My dessert attempt didn't turn out a total failure, so I was relieved. The sago kueh was a little bit softer than I hoped, but Masa's family liked it, which was the important thing. Maybe I had to start learning more traditional recipes from my mum for future use or probable Isekai use. I'll flood Shyi'eld with tasty Singaporean cuisine! Muahahaha!

Yeah, right. I wasn't that much of a cook, and unless I picked up a cooking Skill along the way, I didn't see that happening.

Regardless, I was looking forward to tomorrow's excursion. The bright colours! The blaring music! The fun rides! Masa said it wasn't a particularly large amusement park, but I didn't care. There weren't even amusement parks like this in Singapore...oh wait, there was Universal Studios, but I had only gone there a couple of times and the rides were all movie-related, and besides, it didn't have a ferris wheel or a merry-go-round.

As I continued daydreaming about tomorrow, there was a knock at my door. "Come in," I said, sitting up on the bed. As I expected, it was Masa, but he didn't come in and just told me to check my phone. Apparently my parents wanted to contact me urgently. I hurriedly checked my messages and they had left quite a few mentioning something about going back to Singapore because my maternal grandma was sick. They didn't want to force me to come back since I had been so excited about this Japan trip, but at the same time they hoped I could return as soon as I could.

My maternal grandmother was my only surviving grandparent and I was quite close to her, so I was torn. She was already in her eighties, so this might be the last time I saw her alive. On the other hand, Masa would not be so free to show me around once his summer holidays ended, even if I could still visit Japan at any time. I bit my lip and flopped back on the bed, rolling back and forth to help me think. What should I do?

In the end, there was only one real choice to make. I bid the Tanakas a tearful farewell and told them I would be back as soon as I could. Masa was accompanying me ostensibly to send me to the airport, but he would only have enough time to send me part of the way back to the old mansion. I had my Map 1 Skill, so hopefully I wouldn't get too lost. Perhaps relying on it could even level it up.

Once we were back on the other side of the tunnel, I unpacked my luggage again and shoved all the groceries I bought into my Void. There was a lot of stuff, but the increase in my mana allowed me to pack them away with out too much trouble. "Now I can cook Japanese curry or miso soup whenever I want!" I told Masa with a wide grin.

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"Sounds good to me," he replied with a wry smile that somehow made me feel embarrassed. H-hey, I wasn't offering to cook for him or anything, all right?! I-I just happened to like Japanese food too!

Anyway, we started on our return journey, but before long, we came upon something that had definitely not been there before. There was a wooden road sign in the shape of an arrow, painted red and pointing towards a "Nevda Town, 2 km away". Definitely suspicious. According to Feyril, time was not supposed to pass here while we were away, so either the "developers" had made a "patch" or we had just not noticed it before.

I exchanged glances with Masa. He was surely just as curious as I was about this sign. Or not...he was walking away as if he hadn't noticed it at all! "Hey, Masa!" I called out to him, pointing urgently at the sign.

He turned around, but shook his head and said, "You're in a hurry, right? We don't have the time to visit suspicious towns."

"I guess so..." I trailed off, glancing once more at the sign before following him.

But someone clearly wanted us to visit the town, as we came upon another sign a few minutes later. This one read, "Potions and teleports sold at Nevda Town! Get them while stocks last!"

Dumbfounded, we stood there staring at this new sign for almost a minute. "It's obviously a trap," muttered Masa. "But..."

"It's only two kilometres away! We could just zip there and be back just as quickly!" I said, trying to persuade him. "Maybe the potions could even help my grandma! Plus teleports!!"

"There are so many issues with what you just said that I don't even know where to start," he replied with a sigh. "In the first place, why would an Isekai be using the same units to measure distances as our world? And second--"

I made a disgusted sound and opted to simply drag him along by the arm. He didn't really resist so his curiosity had obviously been piqued too. Midway, I realised that he had gone silent too. Good. There was no point ranting about Earth logic in an Isekai after all.

We soon backtracked all the way to the red sign and when I turned around to grin at him, I caught him staring at me, although he quickly averted his gaze. Shrugging, I carried on dragging him along until a paved road came into view, followed by buildings. They were nondescript single-storied houses made of dark brown brick, but we gazed at them like they were art sculptures. This was the first time we were seeing any buildings in this world after all. The old mansion didn't count, of course. Each of the houses here had doors and windows in different locations, but they all had slanting roofs laid with some kind of light blue tiles.

There was no gate or anything, so we simply strolled into the town. There were a few people about, but they mostly ignored us and went about their own businesses. And as if to confirm our suspicions, there was a fountain in the middle of a plaza with a plaque that said "Welcome to Nevda Town!"