Chapter 13.1

Chapter 13.1

「The steam… The Smell of sulfur…」

「It’s really a hot spring, Hiroshi-kun.」

「Sure is a hot spring.」

Sniffing the steam coming of what appeared to be the communal bath, Hiroshi and Haruna couldn’t help but conclude so. The elders around them watched, chuckling to these two teenagers become absurdly excited about the prospect. For a little rest and relaxation, the party had come to Adnae, one of the most famous hot springs in Farlane, located on the foothills of Spirit Spire Mountain. While they didn’t have a peaceful carriage ride here, the speed of Layotte’s transportation spell had its perks. Layotte, by the way, had left as soon as he had dropped the party off.

「If the temperature’s right, we can finally do it.」

「Finally…」

「I get it. You guys are ecstatic. Just chill for a bit.」

With Tatsuya’s interjection, Hiroshi and Haruna freeze in their tracks. They were just waiting for some audience interaction.

「So, I’m guessing you’re going to make some boiled eggs?」

「Well, duh. What else are we doin’ at a hot spring?」

「And if it was too hot, I was going to boil some corn or potato.」

「It always blows me away how far you’ll go for food…」

Even as he said so, Hiroshi and Haruna were so synchronized in their thought process, that Tatsuya had second thoughts about calling them out on it.

「’Course the main object here’s hot spring steamed buns.」

「I thought the problem was we didn’t have red beans?」

「As for that, I came up with a brilliant solution.」

Haruna exclaimed, as the Japanese members in the party (excluding Hiroshi) couldn’t help but devote their full attention. Gratified by this response, Haruna puffed her chest and dramatically pointed her finger back at the group. With a satisfied look on her blue eyes, she declared:

「No red beans? Let them eat white bean paste!」

Accentuating her already ample breasts in this pose, Haruna’s proposal was reminiscent of a certain French queen. The group was spared the lethal display of the defiance of gravity since her breasts were secured with her garments. Everyone’s gaze (save for Hiroshi’s) were inadvertently drawn to them.

「Blue bean paste is another option.」

Hiroshi added another unnecessary footnote. Just like pork, it seemed that this world had ingredients similar enough for them to make these pastes.

「Is that really a solution, though?」

「Both of ‘em are traditional sweets, ya know. Just not as well known. We haven’t cracked the Zenzai or Yokan, yet, but we should be good with Taiyaki and stuff. 」

「I mean, steamed buns are steamed buns. You don’t really have to steam them at hot springs.」

Tatsuya pointed out, to which Hiroshi and Haruna shared a grin in response. Despite the ridiculous amount of personal space between them, they were really telepathic when it came to these kinds of topics.

「If the sprin’ water’s good to drink, we’re gonna steam the buns with it.」

「Wait wait wait. How in the world are you going to check if it is?」

「We got a tester for it. Made it a while back, actually.」

「Just for hot spring water?」

「Nah. It’s original use was to see if we could drink from a water source without treatin’ it first.」

Elena and Douga jumped on this. Even in Wulls, which prides itself in its sanitation, people were getting sick from drinking untreated water all the time, and as for the Knight’s Order, some of them had boiled water of an unknown source (as a last resort) and end up consuming poison.

Why don’t they produce water from magic spells or items? Well, it isn’t that easy. Everyone’s MP is finite, and not everyone can use a spell that produces water. And of course, it would be difficult to provide every household and expedition team with the necessary magic-powered item. For the Knight’s Order, for example, were often situations where they would have to preserve as much of their resources as possible. So, obtaining resources on the go was often a matter of life and death.

「How detailed is this tester?」

Elena asked.

「It can tell ya if the water’s drinkable as-is, boiled, processed, or not at all.」

「What do you mean processed?」

「If someone with the right knowledge reads the tester, they’ll know what to do.」

Hiroshi kept answering Elena and Douga’s barrage of questions honestly and accurately. Ignoring them entirely, Aearis (with her differently blue eyes than Haruna gleaming) strutted over to her.

「Haruna-sama!」

「What’s up?」

「What does a hot spring egg taste like? And a hot spring steamed bun? Is it delicious? 」

Aearis asked, exuding expectations for these mysterious dishes from her entire body. If she had a tail, it would be wagging with vigorous force. In more ways than one, her family had the right to be nervous about her future.

「Don’t worry, you’ll taste them soon.」

「Okay!」

Aearis responded, with the biggest smile her tiny face could muster. Mio, who had been watching this exchange, finally said:

「Let’s go to the inn already.」

The group nodded in response, halting mid-conversation. It couldn’t hurt to at least drop off their luggage, first.

「Reena, don’t be afraid to say what you’re thinking in situations like these.」

Tatsuya said with a chuckle, after watching Rayna not able to join any conversation from the side.

「Y-You expect me to jump into… That!?」

「Well, when you’re bosses are headed full-speed to derailment town, the calm and collected subordinate’s gotta speak up.」

「So rarely am I the collected one, that thought hadn’t occurred to me…」

Rayna said, very self-aware of her vice. The group chuckled. Rayna still seemed to be held back by that initial incident, and seemed to always contain herself from acting on her own accord.

「I mean, it’s not like we’re mid-combat or anything, but I don’t think Reena should be the collected one here, don’t you think?」

「Indeed. It seems I had gotten carried away.」

「W-Why don’t we go to the inn?」

「Right. What are we doin’ chit-chattin’ ‘round here?」

「And who’s fault is that?」

Tatsuya interjected, as Haruna and Hiroshi tried to force the conversation to end there.

「So, why did we come out here, all of a sudden?」

「Right. What happened yesterday, anyway?」

After they had settled down in the inn for a minute, Tatsuya and Makoto brought of the conversation. While this little hot spring town had its own vacation property for the royal family, they had purposefully avoided it in favor of the best inn in town. Naturally their room was the most expensive Royal Suite. In fact, they had rented the entire inn for protection. All expenses paid for by the taxpayers… Or the royal family. A certain prince had told the party that, since it was off-season, it didn’t take much to rent out the inn.

In reality, no one in the party knew why they found themselves on this rest-and-relaxation trip, rather suddenly. The morning after the infiltration mission, Layotte had showed up at their door, and said:

「We’re taking Elena and Aearis for some rest and relaxation at a hot spring. The inn is already booked. Get ready in half an hour.」

And so, the party had scrambled to pack, and came right out here. Of course, packing simply meant putting changes of clothes and the like into their storage. However, checking to see if they had forgotten anything and checking the locks and barriers of the workshop had nearly taken them half an hour, and apparently there was no time for Layotte to explain before they left.

Of course, as soon as they had arrived at Adnae, Layotte had shoved the reservation tickets for the inn, and left them there. Hiroshi and Haruna’s jesting earlier was actually actualized in astonishing speed, considering the circumstances.

「I don’t know why he brought us all the way out here, but as for what went down yesterday… The land of the country’s apparently been purified and all. There was Goddess or whatnot who came out, but I ain’t gonna get into all that. She said y’all would see her soon when the time’s right. Better ask her then.」

「As far as missions go, I think it was a success. We did encounter who seemed like the big bad wolf, but he got away… Was getting away when we got out of there, anyway.」

While this explanation was so cursory, it was just about the best they could do. It would be such a long story to explain everything, and there was so much that even the infiltration party didn’t understand.

「I mean, I got the feelin’ he ain’t no big bad wolf. He’s just the lizard’s tail that gettin’ cut off.」

「I agree with Sensei.」

「Yeah, I can see that. He, like, had a second form, but just acted like a low-level goon.」

Mio and Haruna chimed in with Hiroshi. Haruna was especially brutal, here.

「How goon-ish are we talking, here?」

「Pretty obviously. Like the first mid-boss in a game. He acts like he’s a big shot, but in the end, he’s just another pawn.」

Tatsuya and Makoto got a good picture from this. In actuality, if all of the Japanese members had faced him off together, they would have finished the job, no problem. The best guess was that he was a double that happened to look like the real big bad wolf.

「So, the Cerberus y’all brought back. Was that on the back end of our mission?」

「More or less.」

The previous day, Hiroshi had been pulled into taking apart the Cerberus corpses soon after recovering, which left them no time to catch up regarding this. What’s worse, only the Cerberus hide and bone were usable as materials, and there were no equipment mutation that occasionally occurred when taking down a heavily afflicted creature like this one (a rare drop, in other words). For the work it took, he couldn’t say it was worth it.

「And, you got any info on who’s behind all this?」

「There were Summoners, so I have a good guess as to who’s behind it. But we couldn’t take any prisoners, nor any viable corpse. So we can’t be sure.」

Douga explained.

「Alrighty. Summonin’ some Cerberuses, though? That’s pretty hardcore.」

「On the other hand, there were a dozen or so of them to summon three dogs. Those could not have been the top men.」

Summoning Cerberuses was something that didn’t quite sound right to Makoto and Tatsuya, but their memory didn’t compare to Haruna’s. They couldn’t quite place their finger on the odd feeling, so they gave up on trying to remember it for the time being.

「So, we still don’t know why we’re at a hot spring.」

「I have a general idea.」

Makoto asked after giving up on trying to recall the source of her odd feeling, to which Douga answered with nonchalance.

「Which is?」

「Naturally, there must be some group that wants to set us all up as kidnappers and execute us. From what I hear, Alfemina-sama mentioned your names out loud. It doesn’t matter how well you hide your faces. The workshop will be discovered sooner or later from your names alone.」

The party looked defeated hearing this. It was doubtful if they could even return to Wulls, at this rate.

「Well, Layotte should be out debating those rock-headed politicians as we speak. We should take this as a vacation and enjoy the hot spring.」

Elena said, leaving her brother with all of the responsibility.

「Right. Ten out of ten the wolf’s still out there, and we’re about to get roped into the black mire of politics, which isn’t our forte. We have to enjoy the little perks while we can.」

Haruna jumped on the bandwagon. She seemed to have already switched her mindset over, singing an improvised song (of a ridiculously high-caliber) about the hot spring boiled eggs.

「Then, I’ll go check on the quality and temperature of the sprin’ water.」

「Thanks. We do have an in-suite kitchen, so I’ll make the sauce for the eggs and the white bean paste.」

「Alrighty.」