The next day, Kino woke at the break of dawn.

In the room's mailbox was the laundry that had been sent off yesterday. All of them were as good as new.

Kino then started the maintenance of both hand persuaders.

The semi-automatic persuader holstered to the hip belt's backside, Kino called it 'Woodsman'. Utilizing .22 LR bullets, it was a persuader of thin silhouette. The bullets may not hold significant destructive force, but the long barrel and moderate weight gave it good aiming precision.

Kino removed the bullets from the Woodsman's magazine, fitted them into another magazine, then reloaded.

The persuader holstered to its owner's thigh, nicknamed 'Canon', was a single-action revolver. By single-action, it meant the hammer had to be cocked with each shot. Ones that are shot by just pulling the trigger were called double-action.

Canon did not use a magazine. Instead, gunpowder and bullets were loaded directly into the cylinder. Therefore, reloading it would have to involve inserting into each chamber the gunpowder, bullets, and placing percussion caps, all by hand. The percussion caps were inserted with a small amount of gunpowder; they were to be placed on the back of the cylinder and would ignite when struck by the hammer.

Kino exchanged the Canon's loaded cylinder for an empty one and practiced quick-draw, again and again.

After that, Kino took a shower.

Going to the restaurant near the lobby, a buffet-style meal had been prepared, laid out on the tables for Kino alone.

A machine prepared its frying pan, stating that it could make any kind of omelette.

Before all else, Kino made sure to confirm whether or not the meal was included in the hotel fee.

After eating as if it was a whole day's filling, Kino returned to the room and rested a while to let the food digest.

Then, when the sun had risen high, Kino knocked Hermes awake. All of the luggage were loaded onto Hermes, and they were checked out of the hotel. Following the map, they headed for the residential area.

===

The 'residential area' was more or less a forest. It was densely packed with thick trees, with several streams running through. Birdsong echoed throughout, and the moderate moisture gave a refreshing feel to the air.

Kino rode Hermes down a narrow, unpaved road.

Every so often, they would come across houses. All were of the same style: a sprawling one-story house; it was as if they had been built to be hidden in the forest. They were uniformly located at a considerable distance from their neighbors.

For a while, Kino and Hermes headed down the forest road to see if they would meet anybody. But they met no one.

Kino then parked Hermes at a spot where the houses could be seen. Abandoned houses would surely have a cold ambience to them, but that was not the case for the ones here. They felt warm and lived-in, just like houses found in any other country.

They kept watch for a while, but no signs of people were seen. As it would be rude to stay there for an extended period of time, Kino and Hermes took off.

Not finding any sign of people in the end, they got out of there and made for the center of town, designated [Center: Governmental Area].

The scene shifted from forest to buildings, the road widened and paved. As ever, they saw no one. Although they went after a moving vehicle, but once again, it turned out to be an unmanned garbage truck.

Kino and Hermes entered one of the tall buildings. They took the elevator up to the top floor, and were brought to an observation deck where one could see all in the country's circumference.

While on the observation deck, kept thoroughly clean and devoid of people, Kino and Hermes surveyed the town. They could see a thin outline of the country's wall in the distance, and greenery spreading far and wide, all according to the map.

The neighboring building also showed no signs of human life in it. Only machines of various shapes and sizes, cleaning diligently.

Kino took out a sniping scope out from the luggage. As the magnification was being adjusted, the houses in the forest were being peeked into.

"Now that's not very admirable."

Hermes grumbled.

After a while,

"Found one. It's a person."

Kino said, eyes still not taken off the scope.

"Really? For real?"

Hermes' voice raised.

"Yeah, one person in front of a house. An ordinary man. Exercising... There's also another person, outside a different house. A middle-aged woman. In the garden... Wonder what she's doing... Ah, she went inside. There's another house with lights on in one of the rooms."

At this point, Kino had stopped peeking and put the scope back in the luggage.

"I told you. There are people here."

"Hm. The houses from before gave that impression, too. But still, how come we didn't find anybody before?"

Kino sat down on the observation deck's bench, then responded to Hermes' question.

"That, I don't know. At first, I thought they just found us travelers to be unusual or scary. But..."

"But?"

"If that were true, then you'd think they'd be meeting up with fellow residents and have fun together. This town shows no signs of them being in any kind of companionship. Absolutely no one goes outside. It's like everyone is shutting themselves away in their homes."

Kino looked out the window once more. The streets were clean and well-maintained. A residential area in the forest, fully in-tune with nature. As a country, this one was by far the best Kino had seen in terms of functionality.

"I wonder why?"

Kino murmured.

After that, Kino and Hermes headed for the [Factories and Research Institutes] area, then had a tour through a fully automated factory. The guide, who gave thorough explanations, was a machine, as expected.

Kino asked the machine why they never met anyone in this country, but it did not give an answer.

In the evening, before it got dark, Kino and Hermes returned to the hotel they had stayed at the previous night. They could have looked for a different hotel, but Kino insisted on returning all the way to the east gate, because the breakfast was delicious.

They met no one on the way.