.
Deals for rare items that couldn’t be bought and sold on the ground floor were usually conducted on the second floor.
Even when a noble brought something, it would be handled in the reception room on the second floor—-
Akari bypassed the second floor as well.
She felt that her items wouldn’t be bought on this floor either.
And beyond this point, only company employees were allowed on the upper floors. There were guards to prevent ordinary people from entering.
However, occasionally, when the guards changed shifts for a moment, Akari managed to make it to the third floor.
Akari also bypassed the third floor and reached the fourth floor after walking along a long corridor to the front of the room farthest from the stairs.
Since her Hyper-Intuition was working on its own, she had reached this point without thinking about anything.
The plaque on the door in front of her indicated it was the President’s office.
「The P-President’s office……? M-Maybe this is wrong, right?」
Thinking so, as Akari was about to turn back, the door opened.
「Are you going to leave after coming all this way?」
A beautiful half-elf with black hair and eyes opened the door and stood there with a smile.