Chapter 42
#42. Grand Opening
The men's bath was steaming.
Gale and Rick cautiously stepped onto the granite and lowered themselves into the hot spring.
"Hoooh……."
At first, the water was so hot that it seemed almost excessive.
Rick looked at Gale with an expression that seemed ready to voice a complaint.
But the moment they sank into the hot spring up to their shoulders,
exclamations escaped both men's lips.
"Haaaaah……."
"B-Big brother…!"
"Yeah… I don't think this is so bad……."
The longer they remained in the water, the more exclamations continued to escape their mouths.
They were merely sitting still in the water, yet it felt as though they were receiving a massage.
"Whew……."
"This is heaven…… Big brother……"
Monster battles, backbreaking labor, and frequent nights spent sleeping rough whenever their quests demanded it.
The fatigue that had piled up because they could never sleep properly was melting away like snow before their eyes.
"Big brother. Do you remember the day we first trained at the guild and ate meat soup?"
"Anyone who could forget that wouldn't be human……"
"It really feels like I'm back on that day. The Grand Duchess must have made this hot-spring water, too."
"Hmm… She cares so much about the people of her territory, so I suppose she might have."
The two men sat motionless for so long that they lost track of time, gazing up at the clouds drifting overhead.
Then Rick suddenly leaped up inside the bath and shouted.
He really couldn't sit still for even a moment.
"B-Big brother! My leg! Look at my leg!"
"Why would I look at that?"
"The leg that goblins mauled back in the South, and the knee that used to ache whenever it rained…… They don't hurt at all anymore! I feel like I've been reborn!"
"You really are making a fuss… You're the kind of guy who's bound to get swindled someday. I keep telling you to be careful, don't I?"
Even as he said that, Gale gazed down at his own body in wonder.
"……."
Gale casually rotated his wrist.
The wrist pain caused by swinging his sword had vanished without a trace.
He felt as though he could get through any number of dire wolf pelts right now without a hint of fatigue.
'I suppose it wasn't a completely baseless rumor after all.'
Just as the two men's bodies were melting into a blissful languor,
"Guests! Get your backs scrubbed nice and clean before you leave! I'll make sure to remove every bit of that old grime!"
They heard someone calling out to customers outside the bath.
Rick rubbed his eyes and looked through the steam toward where the voice was coming from.
"Big brother. Isn't that guy…… Krok? That chieftain who fought the Grand Duke one-on-one!"
"You don't see a body that size every day… What on earth is he doing here?"
Gale turned his gaze toward Krok.
To be honest, he had almost failed to recognize him.
Where had the chieftain of the Red Fang Tribe who used to roar while wielding an ax gone?
Wearing nothing but a pair of green underpants and calling out to customers with a friendly smile, he looked……
just like a friendly neighbor.
Krok scanned the bath with a hawk-like gaze, spotted Gale and Rick, and strode toward them.
"Guests! You look like you've got a lot of old grime! If you leave it like that, your skin won't be able to breathe. You'll die!"
"W-What……?"
When Gale grew flustered, Krok leaned his face closer with the distinctive smile of a merchant.
"Orc strength scrub only dirty grime! Baby skin guaranteed! Guests staying overnight for hot-spring opening get special price! Normally 10 silver, but today only 3 silver! Come tomorrow, pay 10 silver!"
Rick let out a hollow laugh at Krok's fluent sales pitch.
Letting an orc scrub his body?
He wore an expression that said even he wasn't stupid enough to fall for that kind of scam.
But Gale, who was always nagging him to beware of scams……
was visibly shaken by the words, "Come tomorrow, pay 10 silver."
'I'm paying a whole gold coin just to stay here… Wouldn't it be a waste to leave without trying the service? Besides, the price goes up more than threefold starting tomorrow?'
When would he ever get the chance to come to a place this expensive again?
It was just one visit.
Just once.
It was the classic reasoning of someone about to get taken for a ride, but this kind of sales tactic was designed to work even on people who knew exactly what was happening.
"All right. I'll give it a try."
"As expected, you're really brave, Big brother. Once you're done, tell me how it was later, too……"
"You get one, too, punk. Where do you think you're running off to by yourself?"
"What?! I don't particularly care about my skin……"
Rick began subtly backing away, but Karak appeared before he knew it and shouted excitedly.
"We'll be taking care of both of youuu!!"
Two enormous orcs hoisted Gale and Rick up by their armpits and ceremoniously carried them onto the steel beds used for body scrubbing.
Flop.
Gale was lying facedown with a tense expression when
Krok's voice behind him dropped low and grew serious.
"Guest. It may sting a little."
Vroooom—!
A red aura began to ripple over the Italian exfoliating towel wrapped around Krok's hand. The menacing energy sent a chill down Gale's spine.
'What the hell! He's coating it in aura?!'
All kinds of thoughts flashed through Gale's mind.
What if he wasn't scrubbing away grime, but skin?
What if he was taking revenge here for the beating he had received from the Grand Duke?
Just as the terrified Gale began screaming and trying to tell him to stop,
Swish.
The aura-wrapped exfoliating towel swept across Gale's rough back.
"Graaagh! Save me…… Huh?"
His skin had not been peeled off.
Instead, the swaggering facade of Gale, who pretended to be the dignified leader of the party, was what had been stripped away.
"Haaang…… Hwaaah……."
Krok's delicate touch precisely picked out the caked-on grime across his back and briskly scrubbed it away.
The fine control of strength achieved through aura worked between the calluses on human skin and delivered an incomparable ecstasy.
"Haaaaah…… Mr. Krok…… A little more there, on the lower right……."
"Guest. Your old grime is no joke. There's a whole bucketful of it."
"Big brother……!! My skin…… My skin is glowing!! This feels amaaaazing!!"
On the bed beside him, Rick had likewise surrendered his body to Karak, tears streaming down his face as he succumbed to the power of aura body scrubbing.
Gale thought through his hazy mind.
'I have to recommend this to Sena, too. Ah, no! I can't let those orcs touch Sena's bare skin……! Maybe I should learn how to do it myself?'
"Big brother's expression…… You look like you're thinking something lewd."
"Shut up, you idiot! M-Mr. Krok, please do the front, too!"
A short while later, Gale and Rick emerged into the lounge as completely different people.
The rough skin of the adventurers was gone, replaced by a soft, smooth sheen like that of newborn babies.
"Big brother, you only got scrubbed, but you look even more handsome now."
"Ahem. Well, I was handsome to begin with."
The two men wore the sheep-head towels said to be popular in the hot-spring town on their heads and smiled in satisfaction.
Just then, Sena walked out from the women's changing room.
"You two came out, too?"
Gale's eyes flew wide open.
She had already been beautiful, but after her bath, Sena's skin was literally glowing all on its own.
A warm hot-spring scent wafted from her swaying hair.
Gale swallowed hard and asked,
"S-Sena. Don't tell me you got…… the body-scrubbing service, too?"
"Yeah. Three silver is incredibly cheap, isn't it? It would be a waste not to."
At those words, Gale's heart sank.
It felt as though a corner of his heart were burning black.
"Y-You mean you showed your bare skin to an orc……?!"
At Gale's jealous outburst, Sena gave a bemused chuckle and smacked him across the back.
Smack!
"What kind of lewd things are you imagining, you idiot! It was a female orc!"
"A-A female orc?"
"Yeah. Apparently, female orcs have been coming down from the mountains one by one to find the males. Some of the female warriors who know how to use aura have gotten jobs as body scrubbers in the women's bathhouse. Anyone who comes after me is going to have to wait a long time. The line was incredibly long."
That's right.
After the forces of Tarkan, the Great Chieftain, had been forcibly employed by Winterwald, the female and young orcs who remained in the mountains had not stayed idle.
They had been packing their things and coming down one by one in search of their husbands and fathers.
Having been won over by capitalism and welfare, they, too, were naturally being absorbed into Winterwald's labor market.
"Ah…… S-So it was a female orc. Ahem!"
Only then did Gale relax and clear his throat awkwardly.
"Big brother. Stop saying weird things and have some of this with us!"
Rick brought over a wooden bowl of brownish hot-spring eggs and some banana milk.
"They say you have to buy these whenever you come here."
For once, Gale bit into a hot-spring egg without mentioning the price.
He wasn't so clueless about atmosphere that he would talk about money after coming all the way here.
Sena and Rick also ate eggs, along with Luke, the original party member who had recently begun learning magic and making a name for himself.
The whites were springy, while the yolks melted softly in their mouths.
Just as their mouths began to feel dry,
all four of them took a sip of banana milk as though they had planned it.
"……!!"
All four people's eyes opened wide at the same time.
The sweetness of the banana milk as it gently enveloped the rich yolk and slid down their throats……
was nothing short of shocking.
"Big brother…… Sniff……"
Tears streamed down Rick's eyes.
"I think I must've died and gone into a dream. When I was working as a mercenary in the South, all I ever tasted was blood and dirt…… I-I think I've become a man who can't live without banana milk nowww……"
Gale also solemnly wiped away the tears welling in his eyes and nodded.
"Who knew bananas could taste this good… I didn't know, since I'd never had one before……”
Sena, still holding the milk bottle, chimed in with sparkling eyes.
“Wow! This is so much better than the expensive bananas I used to buy in the South?!"
“Rick. What are you waiting for? Let's go buy a few more right now!"
"Hehe, I think it was the best decision ever to follow you to the North, Big brother. I'll follow you for the rest of my life!"
It grew late into the night.
The sheep-head towels atop all four heads bobbed up and down.
The peaceful night at the hot spring grew deeper.
***
The next morning.
The Gale party's footsteps were as light as feathers as they left the lodging.
Not a single one of them complained that the money had been wasted.
"Big brother! Big brother! Once we make a lot of money, we absolutely have to come here again!"
"Yeah. Let's make a proper killing this month and buy season passes. This place is worth every penny."
"That's a great idea! My body feels as light as a feather. I even feel like I could beat an ogre to death with my bare hands now!"
As the two men boasted and chuckled, Sena quietly moved up beside Gale from behind.
Gale happened to be peeling a hot-spring egg he had brought out as a souvenir because he couldn't bear to leave it behind.
She whispered into Gale's ear in a languid voice.
"Gale. Next time…… want to come just the two of us?"
"……!!?"
Gale froze like a statue, still holding the hot-spring egg halfway to his mouth.
His face flushed as red as a volcano.
Completely oblivious to the sweet atmosphere, Rick barged in without a clue.
"Huh? Huh? Sis, then what about me? Am I supposed to go into the bath alone?"
"……"
"……"
Gale and Sena simply ignored Rick and walked ahead.
From behind them came the whining cry, "Biiig brother! Wait for me!"
***
Some time later.
The lord's office at Winterwald's Grand Ducal Castle.
"Your Highness!"
Viscount Argen delivered his report, unable to hide his excitement.
"Just as Your Highness said, the hot-spring resort's response has been explosive! More than a hundred adventurers have already purchased season passes! They've all become addicted to the banana milk Your Highness developed, and are opening their wallets wide!"
"Oh? A hundred?"
Kylan nodded, unable to hide his smile.
As expected, products that worked in the modern world worked in another world, too.
"The 'Slime Face Masks' and 'Natural Herb Aroma Baths,' joint products of Aria, the Green Mage Tower Master, and the Lumiella Workshop, will also be ready for sale soon! Noble young ladies and the wives of merchants from other trading houses are already lining up!"
"That's excellent news."
Kylan cheered inwardly.
But it wasn't over yet.
"Then it's about time we moved on to the next stage."
"W-What is this……?"
Argen read through the documents Kylan had handed him.
"Your Highness. I think I more or less understand this sau……na project, but…… what is a bulhanjeungmak?"
When Cedric tilted his head at the unfamiliar term, Kylan looked out over the peaceful new city and grinned.
Bulhanjeungmak.
In other words, a fire-heated sauna.
And this was merely a small part of the sauna project.
Kylan had an entirely different picture in mind.
A comprehensive resort that gathered every kind of heated relaxation facility, including fire-heated saunas: a jjimjilbang.
By using solar mana stones to create the rooms, they could reduce the side effects of jjimjilbangs while flushing the citizens' toxins and sweat right out of them.
Heh heh heh. Of course, they would have to pay a pretty penny for that luxury.
"That's right. Soaking in warm water alone isn't enough."
Sweating everything out amid extreme heat.
The pleasure of gulping down eggs and banana milk.
He planned to teach the people of the North all about it, too.
It was at that moment, as Kylan gazed out the window with a pleased smile at the thought of making money,
that a breeze from the hot-spring town reached a cave some distance from the new city.
The breeze carried a mixture of fragrant hot-spring air and the sweet scent of banana milk, and……
The nostrils of something slowly twitched.