Yuri Empire

“―――Good day, subjects of the Yuri Empire and its allies. My name is Yuri, and I am the Empress of the Yuri Empire.”

Yuri began that night's [Broadcast] with her usual greeting, introducing the City of Hourai to the viewers and actually walking around the city to show them what it was like.

This is the first time that we have officially released information about Hourai to the people of the Yuri Empire and its allies.

The city of Hourai, which is different from the cities of Yuritania, Ulysses, and Eureka, and is somewhat nostalgic for Yuri and full of ‘foreign atmosphere’ for the people of this world, must have attracted the attention of many people who saw the broadcast.

“The city of Hourai will be accessible from Ulysses via【 Transfer Gate 】at the beginning of the year. If you've already registered with the Explorers Guild, you'll be able to move freely from the first day of the new year, so please come here any time.”

Yuri also informs the viewers in the [Broadcast] that access to the Shinto City via the【 Transfer Gate 】will be opened to the public from the beginning of next year.

The city of Hourai doesn't have any labyrinthine dungeons, but there are many places that are attractive to people living in other cities. I'm sure there are many people who will come and visit.

For example, there is ‘Eight Wise School’ where anyone can learn Japanese language and calculations for free.

Since the Yuri Empire and the allied countries have already decided to adopt Japanese as their official language in addition to the current common language, the number of people who want to learn Japanese will gradually increase in the future.

A library has also been built in the neighborhood, which can be used freely and free of charge only by those who have completed their Japanese language studies.

Although the number of books in the library is still small, books are quite expensive in this world, so I'm sure some people would be interested in a facility where they can read them for free.

A little farther away from the ‘Eight Wise School’ is ‘Dojo’. This is a facility that was recently requested by Susanoo and hastily built by the children of <Kikyou>.

Apparently, Susano'o saw the 24/7 broadcasts of people exploring the labyrinthine dungeons and decided that he wanted to make a living out of supporting them.

Since strengthening the explorers would benefit the country, Yuri decided to sponsor it.

In this dojo, the gods who excel in martial arts, such as Susanoo, directly teach the rudiments of weapon handling and combat techniques.

The funds for the operation will be provided from the national treasury, so anyone from the Yuri Empire and its allies can use this service free of charge.

It is said that even those who are already active as explorers do not learn how to use weapons from anyone, and are often self-taught. I'm sure many people would like to use the dojo.

In the central shopping district of the city of Hourai, you can enjoy the unique food culture in the restaurants run by the gods.

Of course, some stores serve typical Japanese food such as sushi and tempura, but some stores sell food that you can take home and eat, such as bento boxes and rice balls.

Personally, Yuri thinks that restaurants that serve rice bowls will be popular with the people of this world. This is because I remember that when Yuri was living in Japan as Houraiji Yuri, her non-Japanese colleagues who worked at the same landscaping company loved to eat beef bowl or oyakodon every day.

It seems that rice is not a common food in this world, though. As many restaurants serve rice dishes in the city, it is only a matter of time before the food culture will spread to the people of the Yuri Empire and its allies.

As for beverages, many kinds of sake, including ‘sake’ brewed by Sukunabikona, are sold at Hourai's liquor store.

All of them are quite different from the sake commonly consumed in this world, so if they catch the attention of sake lovers, they will spread quickly.

Also, with the initiative of the Euro, we should see the development of juices and fruit wine using Hourai fruits as ingredients by the beginning of the year.

The juice sold in Hourai should be quite inexpensive due to the plentiful harvest of ingredients. This will bring new enjoyment to the people of the Yuri Empire and its allies, who have been enjoying only the ‘food culture’ until now.

Of course, we should not forget about ‘sweet food’. Since sugar itself is still expensive, it is still a luxury item… Sweet food such as Japanese sweets will also attract the attention of people in this world.

We are planning to establish a mass production system for sugar cane and sugar beets in the city of Hourai, so it should not take too long before we have plenty of products.

When that happens, the market price of sugar will drop, and the price of sweeteners made from sugar will drop as well.

I would like to make arrangements as soon as possible so that sweet food can be readily available to everyone.