Chapter 40
#40. The Best Part of a Hot Spring Is Getting Scrubbed
The lord's office at Winterwald's Grand Ducal Castle.
The sound of a quill racing across paperwork filled the room once again.
[Application for Approval of Magical Waterway Facilities for the Hot Spring Resort]
[Proposal to Review Tariff Exemptions for Merchants Importing Fruit from the Southern Mountains]
Kylan stared at the mountain of paperwork and screamed inwardly.
'Aaaagh! When the hell am I ever going to get off work?!'
He had been intoxicated by the sweet taste of capitalism and impulsively stamped his approval on the spa resort project, but the price had been brutal.
From approving blueprints to procuring materials, assigning manpower, and distributing the budget.
There was no shortage of matters the lord himself had to oversee.
"Haaah……"
Kylan pressed down on his throbbing temples and let out a deep sigh.
His fingers were practically cramping from gripping the pen.
Just then.
"Your Highness. Why don't you rest your eyes for a moment?"
Along with the fragrant scent of black tea came the most beautiful voice in the world.
When Kylan raised his head, Eleanor approached with a warm teacup in hand, her dazzling platinum-blond hair neatly tied back.
"How could I rest by myself and leave you behind?"
Kylan smiled gently, hiding his fatigue.
Eleanor gazed at him with concern, carefully placed a hand on his shoulder, and began massaging him with solar mana.
Thanks to that, his physical fatigue vanished as if it had been washed away. His mental fatigue was another matter.
"Since Your Highness is devoting himself so wholeheartedly to the people of the territory, I, as Winterwald's hostess, must work even harder as well."
She pressed her lips to Kylan's cheek.
Smack.
It was a light kiss, but the quiet office made the sound echo loudly.
She was wearing relatively comfortable clothes in the office, and now that she was leaning against the armrest and bending forward, she was…… showing a slightly unguarded appearance.
"……!!"
It felt as though the three baby bears that had been pressing down on his shoulders moments ago had suddenly gone off on a trip somewhere.
'That's right! This is why I work as a lord! A few hundred documents? I'll finish them all in a single day!'
The Grand Duke of the North, who had melted from a single kiss, picked up his quill again and began furiously signing the paperwork.
One signature. A sip of tea. Another signature of approval.
As a bonus, he occasionally stole glances at Eleanor as she reviewed the ledgers beside him.
Even the Grand Duke of the North, once known as the ghost of the battlefield, was nothing more than a doting fool in front of his charming wife.
***
Some time later.
Kylan and Eleanor headed toward the district where the orc residents lived, accompanied by their vassals.
They had come to inspect the construction site of the hot spring resort.
Since it was not far from the new city, it was the perfect location for merchants and adventurers to visit on a day trip.
Heave-ho! Lift together!
Kurrk! Carry it faster! We have to get the frame up before sunset!
The construction site was a veritable crucible of passion.
Once the skills of experienced construction craftsmen were combined with the orcs' power, the pace of construction exceeded all imagination.
The frames of the enormous grand bathhouse and outdoor hot-spring baths, which they had expected to take several months at least, were revealing their imposing forms after only a few weeks.
The monster construction method of erecting steelwood pillars and filling the gaps with slime cement had now become familiar work even for the orcs.
"Everyone, stop what you're doing and come have a special meal!"
A short distance from the construction site.
When the servants lifted the lids of the enormous cauldrons, the rich aroma of garlic soup filled the air.
It was now an indispensable Eleanor-special worksite snack.
Though Eleanor had become so busy that all she could do was infuse the finished food with a little mana.
"Kwooooh! This is food made by Her Grace the Grand Duchess!!"
"Kurrk……! For this taste…… I work!"
The orcs rushed toward the cauldrons and gulped down the soup ravenously.
Eleanor's special meal, packed with garlic and meat, purified their bodies from the contamination of demonic energy and supplied them with explosive energy.
"I feel overflowing with strength! My blood is boiling!"
"Kurrk! Dig for Her Grace the Grand Duchess! Dig harder!!"
"Heh heh. If I work full overtime this month, I'll be an orc with a house of my own now!!"
Without anyone even telling them to, the orcs hurried back to the site and began working the moment they finished eating.
The dream of owning a house was not immediately within sight.
But?
Eleanor's Well Done stamp was immediately within sight.
Kylan smiled with satisfaction at the sight of the musclebound monsters completely brainwashed by the sweet taste of capitalism and garlic soup.
***
They left the construction site and entered a completed hot-spring inn.
"Excellent. It's being built perfectly according to my plans."
A massive outdoor hot-spring bath carved from enormous blocks of granite.
The interior of the grand bathhouse, which brought out the elegant texture of steelwood.
Kylan slowly looked around the facilities and nodded in satisfaction.
However, Eleanor, the genius finance minister walking beside him, wore a distinctly serious expression.
She tapped the notebook in her hand and opened her mouth.
"Your Highness, the facilities are perfect, but…… there is one concern I have."
"What is it?"
"I can't help thinking that it would be such a waste, from a finance minister's perspective, to let guests who enter these spacious and magnificent baths merely splash around in the water and leave."
"A waste?"
"Yes. They are guests who have already opened their wallets to come inside. If there were some way to empty their pockets…… ahem, to encourage additional spending while they stayed at the inn, that would be ideal!"
Kylan chuckled.
'In other words, she wants to increase the average spend per customer.'
Kylan nodded, thinking that she really was his wife.
She was right.
A hot-spring inn would not last long if it prepared nothing but hot springs and tried to do business.
"Heh heh. I knew you'd say that, so I have prepared a few things."
Kylan held out an egg with a smooth brown shell to Eleanor.
"Is this…… an egg?"
"It's an egg steamed in the hot spring."
Thanks to Eleanor's artificial sun, some areas of Winterwald's new city maintained a warm climate all year round.
As a result, poultry farms and ranches had finally become possible even in the barren North.
"Once people set foot in a lodging establishment, they naturally become too lazy to go back outside."
Kylan peeled the eggshell and popped the egg into Eleanor's mouth with an evil smile.
"……!"
Eleanor's eyes flew wide open.
The texture of the yolk, slowly cooked by the heat of the hot spring until it melted softly, was exquisite. A light sprinkle of salt had elevated the flavor even further.
"Delicious……!"
It was just as Eleanor was about to exclaim.
"Ahem…… Hmm-hmm!"
The dry yolk seemed to clog her throat, and she gave a small cough.
"Eggs make you thirsty."
As he said that, Kylan held out a canteen.
The legendary combination that had conquered Korea's jjimjilbangs and public bathhouses.
Boiled eggs and banana milk.
Kylan picked up another canteen and drank deeply.
It was a meeting between goat's milk from the North and specialty bananas imported from the South.
In winter, goats produced less milk, but it became richer and nuttier.
When the sweet, fragrant flavor unique to Southern bananas was added, a truly fantastic harmony unfolded in the mouth.
A fantastic collaboration between the South and the North.
"……!!"
Eleanor gripped the canteen with both hands and drained it in one go. Her small ears, visible between her platinum-blond hair, grew red.
Food that costs one silver elsewhere would fly off the shelves even if we sold it for two silver inside the inn.
Eleanor gave no answer.
Her eyes moved nonstop as though she were performing some kind of calculation.
At last, Eleanor finished even the final sip, pulled her mouth away from the canteen, and exclaimed.
"Your Highness is right! Since these are exclusive products found only in Winterwald, I think we could charge two silver for a set of an egg and a drink! No, they taste good enough that even three silver wouldn't be too much!"
Kylan clicked his tongue inwardly.
'She's my wife, but…… when it comes to money, she's sometimes even more ruthless than I am.'
He decided not to mention that he had been planning to sell them for one silver and fifty copper.
When it came to this sort of business sense, Eleanor was a step above him.
"This is amazing, Your Highness! What an excellent strategy!"
Kylan smiled as he watched Eleanor excitedly write down her projected earnings.
"……This isn't the end."
"Pardon? You mean there is something else?"
Kylan shrugged and said,
"Of course. The true highlight of a hot spring is getting scrubbed!"
"G-getting scrubbed……?"
The word was one Eleanor had heard for the first time in her life, and even the vassals following behind them wore bewildered expressions.
"It is the act of rubbing away the old grime that builds up on the body. After soaking sufficiently in the bath, a person with professional skills removes the impurities from your skin, leaving it as smooth as a baby's. It is a service."
When Kylan lightly snapped his fingers, two enormous figures walked out from inside the hot spring with solemn expressions.
They were Krok, the former chieftain of the Red Fang Tribe, and Karak, the chieftain of the Twin Axes Tribe.
"K-kurgh……!"
Tears of emotion poured from Krok's eyes like a waterfall.
"Thank you, Your Grace the Grand Duke……! I never dreamed that an ignorant orc like me would get to learn such a respectable skill……!"
His enormous hands were fitted with giant Italian exfoliating towels specially made by processing treant roots and their inner fibers.
Karak, too, huffed with a gaze far more serious than when he had wielded his twin axes.
"Kurrk…… I don't know what a body scrubber…… is, but I will work hard as you taught me…… No, I will do it properly. With the aura of the Twin Axes Tribe…… I won't hurt weak human skin…… I'll cut away only the filthy grime……! I mean, scrub it away……!"
In truth, the process of turning the orcs into body scrubbers had not been entirely smooth.
Among the orc warriors who could wield aura, Kylan selected those with especially delicate control over their strength and put them through special training.
The problem was that they needed test subjects on whom to practice controlling their strength.
In the end, the sturdy knights of the Northern Defense Force had to take on that role, and for several days, the bathhouse had echoed nonstop with the screams of knights whose skin had turned bright red.
Of course, Kylan silenced them by granting the knights who had endured the pain of having their skin rubbed raw generous special bonuses and compensatory leave.
'After going to all the trouble of training the orcs, I can't ruin the business by failing to keep their mouths shut……'
Anyway, after bone-breaking training, Krok, Karak, and the other orc body scrubbers mastered the ultimate aura scrubbing technique, which removed only a thin layer of grime from human skin.
"Now, seeing is believing. Before we officially introduce this to the citizens, we will conduct the first trial today for the soft opening."
Kylan's gaze turned toward the vassals standing behind them.
Cedric, Viscount Argen, and Sir Walter, all looking filthy after several nights of overtime and supervising the construction site, shuddered.
"M-My lord……?"
"You've all worked hard, so you deserve a reward. You can be the first to receive the orcs' service."
Cedric turned pale and began stepping backward.
"M-My lord…… I would gladly give my life for you, but…… p-please let go of me!!"
Unlike Cedric, the other vassals did not utter a single word.
At one sharp look from Kylan, they hurriedly stripped off their clothes and were dragged away by the orcs.