Headshake. "Nothing bigger than a waystation, himself."

"It must be exhausting."

"You get used to it. My family's settled; I stop in for a visit when I feel like staying in one place for a while."

"Fair enough."

And here's the place where tourists who want to stay a while, well, stay. Their inns don't double as pubs—either you do lodgings, or you do food, you don't do both. There's an interesting dynamic going on in the arrangement of establishments because of that, with lodgings wanting to have a pretty enough view but also be near enough available food providers while the latter optimise to be near as many inns as possible.

That's actually pretty convenient. "I like how you have this set up."

He smiles. "People have complimented it. I in particular quite love it here."

They reach the harbour, or one of them as there is another one visible a ways away. This one seems to be mostly for people instead of cargo, and it's pretty enough. Not many boats arriving or leaving at this time, though.

He follows docilely, curious to see what Takuma is leading him to.

The harbour is: pretty! It is very welcoming and has statues (many of them glass, in a way that refracts the sunlight very prettily) and plants and gardens and that's probably what he wanted to show off.

He's seen nicer, but it's still impressive. He recognizes some of the rarer and harder-to-cultivate plants and trickier gardening techniques and comments on them.

Next he'd want to show Ruel the proper gardens and parks, but the sun is close to setting so Ruel might perhaps like to retire?

It is getting to be that time, yes. He'll stop by the temple again after breakfast.

Then Takuma will bid him good night and go back to the temple, himself.

And Ruel arranges for a room - something small, with a reasonable view; he doesn't intend to spend much time in it but might spend some - and then goes to have another look at the restaurants.

There are plenty! Lots of fish, since, well, river, but also lots of other things, they get enough traffic for a steady inflow of various other types of food.

He'll take fish! (One doesn't really get to be a picky eater, living like he does.) Is there anything that seems to be a local specialty, or is that not so much a thing, here?

There are specialties local to individual restaurants but not to the city itself, no.

Sure, that works. He goes with something on the low end of midrange, today - something a trader might order.

That is a thing that exists! He can eat.

Pretty tasty.

He probably has to go to a different restaurant if he wants dessert, huh. Any of them also offer an after-dinner cup of coffee?

Dessert is over there, but he can have coffee, sure.

Good.

He gets a pastry thing of a type that he hasn't tried before and a cup of coffee, and writes up an overview of the day while he eats.

He can spot a small child running towards—or away from—something. A glimpse of her face reveals tears.

She catches his eye; he notes where she goes and watches to see if she's being followed.

No one seems to be immediately following her.

He gives it a couple minutes, and then gets another pastry thing in a to-go box and meanders thataway with it.