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Tonny-san raised his hand toward a man, seemingly a guard, from the gap of the stone walls surrounding the village as we entered.

Estimating from the village\'s area, its population should be around 2,000 at best.

I felt my heart throbbing when I breathed in the smell of sulfur--- though the smell was closer to rusted iron than hydrogen sulphide.

◆◆◆

"We plan to meet with someone, so we\'re taking our leave for a period of time. Let\'s meet at 9 in the morning at the village\'s entrance, then we\'ll leave for Kirika afterward. You better remember not to keep us waiting."

The short, goat-bearded man said in a rough manner as he disappeared into the maze-like alleys with a villain-like expression.

...Just what I wanted. The last thing I needed was to be embroiled in their turf war or gang fights just because we were in the same inn. After all, the request didn\'t say I needed to escort them anywhere else except in the monster-infested general route.

It was also why I refrained from using detection magic. I did want to believe that they were using the detection magic prevention tool but just in case they weren\'t, and I happened to overhear their deal of some illegal stuff, I wouldn\'t be able to ignore it anymore. It might be temporary, but I was still a member of the knight order.

"It\'s a beautiful village, Tonny. Honestly, it\'s only now that I understand why you\'re so adamant on saving this village despite where it\'s located."

I muttered my truthful opinion to Tonny-san, who was also left behind along with me.

"A beauty, isn\'t it? The white paint on the wall is a blend of powdered white stone and water meant to keep monsters at bay. The only thing this village doesn\'t lack are those stones from the Ament Volcano. Though the monsters are a nuisance and the profit doesn\'t match up with the effort, so the stone\'s effect is not widely publicized......

But then again, it\'s not a surefire method. This village had adopted this method long before the monsters even made this volcano their nest, wisdom of life I guess? Anyway, what\'re you going to do about the inn?"

Tony steered the conversation to me, and since there was a chance, I also tried asking if he had any hot spring inn to recommend.

"Of course, I have a lot of inns in this village stored in my head. And to answer your question, every inn here actually has a hot spring, so do you have any other criteria aside from that? Like delicious food or beautiful scenery?"

"Oh, in that case...... I guess it would be the quality of the hot spring. I like my water to be on a bit hotter side, but maybe I\'ll be dipping in for longer today so that\'s not necessary. Ah, just make sure the inn is different from those two, definitely."

Well, I wasn\'t expecting much from the food of this secluded village. I didn\'t mind the scenery, so it wasn\'t a must-have either.

"...That\'s quite an old man-like hobby despite having such young bones... I have the perfect inn in mind to suit your taste. It\'s the oldest inn in this village, the name\'s \'Tsukiya\'. What do you think?

It\'s small and old, run only by an elderly couple, so the reception may not be up to the mark, but they are the only one with a natural hot spring here, so you should be able to experience a revitalizing, hot bath as you wanted. Well, the temperature does fluctuate depending on the day, but it would still be warmer than any other hot spring.

Nowadays, only a handful of visitors that happen to drop by visit it since this inn lacks a huge open-air bath with splendid scenery that\'s popular nowadays."

A natural hot spring......

I like it. Or more like, I liked any words brimming with a sense of romance and adventurous spirit.

I decided to stay in Tonny\'s recommended inn, \'Tsukiya.\'

◆◆◆

I opened the door to the bath from the snug dressing room. Apparently, there was one visitor already.

It was a man seemingly 70 years old sporting long gray hair with a streak of white. He was already in the water but not to the extent of submerging into the hot springs and his forelocks were draped over his ears. It was rare to see a man with such unusually long hair.

He was soaking in the bath, his gray eyes staring into the night sky. He should have heard the sound of my entry but didn\'t bother turning my way.

The bath was without a dedicated cleaning spot, except a narrow, stone-built bathroom along with a similarly stone-built bathtub.

The bathtub was quite huge even by the standard I know, around 2 meter x 4 meter in size, though it had a plain design.

The light brown, milk-like hot water was constantly but quietly pouring out of the hole on the stone wall.

Staring down, the sediment from overflowing hot water had formed layers like multi-level fields. The area near the bathtub was of the same color as the hot water, light brown, which gradually turned bluer the more you move away from there and nearer the entrance, it became near-translucent with a jewel-like blue hue.

I turned to glance at that man once again, but he was like a statue, not buzzing even once all this time.

......I guess he must have been quite a hot spring lover to select Tsukiya of all places.

Following my bathing etiquette, I squatted at the furthest side of the bathtub, basically from where the hot water was coming out, quietly but carefully splashed water over myself and then eased myself into the bathtub.

◆◆◆

It should have been around 15 minutes after I entered the bath when that man, thoroughly enjoying the stimulating hot water, raised his voice.

"Are you alone, little boy? You\'re quite well-mannered for your age when it comes to bathing."

I was a bit surprised when he suddenly called out, more so because of the air of quietness he was exuding earlier, but I nodded nonetheless.

His tone was also quite calm, just as I had imagined.

"Yea, I just arrived earlier following an escort request. The client is lodging in another inn; this one was recommended to me by our guide when I asked him for the best hot spring this village has."

The man burst into laughter at my explanation.

"Haha! You\'re quite a precocious kid for your age, eh? But you\'re even more courageous to accept an escort request to this village.

By the way, I\'m Gin, a tourist who came here for the village\'s hot bath. Would you mind telling me your name?"

"Right, I\'m explorer Ren. I was also on my vacation trip to Solcoast from the Royal Capital and decided to take on this request since I was on my way back as well."

Gin-san\'s brows shot up when I introduced myself.

"Quite a coincidence, huh~? I\'m also from the Royal Capital. Well, it was around half a year ago that I came here to experience the hot water cure and have been staying here ever since, though I often hear about outside affairs from my henchmen who occasionally show up to look for me.

Little boy--- right, that would be rude. Ren, seeing as you\'re also a fellow bath enthusiast, do you mind listening to a request from this old man?"

Gin-san turned toward me and lowered his head.

"Actually, my old wounds started aching when I least expected, and now I can\'t stand up... It\'s a bit deplorable to rely on my henchmen, so it would be great if you could lend me a hand here."

......Huh, so that was the reason all along? Truth was never as it appeared, huh?

I nodded immediately after.

"Of course I don\'t mind. Where are you hurting?...... Don\'t tell me you\'ve been enduring the pain all this time?"

Gin-san flashed a bitter smile and said.

"Pitiful as it might be, but yes. I couldn\'t call my henchmen since that would mean going against the manners of the public bath house that I keep preaching to them.

You\'re also minding your manners, and calling you out for my convenience would also go against my code of conduct, so I had been enduring... But I hit my limit, unfortunately. I haven\'t seen a kid like you before, so it\'s embarrassing, but please help me out."

...He was an even bigger bath enthusiast than I expected. But that was just to my liking!

With a wry smile, I lent him a shoulder and gently got him to his feet.

"The shackles increase the more you climb up in the ladder of life, doesn\'t it?"

"My words, it\'s really like a pebble in my shoes. T-T-Take it slow, right, like that. My head is all dizzy from the pain, I would have collapsed without your help."

I pulled Gin-san from the bathtub using body-strengthening magic --- though he did refuse once but that was the efficient way to not exert the pressure on his leg --- and then took him to the dressing room where I laid him on a chair.

"Shall I call your people?"

I asked, but Gin-san refused with a smile.

"Ah, leave it. The pain will subside after a short rest, so there\'s no need. It would just disturb those who\'re enjoying their bath. Take it easy."

I handed him a water pouch, told him \'It\'s water you can drink\' and returned to the bathroom.

The empty bathtub was almost like a reserved place where I soaked myself to my heart\'s content for the next hour, until the moon was visible from the sole window of the place.

When I returned to the dressing room, Gin-san had already left.