chapter 62.1

I tried to sleep on top of the flat bedrock where I made the hot spring but wasn’t successful since it was too painful. I should have brought a blanket with me. It was reckless of me to come here with only the bare necessities. Next time, I should make sure I’m fully prepared before I go on another exploration trip.

I had no choice so I was thinking of going back home with transfer magic but I remembered Wulf who ran away because of the smell of the sulfur. I’ll just have to trust his homing instinct I guess…… I could also pick him up though.

After thinking about it for a few seconds, I decided to just go and pick him up.

Ah, it’s already dark over here because of the mountain’s shadow. It’ll probably get even darker by the time I reach the bottom of the mountain. I can’t sleep here though. Hmm, what to do……?

I guess I’ll just go anyway. I’ll probably spend another night sleeping in the open again today if I don’t manage to find him. Before starting my descent, I produced a fire that’s floating above ground to light up my way. Once I arrived at the base, I saw that the sun was quickly setting behind the mountain so if I didn’t set up a fire, I would be in total darkness.

「Wulfー! Wulfー!」

After 10 minutes of shouting like that, he arrived panting with his tongue sticking out.

It’s a good thing he came back. I would have ended up staying up until morning looking for him after all.

「Sorry about that boyー. It was probably really bad for you. Since it will be like that all the time, I won’t be taking you with me up the mountain anymore」

「Ku~n」

He rubbed his head against my arm after I said that. Well, now that that’s done, I’ll just put the fire before we head back.

「I’m back~. Hey everyoneー, I found a hot spring you knowー?」

「Hot spring? What’s that?」

I tried to explain what I found in detail to the humans who were eating their dinner but only got a lukewarm response.

「It’s a naturally formed bath made from heated spring water」

「A bath huh……? If you want to have one, don’t you just have to dig a hole, pour water in it and heat it up with heated stones, right?」

What’s that? Are hot springs only popular with j.a.panese and Romans?

「Ah…… Yeah, sure…… Well, I’ll go to sleep now. Good night」

As I, who was not able to convey the true value of a hot spring, unsteadily went home and was thinking of going to sleep, Wulf sat in front of me, tapped my foot with his front paw and had a look on his face that’s saying:

「I care about that hot spring!」

Because of that, I began relentlessly pampering him without a care in the world like a rich old man who bought an island to create his own country. After that, I went back home satisfied.

Dogs are definitely cute.

~The next day~

Alright, now I’ve added my blanket to my luggage! I’ll be able to sleep there using this~

「Cat old man, I’ll go exploring again today so I’ll leave things here to you」

「Ou」

He waved his hand and gave me a reply without even facing me.

Hmmー if that was the dog-eared old man, he would have already asked for more details. If it was the fox-eared old man, he would have asked me why. The cat-eared old man doesn’t even care anymore, does he?

It’s kind of amazing how this situation reveals their own unique characteristics.

「Wulfー, I’m going to walk around the mountain today so you can’t come with me okay?」

「Wafun!」

「I see, I see. You understand huh!」

「Wan!」

「Good boy, good boy」

I ruffed the hair on his head as I said that. I might have overdone it a bit but I feel like he deserved it.

The dog-eared old man and the pirates looked a bit creeped out by my actions but I decided to not mind it.

With that done, I teleported back to the hot spring.

Hmmー, how should I develop this place I wonder?

From here, I can see how far the parts of the lake without any trees go, so I want to build a road there that goes to various places.

We can’t start that though until we finished clearing the forest, not to mention our need to increase our population.

Should we just ride one of the ships that pa.s.s through here and start recruiting applicants to become islanders from the port city’s guild? If we don’t advertise, the number of humans won’t increase, only the number of pirates will. That wouldn’t be good as expected.

But still, I’m afraid to do that because of the hero’s existence. Even more so since I still don’t know their strength.

I was contemplating that while submerged in the hot spring water but to wrap this journey up, I’ve decided to go around to see what’s on the west side after checking the mountain peak.

With that settled, I quickly got up and tried taking up an imposing stance while smiling. Taking up an imposing stance while in a hot spring in the middle of mother nature while nude really is the best.

Well, my lower half is in full view instead of being shrouded in a mysterious, non-moving steam or being obstructed by a brightly shining light though.

Well then, how should I deal with the drainage for this hot spring I wonder? Once it gushes out from the surface, it either trickles into the ground or flows into the lake. I would just send the used water into the lake but I’m worried about polluting it from dirt and hairs and even residue from soap that I’m thinking of making later.

Hmmー, shall I just dig a bit around the area and let it gather in one place? That way, the various contaminants in the spring water will be filtered before it gets to the lake… probably.

I probably don’t need to dig deep with how much water is coming out of this spring. In order to avoid accidents, I just made the diameter of the hole 10 centimeters. As for the depth, I guess until I reach the next rock layer would be good. Would a water channel that’s 30 meters long be enough?

「Oh, it’s flowing, it’s flowing well」

The water is flowing into the hole I dug in the bedrock and it’s not getting clogged up which is good.

『I should do something to prevent trash and hair from falling in there later. I wonder if a net would be good enough for that. Should I try stuffing some dirt in here to test how good it’ll drain?』

While I was thinking that, I scooped up some dirt with my shovel and gradually plugged up the hole.

I’m filling up the hole with dirt to simulate the garbage and hair that will potentially clog it up. Un, there doesn’t seem to be any problems with that since it’s still getting sucked in. There must be some soil that’s good for drainage underneath the bedrock.

What’s left is to separate the male and female area I guess. I want to have mixed bathing as well but it can’t be helped if this place just becomes a gathering place for the elderly. Young people aren’t the only ones who enter the mixed bathing area after all! Well, I’d want to be spared from seeing a human who is over 70, but I personally wouldn’t mind it if an elf who’s over 300 years old but still looks young comes in.

Now that I think about it, aside from people with houses nearby or long-lived races, we won’t have any elderly visitors that will come all the way here, will we……?

After enjoying some salted hot spring eggs that I sneakily took from a nest and dropped in the hot spring to cook, I left the hot spring and continued my journey to the summit.

Was this like the eighth station?1 I can still pretty much do some sightseeing but I feel like I’ve already climbed 80% of the mountain.

I’m not sure if those are regular large stones or volcanic rocks but I started seeing those along the way. I’ve also noticed something that looks like some kind of large bird’s nest made from tree branches. I wonder if it just made its nest under the shade of a rock since there were no predators who come here?

While I was thinking about that, I was walking towards the summit when I saw a large stone getting flung right at me. That was dangerous. I’m not by a cliff so I’m sure that wasn’t just falling rocks.

While being perplexed by what just happened, I looked up and saw a really large shadow in the sky with its wings flapping. It’s ‘that’ huh……

Well, there are only a few birds who can fly like that right? Is that the harpy that I’ve been told about that’s living here? I heard that this was an uninhabited island but I don’t think that information was accurate.

As I was thinking about that, two more stones were thrown at me so I took measures and dodged them. When I looked up once again, it didn’t look like they were going to throw more stones but they also didn’t seem like they were going to come down either. I can just shoot them down but I’m still not sure whether they are a demonkin or a monster so I won’t. In the meantime, I just continued to head towards the summit while being cautious of dangers from the sky.

It seems like the reason why they stopped attacking me was because they had to go back down to pick up more stones since, after a short while, they started throwing them at me once again.

It was starting to get a bit annoying so I decided to use 【Flashbang】 on the ground the next time they went down to pick up more stones. Once they dropped to the ground, I ran as fast as I could to get closer in order to pin them down but I didn’t expect them to have a small build so pinning them down didn’t take any strength at all.

「Let goー」

Hmm, she looks like a girl and seems like we can communicate so I guess I should try talking to her for now.

「I’ll release you if you won’t drop stones on me anymore」

I said that while still holding her down.

「You’re the one getting close to my house!」

「Ahー, yeah. Sorry about that. I thought this was just the habitat of some kind of large bird. I didn’t think there would be a harpy here」

「Let goー」

「Stones, are you going to stop throwing them?」

「Iー won’tー throwー」

I got a bit irritated there.

I let her go for now but I put myself in a location where I can catch her if she tries to run away.

「You’re the new Demon Lord right!? You must be a bad guy!」

「Huh? It’s true that I’m a Demon Lord but I’ve only done a few bad things you know?」

「Hn? You’re not bad even though you’re a Demon Lord? Hmm hmmー」

Now that I’ve calmed down a bit, she’s quite a cute girl, isn’t she?

「Ah, want to eat some dried meat?」

「I do!」

She happily started munching on the meat.

She mostly looks like human. Her lower half is covered in feathers while the upper half is mostly nude except for the feathers on her arms. Her brown hair, which was the same color as her feathers, was loosely tied at her back. Well, I guess she’s like that since she’s a girl. Female birds don’t need to look flashy to attract males after all. I’m really interested to see a male harpy looks like now.

Ahー, it also looks like her legs are that of a bird’s. Those seem like they’re inconvenient to walk in. I’ve seen harpies in games so G.o.d might have used those as a reference as well. The ones I saw were pink and showy though. 2

「Heyー, heyー. Can I ask something?」

「Hm?」

The harpy turned her face towards me while she was chewing on the meat I gave her. To do that, she made her neck rotate about 160 degrees like an owl so I thought it was pretty scary. I’ve been scared of owls ever since I was a kid after all…… That fear has been deeply ingrained into my soul you know?

「What does the mountain top look like?」

「There’s red, hot mud」

「Thanks」

So there’s a crater there huh? I need to be careful.

「Are there other beings living here? Like monsters or demonkin for example」

「Nuh-uhー」

She started shaking her head as she said that.

「Thanks again. Want to eat one more?」

「Un!」

She s.n.a.t.c.hed away the dried meat that I just took out and started munching on it. I would have definitely have gotten into trouble with the police in the modern world with what I’m doing right now, wouldn’t I?

「Ah! I remember seeing a lizard-like thing with large wings!」

「I see, I see. How long ago was it?」

「Don’t know」

「I see. I guess it can’t be helped then, can it?」

「Can’t be helped!」

There’s a high chance that that was a dragon huh……?

「Right now, there are demonkin and humans living with me just beyond the forest over in that direction. Do you want to live there as well? There’s plenty of food there you know?」

I pointed towards the direction of where my house was as I said that.

「You’re a Demon Lord, right? You’re probably going make another castle or something like that right?」

「I don’t really feel like making a castleー」

「But, but…… You’re a bad guy right?」

「I’m a good Demon Lord you know?」

I tried smiling while saying that. I hate to admit it myself but I really do look suspicious right now.

「Hmmmー, I want to see it!」

「I see. You won’t be able to decide if you don’t check out the place first right?」

After saying that, she immediately flew towards the direction of our base. She acts quickly, doesn’t she?

I wanted her to hear me out until the end but…… Oh well. I guess I’ll just take a look at the crater before going back then.