"I was wondering how this thing works. How can it ride so smoothly over the ground?"
Torifu spread his hands. "I don't know either. My younger brother invented it. He can be a little temperamental, so you'd better not get too close to him."
When you were out and about, you could give your family whatever identity you wanted.
Amado, lying in bed, had no idea why his Big Brother had just put a hat on him.
Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded. "Thank you for telling me, Hokage Torifu. But even if I knew how it worked, it wouldn't help much. We don't have enough resources, and our technology is underdeveloped."
Torifu understood. A bicycle wasn't particularly complicated. If Hiruzen wanted one, he could simply give him the blueprints.
But their fatal problem wasn't a lack of technology. It was a lack of resources.
Steel was an extremely important resource. It was needed to build houses, forge weapons, and make concealed weapons.
And all of those things were more important. A bicycle could certainly be used for transportation.
But in Hiruzen's Konoha, outsiders basically weren't allowed to come and go as they pleased. If you were only traveling around the village, a bicycle wasn't all that useful.
"Don't worry, Hokage Hiruzen. Things will get better, little by little. Once the passage between our worlds stabilizes, we'll definitely invest in your Konoha."
Hiruzen understood what "investment" meant. Konoha's relationship with the Daimyo Palace was similar.
The Daimyo Palaces in each country were the angel investors for their respective villages.
And if Torifu really did invest, Konoha had to seize this opportunity and not let it slip away.
The two returned to the house, and Hiruzen finally understood why no one had noticed Torifu earlier.
Good grief, all the villagers they'd encountered on the