This time, with Lisa watching over her, Croissant seemed to drive as if divinely assisted. Both her speed and stability improved considerably.
What had originally been a three-and-a-half-day journey took only three days.
Croissant seemed somewhat reluctant to leave. After dropping the two of them off at the shrine, she kept sticking her head out of the window. It was rather alarming to Hoshino, who worried that Croissant might get arrested by the Lungmen Guard Department for dangerous driving.
Fortunately, there was no traffic accident.
Hoshino let out a sigh of relief and turned her gaze toward the quiet Lisa.
"This is my shrine."
Yae Sakura pointed at the sign overhead. The four elegant characters, "Yae Shrine," carried a faint scent of wood that lingered beneath their noses.
Lisa sniffed.
"Does your shrine... worship a god?"
With a sword that detained gods hanging at her waist, wouldn't it be incredibly strange if the shrine still enshrined a god...?!
Hoshino did not answer. She led Lisa uphill, waving at Kallen, the AI watching over the shrine, along the way. Kallen gave a stiff nod, and Hoshino paid her no further attention. She brought Lisa into the shrine and showed her the chibi Hiyumaru statue enshrined within.
"Is this the god you worship?"
"No, but she's both noisy and adorable. Somehow, I just wanted to stuff her into the shrine. As for blessings and the like... she can't do any of that."
"Then why...?"
Lisa looked at the bright blue Lungmen Dollars in the offering box, seeming to want to say something but stopping herself.
Hoshino explained at just the right moment. "You mean the money? Most people in Lungmen don't really care about faith at all. Whether it's Yae Shrine or the delivery company next door, they're all basically associations. People